Could you copy this technique for a handsome profit in your own local area?

One of my best friends Barry recently stumbled on a good way to make money. He's the sort of guy that's not too bothered about money, so his recent tale was even more interesting to me.

When they try to make money on eBay, most people try to figure out what they can buy offline, and then sell it on eBay for a profit. However, as this case proved, there are fantastic opportunities to buy items on eBay and then sell them for a profit in the offline market.

Barry is a newbie golfer. Like most newbie golfers he started off by getting himself a cheap set of second hand golf clubs. After playing a few rounds he thought he'd invest in a new set of clubs.

As he already had an adequate set of clubs, he wasn't in any particular hurry to rush and pay top dollar for a new set. He was happy to wait for a bargain. That was the key to this opportunity being discovered...

After spending a little while surfing eBay, Barry decided to place a speculative bid of ?50 on a set of new 'unbranded' clubs. This included woods, putter, full set of clubs and a bag. He didn't expect to win the auction but he thought he would 'chance his arm' to see what happens.

The auction ended with the winning bidder buying a set of golf clubs at a 'very good value' price of ?110.

A few days later...

The seller contacted Barry to explain that although he didn't win the auction, there was still a few more sets of clubs available and he could get a set for the ?50 that he had originally bid.

This way of contacting failed bidders is a common tactic that a lot of eBay Powersellers use to make additional sales.

Barry's not a natural entrepreneur, so his next move was quite remarkable for him and demonstrated some quick thinking on his part...

He got straight back to the seller and said 'yes', he would like to buy the golf clubs, and also asked (rather cheekily) if he could get another 4 sets at the same price, as he had a few friends and relatives that would also like some clubs at that price. If you don't ask, you don't get, right?

The seller obviously bought the clubs at a very good price, because he didn't hesitate to agree to the deal. 5 sets of golf clubs, including bag, woods, putter all delivered in 3 days, with each item individually wrapped 'as new', at a cost of ?250 + ?35 (?7 each set).

He kept one set for himself, and sold one to a friend for ?80 for a small profit of ?23. He then advertised one set of clubs in the free classifieds in his local paper for ?120.

When he got in from work on the day the ad came out, he had one call from an interested buyer. He came round that night and was very happy with the deal and offered ?110, which Barry accepted.

He then revealed that he had another set of the same new clubs, and would do a deal of ?200 if he wanted to buy two sets there and then. The cash was immediately handed over, and both parties were equally happy.

No sooner had the first customer left, another one was at the doorstep and this time paid the full asking price with no haggling. Great!

So for the initial outlay of ?285, Barry had made a profit of ?115 and gotten a new set of clubs for himself 'free of charge!' Not bad for about half an hour of work talking to a couple of people on the phone and in person when they came round to buy the clubs.

The next couple of nights he got 4 more calls from people after the clubs, but he had to turn them down. Had he bought more sets of clubs he was confident that he could have sold at least another one or two sets from that one single ad.

Now, as I said, Barry is not really the entrepreneurial type so this simple technique could be done by just about anyone. It doesn't cost anything to bid on stuff on eBay. If you keep placing speculative bids early in the auction, at a price you know is an extremely good deal, you might just get yourself a few bargains that you then sell offline for a nice bit of 'cash in the hand' profit.

Could you make a regular income doing this?

Very likely, is my opinion?

Personally, over the next few weeks I will be placing a few speculative bids myself, as well as approaching a few sellers after the auction has ended. Not all eBay sellers will bother to contact failed bidders, so it will probably pay you to contact them yourself. Sure, some of them will probably ignore your request, or turn you down flat. It's just a numbers game. The more speculative bids you place, the more sellers you contact, the bigger the chance of you picking up some real bargains.

What should you bid on?

It's probably not a good idea to bid on items that a relatively inexpensive to buy. You want items that can provide you with a decent amount of profit per sale. They should also be items that people are already selling in the classified ads in your local newspapers. What I particularly like about golf clubs is that 'what you see is what you get'. A buyer is not going to bring them back and say that they don't work, which they may do with an electrical item.

With Christmas around the corner, this could also be a good time of year to start an enterprise like this. My advice would be to just buy one or two items first off. Place an ad in your local paper and see how things go. You can then reinvest your profits and build your stock up gradually.

This could potentially be quite lucrative low risk venture, which requires very little money to get started.