- Hi guys, Neil Waterhouse.
Last week I was talking to a guy Mark who's building
a drop ship business and his Apple Macbook died.
Now, the problem with this, of course,
is it can take days and or weeks to get it repaired.
And unfortunately, this is Mark's only computer.
So, what's the fastest and cheapest solution
to get back up and running?
You can, of course, go and purchase a replacement laptop
from like a bricks and mortar store,
but you know this can cost you thousands,
especially if it's an Apple like this example.
Or, you can purchase a used one from Ebay
using your smartphone but this can take days to arrive
unless, of course, you can find one locally.
But even then it can often take days for sellers
to get back to you.
So, the chance of picking it up that day is slim at best.
Or you can search Gumtree again using your smartphone,
but today I believe the quickest and cheapest way
to pick up a laptop locally is with Facebook marketplaces.
You can literally be up and running in one hour from now
for less than 200 bucks.
Now, of course, in saying 200 bucks he's got
a Macbook, but you don't need a fancy computer.
A lot of people think to build a drop ship business
you got to have some sort of fancy computer.
No, you certainly don't.
You can just use a basic one.
And then, when you get the Macbook repaired
then you can just obviously resell the original one.
And, the thing with these Facebook marketplaces
there is so many people addicted to Facebook
and they're continually monitoring Facebook messages.
And, every time they get a new Facebook message
their smartphone ding alerts them.
So, let me show you how quick it is to find a laptop
on Facebook marketplaces.
Step one is to go to Facebook.com
and then click marketplaces.
Next, enter where you're located, for this example
I put Sydney.
But, it's amazing even if you live rurally like I do
how much stuff is listed locally.
Next, search for whatever you're after.
So, for this example I put laptop.
Now, you always on the left-hand side
set up search parameters like distance, maximum price,
minimum price, just like you can with other platforms
like Ebay, Amazon, and Guntree, et cetera.
Now, don't forget all the prices you see
are asking prices and like everything in life,
everything is negotiable, everything.
And, you can do your negotiation before leaving the house.
And, the big advantage with Facebook marketplaces
is there's a lot of local traffic.
If you list an item now you can literally
have somebody local asking about it
through Facebook messages in the next few minutes.
And the reverse, when you're selling something
on Facebook marketplaces like let's say Mark
decides to sell the second hand notebook
after he's finished with it, normally on average though
you'll get more money by selling it on Ebay
simply because the market is so much bigger
as anybody, literally the whole world,
can see your listing.
But, with Facebook marketplaces the market is smaller
as the majority of buyers are local buyers
who are willing to jump in a car and drive.
So, there you have Facebook messages it's not new,
in fact its been around since 2016
and its rapidly replacing all the local community
Facebook Buy, Swap, Sell groups that are in
many, many areas.
In fact, in Sydney there's multiple of them.
And also, while we're on the subject
of Facebook marketplaces if you're new to buying
and selling online you can make some good money
buying on Facebook marketplaces and then reselling on Ebay
due to the fact that when sellers are selling on Facebook
well Facebook marketplaces they're only reaching
a small, local audience whereas when you list
the same item on Ebay potential buyers
are all over the world.
They can see a listing as Ebay is in 37 different countries.
Now, before somebody sends me an email
asking if I recommend this strategy of buying used items
on Facebook marketplaces and selling 'em on
other places like Ebay as a full time business
personally it's not my cup of tea as it's far more difficult
to automate it.
It's also far more labor intensive 'cause you have to
put so much work into each item and then you can only
sell it once.
For each item you've got to go an buy it wherever,
then you got to come back, photograph it,
list it and that'll take time.
Whereas selling new items you can keep
selling the same item over and over again
and you can do it on multiple marketplaces
like Amazon, Ebay, and even your own website.
But, of course, everybody's different.
Some people enjoy buying and selling used items,
but personally I prefer online businesses
which can be fully automated like drop shipping
and importing where you can sell the same items
over and over again.
And so, I find it a real pain to sell items from home.
We did this when we got started over 20 years ago,
but with a young family as we had back then
it was a real pain.
If you've ever sold items from home before,
I'm sure you'll know what I'm talking about.
People tell you that they'll be there at say
11 a.m. on a Saturday morning and then they either
don't turn up or they turn up hours later.
And, when they finally turn up they very often
then want to renegotiate the price.
A couple of these in the same day and the next thing
you know your whole day is shot.
And, like I said everyone is different.
If you like buying and selling used items, awesome.
So, that's it for this week, please scroll on down
leave me a comment below.
Until next week list more, sell more.
This is Neil Waterhouse.