Half-assed Bad - profit on home gym through craigslist

[neo von retorch]

I was looking to escape gym fees, and some friends knew I was looking for the basics (bench, squat, etc). One pointed out to me a "whole gym" for sale for $1500. That was much more than I had in mind, but I did some research. It seemed that the equipment that I didn't want was worth more than the lot price! After a visit, a $100 price drop and an offer to deliver the goods, I accepted!

It took a couple of months, but I eventually sold not only the stuff I didn't want at all, but also the stuff I kind of didn't like because it took up too much space. I even bought a little extra set on CraigsList that I re-sold the same day.

Then I did the much less bad-ass thing of purchasing exactly what I wanted, but making sure to end up net positive, plus having some high quality stuff I can likely sell for a similar price later.

The result:
 - Spent $2651
 - Sold $2820

Still have:
 - Squat rack / bench stand
 - Bench
 - Two Olympic barbells
 - 600 lbs of dumbbells and rack
 - 90 lbs of bumper plates
 - 385 lbs of plates and rack

The stuff I still have could likely be sold for $800-1100.

[sol]

There are people who routinely make a living off of this sort of thing.  Some of them own second-hand stores.

My sister put herself through college buying and reselling on ebay.  She says craigslist in her area has too wide of an audience to get really good deals, too many people jumping on the high margin stuff.  Most of her profit comes from estate sales.

All together, it looks like you made about $1200 in "profit".  How many hours of work do you think that took you?  How much do you think you spent in gas driving around to buy stuff?

[neo von retorch]

The bulk of the stuff was delivered to me by the original seller on his big trailer. Other than that, I bought some extra plates to complete a set that I sold later that same day - that was a neighbor just a mile off my normal commute. I did make one big drive to buy the dumbbell set, so that might have cost me 2 hours and ~$8 in gas. Otherwise it was very minimal. I probably spent a handful of hours at most writing up and maintaining the ad, taking photos (including moving around heavy stuff!) and showing the items to buyers. If my time is worth $40/hr then I might have lost $200 in labor costs there :) (But then I usually got some bonus exercise...)

[P1]

Good job. What was the stuff it came with that you didn't want but were able to sell for so much?

[neo von retorch]

There was a tower of 1" dumbbell plates and a stock of adjustable dumbbell bars. $240
Hip sled / leg press with 100' and 55' plates. $450
Extra olympic bars & plates $450
Extra dumbbells / rack / bench press $650
Squat rack / plates / rack $315
Home Gym $60 and Ab Crunch $25, old-fashioned round dumbbells $40
Plates / bar / rack $320
Plates / bar / rack $270

I ended up selling more than I originally planned, so I did end up buying a plate rack that was able to hold all the plates I kept, and I bought a several plates that have the holes for grip. (The ones I sold were solid.) I sold a squat rack but bought a combo squat rack / bench rack ($225). I also spent a whopping $134 for 2 x 45 lb bumper plates.