Going to make some $$$ by reselling BB deals ???

[GuitarDaddy]

I was interested in the BB black friday doorbuster deal for the HP 14.1 laptop + all in one printer for $599, but I decided against standing in line at 4am so I forgot about it. A few weeks go buy and I see several of these listed on ebay, and I eventually win one (nice lappy) and quickly realize that I got basically the the same price (including shipping) that I would have paid out the door w/ sales tax if I had stood in line on Black Friday. Did I just get lucky, and the poor guy that sold it too me was the lone sucker that took a loss for standing in line?

This got my wondering how people made out by buying these and reselling them on ebay? Then I realized that with a little digging I could find out, and what I found was eye opening

I first looked at the particular deal that I got, the HP DV4-1117NR laptop + Epson NX400 printer for which there are 11 completed sales on ebay. For purposes of this analysis I used my local sales tax rate of 8.75% and $40 to ship the two items and caculated actual ebay and paypal fees for each auction. The results showed only one of the eleven auctions made a net profit, 10 lost money. The average cost to the seller including sales tax, ebay+paypal+shipping was $736.83 and the average revenue including shipping was $660.95 with the average net loss ($75.89)

This got my curiousity up, so I decided to apply the same analysis to the the much more popular HP laptop doorbuster deal, the DV4-1114NR for $499, for which there are 93 completed transactions. The results were better for the sellers but still not profitable

93 sales = 40 made money, 53 lost money

Average cost incuding tax,ebay,paypal, shipping $605.01
Average ebay revenue including shipping $604.95
Average (loss)/profit ($0.06)


In reviewing the ebay data, the sellers who did well started the items with a high starting price and "buy now" option that covered their total cost(and possibly relisted several times). Almost everyone that listed a standard auction with a low starting price lost money.


So beware and do your homework the next time you get the idea to make a quick buck reselling brick and mortar "doorbuster" deals

 

[Crono]

It was the wrong year to make money off BB for Black Friday. I made $800 off 7 HD-DVDs players last year, but this year didn't look too good for Black Friday deals, so I just decided not to get anything for myself or for resale.

 

[Vette73]

Yea the BF deals were not that great this year. The best deal was the 30% off eBay, and you did not have to get in line for that.

 

[xalos]

Well, if they made .06 cents off the deal w/o too much work and had Premier RZ standing and used their RZ Mastercard when they purchased the laptops they didn't make out too bad.

 

[Chryso]

Are you kidding? Divide that measly profit into getting up before dawn and standing in the cold and you would do better working at BB on BF.

 

[Adam8281]

.06 cents profit? Seriously - you think that's worth it?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

edited to clarify ($0.06) loss. but I guess gain or loss doesn't really matter


The sad part is several people suffered a $100-200 loss.


I find it hilarious that 93 people stood in line, made trips to ship the items, over $56k changed hands several times, and the net result was a loss of $5.87:laugh:

The real winners are ebay/paypal/UPS they neted about $6k off these 93 transactions

 

[mooncancook]

It's not about profit, it's about getting a positive feedback

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: mooncancook
It's not about profit, it's about getting a positive feedback

that has to be one the dumbest things i have ever heard....

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: mooncancook
It's not about profit, it's about getting a positive feedback

that has to be one the dumbest things i have ever heard....

He must work for the UAW

 

[WHAMPOM]

Employee's discount = $$ 0n Ebay sale.

ed; Forgot the dark side. Stolen credit cards make merchandise sold on Ebay profitable too.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I doubt employee discounts apply to doorbusters

 

[mooncancook]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: mooncancook
It's not about profit, it's about getting a positive feedback

that has to be one the dumbest things i have ever heard....

what other reason can you think of that they stand for hours in line and sell it in ebay for no gain?

 

[Crono]

Originally posted by: mooncancook

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: mooncancook
It's not about profit, it's about getting a positive feedback

that has to be one the dumbest things i have ever heard....

what other reason can you think of that they stand for hours in line and sell it in ebay for no gain?

It's called business. Buying and selling to make a profit is often risky. Feedback can be generated much more easily using lower cost items that can be rapidly sold, in multiple listings, and shipped easily.

 

[venkman]

Originally posted by: Crono
It was the wrong year to make money off BB for Black Friday. I made $800 off 7 HD-DVDs players last year, but this year didn't look too good for Black Friday deals, so I just decided not to get anything for myself or for resale.

The Xbox 360 drives plus three movies where Best Buy was allowing box sets? Yeah, I made absolute BANK off that one and to top it off, I got a bunch of thouse $50 Gift Cards when HD DVD went caput!

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: mooncancook

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: mooncancook
It's not about profit, it's about getting a positive feedback

that has to be one the dumbest things i have ever heard....

what other reason can you think of that they stand for hours in line and sell it in ebay for no gain?

Because they are stupid? so how many did you sale on ebay?

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: mooncancook

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: mooncancook
It's not about profit, it's about getting a positive feedback

that has to be one the dumbest things i have ever heard....

what other reason can you think of that they stand for hours in line and sell it in ebay for no gain?

LOL

 

[nanette1985]

There are a lot of other things on sale on Black Friday besides laptops. For obvious reasons I'm not going to tell you what I bought, but I did okay.

Take the BF circular and check every sale item on ebay, you'll find a few that did really well.

 

[Jumpem]

I bought that $499 HP laptop, but returned it a couple days later.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: princess ida
There are a lot of other things on sale on Black Friday besides laptops. For obvious reasons I'm not going to tell you what I bought, but I did okay.

Take the BF circular and check every sale item on ebay, you'll find a few that did really well.

Abosolutely! That's why you must do your homework and consider all your costs, and set up your auctions wisely. What amazed me was the number of people that used a standard no reserve auction starting at $99 to save a few bucks in listing fees, and virtually all of those people took a bath.