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- Money, a Freeware Tutorial from Another Company
- copyright 1991
-
-
- Chapter 1
-
- A SUPER-EASY-WAY TO MAKE MONEY
-
-
- The money-making technique covered in this chapter
- requires nothing, no special training, and no investment.
-
- Well, not exactly nothing. Do you have a dollar?
- Let's start by tripling it into three dollars. What you are
- about to read works as well with one dollar as with $500+. We
- used to do it every week. We spent over $500 per week and
- turned it into over $1500 per week! (We recommend that you
- start small, however, with $1 to $100, until you gain
- experience.)
-
- As the weekend approaches, your newspaper will list
- yard sales in the classified section. These sales occur on
- Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from early in the morning until
- the middle of the day. Even if you work on the weekend, you
- can probably go to many of the early sales. Do so. Buy
- anything that looks like it can be sold for at least three
- times more than you have to pay.
-
- You can buy rocking chairs for $5-10 which are worth
- $35; you can get blue jeans for 25 cents that are worth $5,
- you can get books for 5 cents each. You get the idea.
-
- Of course not every sale you go to will be great, but
- at least 1/3 of all yard sales have incredible deals. The
- reason: Lets say a homeowner just bought a new 32" color TV.
- This new toy is very exciting, but the old one, the 25" TV
- they bought last year now lives in the garage. It is no
- longer exciting at all. They realize how much is is worth,
- but they just want it out of the garage. They don't want to
- hassle with selling it properly. (If only they knew how easy
- it is!) The first person with $35 gets it!
-
- I have purchased a sewing machine for $5, a reclining
- chair for $5, a great big wooden desk for $30, a blender for
- $2, a computer printer for $15, table lamps for $1 each, an
- oxy-acetylene welding set with full tanks for $125, an air
- conditioner for $35, even a Mercedes-Benz for $500! And
- these are just a few things, just the things that cross my
- mind right now.
-
- As tempting as it may be, do not keep these things for
- yourself.
-
- If this only showed you that you can have three times
- more toys with the same amount of money when you buy used
- things at yard sales instead of new things at K-Mart, if
- would be well worth what you paid. But we'll go a big step
- past that!
-
- How do you sell the things? I have some systems. The
- first ones are great for those of you who do not like retail
- selling:
-
- * Second-hand stores always need merchandise but don't want
- to risk much money. They love consignments. The consignment
- arrangement works like this: You bring things into the
- store, but you get no money until one of your things sells.
- Then you get all but a certain percentage. For example: You
- buy a TV set for $10. It sells for $40, but the store charges
- 25% commission. You get $30. That's $20 profit, or 200% in
- one week! You can do this with hundreds of items, and at
- several stores.
- If you invested the same $10 in a money market account,
- you would get $2, (20%) and it would take a whole year! Do
- not hesitate to ask stores about consignment. They want to
- make money with your stuff as much as you do.
-
- * Consignment to specialty stores works even better. I
- bought a Canon AE-1 35mm camera for $40. If I had sold it in
- a second-hand store, it might have taken two weeks for a
- customer to come in who needed a camera. This customer might
- have paid $120.
- Instead, I took it to a camera store who sold it in less
- than a week for $250. They exposed the camera to many people
- who needed cameras, and they were capable of explaining the
- specific details of this camera to close the sale.
- After the store's 25% commission, I made $187.50; a
- profit of $147.50.
-
- * You can hold your own yard sales. It does not matter
- where you live, as long as you put an ad in the paper. You
- can make over $1000/day, but you can only have a couple of
- sales per month. If you have too many sales, you may have to
- deal with upset neighbors.
-
- * Selling at a flea market works well. It helps if you
- display your stuff well and make sure prices are marked on
- everything. As with most types of selling, state your price
- right up front, even if it seems too high. People will
- rationalize and arrange their mental budgeting to make room
- to buy your item. But if the price is not stated, they may
- automatically assume it is too high and walk away.
-
- * Starting your own second-hand store is a possibility. We
- recommend that you get a lot of experience with the other
- selling techniques first. You need to know that you can cover
- the large overheads of having a store before you try it. One
- tip: do as much yourself as you can. The huge expense that
- breaks many new retailers is employees.
-
-
- SHOP CAREFULLY
-
- Knowing what to buy and what to turn down is 90% of the
- reason you will succeed well.
-
- * Check items for proper repair: Toaster ovens, cameras,
- typewriters, bicycles and TV's are especially prone to
- malfunction. Clothing that is stained or torn will never
- sell.
-
- Don't buy broken things unless you know that you can fix
- them. If parts are required, consider that the parts may
- cost more than your profit.
-
- You can't sell broken things. A portable cassette
- player ("ghetto-blaster") that you could normally sell for
- $35, with a knob missing will not sell for even $3.
-
- * Consider style: 8-track stereo and Super-8 movie equipment
- are dead in the marketplace. Nobody will buy these things
- because they have been replaced with videotape and cassette
- technology. For the same reason, an electric typewriter
- that was $300 is now worth $25, because new electronic ones
- cost less, yet have far more options.
-
- * You must know what a thing is worth before you buy it. I
- don't buy clothing because I know little about clothes. If
- you are a photography buff, or if you like gardening, you
- read the magazines in your field, you know what's popular,
- and what prices things go for. In other words, if you are a
- computer expert, you would recognize a modem, know what it is
- worth, and how to sell it best.
-
- Get a Sears catalog to use as your guide. Never buy a
- thing for more than 1/6 of its new price.
-
- * When in doubt about a specific item, let it go, there will
- be other deals.
-
- * Never quietly pay the full price for an item. Always ask
- the seller if they will take less than the stated price.
- There is considerable art to this "wheeling and dealing."
- Generally, open the bargaining at 2/3 of the asking price.
- Let the seller know that you can afford to pass up the offer
- if the price doesn't meet your limit. Take a little time to
- wheel and deal on high-ticket items, but not on the small
- stuff. It is worth ten minutes of your time to reduce the
- price of a piece of furniture by $100, but how much time is
- it worth to reduce the price of a paperback book from 15
- cents down to 10 cents?
-
- For those of you considering this great opportunity,
- quit considering and start doing it! You may like to learn
- even more (and increase you profit even more). ANOTHER
- COMPANY presents our new IBM-compatible tutorial disk:
-
- GARAGE SALES FOR FUN AND PROFIT
-
- This disk is easy to use and works with any IBM-compatible
- computer. It teaches all about buying and selling
- second-hand merchandise. It has guideline charts of cost and
- markup. It tells you all about the pitfalls to avoid. And it
- tells about detailing and repair for those of you who would
- like to spruce up merchandise for even more profit.
-
- Price: $9.95 (No extra charge for postage, handling or tax!)
-
- Send to:
-
- ANOTHER COMPANY
- P. O. Box 298
- Applegate, OR 97530 USA
-
- Or call:
- 503-846-7884
-
- Please specify 5.25" or 3.5" disk size.
- (Outside USA: Send US funds drawn on a US bank)
-
- *************************************************************