Online selling

Recently, I done a few good deals online. I'm not referring to online stock/forex trading. I'm referring to buying and selling physical things on the internet through online classified ads. During my few years of varsity days, I spent some free time buying and selling things online and I earn a steady income of about $500/mth in doing so. Before I forget about the techniques, I decide to document it down.

My recent sales include one in Nov 2008, I sold 11 mth old Nokia 6500 for $230. This is a good price because trade-in price was only $150. Handphone shops also selling 2nd hand sets around $250 or lower, not to mention that my phone has quite a bit of scratches and wear-offs.

In Dec 2008, I sold a brand new iPhone for $1150 when handphone shops are selling only $1160 or lower. Dealers taking in at $1000 or slightly higher only.

Here, I would like to pen down my own techniques of dealing online so far:

1) Knowing the market price.
Prior to selling, check out market prices through online classified sites like eBay or hardwarezone, etc. Get the price in mind.

2) Setting the selling price
Put up for sale at desired price +$50. For eg if your reserve price is $1000, sell at $1050. This is to let people feel happy because if you sell at $1050 and they offer $1000 and you accept it, they feel they got a bargain. All people likes bargains and getting unique advantages. Just like retail shops jerking up prices and then organising a sale to attract people.

3) Gain geographical advantage
I had always set dealing place or meet-up location to be somewhere near my house. For eg if you live in Bedok, set the meeting place at Bedok MRT. Do not ever accept dealing at faraway places to meet any potential buyer despite any high price. This is to prevent people from playing you out after you had travelled a far distance. To insist on dealing at your turf, you also make the seller more obligated to buy your item because he/she had spent some time and effort to specially travel to come and meet you.

4) Appearances
I always like to keep the boxes of the gadgets I bought just in case I need to sell it one day. If you had thrown away the box, try to pack it nicely, tie up wires nicely, or put in any box for better presentation. If you pack nicely, people are more ready to believe that the item was well-maintained and hence more willing to accept the item. Lastly, finish off with a decent paper bag. Let them feel proud of their purchase. Don't give NTUC plastic bags or other supermarket kind of plastic bags. Also, as a seller, dress neatly in presentable mode when you are meeting the potential buyer. There's a reason why most salesmen dress in suit and tie. You do not want to leave your hair uncombed and wear shabbily to meet the prospect buyer who offered a high price for your item. If you look neat, you gain more trust, hence easier to sell. PS I'm not saying that we should wear suit+tie, just dont wear crumpled clothes or home type of clothes.

5) Patience
Do not ever be too impatient to sell off your good. If no buyer contacts u, relist and update your online ad regularly to ensure sufficient viewership. Check your price again, make sure that you do not sell way off the market price. Add a tag "neg" behind the price if you need to (neg = negotiable). If you are selling an unpopular item, lower your reserve price, better than keeping it without using it and letting it depreciate. If you insist on selling your price, extend your viewership by posting at more websites and forums, just google "online classifieds" and many would appear. The bigger your net, the better your catch.

6) Handling bargaining/negotiation
Buyers always like to bargain for a lower price whenever possible. For eg if your reserve price is $1000 and you set selling price at $1050, you may get many offers at 900, 950, 980 etc. When you get a low offer like these, reply by saying you have an offer of $1000 already. If they do not reply with a higher offer, move on and never sms them again. Remember as a seller, you are unique and you must appear proud. Do not ever succumb to low offers. If someone else can sell $1000, there's always people buying at $1000 again. If someone offers $1000, sound proud by asking if he can deal at your set location. If he say ok, then arrange to meet. If he say can't meet at your location, just say sorry you only free to deal at your location. If he finally agrees, meet him, else just forget it and wait for the next offer. Sounding proud is also good because potential genuine buyer would sense that your item is really valuable hence u are proud. If you sound too happy and warm and readily accept their offer, they may either suspect their offer is too high, or your sale is a hoax, because where got so easy and smooth right? Look at some famous tasty char kuay kiao uncles, they have service attitude but people still queue to buy because they know good things are like that.

7) Miscellaneous
In sales you meet all kinds of people. Some will tell you they are willing to give you extra if you can meet them at their location. Do not be greedy. If things sound too good to be true, most likely it's not true. Once you set your price (point 2), stick to it. Make sure you have the geographical advantage (point 3), so that in case anyone plays you out, you do not lose much time and energy.

Avoid dealing with women, children and old men. Most failed cases belonged to these categories. No discrimination, but for the sake of explaining, women mostly don't know what they want and they see things based on feelings (especially young ladies below 25 yrs old). They are also more prone to last minute mood changes and stand you up. Children play a fool, last minute back out, asking stupid questions, etc. Old men are too fussy, observing too carefully and finding faults from their long-sighted glasses while trying to cut your price. The best crowd to deal with are men, from young adults to middle aged, especially engineers and people who deal with hardware. They are most candid and straightforward.

