With each new year comes a new set of financial resolutions. Whether you’re looking to save more money, spend less, earn more, or all of the above, we’re sure you can benefit from these simple tips from GovernmentAuctions.org.

Before you visit an auto dealership or search online, try attending a government auction for your next car purchase. Car dealers make their money by buying their inventory from dealer auctions or trade-ins, and marking up the vehicles by several thousand dollars. You can go around them by attending an auto auction yourself even if you don’t have a dealer license. Sure you can find deals by searching through online marketplaces, but government auctions are one of the few ways the public can buy autos at wholesale prices. You can potentially save tens of thousands of dollars in your lifetime by purchasing cars that are only a few years old, are in relatively good shape, and have low miles.  These types of cars are frequently auctioned off to the public.

Save Money on Gas. Although the average price of a gallon of gas has fallen considerably over the past several weeks, you can still save a bundle by following a few simple steps. One of the easiest ways to save money on gas is to sign up for supermarket gas promotions. Look for items that qualify for gas rewards points and you can easily save anywhere from $0.50-$2.20 per gallon. Another way to save on gas money is to buy a scooter or a motorcycle, which you can use for short trips around town, or even longer trips if you are an experienced rider. Most scooters get close to 100 MPG. There are plenty of cheap, reliable scooters and motorcycles being auctioned off every week on GovernmentAuctions.org. Finally, make sure you do some research before filling up, because there can be a fairly large difference in price

Sell your old stuff online or buy things you can resell for a profit. It’s amazing how much stuff most of us having lying around the house. Looking around my own apartment, I recently found over $2,000 worth of things that I no longer needed, that I was able to sell online. That’s no chump change. Besides selling your own things, you can also attend flea markets, estate sales, and of course government auctions, to buy things that you can resell later. The beauty of government auctions is that many things are sold in bulk lots, which can be broken up and resold individually online. It’s best to buy small items with a high value, like cellphones, jewelry, coins, etc., because they are easy to ship.

Instead of buying brand new, buy gently-used stuff. As Americans, when we want something we just run to the store or go online, whip out the credit card and get whatever it is that we want. It’s amazing how much money you can save by buying second-hand items. It’s easy to save thousands of dollars per year on clothes, electronics, furniture, and more by buying a slightly used item. There are so many people who purchase a pair of shoes, a smartphone, or a couch, realize a few months later that they don’t want or need it, and decide to sell it for half of what they paid. You can also find thousands of seized and surplus items, most of which are gently-used or even new, on GovernmentAuctions.org, from iPad to office furniture, that are selling for deeply discounted prices.

Buy everyday (non-perishable) items in bulk. You can save a ton of money by buying things in bulk, especially when they are on sale. If there is a particular item that you use frequently and regularly, and you see it on sale for a lot less than you would normally pay, buy a lot of that item. As long as it’s not perishable, it will not go to waste. Buying in bulk also applies to government auctions. Usually, you can get a much better deal if you buy a bulk lot of 100 used cellphones as opposed to buying a single cellphone. The reason for this is that most people are either not looking to buy such a large amount or cannot afford to spend so much money all at once.

Government auctions can be an excellent source of items to flip or resell online. We recently saw one gentleman buy a single lot of 100 smartphones for $30 each and then turn around and resell them online for $75-$100 each. Most of the cellphones were seized or otherwise confiscated by police departments across the country. Why was this gentleman able to get the phones at such a discount, you might ask. One reason might be that many people who attend auctions are looking for the hottest phones on the market: iphones, sumsungs, etc. However, this bidder was able to see value in some less popular brands, which he realized still sold quite well in online marketplaces. Let’s face it, when someone loses their $700 smartphone, they need a replacement, and they aren’t always able or willing to spend an equivalent amount on it, so they turn to cheaper alternatives.

We bring up this case to demonstrate that there are several important considerations that need to be made when searching for an item to resell profitably online:

Profit Margin

The reason the gentleman in the example was successful was because he found an item with a considerable margin of safety. It’s important to remember that popular online marketplaces have selling and payment processing fees, which can amount to as much as 20% of the final purchase price. In some instances, you may also have to offer free shipping in order to stay competitive in the market place. If you’re planning on doing some advertising for the items you bought, then this expense also needs to be taken into account. Because the gentleman was able to resell the phones for more than twice what he paid, he was still able to make a nice profit on each phone.

Size of the item

Smartphones are an excellent item to sell because they are small and east to ship. With large items, either you are the buyer are likely to incur considerable shipping costs, which will ultimately eat into your profits. With larger items, you are better off unloading them via a classified site or local listings. However, it might be somewhat time consuming to get rid of 100 office chairs using this method. That’s why it’s important to know how you will be disposing of an item before bidding on it at auction.

Popularity of the item

Another consideration to make is the popularity of the item in question. For instance, you might see a great deal on a piece of medical equipment that you know is worth triple the amount you will pay for at the auction, but unless you have a medical office or a hospital that is willing to purchase this item from you, there may be no way for you to unload it. Do some research before the auction, by looking up how many and at what price certain items recently sold for at online marketplaces. Information of this nature is easily obtainable, and at no cost to you.

Start searching for profitable items to resell online or in person at Governmentauctions.org. If you have a particular item in mind, click on the items tab on the homepage, then type in the name of the item and click Go. From there, you can sort by city and auction date. If you’re not sure about what you’d like to sell yet, click on the Government Auctions tab, and search for general auctions in your area.