The answer and main point of this article is, don’t. Especially, if that gadget doesn’t happen to be a scarce commodity. The case study for tonight’s lecture is the iPhone.

Let me make something clear, if you stood in line for 15 hours hoping to purchase two iPhone’s to sell them at everyone’s favorite social auctioning site then you probably wasted time, money and a sunburn. The iPhone mania, as unprecedented as it was, did not mirror the similar mad dash to purchase that Sony and Nintendo enjoyed with the PS3 and Wii, respectively.

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The difference between Apple and the game console makers is that Apple understood, from the beginning, the level of demand it would expect. The gadget resale market is a fickle one. If people can expect to get what they want in short order, it’s very unlikely that they will be willing to pay a premium for it.

In the case of the Wii or the PS3, there was never any clear indication of when new units would be in stock. As a result, eBay was all but inundated with savvy entrepreneurs more than willing to sell you a console, as long as you were willing to pay a huge markup. Even where there are iPhone shortages, Apple has made it clear that units are on their way. As a result, most iPhones posted for auction are selling at cost, if not just slightly higher. These higher prices (usually around $700) are very rarely large enough to cover the expenses associated with placing the auction.

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The next time you are hoping to wait all day for a gadget in order to turn a tidy profit, keep the following in mind.

Expense your time. If you took a day off of work to wait in line, think about how much you could have made by going into the office. If the reward is not significantly higher than this number, your get rich quick scheme is probably not worth it.

Understand your market. Does the product have mass appeal? Is there some way of knowing that a hardware shortage is assured? Are there other avenues of purchase that are easier (and cheaper) than auction sites? If you can’t answer these questions with sufficient confidence you are probably better off sticking to your day job.

Keep a cool head. If you are going to take the plunge, remember that being a gadget reseller is often frustrating. If your first auction fails try, try again. You’ve already invested yourself, you might as well make every effort to try to turn a profit.

While I am not saying that there isn’t “easy money” out there to be made, quite a few times what seems like a sure thing can just turn into frustration. Always be sure to know what you can reasonable expect to get out of any gadget resale scheme and plan accordingly.

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