Welp, the Nintendo is gone and I’ve moved onto round 2. I was hoping to do a straight trade, but I ended up selling for cash and using the proceeds to purchase the next item. There just wasn’t the right opportunity to trade up, although someone did offer me this:

The NES sold for $285, but that’s not all profit.

…roughly $30 went to eBay for fees, and I spent around $40 for shipping. Deduct a PayPal transaction fee and I’m just over $200 in profit.

So what to spend the $200 on for the next potential trade/sale? I posted a “Wanted” ad on Craigslist to see what would come in, and not surprisingly, the emails came at a steady pace. I decided to stop listing my phone number.

Here’s some of the high(and low)lights:

It needed a ton of work.

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I could actually really use a great running snowblower.

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A very Maine trade.

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Remember beanie babies were a thing?

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Wait for it…

🙁

To be fair, I’m trading in the $200 range, so it’s expected that I’m not going to get any vehicles or ATVs that don’t need serious work.

So what did I go for? This:

I use to own a saltwater aquarium, so I know decent equipment when I see it. This UV sterilizer sells for over $800 new. Used, it’s worth at least a couple hundred bucks.
I paid: $150

When I showed up, the seller also had a giant protein skimmer that they were only asking $50 for, so I snagged that too:

I considered putting these up for trade, but saltwater aquariums are so specialized that I’m going straight to eBay instead.

Once again, my auction profits will go toward the next item. And with modest sale prices, I should be in the $300+ neighborhood (which would be a 50% bump from round one, not bad).

Next update after I sell this salt equipment and have something new to barter with… maybe an old Buick? An ATV?

Next:
Update #3 • 12/22/16

Previous:
Update #1 • 9/15/16