From Wal-Mart to eBay: UPDATED
Unit #1 sold for $61.00. Profit made from shipping is roughly offset by eBay and PayPal fees. Net profit: $61-$35=$26.
Unit #2 sold for $73.00. It had a Buy It Now of $75.00. Net: $73-$35=$38.
Unit #3 sold for $51.50. Net: $51.50-$35=$16.50
Unit #4 sold for $58.00. Net: $58-$35=$23.
Total money made: $26+$38+$16.50+$23=$103.50. This is $3.50 more than what I was aiming for, so I consider this mission accomplished. The money will probably go to pay Internet-related bills and buy a few more domain names.
As I was trying to kill time waiting for my wife at a local Wal-Mart, I hung around the electronics department. I was wishing I had my old Dell Axim PDA so I could start writing a post or some code for my brand new web project (I’m rolling it out very soon). So I aimlessly roamed around the isles full of country music CDs and 900MHz cordless telephones. Suddenly, on the very bottom shelf I saw four Linksys-colored boxes with lots of red price stickers on them. As I looked closer, I realized my local Wal-Mart was trying to dump Linksys Wireless Kits (notebook PCMCIA adapter + wireless 4-port router). After numerous mark-downs from $89.94, the units were for sale at a mere $35.00.
I phoned my wife and asked her to punch in “WKPC54G” into eBay. “They are going for $60-70″, she replied. “Sixty less thirty-five, times four is a hundred”, I thought and got excited about a prospect of making easy hundred bucks. So I bought all four and listed them on eBay, one unit per day for four days to make sure I don’t flood the market.
Also, I kind of fibbed in the listing saying “I’m not looking to make any money”. In my defense, however, there is no reserve, and I listed them at $35.00 so I could at least recoup my cost. Of course I’m looking to make money. That line indicates I’m a real person, eBay selling/reselling is not my business, and I’m not a storefront.
They are still on eBay, one unit ending in a few hours, the rest expiring one a day until Friday. I’ll keep you posted. Oh yeah, today is a fixed listing price day. Check out Jeffrey’s blog for more info.
Lessons learned – sometimes Wal-Mart’s Corporate sends some gadgets to these heer parts where no one’s hankering to git ‘em. They can’t sell them, so they mark them down, sometimes a lot. If one had an Internet-enabled gadget in his/her possession, one could quickly estimate market values of certain products as well as margins, and make some wild money.
Is this a nationwide sale? Or just local? I’m tempted to make a trip to Walmart myself
Comment by Lawrence — March 15, 2006 @ 1:41 pm
It’s local Wal-Martians dumping out stuff that doesn’t sell. When people around here hear “wireless”, they think CB Radio.
Comment by How To Be Poor — March 15, 2006 @ 1:43 pm
Also, can you post the SKU number please?
Comment by Lawrence — March 15, 2006 @ 1:44 pm
Smart move!
Comment by Jose — March 15, 2006 @ 1:51 pm
yeah $35 is a steal.
those usually run for $55 or so from places like newegg.
Comment by Cap — March 15, 2006 @ 3:02 pm
If you’ve got a cell phone with SMS you can do this already to some degree using Google SMS:
http://www.google.com/sms/howtouse.html#prices
Basically, you just text: “price ${UPC}” to 46645 and you’ll get a response with some prices for this product on froogle.
Comment by Travis Truman — March 15, 2006 @ 7:07 pm
Not bad. Good call.
Comment by How To Be Poor — March 15, 2006 @ 8:06 pm
I noticed that the images are hosted by “maxfield’s restaurant.” Is this a restaurant you own? Your email is MAX@howtobepoor… that’s why I ask.
Comment by Lawrence — March 16, 2006 @ 11:14 pm
Built website for. One of my first. In Firefox, looks like absolute shit. Cool place though.
Comment by How To Be Poor — March 16, 2006 @ 11:16 pm
Congrats on the finds – it is deals like those which are always worth keeping you eyes open for. Now if I had purchased them waiting for my wife, she would insist on a 20% finders fee (for making me wait so I could find them) – hope yours isn’t reading this ;)
Comment by personal finance advice — March 17, 2006 @ 12:18 am
That is awesome! Great find!
Wonder how laptops with those HUGE mail-in-rebates would do on eBay? Any experience with something like that?
- R
Comment by Russell — March 17, 2006 @ 10:22 pm
Love those Wal-Mart deals, another great store to check out is Office Max
Comment by Dan — March 18, 2006 @ 1:59 pm
More Hello Kitty Catch 22…
I really didn’t want to get into more detail about the entire Hello Kitty business because, let’s face it, it forces me to reveal that I know more about Hello Kitty than is healthy for any grown man to know (how many men do you know than …
Trackback by Personal Finance Advice — March 21, 2006 @ 2:03 am