I don't usually go saling this close to Christmas, but a friend called me at 7:30 this morning after he stayed up all night to see the eclipse. Sales were surprisingly good this weekend, better than anything in the last month or two.
That said, I made two purchases today for a total of $6. I bought ten books for $3. Thirty cents per book is higher than my usual limit of twenty-five cents per book but they were books I had been intending to read anyway. I guess that shows that someone as dogmatic as I will still break the rules occasionally. My other purchase -- again for $3 -- was a kid's laser tag set (Laser Challenge for those of you who remember those). Included were nine guns, eight targets, and a Nerf dart target -- completely unrelated to the rest of the bundle. The Nerf target was in the box so I wasn't going to complain; I'll hold on to it and bundle it with the next lot of Nerf guns I sell. It will add another $5 to the Nerf guns' resale value.
I bargained for the laser tag system by using the "does it work" trick. The seller claimed it worked but, when pressed for details, admitted he hadn't used it since "like 1994." I offered $2 to his initial $5 and we settled at $3. In actuality, judging by the state of its batteries, the system had been used recently.
I was hoping to use the laser tag system with my friends a few times and then resell it, aiming for $35-$40. On testing it, I found that only five of the nine guns and four of the eight target vests work. On the bright side, the guns came with twenty new AA batteries, so I made back my investment in batteries alone.
If I troubleshoot the laser tag system I may be able to get some more, or even all, of its components working. I'm not worried though. I'm sure I can still resell the set as-is for at least $20. As usual, a profitable day.
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