I got suckered.

$240.00 down the drain.  Bought a 10 x 25 unit loaded,  nothing worth crap.  Trash and more trash.  Then to top it off i sold a washer and dryer to an individual who acted like he needs it and it would be good Christian thing to give him a good price.  Then he flips it on craigslist.   

Sorry about the 10x25. As far as the washer/dryer.. I wouldn't sweat it, keep on fighting the good fight. Your buyer will get what's coming to him!

Was your 10x25 a total loss?

First truck load was mostly trash,  on the good side I did find my first bang bang in an old purse. Maybe worth fifty bucks.  There was a few items that I can sell.   The other good thing, the wife was not mad at me about it.  There was no I told you so's from her....  That right there was priceless...

$240.00 down the drain.  Bought a 10 x 25 unit loaded,  nothing worth crap.  Trash and more trash.  Then to top it off i sold a washer and dryer to an individual who acted like he needs it and it would be good Christian thing to give him a good price.  Then he flips it on craigslist.

That's why the only time I do the "good Christian thing" is with friends and family. I found out quick when I started doing resales that almost everybody has a sob story. Sometimes I gotta sell things cheap just to get them out of the way, and I don't mind being a blessing to someone in need, but it's always on my terms, & I get the price I want at the time.

Over 60% of my customers on Craigslist, yard sales, flea markets, or local FB pages are other re-sellers. There are a lot of people looking to make money re-selling, the market is thick with competitors, so you just need to be aware of that when you are selling to the public. Your goal is to make a profit, not make other people profit!

The lines I hear multiple times on a daily basis from "customers" are:

1. What's your bottom dollar?
2. I can't make any money on it at that price!

Yep, that karma thing sure does kick hard...

just wondering, What did you see in the locker that inticed you to bid on it?

Well, I seen dollar signs...  I just finished up my 12 shift at my real job, and was tired.  Last of 14 units and it was windy and cold.  The wife was not feeling good so she could not think clear either.  I thought that there would be some tall shelfs and cabinets in the back.  Well there was, old 1970's p board, water soaked junk.  What, I did learn from this.

The facility people are not your friends.
Only bid on what you see, repeat only bid on what you see.
When you bid on what you see, remember how much work it is to haul stuff to the dump.
Always check everything, before trashing it.
When you see a unit with mice crap, there is one somewhere.
Your time is valuable, only go to places that have a better chance of stuff being good..

The lines I hear multiple times on a daily basis from "customers" are:

1. What's your bottom dollar?
2. I can't make any money on it at that price!

I get those too, and here are my answers:

1. The one in the ad.
2. But I can.

Not sure about your area parksleyman - but a 10x25 for $240 would worry the hell out of me if it was even 1/2 full.  Any large units in my area that are packed are $500+.  So that would worry me when bidding was so low from the regulars.  If you can't see the back - well it's a gamble for a reason.

On the washer/dryer - that sucks, but will not be the last sob story you hear.

Glad you didn't loose a bunch of money.  You can read some of my old threads when I first started.  I loss more then that on a large unit that looked good from the door.  Keep your head up, learn from the mistake, and keep on trucking.

Not sure about your area parksleyman - but a 10x25 for $240 would worry the hell out of me if it was even 1/2 full.  Any large units in my area that are packed are $500+.  So that would worry me when bidding was so low from the regulars.  If you can't see the back - well it's a gamble for a reason.

What Clist said goes double (or triple) for me. In my area a full 10 x 25 would go for $1,000 to $1500. His analysis was right on...if regulars were staying away they must have gotten a better look than you did or had past experience with that look.  Just because we CAN buy something doesn't mean we should.

I've had very good 20x30 units in my area go for a few hundred. So just because other people run the price up, doesn't make it necessarily a better unit. It just means they overpaid!

I will add my .02

Don't know how many units you have bought, but around here 10 x 25 loaded for only $240 means:

1. Light crowd & you got extremely lucky! (great sign) 
2. You saw something of value no one else did! (even better) 
3. The contents of the unit looked like a pure headache for most to move and/or sell. (good sign) 
4. The regulars saw garbage and you didn't!  (bad sign) 
5. The regulars know the unit is staged and won't be any good. (worse sign)   

$240.00 down the drain.  Bought a 10 x 25 unit loaded,  nothing worth crap.  Trash and more trash.  Then to top it off i sold a washer and dryer to an individual who acted like he needs it and it would be good Christian thing to give him a good price.  Then he flips it on craigslist.

Unfortunately we all have gone through this or will go through it at one time or another. We purchased a great looking unit that showed a very expensive vacuum cleaner and a few designer clothes with lots of well kept tubs (15 or more) along with two large filing cabinets. Bought the unit for 500.00  (more than we should have bid) and it bit us in the butt! The owners ran a realty business of some type and the tubs and filing cabinets were full of paper!!! Pounds and pounds of papers. Plus, the vacuum cleaner was missing a major part so we had to send for it. LOL Live and Learn and roll with the punches. This will happen many times over the years if you stay in the business. We win a few and we lose a few. 

im surprised by how often i see people flipping or at least trying to flip things i sell on craigslist to another person. not sure there success or if they make money. i price my stuff at what i wanna sell it for, if someone else wants to resell it no skin off my back i made my money anyway and probably woudlnt have been willing to sit on it waiting for the right buyer anyway

I see stuff of mine relisted all the time.   I usually price to sell.  I'm cool if people want to flip it.  I want items to move.  Rather it go fat than make an extra couple bucks.   And higher price brings more haggling.   Some items I sit on.  Mostly smalls.   Big items I just don't have room for.


That said....
I does bother me when they give a sob story on how they need such-n-such.....then flip it.

I had a set of end tables I got on CL 'free'.    I used for a time but just didnt look right.  I found simular for $250 EACH.    For that I wasn't about to relist for free but did price fair, $200 for both.  Got a lot of calls from dealers (or sounded like dealers).   Finally got lady that sounded legit.  She came, story on how she and her husband lost everything in a fire blah, blah, blah......I was fooled.  Sold for $100.  That night they were listed for $400. 

But she was messed up.  Had her name in Ad.   So every week I'd search it.  Email and make appt to see whatever she was selling and not show.  Finally the searches came up with no results.  So either she changed the style of her ad or gave up selling on CL......