As a follow up to my last post. I have yet another story about trading a firearm.
To stay completely legal some details may be smudged or changed a little, but this is what happened.
Came into a long gun a few weeks ago. Went out and shot it. Realized it's not what I want and I have been toying with the idea of selling or trading it to fund other things. Have had a couple offers from people that I know personally here and there and wasn't really listening to any of them. So finally today I put an ad up for it at around 1400. Within the hour had a few hits. Two caught my interest. One was local one was out of town, about a two hour drive. Not a fan of hoping in the car and driving unless it's a sweet deal, with sugar on top.
After I posted the Ad I grabbed a friend and went to the local gun store. Looked at guns here and there, realized I'll never be able to afford what I really want and decided to leave. Still had the two people waiting for a meeting time.
Decided it can't hurt to go look at one of the ads. guy was just getting off work and wanted to meet. Gave the time and place. The AM/PM Gas station that is basically under the freeway in the middle of town.
Lets take a moment to love Arizona. It's legal here to Strap on a thigh holster with a fully loaded pistol, have a loaded sniper rifle across your back, a tactical carbine in your paws, a concealed gun somewhere on you, and as much ammo as you can carry and go walking around downtown. nobody says anything, or even looks at your weird.
So I get the call from the guy confirming the meeting, go change into my "gun buying outfit" which consists of Tac Pants and a T-shirt with either boots or running shoes and go load up my car with enough weaponry to hold off the Russians for a fair amount of time. (yes it is a sight to see.)
Go to the meeting and right in front of the gas station doors I meet this guy. Younger guy, knows whats he's doing so no worries. The lights are the best there. So I pull out my long gun and he pulls out the gun he is offering in the trade. After we show each other neither of us have loaded guns we show and tell. Waving, aiming, and dry firing guns in front of a gas station with people walking by. Not one person blinks. Some guy walking past even said something like "you guys going shooting?" (it's 9 at night). At least he didn't ask to hold one of the guns.
He agrees to the trade and I give it the OK. ATF is closed so I can't run the serial numbers, that will wait until the next day. We trade email, phone, Drivers numbers and pack up the car, shake hands and go about our separate ways. All in a days work.
Showing posts with label sell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sell. Show all posts
Friday, October 28, 2011
My Gun Dealer Antics
If you work for ATF, FBI, or CIA please don't read any further, I don't want to be put on a watch list.
Over the past few months I have become quite the little weapons dealer. There is a local website specific to here in Tucson that is like the Craigslist of Guns. I frequent this page about every hour. Looking for new deals and always trying to buy sell and trade.
The way the website works is the gun ad comes up and you reply to the ad. So the guy that posted the ad can see your email address and whatever you put in the reply but you don't see any of his contact info. Giving the Seller some protection.
In today's world everyone gets email on there phone, so you send the reply and if you give your phone number you'll get a call almost right away. Do a little chit chat, talk about the gun, give the basic specs. If everyone is happy you agree to a meeting. obviously the more well lit, populated places are the safest. Your basically asking to get robbed if your not at a gun store or gas station (lots of cameras).
Looking through ads you can see pics and everything on the site. You see something you like you go to some other websites to check out the price, read reviews on the gun and decide if you want it or not. Decide to meet the guy set up time and place and boom. Trade phone numbers, driver license numbers and gun serial numbers, pay the agreed price and off you go.
On a average day I can move a gun in about 3 hours. Or that is the fastest I have ever done it. ad comes up, you run your checks and meet the guy and buy the gun. Get the gun home clean and lube it, test fire with the snap caps, clean and lube the mags and whatever else it came with, throw the gun back up and a different website with a slightly higher price and you'll have hits within the hour. Start the process over.
Making money isn't the end goal in my world, it's more about the self imposed challenge to trade up to eventually end up with something expensive, in good condition that you love.
Pretty sweet business if you have a knack for up selling stuff and can convince someone to see your side of it.
Over the past few months I have become quite the little weapons dealer. There is a local website specific to here in Tucson that is like the Craigslist of Guns. I frequent this page about every hour. Looking for new deals and always trying to buy sell and trade.
The way the website works is the gun ad comes up and you reply to the ad. So the guy that posted the ad can see your email address and whatever you put in the reply but you don't see any of his contact info. Giving the Seller some protection.
In today's world everyone gets email on there phone, so you send the reply and if you give your phone number you'll get a call almost right away. Do a little chit chat, talk about the gun, give the basic specs. If everyone is happy you agree to a meeting. obviously the more well lit, populated places are the safest. Your basically asking to get robbed if your not at a gun store or gas station (lots of cameras).
Looking through ads you can see pics and everything on the site. You see something you like you go to some other websites to check out the price, read reviews on the gun and decide if you want it or not. Decide to meet the guy set up time and place and boom. Trade phone numbers, driver license numbers and gun serial numbers, pay the agreed price and off you go.
On a average day I can move a gun in about 3 hours. Or that is the fastest I have ever done it. ad comes up, you run your checks and meet the guy and buy the gun. Get the gun home clean and lube it, test fire with the snap caps, clean and lube the mags and whatever else it came with, throw the gun back up and a different website with a slightly higher price and you'll have hits within the hour. Start the process over.
Making money isn't the end goal in my world, it's more about the self imposed challenge to trade up to eventually end up with something expensive, in good condition that you love.
Pretty sweet business if you have a knack for up selling stuff and can convince someone to see your side of it.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Stock Market for the College Student
Every one has heard of the Stock Market. Mainly how people either win big or loose it all. In my ever-wandering ways to make a extra buck so I canafford a pizza on those all-nighters I pull, I looked into the Stock Market as a way to make extra income.
