Some people visit blogs about saving money so that they can, well, save money. They're looking for great deals on groceries, clothes, y ou name it. Others are looking for overstocked, wholesale and bargain items because, if you have a nose for retail, it's a great way to run a small business without needing tens of thousands of dollars to buy enormous bulk loads of wholesale products. When trying to build a retail business on chump change, you need to be creative and you need to be clever. Here are 5 of the most interesting ideas people have been using to make a buck in a bad economy:
1. Cigarette Lighters
Even if you don't smoke, it's handy to have a couple of cigarette lighters around. The trick to buying cigarette lighters is to keep an eye out for cheap lots and then sell them off in boxes to convenience stores, gas stations and so on, or to sell them one at a time at flea markets, conventions and so forth. Think about it: How many times have you seen a smoker lamenting that his lighter is out of fuel? Well, a bargain priced cigarette lighter retailer can be a real godsend in this instance.
2. Discontinued Beauty and Hygiene Products
Have you ever had a favorite scent of shampoo or a favorite flavor of toothpaste that was discontinued because it just wasn't popular enough? A trip to the dollar store can be very lucrative if you keep an eye out for items that are on clearance. These retailers take a risk on their purchases because there's no telling when something will be in demand and for how long, but a batch of 50 cent shampoos can easily yield a few dollars a bottle after a waiting period.
3. The Nostalgia Trade
If you ever want to really take a long shot risk, buy up a few wholesale batches of popular children's merchandise. Cars, Dora the Explorer, Blue's Clues, you name it. Sell what you can for now and whatever you can't, hold onto it. It takes about 15 years for a child to become a nostalgic adult, and when that happens, you never know what collectors items you might have on your hands. Just ask the folks selling mint-in-box toys and Nintendo games for hundreds of dollars each. If you're wondering what the kids are into these days, a quick stop by nickelodeon.com should sate that curiosity.
4. Printer Cartridge Refitting
The technically gifted often find it quite easy to take one printer ink cartridge and refit it to match another printer. This is frowned upon by the printer countries, but not exactly illegal. If you're already guessing where this one is going, then you clearly have an entrepreneurial mindset: These guys find the cheapest printer inks around, then they get hold of some empty cartridges for the pricier brands and 1, 2, 3, they have premium brand ink cartridges at a bottom dollar price.
5. Digital Media
The world is quickly going off digital media like tapes and CDs and right into cloud storage and USB drives. However, if you know which formats they still use in editing bays and video labs, formats like DVD and betamax, it's very possible to make a living on these storage mediums.