Flipping yard ope for profit?

[frankbee3]

I think you could do well since California wants to hold everyone hostage by making OPE gasoline equipment unavailable. I bought a used chainsaw that I was expecting to have to do carburetor work on before using it. I was happy that it ran really well when I got it home. I think I paid around $110 for it. An equivalent new chainsaw Echo or Stihl would have been about $400-500. My chainsaw is about 60cc if I remember. Plenty of power to cut an 18” diameter tree trunk. It’s a Dolmar.

 

[thastinger]

I think you could do well since California wants to hold everyone hostage by making OPE gasoline equipment unavailable. I bought a used chainsaw that I was expecting to have to do carburetor work on before using it. I was happy that it ran really well when I got it home. I think I paid around $110 for it. An equivalent new chainsaw Echo or Stihl would have been about $400-500. My chainsaw is about 60cc if I remember. Plenty of power to cut an 18” diameter tree trunk. It’s a Dolmar.

Nice saw.

 

[jeepman3071]

I think you could do well since California wants to hold everyone hostage by making OPE gasoline equipment unavailable. I bought a used chainsaw that I was expecting to have to do carburetor work on before using it. I was happy that it ran really well when I got it home. I think I paid around $110 for it. An equivalent new chainsaw Echo or Stihl would have been about $400-500. My chainsaw is about 60cc if I remember. Plenty of power to cut an 18” diameter tree trunk. It’s a Dolmar.

I own a 1995 Makita DCS5200i which is a 52cc Dolmar. My dad bought it new, great saw.

 

[Silverado12]

I was wondering if you can "smuggle" a new gas mower into CA or if they just don't sell them there?

 

[The motor guy]

I see these guys on YouTube who get trashed mowers up and running in 10 minutes. This is never the case with me. Not very often someone throws away something decent to begin with. They make mowers so cheap nowadays. Although, I did have a customer give me a mower that claimed it just stopped running. My first question was did you hit anything? No...it just shut off. About a week later I turned it on its side, yep bent blade. I may be able to get that one going with just a new blade and a new Flywheel key.

 

[The motor guy]

I was wondering if you can "smuggle" a new gas mower into CA or if they just don't sell them there?

I heard about that. Don't see why not. I was like well guess you have to take a road trip to pickup a new mower

 

[Lubener]

If you enjoy the work, why not make some extra money at it and help someone from having to buy new.

 

[The motor guy]

If you enjoy the work, why not make some extra money at it and help someone from having to buy new.

A lot of times it needs something that takes all the profit out of it. $65 coil for a weedeater only worth $100? I mean, hey if you just want to do it as a hobby and want some beer money, sure. Probably going to drink up all the beer fixing stuff. It's just going to be a vicious cycle

 

[Lubener]

A lot of times it needs something that takes all the profit out of it. $65 coil for a weedeater only worth $100? I mean, hey if you just want to do it as a hobby and want some beer money, sure. Probably going to drink up all the beer fixing stuff. It's just going to be a vicious cycle

Some common sense has to prevail.

 

[Cruisin'n5thgear]

Yes, you can make a little spending money but it won’t be life changing. I retired in 2011 then took a small engine course at the local community college. I’ve flipped quite a few pieces from riding mowers to string trimmers to edgers etc, just piddling with them in my spare time. I bought these two JD JX75 mowers for just over $200 total and kept them and still use them 10 years later. They sold for around $700 each new 25 years ago.You can easily double or triple your money as the majority of problems are gummed up carbs and as you discovered a cheap complete carb is less than $20. I got tired of dealing with CL ‘customers ‘ so I only fix stuff for friends and neighbors now.

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Those are a couple of great engines, even complete witih that oil filter. Nice finds. I was fortunate to get a Snapper aluminum deck V21 that had been repowered to the FC-150V engine. Very nice unit.

 

[SC Maintenance]

But new cant be bought here! I wanted to replace the spark plug in it but the 2 places I checked this morning didnt stock it...... Thats for another thread.

I would guess if that is the case you should do well.

Start collecting small generators. After the next power outage take them all to the closest flea market - sell out in an hour.

 

[jeepman3071]

I see these guys on YouTube who get trashed mowers up and running in 10 minutes. This is never the case with me. Not very often someone throws away something decent to begin with. They make mowers so cheap nowadays. Although, I did have a customer give me a mower that claimed it just stopped running. My first question was did you hit anything? No...it just shut off. About a week later I turned it on its side, yep bent blade. I may be able to get that one going with just a new blade and a new Flywheel key.

Yeah people rarely toss anything decent to the curb these days. I see mowers on Marketplace missing wheels that don't run and people still want 40 bucks for them. Back when I was a teen in the early 2000's I basically paid for my first car by flipping mowers. They were always on the side of the road or for free on Craigslist back when it first came out. Most had been sitting and needed a simple tune-up or a new wheel or something, and then someone would be able to get a few more years out of it.

Most of the stuff people list that needs fixing isn't worth fixing for the price they are asking.

 

[The motor guy]

Yeah people rarely toss anything decent to the curb these days. I see mowers on Marketplace missing wheels that don't run and people still want 40 bucks for them. Back when I was a teen in the early 2000's I basically paid for my first car by flipping mowers. They were always on the side of the road or for free on Craigslist back when it first came out. Most had been sitting and needed a simple tune-up or a new wheel or something, and then someone would be able to get a few more years out of it.

Most of the stuff people list that needs fixing isn't worth fixing for the price they are asking.

They don't make anything decent to begin with

 

[jeepman3071]

They don't make anything decent to begin with

True, most of the stuff people toss is not quality equipment, but years ago you could fix it cheap and it would still have some life left. Now everything is throw away, and even if you get it for free it isn't worth putting any money into.