# Selling For Profit And Loss ? Ever Made Money?



## sonyman (Feb 9, 2009)

OK I am the first to admit I am useless when it come to buying & selling everything, I usually always drop my prices and 99.9% of the time loose money. :wallbash:

So keeping watches and houses and cars out of this thread :thumbsup:

What have you bought cheaply and sold on at a big profit?

Whats have you bought and sold at a big loss?

Would/Have you ever bought anything you didn't want just cause you knew you could sell it on at a big profit.

This is just for fun guys thats why we should keep the above topics out of it.

OK ill go first when I was buying/selling laptops a few years ago I bought a Â£1800 laptop not working for Â£200 had it repaired under warranty for Â£Â£85 and sold it for Â£750 :thumbsup:

But on the other hand that whole buying/selling laptops experience probably cost me over two years in the region of about Â£10k in losses so a measly nearly Â£500 profit was no big deal in the big losses that I made overall.

I have never bought anything I didn't want just to make money only because I am really not that good at spotting bargain's.

If you watch the antiques roadshow it amazes me how some people buy a painting or something for Â£5 and find out ts worth Â£10k why does that not happen to me.

OK who's next?


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## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

Your a glutton for punishment Sony.

I'm going to have to go and get another bag of popcorn now.

:eat:

:lol: :lol:


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## sonyman (Feb 9, 2009)

BondandBigM said:


> Your a glutton for punishment Sony.
> 
> I'm going to have to go and get another bag of popcorn now.
> 
> ...


Totaly different subject and not to do with me I want to hear about others not listen to myself :thumbsup:


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## MarkF (Jul 5, 2003)

I've been pretty lucky,

Cleaned out my cellar recently, there were loads of electrical stuff, PLC bits, contactors, PSU's etc. Just junk, all used, all over a decade old. Fetched Â£770 on Ebay.

Bought at Dawes Horizon touring bike off Ebay last summer for Â£99, didn't get on with the riding position. Cleaned it up, put it on Ebay and it fetched Â£365.

Around 2001/2 at a new office installation, I spotted a load of Farnell power supply units about to be skipped, I asked for them and was given them, 50 or so. They sold for Â£50+ each on Ebay. So...........then I asked if I could take out and remove all the fluorescent lights, 1200mm x 600mm 4 tube recessed lights with mirrored louvres. The design company agreed as they saved on skip hire. I hired a LWB transit and filled my garage, my cellar and my dining room with 100's of the things. Carolyn went mental. I don't know why I did it, it was bloody hard work and I didn't have a plan. Anyway, I couldn't get rid of the bloody things. I think a guy from Hull came in an estate and bought 6 or 7, I recall a nutcase from Torquay wanting a carriage cost for 2. After a month or so, under severe femail pressure, I agreed to scrap them...............then............... a guy from Hatfield offered me Â£15 each *if I would let him* buy them all :thumbup: I even managed to get him to pay for the truck and fuel and I delivered them to Hatfield then promptly went on the piss in london.

You have got to try to get lucky!

BTW There is cracking business to be had through selling office electrical equipment if you are able to remove and store it. When offices are re-furbed for new tenants, the stuff removed may only be a few years old. If I was younger, more sensible and not such a slacker I would set one up.


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

> But on the other hand that whole buying/selling laptops experience probably cost me over two years in the region of about Â£10k in losses so a measly nearly Â£500 profit was no big deal in the big losses that I made overall.


theres a pattern emerging here....... sack trying to buy/resell ,you arent any good at it 

other than that, many moons ago i used to buy all old chrono's on fleabay (landeron,valjoux,venus) ,at the time i was paying Â£50-80 each and reselling Â£160-275 (back on fleabay)- depending on movement etc ,now you cant buy them cheap so i dont bother anymore.


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## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

sonyman said:


> BondandBigM said:
> 
> 
> > Your a glutton for punishment Sony.
> ...


Maybe but the same theme, you selling and allegedly not making any money at it.

:lol: :lol:


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## Tom Radford (Apr 28, 2009)

I didnt buy to sell, but some of my camera gear I've done well on.

I bought a brand new Nikon D700 DSLR for Â£1400. I sold it abaout 6 months later with for Â£1650.

I bought a used Nikon 70-200VR lens off Ebay. I paid about Â£750 and sold it a few years later for Â£900.

Me and the misses used to go round charity shops buying clothes and books and stuff. We sold them on ebay and made a few hundred quid in about a year. This was before Ebay started charging horrendus fees.


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## NickD (Sep 6, 2007)

Good going Mark :thumbsup:

A good wheeze used to be buying Cliff Richard's Vida Nova at just under Â£8.00 a bottle from Waitrose and selling it on ebay for anything up to Â£32.00 a bottle; that was before they really clamped down on the selling of alchohol.

Not such a good buy was a 7' x 3'6" snooker/dining table - a real beaut bought for over a grand and I'll be lucky realise Â£500 for it now :crybaby:


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## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

Actually for me it was cars, you had to have a bit of ready cash in your pocket, be prepared to get up early and get a lot of your time wasted turning up to look a junk but at one time before all this overpriced overdescribed ebay malarky I made a few quid.


