I'm sick of work! alternative ways to make a living?

I\'m sick of work! alternative ways to make a living?

Ever since I discovered ebay a few years ago I was amazed at how much money I could save by selling things I don't need. I used to buy a lot of video games which cost 50 bucks. Play them for a few months and sell them used while getting over half my money back! I never seriously thought about the opportunities in this until now. What if I were to buy things in surplus and sell on ebay? Also keep my eyes open at yard sales and flea markets. If I was able to sell 20 items per day and make a profit of 5 bucks on each item after fees and shipping costs I could make 500 dollars or more a week. I am very sick of my job. I go in at 10pm and stuck there til 8am. The hours suck, everyone is treated like a dog, they dont care about safety and its very exhausting. I bring home less than 500 a week but I have great insurance. i just dont think I can handle a job like this for the next 25 years. Its hard to see my girlfriend and family with these hours. when i am home I have to sleep. This really looks like soemthing I could do. I know it wont make me rich but I could do other odd jobs for some quick cash too. one of the problems would be health insurance though. I know very little about running my own business but this is something I would love to do. I'm still living at home with parents and I probably wont be going anywhere until I get married someday. Having a job where I tell myself what to do sounds so much better than what I have now. anyone have some good advice to pass along? I know many other people have done it so hopefully I can too.

thanks
Chris

Re: I\'m sick of work! alternative ways to make a living?

Color me "ignorant"...I've been wanting to sell some "around the house" items on eBay for quite awhile. I'm not an idiot, really! Perhaps I'll embarrass myself by saying I went out and bought an "Idiot's guide to selling on eBay" or something like that...haven't even read the first chapter yet. It can't be that hard, there's plenty of folks here that are doing it.

I agree, there's money to be made on "The World's Largest Garage Sale - aka eBay"!!

Can someone provide a little "guidance"?
1. Register as a seller (?)
2. Fill out a form to sell your item (?)
3. Probably need some pointers on what to say/not say in your ad (?)
4. How to "protect" yourself from "buyer fraud" (?)

I probably have ton of questions and could/should get into eBay's primers? Any "quick guidance and/or experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Re: I\'m sick of work! alternative ways to make a living?

The catch is finding things that will sell on eBay. Stay away from reserve auctions if you can. They turn many people away. If you want to be able to accept credit card payments via paypal (an eBay company), you more than a verified personal account. Spend time on the various ebay forums to learn as much as you can.

Now comes the 'fun' part: the Feds want their taxes paid in advance, based on an estimate of business.

Start small on eBay, as it will take some time to find your market, and for feedback to build to the point where you are a trusted seller. I am always wary of buying from someone new. You will get negative feedback (it is rare for a seller to have no negative feedback).

Set up an about me page, and explain job circumstances and why you only ship on certain days. Also mention this in your listings. If you accpet personal checks or money orders, let them clear first, then ship. There are people that send the money order, cancel it, and get the goods: defrauding the sellers (and businesses).

There is more, but you can find all that on ebay.

Re: I\'m sick of work! alternative ways to make a living?

IMHO
I don't see any chance anyone can profit more on ebay instead running a company. most people think ebay as Garage Sale like you know. that maens much like cheaper and second quality. If I can buy in the store with the same price why buy it from you on ebay? If can provide wholesale price why don't you run a company to profit more?

Re: I\'m sick of work! alternative ways to make a living?

My feedback is up to 41. I know its not much compared to other people but I think its enough to trust me. I've actually only bought 2 things on ebay. I wasnt aware that a money order had to clear. For some auctions I will take checks with no shipping delay if they have good feedback. I have not signed up for paypal yet because they want to much commision and I dont like the idea of being tied to a bank account. I suspose I will have to sign up for paypal though if I do this. like you said the trick is finding what to sell and where to buy it in bulk. im going to see what internet addresess i can dig up.

Originally posted by Tsao:
IMHO
I don't see any chance anyone can profit more on ebay instead running a company

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I usually don't buy from ebay because its mostly new items and more expensive than if I search around. if you find the right items to sell people go nuts over them. they get into bid wars and often end up paying more than you can get the item for elsewhere. this works out great for sellers. people buy almost anything on ebay. I would also like to look into setting up a online store. what could I sell? flashlights? or maybe a movie store? I like ebay because you can sell a variety of things and change your mind on what you sell. I don't understand how taxes and running a small business work but I would like to learn. if your selling on ebay I didnt think you had to pay taxes?

Originally posted by Sigman:
Can someone provide a little "guidance"?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">keep everything simple and clearly state payment terms and condition of the item. say if your selling a popular video game you don't need to write a 5 page description of the game like i see some sellers do. a picture always helps. when i sell a movie i just find the cover picture for it off the net and use that. buy a few cheap things first and get your feedback up. read over the guides on ebay. ebay has a big form with lots of fancy options that can be confusing at first. look over other auctions on ebay and read over the seller form so you see how everything goes together. sorry i cant give more advice right now im falling asleep at my desk.