Last but not least, a few good sites that I use would include hardwarezone.com forums, phing.com, ebay.com.sg, etc.

Maximising OCBC SmartChange $188

Update 18 Dec 08:
I have discovered paying for Starhub bill via Vpost.com.sg is even better. The minimum is only $2. I have a hell lot of transactions at $2.01. But be prepared for 'security' calls from OCBC and Vpost. I have received their concern calls, fearing that my card was stolen and misused. Anyway with $2.01, I will reach $188 target very fast.
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If you have not heard of OCBC SmartChange, visit http://www.ocbc.com.sg/personal-banking/smartchange/ to read it before proceeding to read below.

I have successfully applied for the OCBC Titanium card and tagged the smartchange account to it. To summarize, OCBC SmartChange gives you cashback of up to $188 in a quarter. If you spend $1.20, you get $0.80 extra. If you spend $1.80, you get $0.20 extra. The trick is to spend as little as possible. The best scenario is to spend $0.01, and you get $0.99

Of course using a credit card, it is almost impossible to spend $0.01. Most credit card merchants would probably accept credit card when your buy things that amount to at least $10 or $30. I can think of Watsons, Guardians, etc, where they accept your credit card to purchase a box of sweets costing like $1.10. Through this SmartChange system, we earn $0.90, which means my box of sweets costs only $0.20. Imagine I buy 1000 boxes of sweets, I earn $90. But the problem comes: how many times can you bring yourself to the cashier and let her swipe your OCBC credit card for a $1.10 item?

The next best item I can think of is paying your bills online by credit card. Things like your handphone, broadband, utility bills, you can pay them all online by credit cards by using sites like www.vpost.com.sg. I personally tried out paying my handphone bill to M1. I paid $5.01 to my bill because the minimum to pay online is $5. Using this method, I can earn $0.99 each time I pay $5.01 to my M1 bill.

A quick calculation to earn the full $188, is to charge many many $5.01 to your credit card. In other words, we need to pay $941.88 exactly worth of bills so that we can pay $5.01 for 188 times. (in case u're wondering, the math is 188 * 5.01 = 941.88) Since the rebate of $188 is paid over a quarter of 3 mths, which means each month average we need to have at least $313 worth of bills to pay for. If you do not have so much bills in a month, you may pay your monthly insurance premiums or other utility bills by OCBC credit card.

Earning $100 by emailing telco

I have successfully earned $100 from M1. At first they turned down my request. But I managed to get it. I was intending to get about $50, but they gave me $100, which is 200% of my target. Below is the exchange of emails in chronological order:

Email sent to M1 on Mon, 17 Nov 2008 in an attempt to get some handphone vouchers. Let's see if it works.

"Hi, I have been a customer of M1 for a few years. I have seen my friends, colleagues getting phone vouchers from different telcos encouraging them to renew contract. But I have not received any vouchers from M1 so far. I wonder if it's because I'm using a low-end plan from M1 and hence not valued as an M1 customer. If that is the case, I am considering to go back to Starhub when my M1 contract ends so that I can at least enjoy some Starhub Hubber discounts.

I hope to receive good news from M1 so that I can spread the its goodwill and good service in forums, blogs and by word-of-mouth."


If this is successful, I will take this voucher (hopefully a $50), plus apply Citibank M1 credit card to enjoy another $50 off handset price and I will recontract. Have to admit M1 customer service is good generally though, which is why I want to make them treat me better. A bit paiseh, but who cares, I have nothing to lose.



M1 replied on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 (am)

"Please allow us to explain that the issuance of handset upgrade vouchersare based on factors such as customers' tenure, average spending for thepast 12 months, and current handset promotions. In addition, you are required to fulfill at least 20 months of the current handset contract. You may wish to note that mobile line 9******** have a current contract tenure of 11 months 2 days. We seek your understanding that these factors are neither based on our preferences nor meant to segregate our loyal customers."

I replied again on 18 Nov 2008 (pm)

"I have been with M1 for a few years although my current contract is only 11 mths old. As far as I remember, I didn’t receive any vouchers when I last renewed this contract 11 months ago. For you to mention that my current contract is only 11 months old, you imply that M1 ignores customers' past years relationships?

While you mentioned "non-segregation of loyal customers", but your basis of offering actually depends on so many factors of customers’ profile, isn’t this contradictory?

Based on your policy, you seem to value a "20-month old contract” customer who is more likely to jump ship rather than a current "11-month old contract” customer who is keen to be in business with M1 for another 21 months more.

