QUOTE (vladski @ Apr 26 2008, 04:57 AM)
Fences will take a high percentage of the value of hte goods, depending on the goods and how hot they are and how easy they are to move. Figure anywhere from 25-50% (if not more for really unique stuff.)
Fences take a LOT more. You'll be lucky to get 15% of list. There is hugely more risk and overhead dealing with physical inventory and dealing face to face with criminals. And the fence is selling the material to someone a significant discount off list price - like 50%, so he can't buy from you at 50% of list and make money. And he has no interests in making you rich or being fair, he wants to make himself rich, and giving streetscum an even break isn't how he does that.
Having a good fence contact should be really worth a lot, as it might get you 30% or more of list if it's something that he can move. It provides him a reason to be more fair in what he pays. And pro fences also will contract reliable people to obtain stuff for them, which pays better as he already has a customer. Even still, he's only going to interested in a limited subset of things.
If you are selling to the actual end user you could get maybe 50% of list, but that's take a lot of time to do, and cruising around parking lots and talking to lots of strangers with a trunk full of hot merchandise has it's own drawbacks, at least until you develop regular customers.
This also is true for trying to make money selling stolen cars. Guys who steal four $20,000 cars a week are not staying in the Ritz-Carlton. They might be able to afford the Holiday Inn instead of the Motel 6, but being the guy at the bottom of the food chain isn't a ticket to great wealth.