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## marmisto (Jan 1, 2009)

When the yellow free-ads started up [mid 80's] I met a guy who got it from the paper delivery train really early and then bought 2-3 escorts for Â£200 each, as long as they ran and had MOT he'd buy them on the phone, he then doubled the price and put them back in the next week's paper. this worked while they didn't have too scrupulous insertion requirements and also cos he always bought the cheapest cars right off, anyone wanting an escort had to buy his!

Many years ago I called in on a house sale on Dartmoor and bought a set of 12 staddle stones for Â£25 each, which they had described as concrete [mainly because they were all identical]. They were actually really well carved stone, I sold them for an average of Â£120 each - which helped towards the cost of the suspension on my Landy that I had knackered by panic buying the lot and loading them all up in one journey in case anyone else bought them!


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## MarkF (Jul 5, 2003)

I don't want to wind Sonyman up but in the late 90's I used to buy laptops off Ebay and Yahoo (remember them?) auctions. I didn't, and still don't, know anything about them, but I used to increase the memory and HD's, this involved removing and replacing a few screws. I was often in Poland at the time and made profits, these things were simply not available in Poland at the time.

The bus, Â£80 return, Â£10 bottle of vodka to remove the low life riders from my consciousness, as many laptops as I could take and a couple of hundred profit each. Those were the days


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## SharkBike (Apr 15, 2005)

:shutup:


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## MarkF (Jul 5, 2003)

marmisto said:


> Many years ago I called in on a house sale on Dartmoor and bought a set of 12 staddle stones for Â£25 each, which they had described as concrete [mainly because they were all identical]. They were actually really well carved stone, I sold them for an average of Â£120 each - which helped towards the cost of the suspension on my Landy that I had knackered by panic buying the lot and loading them all up in one journey in case anyone else bought them!


Just googed to see what the hell stattle stones are. Funnily enough I had always wanted to know the name of them, thousands of these little granary stores are dotted all over Asturias and I wonderd if the stones had a name, thanks!


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## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

marmisto said:


> When the yellow free-ads started up [mid 80's] I met a guy who got it from the paper delivery train really early and then bought 2-3 escorts for Â£200 each, as long as they ran and had MOT he'd buy them on the phone, he then doubled the price and put them back in the next week's paper. this worked while they didn't have too scrupulous insertion requirements and also cos he always bought the cheapest cars right off, anyone wanting an escort had to buy his!


Pretty much the same here but a bit more money, Golf GTI's, Escort & Golf Convertibles and so on. At one time you could sell them all day long for silly money. Some that spring to mind that I made a decent bit on, bought a Coco Chanel Golf convertible for around Â£1500 and sold it a few weeks later for Â£3.5K, MK1 GTI for Â£1200 sold for Â£2K . The best one was a Vette at Â£8K sold for Â£12.5K. I would never spend any money on the ones I intended to flip quickly, just a really good valet inside and a good clean and polish everywhere else.

The only minor problem is that I wasn't smart enough to hang on to much of the money and blew most of it on booze and hookers, just as well I had a proper job during the week :lol:


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## sonyman (Feb 9, 2009)

Its very hard to make money at anything now unless you really knew what you are doing as if it makes money someone already is doing it.

On to what Mark said I know at least two Polish guys who were regular buyers of mine who would buy two or three laptops each and would then take them back to poland and sell them at two or three times what they paid me but we ere all happy so it was good on em. I never minded that as I couldnt have done it they had the connections and I didnt.


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## mach 0.0013137 (Jan 10, 2005)

In the early `80s I bought a JLC Mark XI like this from a local Jewelers shop for Â£25










(photo nicked off the net)

I sold it 10 years later for Â£250

In the early 90`s I bought a Heuer Autavia like this (I hope you don`t mind me using your photo Frank :wink2 for Â£15 from a junk shop...










I sold it a couple of years later for Â£350

I now wish I`d kept them both :wallbash: :crybaby:


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## sonyman (Feb 9, 2009)

mach 0.0013137 said:


> In the early `80s I bought a JLC Mark XI like this from a local Jewelers shop for Â£25
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I was trying to keep it off Topic mach as it could open a whole new can of worms which nobody (well some would BOND) no one wants to get into that whole thing again :shocking:

but I think we all have sold watches and wish we had kept them me included,I wish (along with some others I might add) that I never had to sell a wath at ever and could be just like you Mach as in 100s of em. :jawdrop:

By the way is there any you would never sell ever ever no matter what?


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## Andy the Squirrel (Aug 16, 2009)

I've never made any money, if I did i'd have some in my bank account!


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## mach 0.0013137 (Jan 10, 2005)

Missed this in your original post 



> So keeping watches and houses and cars out of this thread


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## sonyman (Feb 9, 2009)

mach 0.0013137 said:


> Missed this in your original post
> 
> 
> 
> > So keeping watches and houses and cars out of this thread


I forgive you Mach after all at your age.................. Ill leave it there


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2010)

Up until a few months ago I used to buy and sell vintage cameras, nothing expensive I wouldnt pay more than Â£50 for one. I did buy, from the USA several Yashica Electro 35 GS/GT/GSN/GTN's and sell those for about Â£15-20 profit each, I've been fortunate enough to buy a couple of M5's, CC'c and 1 or 2 other scarce Yashica rangefinders and sold them for Â£60-70 profit each. Not much money in the grand scheme of things at all but it kept me happy.


