Selling things out of my dorm room at college? would like input

[meditate89]

Last night I thought of selling things to my classmates out of my room at school. I stumbled across a site that sells heavily discounted cigarettes, and figured they would be rather easy to resell in NY for $5 a pack since they're pretty much exactly the same product which can cost anywhere from $6-8 in the city. Today I went to BJ's wholesale store and brainstormed a bit to see what else I could possibly sell:

[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Cigarettes Buying Namebrand@ about $2.5 a pack, selling at 5
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Lighter? Buying Bic @ about .50, selling at 1
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Gum? Candy? Buying Orbit Gum @ about .60, selling at 1
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Redbull? Can’t seem to find cheap enough- maybe not feasible
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Water / Soda? Need to look into further, just haven’t gotten to
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Cigars ( To Roll Into Blunts ) Need to look into further, having some trouble finding in bulk
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Axe/ Body Spray Need to look into further, having trouble finding in bulk for decent price.
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Tell me your idea!
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Good Quality USB memory Sticks? Again, probably hard to find a bulk price on these
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Alcohol- I suspect I could run into trouble with this, and not sure if I could even get it in bulk


If you guys have any other ideas about what I might I might be able to sell, I’d love to hear your thoughts…

I am looking for items that I can mark up at least 100%. This way they won’t be a waste of my time to sell… I almost feel like most of this stuff besides cigarettes is sort of a waste because the items are so cheap, but most college students are sort of poor, so this is a limitation in a way.

The cigarettes I have covered.

Lighters- I think I have found the lighters at BJs at a satisfactory price. Do you all think it is worthwhile to buy bic lighters because they are more well known and reliable. Would you be much more likely to pay $1 for a brand new bic, or more likely to pay for some other name brand? Or would you just pay the dollar cause you needed the lighter I suppose? On the other hand, I want repeat customers- not ones that buy the lighter somewhere else because they want one that works. I think I’d like to hear more about what you all think on the lighter situation. I can get bics for a little over .50 each- I’m not sure how much cheaper a worse quality brand will cost.

Gum- I’m thinking maybe Orbit gum to sell for $1 a pack and will cost me like .60 at BJ’s. This seems like a popular, well known brand, but I wouldn’t mind exploring some other options.

Cigars- I need to talk to a friend and do some more research on these. I’d like to get these for about .60 shipped- just looking for the ones that they sell in the store for a dollar. I’m thinking maybe vanilla dutches.

Redbull- I can’t seem to find this in bulk for cheaper than 1.50 / can. I don’t believe that I could move this very easily for $3 a can, and 2.50 might be tough even. I’m unsure if it’s worth the effort to sell this for so little profit though. I wouldn't mind buying 500 or 1000 cans at once if I could get them for $1 each or so including shipping, as I'm sure I could make them go pretty quickly at $2 a can.

I was wondering if any of you knew some good wholesale companies that may be able to help meet my needs? I really wouldn’t mind purchasing in bulk if I could get any of these products at a quantity discount without resorting to non- name brand merchandise which I think can really help bring in repeat buyers and keep customers more satisfied.

Also once again, if you guys have any suggestions about possibly higher priced (+therefore higher profit hopefully) items that a typical college student might want to buy, please post them!

I know I'm not going to get rich doing this, but it seems like I could make a little extra money on the side… I sort of just want to try this to see how it works, even if I only pulled in a thousand dollars of profit from doing this during a semester, it’s not like it will take a ton of time out of my day to sell a few things.

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Thanks for your comments [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[Kjell201]

I live in a 2-block area with about 4000 students. I'm buying protein powders, weight gainers, creatine, etc to sell to university kids here, as we speak. (This is Sweden though, I'm not sure how the market for those products are in USA)

[los_toros]

If you're comfortable with margins this low then go for it.

Otherwise, just do something illegal and make lots more.

[WarBus]

[ QUOTE ]
If you're comfortable with margins this low then go for it.

Otherwise, just do something illegal and make lots more.

[/ QUOTE ]

Selling any of this stuff would be illegal without a license. Especially the cigarettes/blunts. Sure the odds of getting caught are low, but it is still illegal. The fines for selling the cigarettes would be steep if you were caught.

[los_toros]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If you're comfortable with margins this low then go for it.

Otherwise, just do something illegal and make lots more.

[/ QUOTE ]

Selling any of this stuff would be illegal without a license. Especially the cigarettes/blunts. Sure the odds of getting caught are low, but it is still illegal. The fines for selling the cigarettes would be steep if you were caught.

[/ QUOTE ]
In that case, charge more.

[dc_publius]

I think this is a waste of time because chances of school disciplinary action are too high (probably getting thrown out of the dorms) and you will never be able to keep this under radar.

If you are going to sell stuff, sell low quantities of expensive high margin products. I like the GNC supplement idea better...

[waxie]

There is a kid at my college who has thousands of DVDs that he pirated and rents them out for a buck a peice. it's pretty lucrative and very fun to rent from him.

[meditate89]

I really do not think I will have any disciplinary action against me for this. I am VERY good friends with all of the Resident Assistants in my building, and I just can't see running into any problems to be quite honest. I have definitely considered this when proposing the idea, but I don't want it to be the main focus per say. I really don't think a government agency is going to be bothered to hunt me down for reselling cartons of cigarettes that I already paid taxes on- it just seems ridiculous.

I also do not plan to keep all of the cigarettes sitting in my closet- they will be spread out very well. If my room were to get searched for some extremely odd reason- they would find 3 or 4 cartons of cigarettes. I don't plan to sell to anyone under 18, as there is nobody under 18 anywhere near me. I don't think I could possibly get thrown out of my dorm for this- worst case, they may tell me to stop. Also, I don't think someone is going to go 'tell on me'- it's not like I'm hurting anyone, just offering them a product for cheaper than they can get it in the store.


I don't think I will be doing this unless I can find higher margin products to sell. I may consider the supplement idea, but I was curious if anyone could think of other relatively expensive items. My list wasn't necessarily meant to tell you of things that I was definitely going to sell, but instead of things I might consider selling. I'm not going to try to push people to spend $1 on some gum- that would be a waste of my time.

On the other hand, if I was supplying my campus with cigarettes, I could certainly make some nice coin moving a carton a day or something, which doesn't sound that unrealistic to me.

[BahhGawd]

One word:

Salvia.

[WarBus]

Risk has to equal the reward and selling cigarettes isn't worth it. The cigarettes are probably not from NY and you would owe the NY tax on them. It is very unlikey you would get caught, but what if someone takes notice of all your purchases from the records of the online seller? Sellers are required to report all sales and shipments. If you have been selling 1 carton a day for a year, you will owe all the taxes on every carton. Plus, it would be very difficult to explain why you were smoking a carton a day.

Sell gum, soda, creatine, and anything else you like. Messing with anything regulated by the government, and so easily traced back to you, isn't worth it (for the small amount of money you would make).