I find it odd how easy it is to make money buying and selling consumer goods, up to and including cars. You used to be able to do this on craigslist and you can now do it on FB.
I'm not excited to do this for the money, so I only do it when there's something I or a friend wants to "rent" and it happens to be offered for free or negative cost. I know a few other people who do the same and they easily make 2-5 times minimum wage per hour.
Why doesn't "the market" make this opportunity go away?
There are some markets where people do this, so the opportunity is small, e.g., there seem to be ~5 people who do this with office furniture locally, so you have to be very fast to get a deal, but few classes of goods have enough people doing it to eliminate amazing deals, e.g., a friend of mine does this with cars and is basically permanently renting a car that makes him money.
Based on the profit and the number of opportunities, he could make a living doing this, but he just does it for fun.
@danluu I think it takes a very special level of privilege and ignorance to consider such a harmful and destructive activity fun. Morals aside, there are very, very few people in a position to gamble on the risks you are describing.
@shuvit @danluu Not really sure what to make of this comment.
Privileged people are the ones selling way too cheap just to get someone to come take away their old furniture ASAP so they can get new stuff. The people scouring these markets to find the arbitrage are not the ones with money to spare; it's actually kind of hard work.
It's not harmful at all? It's instead super-helpful:
* if you're quickly snapping up low-priced items on CL or whatever, then that is great for the guy who really just needs to get rid of his couch so he can move ✓
* if you're finding buyers who want to pay more, then those buyers are happy ✓
* the more people who do this job the more efficient the market will be ✓
So, thanks, to the folks doing this! You deserve the $$!
@ech @danluu Every post I have made about this has been in regards to vehicles, in the US. I do not agree that that market specifically follows your points.