In today’s Straits Times article “Early birds get juiciest profits flipping iPhone 6″, it was reported that “in just 30 minutes, finance manager Sky Hui made a cool profit of $4,000 from buying and re-selling three new iPhones.”
Interestingly, in this simple story, there are three essential lessons that you can learn to achieve greater financial success.
Lesson #1: Successful investing is anticipating the anticipations of others
How did Mr Hui do it?
It was reported that he had pre-booked three 128GB iPhone 6 Plus devices with SingTel and renewed three contracts for himself and his parents to pay $746 for each phone. At the same time, he contacted 40 buyers he found on HardwareZone and sold the iPhone 6 at $2,200 each to the buyer, making a total whopping profit of $4,362!
All it just took him about 30 minutes after collecting his phones from SingTel’s launch event at Marina Bay Sands last Friday.
If you want to be successful, you must have independent thinking, be ahead of other people and take action. The launch of the iPhone 6 is such a buzz and I cannot avoid hearing people talking about it. So many people spent time researching the specifications, comparing it with other phones, but only real entrepreneurs and traders see the opportunity for profits.
Lesson #2, Most things will prove to be cyclical and some of the greatest opportunities for gain and loss come when other people forget about this
Of course, Mr Hui is not the only trader in the market. it was reported “yesterday, there were also more active sellers than buyers on HardwareZone’s mobile phone bazaar forum… WhyMobile’s retail sales manager Samuel Chan said: ‘Last year we had people from China coming to buy 50 sets at one go, but none this year.'” While Mr Hui sold his iPhone 6 at $1,200 last Friday, many sold it at $1,100 and probably lower now.
The fact is that the market is cyclical and it changes very fast. Even with 10 million iPhone 6 sales during the launch weekend. I can assure you that some people will lose money in this game.
Lesson #3, A handful of patience is worth a bushel of brains
A 35-year-old housewife, who declined to give her name, bought four phones at WhyMobile in Far East Plaza yesterday. She said her husband had queued overnight but went home empty-handed. So she decided to “just pay more” to get the phones for herself and her family. She paid $1,550 for each 128GB iPhone 6, which costs $1,288.
Note what she said, “I cannot wait anymore, that’s why I came here.”
Longitudinal studies of children (until they are adults) show that the greatest correlation with success is not with intelligence but, rather, the ability to defer gratification. Ask if a child would prefer a candy now or two candies tomorrow, I think we all know the answer.
As Thomas J. Stanley put in his famous book “The Millionaire Next Door”
“There is an inverse relationship between the time spent purchasing luxury items and the time spent planning one’s financial future.”
Do you agree? What other lessons do you think we can learn from this story? Let me know by leaving your comment below.