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Thrift Stores?


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#1 Viper

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Posted 31 October 2004 - 01:14 AM

Anyone know of specfic thrift stores you guys have found that carry a great deal of nerf guns?
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#2 AirApache

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Posted 31 October 2004 - 01:16 AM

That's odd. Aren't thrift stores where people dump the stuff where they don't want anymore? So...
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#3 okto

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Posted 31 October 2004 - 03:26 AM

so...so what? i've found over $200 resale worth of nerf blasters at thrift stores for an outlay of about $25 total. someone not wanting it doesn't make it trash...

as for stores:
Thrift Town
Community Thrift and Value Thrift in Tulsa, OK
i find Salvation Army and Goodwill seem to shy away from selling gun toys, but they are worth checking out.

basically, look for thrift stores in your area, visit them a few times. going on different days of the week spread out over several weeks gives you a good idea of what certain stores tend to have. remember, no thrift store keeps anything in stock regularly. it's a game of chance, so your best tactic is to visit often.
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#4 ompa

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Posted 31 October 2004 - 08:59 AM

Great. Salvation army and Goodwill are the only two Thrift stores around here...

~ompa
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#5 Viper

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Posted 31 October 2004 - 11:15 AM

Thanks okto. I live near detroit michigan off m-59 highland road (milford). I think I've seen a few.

Edited by Viper, 31 October 2004 - 11:16 AM.

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#6 Precision

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Posted 31 October 2004 - 12:52 PM

Great. Salvation army and Goodwill are the only two Thrift stores around here...


Same here Ompa. I go to the Goodwill all the time and they never ever sell nerf guns. So I'll never get an arrowstorm or a crossbow. There's always ebay, but I know you guys will pay $40 for a gun and when I look in my wallet there'll only be $5.
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#7 Bad Karma

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Posted 31 October 2004 - 02:38 PM

Alabama Thrift store is where I have found almost all my guns....but I don't think everyone has one of those. You should just look in the local listings for one near you.
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#8 Ender

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Posted 01 November 2004 - 08:14 AM

You guys may want to check out flea markets, Moms always like to go to these things, at least mine, and I always complained being drugged along. That is until I started to find some old guns there. You get some quality time with mom and maybe a gun or two.
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#9 Half Newb Half Nerfer

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Posted 01 November 2004 - 08:19 AM

Well, the Canadian thrift store is Value Village. Wow, thats a pretty gay name. Anyways, they have quite a few nerf guns.
~Halfling
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#10 Viper

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Posted 01 November 2004 - 01:45 PM

I was just curious cuz a guy I bought from in georgia makes his living off buying nerf guns at thrift stores and selling them on ebay. He makes over 50K a year tax free of it.
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#11 cxwq

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Posted 01 November 2004 - 02:17 PM

I was just curious cuz a guy I bought from in georgia makes his living off buying nerf guns at thrift stores and selling them on ebay. He makes over 50K a year tax free of it.

Well, the tax free bit would indicate illegality, but entirely aside from that, I'll call bullshit.

On an average day, I'd guess that at most $100 worth of nerf-related auctions close on ebay - today it's only $10. Even if we assume it averaged $100/day that's only $36k/year in gross nerf transactions on ebay.

I also know for a fact that there isn't one dominant seller of nerf stuff on ebay. There are at least 4 or 5 that I see quite regularly. So that hypothetical $36k gross is being split quite a few ways.

I've pondered this quite a bit and have to conclude that there is absolutely no way to make a decent living dealing only in aftermarket nerf supplies and used gun sales.
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#12 Viper

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Posted 01 November 2004 - 02:28 PM

Sorry cxwq, I didn't bother to do the calculations. I guess he was a bullshiter. I bought 6 powerclips off amazon a while back for $5 each and sold 4 of the each for over $30, so it can at least be supplemental. Think if you bought 300 of them at $5 each = 1500 and sold each for 30 = 9000 revenue. That's discluding the auciton fees and the such and now I am convinced a decent income is impossible, but you could help pay for college or at least survive through it that way. I've made about 1500 off all my mcdonalds' paychecks at 6.50 an hour and made over 2grand off all my nerf guns i've sold, in profit. 2 grand in 6 months isn't much, but its still some money. A week ago some guy 60 units of tornado x-2 pieces for $77 + $100 shipping. If you could buy in bulk, though its not really aftermarket, then you could make a great deal of money.
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#13 cxwq

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Posted 01 November 2004 - 02:34 PM

When you buy several hundred guns, you're a reseller and should be considered basically the same as an online store. When you find 300 $5 PCs, let me know... I'll get the reseller license lined up and we can split the profit. <g>

I totally agree that Nerf is a viable way to generate a small amount of income. I sell just enough PETG and guns to support the hobby for me. I've spent about $700 on Nerf-related supplies and sold about the same in order to compensate my bank account.
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#14 Viper

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Posted 01 November 2004 - 04:23 PM

The only other idea that I though would work would be mass-scale thrift store involvement. The buyer would contact major thrift stores and set up a deal to resell the nerf toys for about 2x the price and the buyer would use private investors and loans to purchase these and pu them up for auction, then I realized everything in the process would have to be automated and even putting them up for auction would require many people. In the end, you are right it is impossible to make any reasonable amount of money off of nerf guns. Amazon's sale lasted a little while, so there were prob more than 300 of them, so if I can I will bankrole as many as I can get if it ever happens again. It would be interesting to start an extreme sports store that included modded nerf,airsoft, and paintball. You could maybe get hasbro to support such an experimental establishment and expand their revenue after people raalize how much cheaper nerf is and much more balanced of a game it is, how much fun the mod process is, and consequently how much easier it is to organize a game.

Edited by Viper, 01 November 2004 - 04:27 PM.

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#15 AirApache

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Posted 01 November 2004 - 04:39 PM

When you buy several hundred guns, you're a reseller and should be considered basically the same as an online store. When you find 300 $5 PCs, let me know... I'll get the reseller license lined up and we can split the profit.


:: Strokes his imaginary beard. :: I'll have to call my some of my cheap labor friends in China to produce umpteen PCs...hmm...
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