Free Christmas Present
Now that Christmas has come and gone, I thought I’d share an interesting story with you on how I got my son a free Christmas present that knocked it out of the park.
What was it we got him for Christmas you ask? Well, an Xbox 360 and three games (Lego Indianna Jones, Lego Starwars, and Marvel vs. Capcom 3). How did I manage to pull this off and get all of this for free? Read on to find out!
Free Christmas Present – Background
For more than a year, our son had been asking for an Xbox 360 since they set one up in his daycare. A couple months before Christmas, I think the systems were selling for around $180 without any games. We decided that this was just too much money to spend on a Christmas present. We starting looking into used console options, but these didn’t seem to be all that great of a deal either compared to just getting a new one.
One day in October, I found myself in a chat conversation with a good friend. I was telling him how we wanted to get a used Xbox, but they were just too much money. He mentioned that he had entertained the idea of selling all of his Xbox stuff to finance the purchase of a new Xbox One, but he didn’t really want to mess with all the hassle of selling everything. He had an Xbox 360 with large hard drive, 5 controllers, 3 guitars, 1 keyboard, 3 microphones, a kinect, 50+ games, and a couple other odds and ends. He offered to sell all of his stuff to me for $500. “Yeah right,” I said. What the hell is my son going to do with 50 games? And, $500 is way too much for us to spend on Christmas for our son!
Free Christmas Present – The Deal
“That’s too bad,” he muttered. “I really don’t want to sell all of this shit,” he told me. Then, an idea popped into my head. “What if I sell everything for you and give you the money? As payment you could give me the Xbox 360, 2 controllers, and 4 games. In return, I’d sell everything else, take care of the shipping, and hand over all of the profits.” It was a true win-win scenario, and he happily agreed. He was hoping to get somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 – $500 for all the stuff that I would be selling.
Free Christmas Present – Rubber Hits the Road
Well, it quickly became apparent to me that if I was going to do right by my friend and maximize the amount of profit he’d get, I’d have to list all of the items individually. Creating a huge lot and selling everything all at once would lose 20% – 30% of his profit. So, I went through the painstaking process of listing all of the games, controllers, kinect stuff etc. Then, as each thing sold, I’d have to package it up and get it ready for the post office – all individually.
I estimate that I spent roughly 15 hours total for the process! In addition, my wife probably made 8-10 trips to the post office. She was a great sport about it, but it was quite a pain in the ass for her I know. Right around this point in time, Microsoft decided to drop the price of the core system to $99 as a Black Friday special – lovely 🙂 So, all in all, we ended up working for about $8 an hour to get the “free Christmas present”…
Free Christmas Present – Final Thoughts
Would I do it again? I’m not sure if we would or not 🙂 It was a ton of work just to save ~$200 bucks. But, our son absolutely loves the gift. Also, it’s an awesome feeling to know that I worked so hard to make his dream of owning an Xbox 360 a reality.
What about you? Does anyone have an example where they got a little more than they bargained for when trying to save a bit of money to get a free Christmas present??
not quite the same situation….but along the whole lines of “was it really worth it.” I do some secret shopping, and have picked up some cell phone shops where I drop in the store, ask some questions, and fill out questions. The shop pays $17 and usually take an hour total of my time (the stores are on my way home from work). I signed up for one, and then later realized that it was a revealed audit, not the usual “go in and ask questions” thing. It took me over 90 minutes to read and understand the questions and then pass a quiz. My time in the store was over an hour, and then it took me another hour to fill out the questionnaire form. So, about 3.5 hours for $17…NOT worth it!
Brock @cleverdude recently posted…Why I Should Reconcile My Checkbook Every Day
Wow – that sucks Brock! After a certain point I would really be tempted to just walk out. Sunk time costs and all that 🙂
I have never had a similar situation, and I am not sure your wife appreciated her part in your idea, but I do think your idea was brilliant. I am trying to barter more, or think creatively about gaining things I want without doling out cash.
Sher@KNSFinancial recently posted…The Twenty Four Elders: Notice Their Humility – Devotion
Sher,
You’re exactly right – the idea would not have worked without my wife and her help 🙂 The more I study and focus on making money, the better I am at identifying opportunities all around me. Even though I thought the book was just OK, Rich Dad Poor Dad helps to teach you how to get better at doing this. If you haven’t read it, I’d suggest you check it out. Thanks for stopping by!