What's new

I have a new theory. (1 Viewer)

Brent_H

Second Unit
Joined
Aug 14, 2002
Messages
366
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this before, so please forgive me:
Theory #1:
We all know that new titles are CHEAP if you buy them the week they come out right? Well, for the titles I'm not sure I'll like, i.e. K-19: The Widowmaker, I can go buy NEW for $15.99 or so @ CC or BB and then if I don't like it, sell it the next day on Amazon or Half.com for often $2+ more than what I paid for it. This means I am getting PAID to "rent" movies!! True, it might be a hassel to some, but when you pay $3-4 to rent a title at Blockbuster, or have to wait days or weeeks to get it from Netflix....why not??
Theory #2:
I bought Band of Brothers for $54 or whatever from Amazon.ca right? Well, I could have bought multiple copies on my credit card, and went and sold them for $70++ on half.com. Keeping one copy for myself of course....So if I went around and sold 3 copies I would have my set paid for. Hmmm....with BTTF coming out next week at a rock-bottom price @ BB probably, and brand-new ones going for $50+ on half.com......I think it's a no brainer.
Now, maybe I shouldn't have shared this money making nuggest with you all, but why not.....All I need now is room on my credit card to buy extra copies :)
~Brent
 

BooneG

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Apr 23, 2002
Messages
93
That is not a good idea because you will not always make your money back. Just because it's on half.com or ebay doesn't mean that it's selling out. And that doesn't mean that you'll get that price for it either.
 

Marshall W. Carter

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Nov 26, 2000
Messages
154
Real Name
Marshall W. Carter
So long as you're getting titles that are in demand (and let's face it, they're in demand for a good while after release), you'll make money. eBay and Half.com are notorious in that there are apparently a ton of people out there who are more than willing to purchase something that they could get for quite a bit less if they'd only do a bit of research. The problem is that, from the perspective of most people, it really isn't worth it for the majority of titles (like you said, about $2), though for Band of Brothers, hey, if I knew I could sell them all and had the money, I'd buy as many as I could. At any rate, I've been doing it with games for years, so have at it...so long as you're looking at it from that "rental" perspective, you're doing yourself a favor.
 

Bill Balcziak

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 4, 1999
Messages
871
I think you're ignoring the fact that Half.com takes 15% in commission. So your $70 sale actually only nets you $59. And since Half.com never pays you more than single disc shipping no matter how large the set (Monty Python, anybody?), you only get $1.54 shipping reimbursement for a set that costs at least $4-7 to ship (not counting your time and vehicle expense to drive to the PO). So your $54 Amazon.ca Band of Brothers set actually made you about $1 profit after commission and shipping.
 
Joined
Aug 19, 1999
Messages
31
My local Media Play had TONS of South Park box sets on sale for $9.99. I bought 12 extra copies and immediately sold them on eBay for $31.99 (which included shipping). It cost me $3.00 to ship -$.80 for Paypal fees -$.90 eBay fees, so I ended up making $16.70 per set -- nearly $200 in one week for relatively little work.

However, I have to agree that it doesn't often work like that. I've sold about 300 DVDs on eBay of the past 8 months (and I'm still over 600), and I find that I at least break even with what I paid for them. Sometimes I make a buck of two more.
 

Jimmy Wong

Grip
Joined
Aug 17, 2002
Messages
24
Actually with some box sets you can make money. But with new releases (like K-19) above, you will be lucky to get 9.99 for an opened disc. Prices are often $5-$8 less for an opened disc than a brand new one. Look at Monsers, INC. They are only getting between $11-$12 for a SEALED copy. It used to be that you could do what you suggested. But the profileration of DVD's and all the price drops have made this not as lucrative as it once was.
 

GlennH

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 28, 1998
Messages
2,155
Real Name
Glenn
I've sold a number of things on Amazon Marketplace and usually come out even or ahead of what I originally paid. But it usually doesn't work as well with recent major releases since the market is somewhat flooded with those.
My best success has been selling things that have gone out of print (OOP), but that I know will eventually come back. Example - I sold my copy of Rocky, which I got for free on a buy 3, get 1 free offer, for $35 when it was OOP. The SE had just been announced. I eventually bought it for under $16. Biggest score: Sold my Bond Set #3 (paid only $45 for it from a BestBuy.com price error) for $198 earlier this year when all of them were OOP. I probably never will rebuy those.
 

John M Miller

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Oct 20, 2000
Messages
110
it's called ARBITRAGE, gentlemen.
and as long as the price of an item has varied from one place to another, people have been doing it. anybody ever heard of the CA energy crisis???
but I will warn ya'll: a friend of mine thought he could make a killing arbitraging digital camera over ebay, but when the market price suddenly went down he lost over $1000. so beware!!!
 

Colin-H

Second Unit
Joined
Jun 25, 2002
Messages
391
My Dances With Wolves DTS is still sealed... Anyone know if the SE will have a DTS track?? ;)
 

JamesH

Supporting Actor
Joined
Nov 28, 2000
Messages
662
I make a killing on ebay, but most of it comes from rare video games I get at pawn shops.

Be weary of snapping up a stack of games that are being clearanced at Target or some other large national chain. Chances are, they have gone clearance at every Target and bucketloads of them will be up on ebay within the week.

One time though, I snagged some Time Crisis 2 with guncon 2 sets for $15 each, and I sold them both for about $100 each, making a cool $170.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Forum statistics

Threads
356,814
Messages
5,123,730
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top