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How to Make Money Selling Used Golf Balls

I have always believed that “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure”.  This is certainly true for used golf balls. 

Of course, all of those golf balls sitting at the bottom of a pond weren’t “intentially” put there.  (Athough, if you saw my swing, you might think its a miracle they don’t ALL end up in water).  No one wants to spent $20 on 5 golf balls and then see them all swimming with the fishes a few hours later. 

But unfortunately for golfers, and luckily for the golf ball treasure hunter, this happens MILLIONS of times every year!  There is “white gold” sitting at the bottom of your local golf course just waiting to mined by you.

But before you go get your scuba gear, maybe we should decide whether its a profitable venture.  There is certainly a huge supply of golf balls just lying there; but are they worth anything? 

Well, take a look at the sales for “Titlelist ProV1 used golf balls” on eBay.  At the time of this writing, some golf balls were selling for almost $1.50 per ball.  And from what I can see, people are buying lots of used golf balls every single day.  So, I believe that there is certainly a market there.  Even old range balls get some money.  Although you may have to sell 1000 of them for like $100, that’s still money right?

Now you should be warned.  There is a right way to get used golf balls and a not-so-right way.  The proper method is to contact the golf course and come to an agreement about retrieving errant golf balls out of their lakes.  Typical agreements might include a per ball fee to the golf course.  So, if there is a $0.05 per ball fee, you would pay the course $50 for every 1000 balls you retrieve.  If you can sign exclusive contracts with all of your local courses, you might have a profitable little side business.

The not-so-right way is to sneak in late at night, do your work, and get out before anyone sees you.  Like it or not, “golf ball poaching” happens all the time. 

There are a couple of different ways that you can go about retrieving the golf balls.  If you have scuba gear, then suit up and go for a dive.  If not, you can purchase multi-ball retrievers that you throw into the water, drag along the bottom, and collect your white gold.  For example, Amazon.com has one for about $20 that I have listed on the side. 

You can also create your own golf ball retriever; check out this You Tube video.

I recently read about a guy that does this for a living and does very well for himself.  However, most likely this business would be a small part-time operation.  As long as you can get an exclusive contract, you will eliminate your local competition.

However, you also have to remember, there are thousands of other people trying to sell their used golf balls.  I would recommend developing some sort of strategy to differentiate yourself (if you want to get serious in this business).  I would think about packaging and maybe combining the used golf balls with some other golf product. 

You might also want to target wifes & girlfriends who are looking for a golfing gift for their golfing husbands or boyfriends.  I would venture that this “gift” segment may be a good segment to target.  What do you think?

Overall, the outlook for selling used golf balls:

• Industry size and growth is great

• Supply of used golf balls is great

• Competition is tough

• Getting exclusive golf course contracts is essential for full-time success.

• Packaging, targeting, and strategy are key to long term success.

Chowmunga approves this for a part-time venture.  Full-time would be very difficult to make a living.

What are you thoughts?

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