Comments on: Playing the eBay High Demand Gadget Game for Fun and Profit

By: Lazy Man and Money

Lazy Man and Money — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 01:52:34 +0000

It can be difficult to get the timing here. By the time you know that it’s worth something significant (i.e. it’s going for 20% more than retail on eBay), it’s already sold out. At that point, you have to do a lot of leg work and waiting and hope to get lucky to make money.

It may seem easy, but it really isn’t.

By: matthew burnham

matthew burnham — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:43:22 +0000

What always seems to go unmentioned is any requirement to pay taxes on the income gained through reselling. Stores, importers, and such pay taxes on their internet sales, but many “hobbyist” ebayers think only of their roi.

By: Posco

Posco — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 18:42:59 +0000

Oh. My. God. That Dallas lady was a fool not to read the fine print before bringing $16,000 CASH and flaunting it like that.

By: jim

jim — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:38:50 +0000

It doesn’t matter why you return it, many places have a no questions asked money back guarantee if you return something and you haven’t opened it.

By: mbhunter

mbhunter — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:15:52 +0000

I agree with “sell immediately” but return it if it doesn’t sell? Isn’t there a restocking fee with electronics at a number of the big places? I can see retailers not accepting the return for these highly-anticipated items if nothing is wrong with the item. Why else would a guy return the item two weeks after he bought it when nothing’s wrong with it?

Breaking out the amount per hour one earns might also put this in perspective.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 13:54:25 +0000

So what I gathered from this is… if you’re willing to get somewhere early and get close to the front of the line, you can sell your spot for some nice change.

By: jim

jim — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 18:43:46 +0000

True, but you learn less by mowing lawns and delivering pizzas plus you work very set hours. At least with this, you can learn a little bit about how eBay works, the post office, etc etc.

By: AFinanceBlog

AFinanceBlog — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 18:23:04 +0000

Selling a brand new gadget on eBay I believe really is for making some extra money. You can not create a living off this. (unless you are always on the move) My brother and his friends were able to get 3 xbox360s when it just came to the US. They made a couple of hundred bucks.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 16:40:26 +0000

So, how’d this all work out for you? How much time did you spend on this stuff, and what did it work out to in terms of an hourly rate?

This doesn’t really seem like a great way to spend my time: it’s a PITA, it’s not scalable/repeatable, and there’s a healthy dose of risk thrown in. I have a feeling I’d get a better return on a part time job mowing lawns or delivering pizza, whether I measured it by the hour or by total annual return.