Thursday, July 21, 2011

Lessons From The Gray Market

With the growing unemployment  rate and crumbling economy it is no wonder people today are worried about money more than ever.  In this article, I thought I’d share with you some of the creative solutions I’ve learned from people I’ve met, who out of necessity, have had to come up with outside the box solutions.  Most of the tricks I will share with you revolve around the growing gray market or underground economy.

The first method we will be discussing is the resale or barter of goods.  There are many ways in which people can sell goods.  The preferred method generally depends on the item being sold. The two most common methods are online either through online classifieds such as Craigslist and The Back Page or through online auction sites such as Ebay or Gunbroker.com.  I have found this to be an extremely powerful method for selling goods. Because it exposes you to a much larger audience than the old school print mediums such as flyers or even newspaper classifieds.  I’ve used this method to resell items from my home I no longer needed with great success.  I was very pleasantly surprised at how quickly I was able to sell items I really thought would be impossible to move.  The old cliché “one mans garbage is another mans treasure” is really true!  What I found even more fascinating is how people have been using these mediums to supplement their incomes and in some cases even make their livings. 

 The first person I wish to discuss was laid off his construction job about two years ago with a family of four to feed and no luck getting work. He took to the street collecting garbage.  He refurbished, rebuilt , or repaired what ever he could and resold it online.  Anything metallic which couldn’t be made good was sold as scrap metal to recyclers.  He averages $600 a week .  Another gentleman I met purchased an entire cd and dvd collection I was selling in a garage sale.  When I asked him what he was going to do with them he told me he sells them in a booth at the flea market.  He purchases them often for less than a dollar each making deals on bulk.  He turns around and sells them for between $3 to $5.  Talk about a great profit margin!  A dear friend of mine is a model car collector and an artist who’s taken his passion and turned a nice profit.  Being very familiar with that market he knows how to buy desirable models in clearances or seasonal discounts so he may resell them on Ebay often making great profits.  The last person we will discuss is another veteran of the trades he took his knowledge of tools in a different direction when he discovered there’s a huge market for used tools.  First he sold his old or redundant tools.  Then he started buying tools at garage sales, flea markets and even pawn shops and flipping them.  Finally he started taking advantage of many tool brands liberal return policies to upgrade his products and increase his profits.  Did you know many Craftsman tools which are old or worn out can be upgraded simply by bringing them into Sears and trading it in?

The second method is the sale or barter of services.  Guerrilla catering is a method common near my office on certain days of the week I can expect some ladies to come and offer me various types of food.  The foods range anywhere from hot foods to pastries to even freshly picked fruits or vegetables.  Yes, yes I know foods are products but the cooking and delivery is the service.  Of course  buyer beware.  
Other services include sewing.  The little old lady behind my house supplements her social security check by repairing clothes and hemming pants.  At $3 a pant for hemming and within walking distance this is a heck of a bargain.  Another great example are the maintenance guys who used to work in my building which where laid off after it was converted in condos.  Knowing these guys had an intimate knowledge of the building and having known them for years I knew they are trustworthy  and competent.  I made sure to keep their numbers and now for a great price I have the best handy men around.   

What skills do you have?  Are you handy with cars? Can you care for children?  Have you worked in the trades? I have a martial arts teaching business (MiamiArnisGroup.com) which I run in addition to my “day job.”  Hope this provided some good food for thought.

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