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How to Make It on Craigslist

blog.priceonomics.com

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Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#81

Post by larrydag »

redsymbol wrote: post #8

The greatest part of this story is what Ryan accomplished personally. From reading, he went from someone who consistently had great trouble professionally, to someone who is successfully able to support himself and his family financially. Ryan, if you're reading this, congratulations! This appears to be a major personal accomplishment and milestone for you. Best of luck as you grow into your next level of success.

I also like the part where Ryan sought out mentors and advice from people he trusts. There is no need to tackle your problems alone. Listening is a great virtue.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#82

Post by dangrossman »

This sounds like a mess to keep proper tax records for. Assuming nobody's giving receipts on either side of the transaction, how do you keep proof of what price you paid and what price you sold for? Audits aren't that rare.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#84

Post by InclinedPlane »

DustinCalim wrote: post #72

I don't see why some consider this unethical and abusive to the CL community. It's just arbitrage; same as in Foreign Exchange markets. It tends to pop up because values are just opinions and to forget that leads to misdirection.

It's not just arbitrage, he's providing pickup and delivery services as well. That alone is valuable.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#85

Post by ephermata »

roseburg wrote: post #73
r00fus wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As he mentions several times in his posting, time sensitivity is critical. Minutes, even seconds can make/break a deal... automation may be much slower than a human who's constantly scanning. Furthermore, it's clear that it's not just "pickup" and possibly "delivery"... the author is making a clear buy/sell/bargain decision on the spot... what happens when the pickup results in a fraudulent item? Clearly this means t…

Your spot on with what I've been wrestling with over the past months. It's difficult, but possible. I did a trial with a friend in Houston and it worked out well. We made a little over $200 in a day on one laptop. Communication wise, it's definitely labor intensive at first as I'm trying to make wise decisions over the phone and looking at pictures. It is possible to pull it off, it's just going to take a lot of work…

Could you hire people on www.taskrabbit.com to go pick things up for you? You'd have to probably pay them on retainer to get the responsiveness you need, but it's a way to recruit in different cities.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#86

Post by michaelbuckbee »

josefresco wrote: post #6
adamc wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. They will take a lesser fraction of the value in cash when there is a positive value in getting rid of it. Small items are easy to get rid of anyway (you could just throw it in the trash), and if they have value they may be willing to store them and wait. My overall reaction to the article, though, was that he's doing a fair amount of work for a pretty so-so return, and it looks hard to scale it upwards. (That $…

The way to scale it is to open a thrift store and increase his inventory on hand by buying in bulk.

That's not a bad idea. IIRC many of the people on Storage Wars do exactly that.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#87

Post by paulhauggis »

dangrossman wrote: post #82

This sounds like a mess to keep proper tax records for. Assuming nobody's giving receipts on either side of the transaction, how do you keep proof of what price you paid and what price you sold for? Audits aren't that rare.

what about other cash-only businesses like a barber shop?

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#88

Post by dangrossman »

paulhauggis wrote: post #87
dangrossman wrote: post #82

This sounds like a mess to keep proper tax records for. Assuming nobody's giving receipts on either side of the transaction, how do you keep proof of what price you paid and what price you sold for? Audits aren't that rare.

what about other cash-only businesses like a barber shop?

Every one I've been to has a POS computer/register where they enter every sale, no matter how it's paid. Enter the employee ID of the person that did the cut, the service, cash tendered, money drawer opens, provide change if applicable, offer receipt. Same as any other legit business.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#89

Post by icebraining »

thinkdevcode wrote: post #53
awj wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I dont mean to nitpick, but I get really annoyed when people do extravagant things when they can't afford it. Everyone does. Good luck getting people to settle on your definitions of "extravagant" and "afford."

Your absolutely correct that we all have different perceptions of "extravagance" I think a vacation to hawaii from portland for a family of four while still in debt is clearly extravagant, and unaffordable. But's thats just my opinion, and I dont expect you, or anyone else, to share it. Debt shouldn't be seen as ok to have but I think that is sadly how most Americans view it now.

According to anthropologists, debt appeared before money. So it's hardly a new development that debt is seen as OK.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#90

Post by nate »

I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet, but roseburg, have you considered packaging up this wisdom you shared on this blog post as a class and make some money teaching? I'd think you could get a bunch of students to take at least a one session 2 hour class or something learning this stuff from you. Or even some class online. You could video some of the interactions you have on the phone and in person when doing the deals etc...
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