Craigslist may be one of the plainest looking sites on the
internet but with over 20 billion page views per month, it is also one
of the most popular and currently sits as the 7th most visited website
on the internet.
Craigslist is an excellent place to look for items to flip. Flipping items is where people purchase items for cheap and resell them for much larger profits.
Many people will take advantage of the free classified advertising offered by Craigslist to get rid of their unwanted items they no longer have room for. Because of this, you can often find "rock bottom prices" on items if you know where to look. Often times you can find excellent deals on items that just need a minor repair or a little elbow grease cleaning to increase its value. Sometimes people may advertise their listings in an unpopular category or they may turn away prospective buyers by not providing the right information or pictures of the item.
Here are some tips to help you get started flipping items on Craigslist:
Search for items in your location early in the morning. Similar to garage sales, your chance of scoring that bargain is early in the morning before everyone else sees it.
Use the phone instead of email. Obviously this only works if a seller posts their phone number in the listing, but generally you can get a lot more information about an item from a phone conversation than an email message. Sometimes even the sellers tone of voice can que you in on information you may not otherwise receive from email. You may also be able to work out a deal with a seller faster through a phone conversation thereby eliminating competition with other prospective buyers.
Don't forget about the "free stuff" category. Sometimes you can find some really good stuff in there. All you have to do is pick the item up from the seller and clean, fix it, etc. and resell it for a profit.
Buy items on Craigslist and resell them on eBay. Surprisingly, many people don't think of this. Craigslist is broken up into geographic locations. Depending on the item for sale, this can be a disadvantage for sellers. For example if you live in St. Louis and you listed an antique silverware set to sell on Craigslist, only people in the St. Louis area would see your listing. If you listed the same item on eBay, you could have more viewers since people worldwide would be able to view your listing. Obviously large items such as furniture are best sold locally due to the excessive shipping fees.
Invest a small amount of money to start. If you are flipping items for the first time, don't go out and purchase everything you see. Start small. It may take a little time and experience to know what items will sell and how much they are worth. The last thing you want is to become overwhelmed and end up with a garage full of junk that you can't get rid of. Once you have some experience buying, selling and negotiating, then you can reinvest the money you make into higher profit margin items.
As you can see, it is not difficult to make money with Craigslist, just be very careful because there are a lot of dishonest people out there. Craigslist does not have the fraud protection services that sites like eBay and PayPal have so you must take fraud prevention into your own hands. Be sure to read Craigslist's page about avoiding scams and always trust your instincts.
Craigslist is an excellent place to look for items to flip. Flipping items is where people purchase items for cheap and resell them for much larger profits.
Many people will take advantage of the free classified advertising offered by Craigslist to get rid of their unwanted items they no longer have room for. Because of this, you can often find "rock bottom prices" on items if you know where to look. Often times you can find excellent deals on items that just need a minor repair or a little elbow grease cleaning to increase its value. Sometimes people may advertise their listings in an unpopular category or they may turn away prospective buyers by not providing the right information or pictures of the item.
Here are some tips to help you get started flipping items on Craigslist:
Search for items in your location early in the morning. Similar to garage sales, your chance of scoring that bargain is early in the morning before everyone else sees it.
Use the phone instead of email. Obviously this only works if a seller posts their phone number in the listing, but generally you can get a lot more information about an item from a phone conversation than an email message. Sometimes even the sellers tone of voice can que you in on information you may not otherwise receive from email. You may also be able to work out a deal with a seller faster through a phone conversation thereby eliminating competition with other prospective buyers.
Don't forget about the "free stuff" category. Sometimes you can find some really good stuff in there. All you have to do is pick the item up from the seller and clean, fix it, etc. and resell it for a profit.
Buy items on Craigslist and resell them on eBay. Surprisingly, many people don't think of this. Craigslist is broken up into geographic locations. Depending on the item for sale, this can be a disadvantage for sellers. For example if you live in St. Louis and you listed an antique silverware set to sell on Craigslist, only people in the St. Louis area would see your listing. If you listed the same item on eBay, you could have more viewers since people worldwide would be able to view your listing. Obviously large items such as furniture are best sold locally due to the excessive shipping fees.
Invest a small amount of money to start. If you are flipping items for the first time, don't go out and purchase everything you see. Start small. It may take a little time and experience to know what items will sell and how much they are worth. The last thing you want is to become overwhelmed and end up with a garage full of junk that you can't get rid of. Once you have some experience buying, selling and negotiating, then you can reinvest the money you make into higher profit margin items.
As you can see, it is not difficult to make money with Craigslist, just be very careful because there are a lot of dishonest people out there. Craigslist does not have the fraud protection services that sites like eBay and PayPal have so you must take fraud prevention into your own hands. Be sure to read Craigslist's page about avoiding scams and always trust your instincts.
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