On 2011-08-02, Paul Drahn wrote:
On 8/1/2011 8:01 PM, Ignoramus13162 wrote:
I was wondering about something. For a while, about 10 years, I did a
little hustle on the side, which was buying and selling. (and some
minor repairs).

It always worked out nicely, making money with dirty hands (literally,
not figuratively dirty). The profits varied from good to great.

I have a bit more free time from my day job and with that extra time,
my income from selling stuff went through the roof. I am now wondering
if I should, perhaps, scale it up and make it my day job, with a
warehouse and all.

I could sell more of same $30.00-$1,000 stuff, just more of it, or with
more expensive things, like smaller size CNC machines. Things that I
could move with a flatbed trailer and a forklift. A little cleaning,
minor fixes and a quick flip.

I have never been into asking for too much money, just enough for a
quick sale.

The question that I have is, do you know anyone who does that sort of
thing and makes a decent living. How does it work in "cold, hard
reality".

i
MY advice would be to wait a while. Manufacturing in this country has
tanked again. My electronic assembly business was great through July,
but we have almost no orders for August or any time in the future. The
reason given by our customers is they have no orders for their products.
At the same time electronic part distributors are saying the ordering of
components has dried up.

We build small quantities of products for a major assembly house in
Portland because it's not economical for them to build small quantities.
They report their orders from their big customers has also dried up.

I am meeting with my GM tomorrow to plan for layoff and shorter hours
for the crew. This feels like 2008 all over again.

I am sure anyone you might sell to will be holding onto their cash,
right now. Keep watch of the level of manufacturing in the country and
when it begins to rise again, then go for the refurbished tool business.
People will buy the refurbished before any new tool. Ask me how many
times I have been there!

Paul, this is what I want to sell, used stuff, not new stuff.

i