2/11/12 Purchase Summary

I was lucky today.  Really lucky.  I ended up spending $6.85 but I was paid $0.75 at one sale so I'll just calculate it as spending $6.10.  I'll come to that later.

As I said, I was lucky.  The day started slow.  The first sale we went to, which was right by my house, had a large pile of Nerf guns (I think the kid counted nineteen total for sale) but they wanted $70 for all.  Definitely out of my price range.  There were two I was interested in but they wanted $14 for the two; again, out of my price range.

Sales were consistently poor.  The first item I bought was a Nalgene (or fake Nalgene most likely) bottle with my university's logo for $0.10.  I figure if I bleach it long enough it will be fine.  At the next sale I found a copy of Aldous Huxley's Point Counter Point for $0.25.  I thought this was pretty good because I have been intending to read this for some time but the price was, for a while, $12.50 used on Amazon.  Upon seeing my bag of change, the seller offered me $1 for any territory quarters I had.  I found one so I profited $0.50 at that sale.

Sales continued to be poor.  At one sale I saw a Topsy Turvy pepper planter but the seller was unwilling to go below $1.  I wasn't willing to pay $1 on something like that so I passed it up.  A few sales later I found another and, feeling it was meant to be, bought it for $0.25.  Finally, I bought a Gamecube controller for $0.25.  I will get around $15 before fees on Amazon for it but I am considering keeping it for myself.

I decided to stop at the sale with the Nerf guns on my way home.  They remembered me and were willing to give me a better deal because I came back and it was late in the day.  I ended up getting the two guns for $6.  This doesn't sound like much, but I anticipate the two guns (a Longshot and a Vulcan, for those of you who know these things) will fetch $30-$40 each on Craigslist.  I have sold both of these guns on Craigslist before in this range.  If you don't remember, I bought a Longshot on January 14th with several other guns.  I resold the set for $65 but the Longshot was by far the most valuable gun in the set; the others would have gotten me maybe $20-$25 by themselves.

I have to give the kid selling the Nerf guns credit.  He really knew what he was talking about which was nice because I felt I could trust him when he said they were working.  He was also good at bargaining, especially for a twelve year old.  I could see him doing what I'm doing in five years.