eBay Lot Freebies

eBay Lot Freebies

Trying to get freebies through eBay lots is risky, but I was able to get quite a few items for free by using this strategy. To get freebies through eBay lots, you must buy large lots of items like DVDs, CDs, books, video games or whatever you're trying to obtain. This strategy may work best with small items, since the lots have to come in big numbers. The lots you pick should have at least one item that you want to keep. After your lot gets delivered, you remove the item(s) you want to keep, and then resell the lot for the same price that you paid for it. If the lot sells, then you got what you wanted for free. If you are really determined to break even, or if you want to make a profit, you can also divide the lot into individual items and sell them separately.

Here is an example: you want a specific movie, so you search eBay for DVD lots which contain the movie you are looking for. You buy a lot of 87 DVDs for $260. The lot gets delivered, you keep the movie you want and then sell the other 86 DVDs for $260 plus shipping. If the lot sells, then the DVD you kept was free.

When I used this strategy, I was able to get the following video game consoles, accessories, and games for free:

Xbox console
Three Xbox hand controllers
Four Xbox dance pads
Xbox microphone
Xbox DVD player kit
Seven Xbox games
Nintendo 64 console
Four N64 hand controllers
Four N64 games
Mario Paint and Accessories, with mouse and pad for Super NES
Super NES converter for plugging in up to 5 controllers
Eight Super NES games, including multi-player games with up to 5 players
Converter to play Gamboy games on Super NES
One original Gamboy game.

This was during the first generation Xbox, PS2 and Nintendo Gamecube era (before the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii). I was an undergrad at the time, so I wanted to get games that guys and girls could play in multiple numbers for parties and game nights. I didn't even know that the converter to play Gameboy games on Super NES or the converter that allows more than 2 players on some Super NES games even existed until I started looking. Many of the games were also classic games which sell for high prices as stand-alone items, like Mario All-Stars. Some were very specialized types of games, like Dance Dance Revolution and Karaoke Revolution. The whole video games set is probably worth at least $300, maybe more at the time it was obtained. It took about 2 months to accomplish the entire task.

Of course there is risk involved; there was no guarantee that I could resell the lot for the same price. However, I was able make some pretty good guess by paying attention to the market. I was thinking about starting a video game business at the time, so I was already spending time researching video game prices. It also helped to be very familiar with eBay. Knowing the peak selling times of day, how to snipe, and how to make effective listings were all necessary to pull this off.

I could see this strategy working with Craigslist as well as eBay. You could also combine this strategy with other strategies, like trading and bartering. Try at your own risk.

Back to Tangible Freebies

Home | Tangible Freebies | Actually Freebies | Best Freebies of the Web

Do you have info that should be included on this page? Did you find outdated info or broken links? Is something listed that isn't Actually Free? Please use the Contact form to report what you know.