Re: I\'m sick of work! alternative ways to make a living?

i've bought and sold on ebay. i love it. ebay is the best thing since sliced bread. starting your own company is one thing, selling on ebay is another.

i'm self employed and have been for almost 2 years now. it's a bit topsy-turvey, the work is not steady at all and some weeks i work 80+ hours and some weeks i don't work at all. the feds (and the state) will want tax money up front, but it's based on the previous years taxes so you won't get any penalties the first year. after that you'll have to pay them quarterly or a $100 (?) fine at the end of the year if you're more than like 10% under in estimated taxes. as far as health insurance goes...well, i haven't had any for at least 7-8 years so i'm acclimated to that stress, good thing i have a good constitution =). and anyhow, you can write it off your taxes as you can with almost _all_ your expenses, even a portion of your mortgage or rent and utilities for a home office. keep all your receipts. and you'll have to write every penny off that you can because your tax rate goes way up for being self employed (or it seems that way at least).

as for selling on ebay. well, just try to be up-front with people and tell them about the items and take good pictures. the best things to sell, in my mind, are small hi-dollar items that are easy to ship. electronics are great, i would imagine, and jewelry and the like. the trick is to find a good source for your stuff where you can buy it well below retail price. in the past i've sold electronics (and they went really fast for good prices) and books (50% chance of selling at all and then for very very cheap) and clothes (about the same as books). even sold my old trek mountain bike and my last motorcycle on ebay. got good, fair prices for both. right now i'm selling off my old comic book collection and it's not going very well. barely covering the cost to put them on ebay and buy the shipping materials =P.

Re: I\'m sick of work! alternative ways to make a living?

Personally, I won't buy anything off of Ebay unless there is a good picture. Not a webcam picture. Sometime when I sell, I put good pictures in linked to even higher resolution shots.

Also, get Paypal. It helps a lot.
I will avoid auctions where Paypal is not accepted, unless I really want the item.
Paypal gives you a verifiable, immediate form of payment. You know you have the money as a seller.
It also gives the buyers protection. I've been in the situation where I sent money orders, they were CASHED, and the seller says he never received them. There is very little recourse.

Re: I\'m sick of work! alternative ways to make a living?

Speaking of Ebay, check this out.

Re: I\'m sick of work! alternative ways to make a living?

You can make money on eBay, but you really have to be either very good or very lucky.

I made VERY good money there for about three years until their fees and draconian rules cut into profits and made it too much hassle for me.

Personally, I'd suggest you look in another direction for your alternative. Maybe do eBay for supplemental income, but unless you are making or have access to something unique or can buy stuff at significantly lower price than anyone else, you will probably NOT be a great success on eBay.

Just my humble opinion though.

Re: I\'m sick of work! alternative ways to make a living?

Like Silviron said, E-bay's great for supplementing your income, but unless you can get an exclusive deal on new, never-seen-before products, Don't quit your day (or night) job just yet!

If you're still home with your folks, I would try to work something out with them where I sell on e-bay for tuition money, and go to (or finish up) college if you haven't already...oops, sorry, slipped into my "fatherly-speech-to-my-kid" mode here...

Re: I\'m sick of work! alternative ways to make a living?

The only way to know for sure is try it. But instead of quitting just do this. spend 3 hours a day finding, listing, selling, shipping and collecting payment for stuff...see how it goes. If you make 1/3 of what you'd like then you can be confident that going full time will satisfy you. you may be suprised just how time-consuming it is. I have on occasian bought stuff that was undervalued and resold it later with better listing and made money but I think it is tough to do on an ongoing basis. the garage sale thing can work if you are willing to study enough to know the market and willing to spend your mornings fighting with houswives over NIB toasters.

Re: I\'m sick of work! alternative ways to make a living?

I'm bringing this back from the dead as I have a great idea for you. A little background:

My Mom wanted some clothes from a US company. "No problem", I said, "we'll order from their website!" Well, they won't ship to Canada Then I remember hearing about a forwarding company that takes delivery of eBay wins and other stuff from US-only companies and forwards them to international addresses. Sounds great, right?

Well, this all happened at the beginning of August. Order was placed with the US co. using the forwarding co's (FC) address. Then we started waiting. By the first week of Sept, I still had not been invoiced by the FC. A few emails and many apologies, and I got their invoice for the shipping to us in Canada and their fee (about $3), PayPaled it, and waited for the package to arrive. And waited, and waited. I emailed them every few weeks to find out what was going on and never got a response. I looked up their WHOis info and started calling. We're now into November...

Punchline: We just got the damned clothes this week! Ordered in August 2002, received January 2003!

Longwinded way of saying that there is definitely demand for this service, and even a half-arsed attempt at customer service and semi-speedy turnarounds will make you shine in comparison to your competition!

Re: I\'m sick of work! alternative ways to make a living?

Making money independantly is the American Way. Many attempts fail, while others succeed and some turn into stories like Bill Gates. You never know what you can do until you try. If you are still living at home, you are in an ideal situation to take a risk with very little downside. You won't be able to take this kind of risk when you are married and supporting a wife and child, so it's better to try it now. Start out on a small scale while still working your primary job until you have all the details ironed out. Don't be afraid to try different products, suppliers, marketing methods, etc. It usually takes a lot of experimentation to arrive at a successful combination.