In therory, it is not a hard concept. By stock when prices are low and sell stock when prices are high. But upon further analysis of this simple therory I have learned a few things that people should consider and make the desicion about playing the makrt very easy. I will explain how to make money on this game in 3 easy to follow steps.
1. Start-Up
In order to buy and sell stock you must have an account with a online website like TD AmeriTrade, E*Trade, USAA, or any other company. Many of these companies required a "start-up fee" or "deposite." On average this fee starts at 500 dollars and climbs. The most expensive fee I saw was anything overthe 1,000,000,000(billion) mark. This is a very large sum of money for the average college student. The fee corrisponds to a level on whatever website you are using. Basic Bronze, Silve, Gold Platinum. Right away many people turn their heads at the large number and give up on their dreams of being a stock market trader right there. But wait it gets better (and much more expensive)
2. Trading
Once you throw that lump sum of money into this game, You can start buying Stock. Every company has them so pick a few and buy away. Buying and Selling is called "Trading." The website charges you a fee for every trade you make. This is how the wesite makes money. Based on your level of buy in at start up, your Trade fee goes up or down. At the Bronze level you will be charged 9.99 everytime you buy or sell. Platinum people are much lower at around 5.25 a trade. So not only must you pay for the price of the stock, you must also tack on this trade fee.
3. Money Making
Buy Stock, Wait until Stock prices go up, Sell Stock. That is how you make the money.
In more detail: buy the stock and wait for the price to rise, you must factor in the two trade fee's that will be charged to your account, then sell the stock.
Example:
Lets take a single share of google stock. Ticker Symbol GOOG
In therory, it is not a hard concept. By stock when prices are low and sell stock when prices are high. But upon further analysis of this simple therory I have learned a few things that people should consider and make the desicion about playing the makrt very easy. I will explain how to make money on this game in 3 easy to follow steps.
1. Start-Up
In order to buy and sell stock you must have an account with a online website like TD AmeriTrade, E*Trade, USAA, or any other company. Many of these companies required a "start-up fee" or "deposite." On average this fee starts at 500 dollars and climbs. The most expensive fee I saw was anything overthe 1,000,000,000(billion) mark. This is a very large sum of money for the average college student. The fee corrisponds to a level on whatever website you are using. Basic Bronze, Silve, Gold Platinum. Right away many people turn their heads at the large number and give up on their dreams of being a stock market trader right there. But wait it gets better (and much more expensive)
2. Trading
Once you throw that lump sum of money into this game, You can start buying Stock. Every company has them so pick a few and buy away. Buying and Selling is called "Trading." The website charges you a fee for every trade you make. This is how the wesite makes money. Based on your level of buy in at start up, your Trade fee goes up or down. At the Bronze level you will be charged 9.99 everytime you buy or sell. Platinum people are much lower at around 5.25 a trade. So not only must you pay for the price of the stock, you must also tack on this trade fee.
3. Money Making
Buy Stock, Wait until Stock prices go up, Sell Stock. That is how you make the money.
In more detail: buy the stock and wait for the price to rise, you must factor in the two trade fee's that will be charged to your account, then sell the stock.
Example:
Lets take a single share of google stock. Ticker Symbol GOOG
Single share of GOOG opened the market today at a price of $610.05
-
Trade Fee to buy Stock (Rounding) $10.00
-
Trade Fee to sell Stock (Rounding) $10.00
+
Single share of GOOG closed the makret today at $ 618.43
=
Net Profit $-11.62
In order to make money off this stock you would have to buy more then one share. at that price no one can afford. No Matter how many shares you buy the Trade Fee is always 9.99. This is were the money comes in. Lets say you bought 100 Shares of GOOG, Here is the sample equation:
100 shares of GOOG opened the market today at a price of $61,005.00
-
Trade Fee to buy Stock (Rounding) $10.00
-
Trade Fee to sell Stock (Rounding) $10.00
+
100 shares of GOOG closed the makret today at $ 61,843.00
=
Net Profit $818.00
Now there is a Number we like.
Of course this example is done with a fairly high priced stock. There are stocks on the market that trade a under $1.00 dollar a share. You can use the same equation to figure out your net income on that type of stock to. Just remember a stock that trades at under a dollar a share will not have as much price change as the GOOG stock. therefore in order to make money you will need to buy in the 100's of shares. And with a stock that has a price change of .25 cents, you will not make over 800 dollars at a time, instead your profit may only be in the single digits.
FAILURE
All the aboe is of course the happy and lucky side of the market. It could very easily (and more commonly) go the exact opposite of the examples above. You buy a stock at a certain price, and instead of going up, the Stock crashes. buy the time you get to click "Sell" on the computer you could have lost your 61,000 dollar investment.
World Influence in Stock
Lets play two examples here:
1) You Buy a stock in an airplane company. The stock is trading at 10 dollars a share. That day the airline company comes out with a media release that says they made an airplane that can fly farther, use less gas, and carry more people then any other airplane in the world. The stock prices skyrocket. You sell your shares for 1,000 dollars a share. You have just made a huge profit.
2) You buy stock in an airplane company. The stock is trading at 10 dollars a share. That day an airplane from that company crashes. They company comes out to the media and says that a certain part failed and caused the crash, the company must not fly any of their airplanes until the art has been replaced in all their airplanes. The stock price plummits. You have to sell your share at .10 cents a share. You have lost it all.
If you stay on your game and can afford the initial start up cost, there is alot of money to be made in the stock market. But the second you fall behind or trip up, you will loose almost all your money in a heartbeat. I read recently that almost 90% of people who try to play the stock market will loose all the money they put into it. Of that 90% over 30% of the people will have to go into bankruptcy because of the ammount of money they lost.
it would be a great learning experience to try to buy a few stocks and see how it all works first hand, but no college student has the moey to go and try this.
Still better off working at McDonalds then playing the Stock Market.
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