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## sonyman (Feb 9, 2009)

Further to what mark said before I think its absoloutley brilliant when you have a clear out of stuff you either dont want,need or will ever use and sell them and make loads of money.

I did this a few years ago on the bay sold a loads of laptop screens, power supplys,ram and old scanners printers and stuff a right load of old junk and made about Â£700 it paid for most of our spends money for our holidays that year :thumbsup:


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## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

sonyman said:


> well some would BOND


The only things I have ever bought and sold were Cars and Houses and a Seiko Monster

:lol: :lol:


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

MarkF said:


> then promptly went on the piss in london.


:rofl:

I'm crap at dealing, too much guilt.

Best I ever did was I bought a load of n gauge railway for my son when he was about 4, paid less than a ton for the lot as the guy was desperate to get rid of it. When I divorced the ex said "and take that f****** train set with you" Needless to say it got boxed and lofted.

15 years later I decided to try it out on ebay, this was when ebay was a good experience. I wasn't expecting to make anything but if I got Â£50 back I'd be happy, It bloody flew, made way over what I'd paid.


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## sonyman (Feb 9, 2009)

pg tips said:


> MarkF said:
> 
> 
> > then promptly went on the piss in london.
> ...


Its great when that happens and always makes the deal that little bit sweeter


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## mrteatime (Oct 25, 2006)

any mod that ive done myself ive lost loads of money.....im truely sh!t.......really p!ss poor at selling


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## vamos666 (May 20, 2009)

SharkBike said:


> :shutup:


+1 (certainly not on a forum with at least one copper as a member!)


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## sheepsteeth (Dec 14, 2009)

im a keen cyclist and even though i have only been riding for 4 years ive had over 20 bikes, everyone of the bikes i have sold i have done so at a massive loss. i dont mind and am always very realistic when i sell stuff but some of the folk hoping to buy my old bikes dont half take the mick with below standard offers, i know the world is a sellers market but i always ask for the money i am prepared to sell my stuff for.


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## mach 0.0013137 (Jan 10, 2005)

I bought a Leak Stereo 20 for Â£15 in the early `90s which I sold a few years later for about Â£250


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## Guz (Apr 7, 2008)

sheepsteeth said:


> im a keen cyclist and even though i have only been riding for 4 years ive had over 20 bikes, everyone of the bikes i have sold i have done so at a massive loss. i dont mind and am always very realistic when i sell stuff but some of the folk hoping to buy my old bikes dont half take the mick with below standard offers, i know the world is a sellers market but i always ask for the money i am prepared to sell my stuff for.


Welcome to the forum sir,

I too am a stupid cyclist, let me know when you are selling stuff cheap again :thumbsup:

Costs me a bloody fortune. Bikes, parts, repairs, servicing, nutrition, racing fees etc.

Oh how I wish I collected DVD's


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## Guz (Apr 7, 2008)

mach 0.0013137 said:


> I bought a Leak Stereo 20 for Â£15 in the early `90s which I sold a few years later for about Â£250


Mach dear sir,

I have purchased from you a few times, and in my view I feel like I am stealing the watches from you :notworthy:

How dare you spoil my hero image by keeping a stero (whatever that is) for a few years and selling for more than you bought it for :smoke: :taunt:


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## sheepsteeth (Dec 14, 2009)

Guz said:


> sheepsteeth said:
> 
> 
> > im a keen cyclist and even though i have only been riding for 4 years ive had over 20 bikes, everyone of the bikes i have sold i have done so at a massive loss. i dont mind and am always very realistic when i sell stuff but some of the folk hoping to buy my old bikes dont half take the mick with below standard offers, i know the world is a sellers market but i always ask for the money i am prepared to sell my stuff for.
> ...


thanks very much, i will be straight over to you when i do any more selling. im planning on keeping the ones i have now and spending my hard earned on new watches.

oh, and im far too rubbish for needing to worry about racing fees


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## Stuart Davies (Jan 13, 2008)

Once (when I was a sad git) I bought a set of new golf clubs for Â£1200 and sold then 6-months later (when I realised golf was [email protected] and I can't do it) for Â£350

Bought dozens of new bikes (road and mountian) for Â£000's each and sold them a year later for Â£00's so best I keep out of this discussion :sadwalk:

I once was down the docks in Barry Island and sold my body for Â£0.26p - now that was a good profit! :derisive:


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## sonyman (Feb 9, 2009)

Stuart Davies said:


> Once (when I was a sad git) I bought a set of new golf clubs for Â£1200 and sold then 6-months later (when I realised golf was [email protected] and I can't do it) for Â£350
> 
> Bought dozens of new bikes (road and mountian) for Â£000's each and sold them a year later for Â£00's so best I keep out of this discussion :sadwalk:
> 
> I once was down the docks in Barry Island and sold my body for Â£0.26p - now that was a good profit! :derisive:


 :skirt:


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