i spent a couple hours watching “buy low, sell high” YouTube videos.
in one instance a guy bought 5x covered trailers from Home Depot at 50% off, then re-sold them within 48 hours. i think he netted ~$1,200 on $10k worth of trailers, plus $200-300 in CC cash back.
another channel was more interesting. the host buys, fixes, and re-sells busted outboard motors for small boats. his markup is 2-4x what he paid, better than trailers however the motors only go for $100-200.
the most intriguing aspects to this content are a) how popular it is and b) the comments section. flippers get millions of views. and the comments are full of like-minded supporters sharing tips.
but let’s peel back the layers.
risk
i suspect this money-making strategy is so appealing thanks to a strong undercurrent: the implication that it doesn’t take real skill to do it. it also appears to pay above minimum wage, perhaps even Uber or Doordash.
and this is jarring to me. that many millions of Americans are averse to learning hard skills. they would rather put it all on black at the Craigslist casino. then spend their free time watching other people do the same.
skill
for those who do develop hard skills, risk is unnecessary. in this context the grass really is greener. either you can experience the pain of a flip gone wrong, or the pain of building a conveyor belt to your brain.
this is why parents push children into “safe” majors and industries. when you’re young and have nothing better to do with your time, why not spend it in classrooms and libraries, or in a basement workshop? learn skills, don’t take risk, breath easy.
money
so we can earn by taking risk or by having hard skills. what about combining both?
this is entrepreneurship. and it’s why someone who flips junk isn’t quite there yet. not because we want to gatekeep the word, but because it needs to mean something.
the entrepreneur sees an arbitrage opportunity (risk), then applies intellect (skill) to make it bigger. think of this skill as a crowbar, increasing the discovery’s leverage.
i’ve been told many times by people that they had the exact same idea as me, but “just couldn’t ___.” they were missing a piece, chasing buy low / sell high without knowing how to complete the formula.
the new economy
it’s rad there are so many interesting and self-propelled ways to make money nowadays. you don’t have to get a real job, you don’t even need a website. if people are fulfilled by arbitrage, good for them.
but i do hope they make the leap to greater ambitions. obviously for some, the video with 4 million views is the bigger play. make $500 on camera, then $20k on the ads. i get it.
however the millions of people watching this content are not filming. they only capture the arbitrage. and that margin gets smaller the more people learn about it.
without builders making new things, there are no exhaust fumes to sell. something to think about.