We just bought a billboard! You might be wondering, are you advertising on a billboard? No, we actually bought the parts of a billboard that we are going to sell. It’s an electronic or digital billboard that you might see on the side of an interstate.
They’re LED screens that allow multiple advertisers to put ads up. We found the panels. The cool thing about this purchase is that it’s actually a bunch of 12×12” panels that make up the large billboard. I bought 260 for one and 60 for another, so 320 panels total.
We want to talk through some lessons we got out of this purchase.
Use Your Contacts
We talk a lot about building contacts and this is just proof of it. I built a relationship with this guy I met at the flea market years ago, and he sends me photos of items he finds and we negotiate over text and then I get first dibs at these items.
He shot me pictures of these LED panels and started out at $1,000. I didn’t take it at that. After a week when he didn’t have anyone else interested he asked, “Hey, what will you pay for them?” and I said $500. I picked them up for that price. They are two billboard sets, a small and a large one. They are different types too. One is for seeing panels from a distance and the other is for close up like a tv screen or for video games.
We listed the first set for $10,000 just for the parts. All it is, is the panels. It’s not the cables, it’s not the receiver, it’s not any of the other stuff that goes with it. Somebody will have to actually get it, test it, make sure everything’s working properly, and then they’ll put it into use.
But there will be somebody who has the capabilities of doing that. A normal billboard like this is $400,000 to $500,000. That’s what you would have to pay if you wanted to buy the billboard and all the components with it. This $10,000 is a very small price to pay for these LEDs to be able to get the components and get them repaired if they need to be.
We haven’t listed the other one yet, but we’ll probably list it for $5,000. For $500 we have $15,000 of inventory. That’s all from one contact.
Selling Items As Parts
The billboard is enough for a full billboard, but it doesn’t have the components. You have to have a receiver part that plays the images plus the cords. This is just the panels of the billboard. It’s all we bought and we’re selling them as is.
We don’t have the ability to test all of these before we sell them. We try to test items when we can, but for some we just can’t.
In eBay you can actually list items as parts or repair, which is what we’re doing. Typically when you list something for parts or repair, the buyer has no recourse on you. They’re buying it knowing that it’s not a working unit, it is being sold for parts.
I don’t have to take a return on something that I clearly state has not been tested and it’s being sold for parts or repair.
I could probably pay someone to test these, but right now I’d rather turn a profit and give somebody a good deal. Compared to the price of a new billboard, $10,000 is a small risk. It’s a really, really good deal for them, and they may just want the parts.
Make sure you are listing the item in the parts or repair category so you can sell it as untested. You can also put it in your description, but it’s important to select the right category.
We’ve sold items as parts or repair, so if the money is there, it can be worth it! We’ll keep you updated on this flip.
Show Notes
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