Items to Look for: Nerf Guns

I'm going to start a series discussing common items that are potential great deals, either from a reselling standpoint or a buy for one's self standpoint.  I'm also going to start a related series of items to avoid; at least one item will appear on both lists.

Today's topic is Nerf guns.  Why?  Nerf guns have been the single most profitable category of resale items I have come across.   I have made at least $170 off them since I started reselling Nerf guns back in 2008 and I have an additional $40-$60 worth of guns sitting in my sister's room (it's OK, she's away at college).

The great thing about Nerf guns is that most people think they're worthless.  Of the $170+ in guns I have sold, I invested a total of less than $3.  If people are willing to sell their guns for cheap, they're going to let them go for almost free.  At one sale, I traded a few foreign coins (all worthless, mainly Canadian pennies) for guns I later resold for $35.

Some guns are worth more than others.  The Longshot is fairly common and, having been discontinued in the US, is worth up to $60 on eBay, as I've mentioned before.  The Longshot comes in the original blue, yellow, and red.  The red version was sold as the Red Strike only on Black Friday 2009 at Wal-mart.  All version of this gun will fetch a fair amount of money but the Red Strike is considered to be very valuable.

The Longshot

The Vulcan is another gun considered to be worth a fair amount.  It's a fully-automatic, tripod-mounted gun that uses six C batteries.  Don't spend much buying this gun; two of the three I have purchased proved to be broken and you can't really check if it works if the seller doesn't have fresh batteries.  A working Vulcan will get you $35-$40.

The Vulcan

Other guns will fetch your varying amounts of money.  According to my reading, the crossbow is considered one of the best Nerf guns ever made but I have no idea how much money you can get for it.  The Nerf Wiki is a great site for pricing and listing Nerf guns; I always use it when flipping guns (it's also where I'm getting my information for this post).

One great thing about Nerf guns is that you frequently buy them in sets.  People on Craigslist are unwilling to spend more than $5 per gun if they're sold individually; however, if the guns come in a set, they are willing to pay more.  A set of four guns, depending on the model, will usually get you between $25 and $50.