Is this a good way to make money if you can wait a year?
It's graduation season.
If you live in a major city, you'd have 2-3 colleges in your area.
That means, a few hundred (if not thousand) students are attending their graduation ceremony.
Each person pays about $50 for their cap & gown, they only use it ONCE.
It's then stored in their closet, or eventually thrown away.
Why not hold a sign at the exit of a ceremony "I'll buy your gown, $5"
Maybe you'll be a little more generous and offer $10.
Wait a year, until the next class is ready to prepare for their ceremony, unless you'd be so unlucky to have the school you targeted change their gown style, you can reasonably sell the used gowns and caps for at least double what you invested. $10-20. Buyers say $20-40, you make $5-10, everybody wins here.
All you need is patience to wait a year, and some storage space in the meantime.
So if you invest $200 this year, and collect about 40 sets of grad-wear, you'd reasonably make $200 in profit within a year.
At today's interest rate, you'd need more than $10K in a CD to make $200 in interest.
Craigslist is free, putting up a few flyers isn't hard.
And yes, I'm expecting to have 50+ people too cheap to buy a brand new gown when they know they can save $20-$30.
How many lawns do you mow to make $200 a month?