How I did reselling those Nintendo Switches

Introduction

I wrote about the Nintendo Switch release a few months ago.  The shipped about 2 weeks ago, and I had forgotten how many I ordered.  Even as I’m typing this, I don’t actually remember. I’ll remember when I start to type all of this out.  All I know is that I got orders from Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and Amazon.  When they first came in, I posted on both Facebook and Craigslist, so this post will show how effective each marketplace was.

Sales

• Ebay – Neon bundled with Zelda for $475 gross.  $43 in fees and shipping.  Switch cost was $330 and game was $52.  Total profit – $50  I had listed this for $575 so it was a panic-driven lowering of the price.  This was undervalued.
• Facebook – Neon for $400.  Profit – $70.  The young guy wanted to open the box to check the console before buying since he had been scammed by CL in the past.  I told him FB seems to be more “honest” since there’s at least a name and profile linked to both buyers and sellers.
• Facebook – Gray for $400.  Profit – $70.  This one was pretty fast.  Cash handed over.  Game handed over.
• CL – Gray for $400.  Profit – $70.  The guy emails me and tells me he’s INSIDE the Starbucks already.  This was a medium sized Starbucks mind you.  I walk in holding a big blue Best Buy bag.  I email him to say I’m here.  I sit there for about 2 minutes and reply back with my phone number.  I sit there for another 5 minutes and decide to leave.  As I was driving to pick up my free Tmobile Papa John’s Pizza, I wanted to reply back and say something like, “Thanks for wasting my time asshole.”  But I held back in my old age and chalked it up to karma for the interaction in the jpg below.  As I was driving home, probably 15 minutes since he told me he was inside, he calls me up and asks me where I am.  I took a few breaths and went back to the store and he told me the wifi messed up his connection.  I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
• Coworker – Gray for $340.  Profit – $10.  Didn’t want to sell to him, but I had 5 left, so just wanted to break even.
• CL – Neon for $400.  Profit – $70.  Another quick and easy transaction
• Facebook – Gray for $400.  Profit – $70.  A father was buying it for his 10 year old son.
• Ebay – Gray for $435 gross.  $40 in fees and shipping.  Profit – $65.  This guy lives 10 miles away; not sure why he didn’t go the CL/FB route.
• Facebook – Gray for $400.  Profit – $70.  Smooth transaction

Lessons Learned

Let’s take out the sale to my coworker.  I made $545 selling 8 Switches.  Total ROI – 20%.  As you can see, I sold 4 on FB and only 2 on CL.  I also got about a dozen responses on FB whereas only a few on CL.  It seems that at least in Seattle, FB seems to be a better marketplace than CL.  With that, I leave you with this exchange on Facebook: