Lego Investment: Buying Cheaper Minifigs

I recently did something that I do not normally do. I bought lots off ebay. Now I know this is mostly a losing endeavor. Most of the people on ebay know what they are doing, and they are also selling at a profit to themselves. But there still are the amateur sellers out there -- especially in the lego market. With careful looking, I found several lots that seemed characteristic of someone unacquainted with lego. Look for mislabeled figures, bulk lots with plenty of mismatched parts, etc. Sometimes in the listing they will even admit that they don't know anything about lego. I mostly look for stock figures like clones and jedi, because castle figures aren't always going to be recognizable. Once I found a couple of likely lots, I set them up on proxy bidding so I could just schedule the price I wanted to pay and forget about it. (There are many good ones that you can find with an internet search, but I use www.gixen.com). The proxy bidding is nice because you don't have to put extra time into bidding for the lots. I lost some auctions because other AFOLS found the lots, but I ended up with a couple that were filled with a variety of Star Wars figures for a decent price. Now I have to issue a warning here. With all the figures I bought, only now are some of the lots becoming profitable. I bought the lots about 2 months ago, and they are selling rather slowly. But that is okay, because I list on amazon which has a huge markup price. Its especially good for some of you that want to get into the business but have no inventory. Buy some lots, list them and forget about them and eventually they will turn a profit. Worst comes to worst, you can always flip them back on ebay for about the same as what you paid.