Chattel: Sell It Before You Buy It?

For a while back in the late 80's, I used to deal in surplus equipment or anything else I could find and sell at a higher price. I guess this qualifies as "chattel".

One of my best deals was finding a piece of equipment that was "broken". I got it for free, re-attached a broken bracket with a $2 bolt, and sold it for $1,000. Great profit margin on that one!

Anyway, I was often able to sell a piece of equipment before I would buy it. The technique went like this:

I would find an interesting piece of equipment sitting in some factory or in the surplus department of a large corporation or university or at an auction. Sometimes I had no idea what the equipment was for or who would want to buy it (often no one else did either!) But that didn't matter. If it LOOKED like it might be valuable, here's what I would do:

First, I'd take a photo (polaroid)of the equipment (today, I'd use a digital camera). Then I'd look for the serial number tag, and get all the info off of the tag, including the manufacturer.

Next, I'd call the manufacturer, get a hold of a salesman or customer service rep, and ask "I found this piece of equipment, and I don't know what it is, can you help me?" No one ever said no. They'd tell me the value of the equipment, what it was used for, and who would be interested in buying that type of equipment --- in short, everything I needed to know to find out whether or not it was worth even fooling around with. Sometimes the manufacturer would even be interested in buying their own equipment back to refurbish and sell.

Armed with how much the equipment was worth, and knowing the type of company that might be interested in buying it, I'd call around to see if there was any interest (I live in the LA area. It's large enough so you can sell just about anything here.) When I found an interested party, I'd arrange to show them the picture and get an offer. This may sound amazing, but they actually would say "Yes, I'll give you $XXX for that", just from looking at a picture and knowing the model number! Now I knew how much to pay for the equipment, and I'd go buy it or bid on it at the right price, and deliver it to my buyer.

Boiling the technique down to basics, here's how to "sell it before you buy it" (especially good if you don't have enough money to buy the item you want to sell):

1. Take one or more photos of the item.
2. Get all the info about the item (model number, year of manufacture, etc.)
3. Find out who would want to buy the item, and contact them.
4. Give them the info, and show them the photos.
5. Ask them what they'll give you for the item, and based on that,
6. Go buy the item, deliver it, and get paid.

It worked for me. Might work for you.

---- Hugh