Continuing the theme of restaurant equipment, we had one of our best sales yet yesterday. We bought a Market Forget ET-3E Counter top Steamer a few weeks back at a local auction. We paid $65 for it at the auction. It had a few issues with it though, it was missing two legs and one of the side panels was missing as well.
I thought I would put it up for auction on eBay without attempting to order any parts and just see what happened. I figured if it didn't sell the first time through that I would order the parts and fix it up a bit and resell it (at a higher price). So, I started it at .99 cents and put a low reserve on it. And what do you know!? It sold the first time around for right at $400! Not a bad sell at all.
The restaurant equipment genre continues to only get better. 1 week ago today I picked up my second load of restaurant equipment from a local auction. This trip we loaded up on a few larger items. One of which was a professional commercial grade Espresso machine. It's a great piece. It was handmade in Italy by Marzocco.
There were no concrete completed listing comparisons in order for me to have a really good idea on what I should pay. There were several that had not sold in the past and several of a different model that had sold in the $2000 - 3000 range. I did more research by Google'ing the model name and saw that a few used equipment websites had this piece listed at $4000-5000. Now that doesn't mean I will get that much for it, but it at least made me feel pretty good about getting close to $2000 for mine.
I wound up winning the piece at the auction for $700. It was a little more than I would have like to pay, but still within a reasonable range. So...what did it go for?The auction has not complete yet, but here is where it is currently.
Christmas of last year we were visiting Stacy's parents in her hometown and being the ever looking buyer that I am we decided to go visit a few of the thrift stores in the immediate area. There happened to be a two within a few miles of the house and they were side by side. So, we parked at the first. It was more of a flea market style store. Several individuals had rented a section of the store out and set up their items on a table and each item was marked with a price. The marked price was usually well over priced which directly led to us departing that store and heading to the next, The Downtown Mission.
The name is rather ironic, because it wasn't downtown and I'm not exactly sure that they had much of a mission. However, they did have some good merchandise. As usual upon entering any thrift store, I headed directly to the sporting goods section. That is usually where most of the decent deals reside. As I turned the corner to that area the rather large collection of Golf Bags caught my eye. There were at least 20-30 of them all stacked up in a giant metal bin. Every bag was filled with 20-30 clubs and they were crammed in tight.
There were no prices around so I went back up to the front (Note to store owner: Put prices on your stuff) and asked the cashier about the golf bags. She said they were selling them for $25 a piece. I was taken back a bit by this price, as I normally pay $4 at Goodwill and up to $10-15 at a yardsale for most any golf bag. I just told her thank you and we left.
Fast forward nearly 6 months.
Those golf bags were still on my mind when we went back to the in-laws for another visit. I told Stacy that we needed to go back by there and see if that lady would negotiate on the price. Normally in a store setting like they have, negotiating isn't done but as the saying goes "You don't get what you don't ask for." So after going into the "Downtown Mission" I headed right around that same corner again to see every single golf bag in the exact same place it was 6months previous. I knew then my negotiation would probably end well.
I found the cashier and proposed that I would pay $10 per bag as long as i bought 5 or more......and....she agreed. You see, they were donated to her store and they had been sitting there for at least 6 months taking up space and not making the "Downtown Mission" any money at all. So an offer from an outsider to get those bags out of her way AND to make some money off of them was very agreeable to her.
I proceeded to sift through the bags and pull out a few good ones. In all I pulled 5 bags. 4 of the 5 bags wound up being sell-able. One of them was in much rougher shape than I saw while at the store. (I have inserted the 4 auctions below). This wound up being the find of the year so far!
Before I go further I want to use this story to illustrate a principle of capitalism.
Many, many time I get this question, "Why do people sell things so cheap to you if they could sell it for more their selves?" or "Aren't you cheating people by paying much less than the item is worth?"
Those are both legitimate questions ans questions worthy of a response. I won't answer them directly in this space but I hope the above story will illustrate the answer to these.
You see, value is relative to each individuals circumstances and skill set.
To that Thrift Store owners who had those bags donated to her shop, the difference in $10 and $25 was negligibile. It was even more negated by the fact that those bags had been in her shop so long with out selling.To me, someone who specializes in Golf Bag Reselling, I know multiple channels to sell those Golf Bags and have networked with specific people that would buy the right bag. So, I can demand a higher price.
Hope that helps.
Bakc to the story. I have listed the 4 golf bags below. Check them out.
The first golf bag i researched was a Polo Ralph Lauren golf bag. I had never seen a Polo RL bag before and honestly didn't even know that made them. I started the bag at $15 and just set back to watch what happened. Within just a few hours I started getting emails about the bag. One of which went on to explain to me that this particular bag was originally sold in a Ralph Lauren Boutique in New York City for $1700. I couldn't believe it!
This particular individual happened to collect these bags and he gave me a ton of information on it. He went onto tell me that he has seen similar bags in slightly better condition go for $500-800 on eBay. He said that these bags rarely show up because there are so few of them our there. Apparently, only 100 are made every 10 years and they are rarely sold to the public in stores.
He estimated my bag to be worth $300-800. He said I should not have a problem getting $300+ on eBay for it. I promptly took the auction down and have since relisted it with a higher starting price and a low reserve.
These types of stories are fun but don't happen often.
Update: The auction closed at $713. We paid $110. That's a total profit of $603. It wound up going for less than expected but there is nothing to complain about when you make that kind of money!
Final Margin: 94%
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A few days ago I told you about a new product genre that I was beginning to experiment with, Restaurant equipment. I know, I know, it sounds like an odd things to get into. So far though, it is looking to be a very nice choice. We went to an auction nearly 2 weeks ago and picked up a few pieces of equipment. Some needed a few part and others needed a good cleaning, but they were all operational and ready to go. I did my normal research method to determine what I should pay for them and didn't go over my budgeted amount. I came home with some pretty high margin items. Not only that, they are high dollar and high margin.
If you remember back a few weeks ago to this post, I talked about how normally the more money you spend per product the less margin you normally expect. For example I can by a $3 bag and make $50 on it. That is equal to a 96% profit margin. However, it is very difficult to spend $300 and get anywhere close to that same 96% profit margin. Its a sliding scale of sorts.
What I have discovered in the used restaurant equipment world is that you can have a happy medium of both. Here is an example below. I pad $110 for it. The average selling price on eBay Completed Listings is $1182. That is right at a 92% profit margin (if it goes that high).
Within the next month or so I will have a guide available to you that will show you exactly how to buy similar type of items, where to find them, what to pay for them and exactly how to go about researching them so you don't over pay. If you would like to be notified when that guide is available then sign up for the newsletter on the right side of this screen now. Here is the auction. It is set to end in a few days.
Some of our friends, BJ & Amy, have become avid Goodwill visitors in the last few months. He usually stops by the Goodwill outlet everyday on his way home from work. I am always surprised at some of the stuff he finds in there.
Stay tuned to the blog through this week. There are some exciting things going on that will be introduced in the coming days and weeks. If you want to learn more about how to make money on eBay you'll want to pay special attention. AND if you like free stuff you will want to go ahead and register for our weekly newsletter (on the right side of this page).
Over the last few weeks I have started researching a new genre of products. I ran across a video series that talked about buying and selling restaurant equipment on eBay. I have never thought of getting into these type of products, mainly because of what I perceived as a major logistical problems with shipping.
However, after digging into it a little deeper I have started experimenting with this. I went to a auction recently and came away pretty surprised at the possibilities. I purchased a little over $1,500 worth of equipment, good enough to get a good feel for how it would work. I will be listing the different pieces over the next few days. I will keep you up to date as I get them listed.
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