M1 has delayed selling the Apple iPhone time and time again. Customers have no choice but to wait indefinitely. Due to this, customers with M1 are deprived of owning an iphone because they are stuck with the current contract with a high termination fee.

While M1 is unable satisfy its customers’ desires for the Apple iPhone, shouldn’t M1 at least compensate by giving out some handphone vouchers to sweeten the current deals for other brands of handsets? "


M1 replied again on 19 Nov 2008 (pm) - Success!
“Dear Mr ***

Thank you for your e-mail of 18 November 2008.

We have noted your feedback and we understand your point of view. We
have programmes specifically designed to address our existing customers'
needs and to recognise their loyalty to M1 as well as acquisition
promotions targeted at new customers.

We note that you wish to upgrade your handset. With the current handset
contract of 11 months old, you can purchase a handset at the advertised
price with additional $100 from any M1 Shop. You will need to sign a
new two-year handset contract. Thus, you will have two contracts that
run concurrently.

In appreciation of your support, we will be glad to offer you a $100
handset voucher for your mobile line 9********, which is to be used to
offset the additional $100 incurred for early handset upgrade. As this
is an electronic voucher, no physical voucher will be sent to you.

You can walk-in to any M1 Shop with your NRIC and SIM card to use the
voucher once it is installed. This voucher may not apply for selected
special upgrade offers at M1 Shop and M1 Shop Online. Please settle any
outstanding bill prior to your purchase.

Please submit a new online feedback form by 5 December 2008 you wish to
take up this offer. The voucher will be processed within three working
days upon your acceptance, and it will be valid for two weeks.

We also wish to clarify that there has been a change in the distribution
schedule of the iPhone in Asia. Hence, this is likely to affect M1?s
plans to sell the device by the end of the year. We thank you for your
patience and understanding.”

1-year EXTEND contract VS 2-years RENEW contract

Since my mobile plan contract has recently already reached one year, I did some thinking and developed some thoughts regarding recontracting our M1/Starhub/Singtel

As we all know we buy a phone with contract is much cheaper than buying a phone without line, we usually change our handphone every 2 years. Telcos have also improvised on this, allowing us to get the promotional prices for our desired phones if our contracts have only been 1 year, by just adding $100. Some pple like this idea because they can change phones every year, some pple don't mind waiting for 2 years before changing their handset.

I have discovered it makes a lot of economic sense to extend your contract every after 1 year.

Let me use a very popular phone for example, the Apple iPhone 16GB. Handphone shops or "Ah Beng Shops" are selling a brand new one for $1198. You may be able to find cheaper, say maybe $1100. This price is without contract.

If you were to sign up a Singtel contract, maybe iOne Plus ($25.68 per month), you can get the iPhone at $748. Compared to buying without line at $1100, you save $350 by signing up a 2 year plan.

Now, if I currently have a Singtel iOne Plus contract which is already 1 year old, I can buy the iPhone at $748 + $100 = $848. This means that I can save $250 compared to buying without line at $1100.

The main crux is capitalising on this $100 which is the additional cost in order to renew the contract. This $100 is very cheap because I still save $250. If next year I extend again, given the same circumstances, I save another $250. This means that in a 2 year timeframe, I actually saved a total of $500 beause I renewed every after 1 year. Compared to waiting for 2 years for my contract to end and then renew it, I would have saved only $350 for a new phone. Thus in 2 years, I gained $150 more.

Some may think that they do not need a new HP every year. In fact many pple do. There's always other alternatives. Many HP dealers and shops offer cash to you for signing up new lines, something like $250 for a line similar to iOne Plus. Walk to Lucky Plaza HP shops to check out how much they offer for a brand new particular model before walking to Paragon M1 shop or Wisma Singtel shop, recontract your plan and get that model. Sell it back to the shop and you can gain at least $250.

You can even sign up the line at the Ah-beng shop itself, but they may quote you lower if you ask like that. Personally I also dont like to disclose my personal details to Ah bengs so I rather sign up with telcos, get the phone then negotiate with different Ah beng to see which Ah beng can quote me better price, or see which Ah lian prettier then I sell to her.

Althernatively, you can sell if off on internet buy/sell websites like eBay.com or hardwarezone.com, but subject to marketability, time and convenience.

Until the telcos realise that paying just $100 extra on top of promotional phone prices for extending contract is too cheap, it makes great economic sense for us consumers to extend contract after 1 year instead of renewing contract after 2 years. Hopefully they won't increase this $100.

P.S. I do know that after telcos offer only 21 months contract nowadays intead of 24 mths (2 years), but to calcuate in detail, we still earn by extending contract.

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