Small Businesses Ideas 036

Smart Small Ad Selling

Anyone with an eagle eye for bargains will do well from this little money maker.

Every town or city has a small ads section in the local paper. Even better, there may be a regular publication devoted entirely to small classified advertisements, usually placed by private buyers and offering all manner of (usually) second-hand goods.

A large proportion of these ads will be offering a list of items. Very often the goods are being sold as a result of a bereavement or house clearance.

These list ads are usually placed in the "General Items For Sale" category, or under the category of the first item on the list. For example, under the Camcorder section: "For Sale: Sony hand held camcorder; Qualcast electric lawnmower, Panasonic video recorder, antique mahogany dining table".

While this type of ad might attract someone after a camcorder, the bargains further down the list are not so easily spotted. In this kind of example, the seller might know the potential market value of the first item, but does not know the true value of the others. This leaves plenty of scope for some shrewd buying and selling.

Spend some time scanning the small ads in your local paper(s). You will almost certainly find ads similar to the one above cropping up.

If any good deals arise you need to be quick on the mark. Approach the seller and get the best price possible. Through haggling, paying cash, and/or purchasing a number of items in one go, you may be able to get a lower price.

Next comes the job of selling the goods. You need to sell them to people who know what they're looking for. For example, a cheap VCR discovered at the tail end of one ad could be re advertised in the Video Recorders section of the classifieds, or sold through a second-hand electrical dealer.

It's best to stick to buying and selling products you know something about. You'll know when something is a good deal or not, and you'll know where, and at what price, you can sell it at. Keep a keen eye on the small ads and you're bound to profit.

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These 'Small Businesses Ideas' pages have been adapted from S. Goldsmith's course-work with full permissions granted (and paid for!) All of these pages are subject to strict copyright rules. Unless you want to be sued by a multi-millionaire, don't copy any single piece of this material for any reason.