Another Way to Make Money at Auctions

In Make Extra Money at Estate Auctions and Garage Sales, I shared the story of a reader whose grandfather made some extra cash by finding old trunks at auctions, restoring them, and selling them at a good profit. Another reader submitted this comment to that post, giving us all another way to make some extra cash:

I did this last spring. I was at a Auction and this lawn mower attachment, I knew was worth a couple hundred dollars. No one was bidding on it so I picked it up for $15. Someone at the sale asked what I would do with it and I said E-bay. I got $340 for it on ebay. I have been thinking about doing more of this but you really have to know the value of the item to see if you can make money on it. I am waiting for bad weather sales when other bidders might stay home.

Some keys here:

• You have to have the time to go to the auctions.
• You have to have knowledge about the cost/value of the items you're looking for.
• The auction has to have these items (this can probably be found out in advance by calling the auctioneer.)
• You need a situation when someone else is not going to bid the item up too high for you to be able to re-sell it. The "bad weather" strategy seems like a good idea.
• You have to have a way to sell the item for a profit.

Overall, this seems like it could take some work but none of this is rocket science, so it's certainly something many people could do. Plus, if you could make a few hundred dollars every weekend, it would certainly be worth it. Could be fun too -- the "hunt" for the right item is often just as thrilling as the "find." ;-)

Comments

[Carl]

Thank for posting my comment. There are websites like auctionzip.com that most auctioneers post their upcoming sales on, so you can see what sales are upcoming in the area. Also most of them have some kind of website with the sale bills. Also check yournewspaper as the sale bills are listed in hte classifieds. I went to that sale for a snowblower, and this item no one really knew what it it was and don't think it was one the sale bill.
I have gone to few more auctions looking for deals but have come home empty each time as I was not sure I could turn the items for profit.

[Sparky]

I've gotten lucky a few times before too. For $50, I bought a pair of a particular medical item for which you would have no use for a second unit. I sold both of them individually for over $400 each, which is the typical sale price for a single unit. This was a particularly special case, so I wouldn't expect this result always.

In the long run, the hassle of doing this may outweight the profits. I live in an apartment so receiving packages is a pain. Sending them is even worse. Storing them in a small apartment doesn't work well either. This strategy is great once in a while if you come across something, but in order to make anything but spare change, you need to commit fully.