Many people are interested in making money at flea markets or through online auctions such as Ebay. Usually, you would start by selling unwanted or unneeded things that they find around their home: old clothing, knick-knacks and collectibles, old DVDs or music CDs. After their stock of unwanted used good dries up, you have to find something else to sell.
One option is to purchase merchandise from a wholesaler or another flea market or auction seller, and resell it for a profit. This is risky, since you may not make the sale. Also, it requires an initial investment.
How do you decrease the risk and get rid of any monetary investment?
You sell items that you get for free!
A quick and easy way to get items for free is to start a “Free Pickup Service.” Many people have garage or yard sales and do not want to put all the stuff they did not sell back into the garage. Your first step in getting free items to sell is to inform the garage sale people that you will haul away any unsold items free of charge. You can also advertise to people who may be doing spring or fall cleaning.
In the newspaper, you can place a free or low cost advertisement that states you will pick up any re-usable items that are no longer wanted. “We Remove Unwanted Items for Free!” Be prepared with a truck or van and a professional demeanor. This is ideal for a couple of people strong enough to lift heavier items into the truck.
Once people begin to call you to pick up the free items, make sure you hand out fliers and business cards so they can pass on the information to their friends. Word of mouth is great advertising.
In your quest for saleable free items, you will be stuck with some real junk too. You can stipulate what you will and will not take: no mattresses, no large appliances, etc. You could even state a minimum amount of things that you will travel to pick up.
Getting free items to sell in this way is easy and fun. It is amazing what people will give you for free. The costs associated with this free item acquisition are small.
After you pick up the free items, you can take them home and store them, fix or clean them up a bit, and get them ready to sell. Some items will not be saleable, and you can easily put them at your curb for the garbage pick up. All other items can be packed up into the van or truck on the weekend and taken to the flea market to sell.
Selling free items reduces your costs considerably. Finding free items to sell can be as easy as offering to cart away the junk from other’s yard sales or garage cleaning.
