4-5 minute read. Audio also included for those who prefer to listen.
A few years ago I became fascinated with garage sale arbitrage. If you don’t know what arbitrage is, here’s an example:
You go to Walmart and buy a fuji apple for $1. Then you go to Publix and sell that exact apple for $2. Boom. You took advantage of the market’s variation. That’s arbitrage: the process of finding value and reselling at a higher price for profit.
I spent the next year going to thrift stores, garage sales and estate sales to find undervalued items to resell. At first I was terrible. I’d buy an item for $7 and sell it for $12. A lot of work for almost no profit. But with practice I got good and found my niches: sports equipment and miscellaneous antiques.
And that’s when the profit began to pour.
I remember one particular day my sister Tessa and I went to an estate sale near Philly. Nothing had price tags, so I knew I could haggle.
A few items I remember finding that day:
50-year-old Old Spice cologne bottle
An old blue polaroid they’d left in a lunch box
A rustic farmhouse-style carpenter’s level
A nickel-plated brass Perko nautical lantern
A black velvet oil painting of a cactus with mothballs on it
I picked out my mountain of antiques - there must have been 15-20 items - and asked the nice lady for a price. I expected a hundred bucks or more. Instead, she said “twenty bucks.” I felt so bad that I haggled upward and gave her $25. She just wanted to get rid of the stuff and move on with her life. But I saw the value. And to be honest, I underestimated how good it was about to get.
The Lie About Value
Before I tell you what happened, you need to understand something. The temptation with arbitrage is to overvalue your finds. “Bro, check out this sick pair of ostrich-skin boots I found! They’re worth 150 bucks!” Cool idea, but until those boots SELL, they’re only worth what you were willing to buy them for. Not a penny more or a penny less. An item’s value is determined by the buyer.
When I got home I began posting my finds on eBay and FaceBook Marketplace. I started with the cactus painting. I took comprehensive pictures (so people knew what they were getting) and listed it for $225, mostly as a joke. I’d seen some similar paintings sell in the $100-200 range, but didn’t think it was for real.
The Offer
The next morning - less than a day later - I opened my phone to a notification:
“You have an offer for $175.”
Amazing! My $25 investment had grown 7x overnight. And I still had another 15-20 items to sell. Not bad.
The only problem was… I’d left the cactus painting outside overnight. And it rained. The painting was soaked.
I sheepishly messaged the potential buyer to tell him about the flaws. I didn’t hide anything from him - there’s nothing worse for a conscience than lying for profit. I was embarrassed, expecting him to withdraw his offer and move on with his life. But instead he said he… still wanted the painting? Yeah. And he sent me the $175 to prove it.
This beat up painting - a tacky-looking, rained-on, $2 black velvet oil painting of a cactus - had sold for $175.
The buyer had spoken. No one could deny it. The painting was now worth $175.
How Much Are You Worth to God?
This is what Jesus did for you and me.
Think about it like this. Imagine God scrolling through eBay and seeing you. He stops his scroll and his heart beats fast and he says, “Oh, I gotta have that.” He checks out all the pictures. He sees the mothballs, the crooked frame, and learns about the water damage. And still he says, with no hesitation, “I want you.”
Then he opens his wallet and proves it.
How?
By giving his life to have you.
If Jesus Paid for You…
“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” (1 Peter 1:18-19 NIV)
Kindergarten-level logic tells us one simple truth:
If Jesus paid for you,
You are a man worth dying for.
You are a woman worth dying for.
You are a painting worth paying for.
The buyer has spoken:
You are worth the blood of Christ.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 ESV)
He must really love us, huh?
Toby DeMoss
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P.S. Quick flex - in case you’re curious, that $25 haul earned me over to $1,700 in revenue. Best estate sale of my life. I can’t brag though… “a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.” Thanks, God!
And thank you. Peace!
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