WOW now my thread has turned into another I Got A Good Deal thread.
I am Happy for those of you that have "Posted" this ..... I guess I have had 30 plus years of bad luck.
If was not for Bad luck I would not have any at all......
Bumper Sticker for Fisherman Only.......... from Texas.........
All Fisherman Are LIARS..Except You and Me.... and sometimes I wounder about YOU.
I don't believe in luck, I believe that determination and time invested will get you what you desire. If you don't have the time or determination to find "good deals", you may find something now and again, but not consistently.
Good deal hunting typically means you have to leave the realm of what you specifically want. If you purposefully go looking for a killer deal on Klipsch Heresays, you may spend a lifetime doing so and never find them.
What kind of equipment did you purchase and sell for 40 years?
I can tell you that I've not had tremendous luck with thrift stores like Goodwill and Salvation Army. My experience with them indicates they research almost everything to an extent with someone that experience doing so. These people don't deal with customers directly in most cases so they can dedicate their time to weeding out what is valuable, and what's not. In a place like Goodwill it is uncommon for high value items to hit their floor. In fact, Goodwill has it's own auction web site.
Pawn Shops are often a good source of great deals. If it is a national chain like Cash America they use odd methods for valuing merchandise such as how much it has sold for before, bluebook, or whatever. That system is flawed because things slip through the cracks with the high volume of merchandise they handle. Truth is, they don't care. If they put $50 into a pair of speakers and they sell for $80, they're happy. I can't tell you how many items I've purchased from Cash America or EZpawn that I was able to sell for more than double my initial investment.
Privately owned and other smaller Pawn Shop chains typically have a small staff with the focus leaning toward Jewelry more so than anything else. Again, with high volume it is difficult for the staff to fully diagnose the value of each item they sell. This can result in extraordinarily high prices that will earn many a scoff or an extraordinary deal. Demographics play their part as well. I purchased a Rotel Preamplifier for $60 at a pawn shop recently and when I asked how long it was there I was told about 2-3 months. That means that hundreds of customers saw the same preamplifier I saw and had no interest in it. I saw it and knew immediately it had a value. The pawn shop was located in a low income neighborhood where most people would prefer a pair of Fisher speakers with a Sony receiver to a quality Rotel preamplifier, amp, and B&W speakers. 99% of the people in that area wouldn't even know anything about the brand or even what a preamplifier is. The pawn shop didn't care, they made $20-30 off the thing. I listed it buy it now on eBay and it sold for $200 in less than two days.
I didn't have a personal interest in that preamplifier, but I knew it's value. I'll buy cameras, musical instruments, audio equipment, other small electronics. Anything I know the value of and can potentially make a reasonable profit, I will buy.
Hell, one time I went to Best Buy and bought a large number of new in box digital cameras on clearance for half off and sold them on ebay for $70 over my initial investment on each unit. I may get chastised for doing so because I removed the opportunity for honest customers to get a great deal on a nice camera, but it's so hard to ignore the potential for profit. If someone is willing to sell it to me for a price I don't feel that I'm taking advantage of them, it's their choice.
I know people that resale tools, jewelry, cars, antiques, and musical instruments. Most of them get on a very friendly basis with the places they shop. They do this by being mostly honest, friendly, informative, and by telling stories (mostly about reselling). If a reseller wins the hearts of those in the establishment, it paves the way for great deals that can be very much in favor of the reseller. Some resellers go mass pawn shop hunting for jewelry. Because most pawn shops don't have an exact science on anything but gold, it's almost open season on gem stones (diamonds not as much, but other precious gems, definitely).
