Ebay gone: what will you do then?

[Sandy D]

Originally Posted by yotano211

Or have some of the mobile food trucks down in FL. I remember living in Miami back in 85-88, lots of those mobile food trucks driving around. They would drive all around the clothe factories down by the docks.

Sadly the factories are long gone now.

Food trucks make some crazy money in the right location.

It is sad, we let American fall apart by importing everything now.

NC has textile factories, Ohio and Pa have steel factories that are empty and caving in. So stupid.

[slapped]

It would be back to Owning Restaurants Full Time again for me

[BigCJ]

Originally Posted by Sandy D

Just thought of something.

Popcorn stand downtown NYC.

Heck of an idea.

And sell snow shovels and finger warmers during the winter.

Not with NYC rents for stands around 15 to 20k per month

[jeffweico]

Anyone with some gray matter and energy can find a way to make some money. Maybe not everyone can be Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, but there is money to be had for those who are willing to work for it.

When it comes to business, people are their own worst enemies. They have an idea, but they decide they would rather rest on Saturday than sit out at the fair and sell cotton candy. They are too busy (usually watching television) to work a business part-time. They WOULD go and sell water at the Gay Pride Parade, but they couldn't get everything together in time. If you could make money selling excuses, EVERYONE would be a millionaire!

And no, I am NOT dissing those who just don't have the brains to do it, or are disabled, or whatever. But for most of us, if we cannot earn money it is our own fault.

My cousin saw my eBay success and wanted to know how he could do it. I gave him my list of suppliers, I taught him how to find rare books, and told him what he could expect financially. He bought a total of 10 books and listed them for a month. Only one sold and he used the excuse that he could not really afford to risk any money buying inventory. He told everybody else that he TRIED the eBay thing, but that it didn't work for him.

If any of the above describes you, then go watch TV. There is no hope...

[Dmshark25]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

He bought a total of 10 books and listed them for a month. Only one sold and he used the excuse that he could not really afford to risk any money buying inventory. He told everybody else that he TRIED the eBay thing, but that it didn't work for him.

Same with me 2 friends and one cousin and now another friend, and I can tell from a person right away if they were going to make it but I felt bad saying no, gave them step by step, spoon feed them basically handed over all the sleepless nights I had gathering and trial and error, even made the accounts


And as I expected by 4 weeks all that enthusiasm the first 3 days was gone and they blamed it on this and that and the other everyone but the real problem themselves


Now someone else wants to learn but it's a friend of a friend and will never make it but this time I'm charging for my services

Right away he is like so when we making accounts, I give it 2 weeks with this one so I'm taking cash upfront😃

[slapped]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

Anyone with some gray matter and energy can find a way to make some money. Maybe not everyone can be Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, but there is money to be had for those who are willing to work for it.

When it comes to business, people are their own worst enemies. They have an idea, but they decide they would rather rest on Saturday than sit out at the fair and sell cotton candy. They are too busy (usually watching television) to work a business part-time. They WOULD go and sell water at the Gay Pride Parade, but they couldn't get everything together in time. If you could make money selling excuses, EVERYONE would be a millionaire!

And no, I am NOT dissing those who just don't have the brains to do it, or are disabled, or whatever. But for most of us, if we cannot earn money it is our own fault.

My cousin saw my eBay success and wanted to know how he could do it. I gave him my list of suppliers, I taught him how to find rare books, and told him what he could expect financially. He bought a total of 10 books and listed them for a month. Only one sold and he used the excuse that he could not really afford to risk any money buying inventory. He told everybody else that he TRIED the eBay thing, but that it didn't work for him.

If any of the above describes you, then go watch TV. There is no hope...

I Could NOT AGREE More,,,MOST People think that they are going to list a few lousy items and make MILLIONS,,,LAZY PLAIN and SIMPLE,,,For MANY Years I had HORRENDOUS Sore on my fingers because I pack so Many boxes for my orders,,,People see my success and they envy me, they do NOT See that I spend a MINIMUM of 12 Hours DAILY 365 Days a year DEDICATED to my business, while they are going out to dinner with friends 3 times or MORE a week, going on Vacations, ect, ect, they spend MOST of their time either Spending what money they have of Figuring out how to spend what money they have,,,

You Wanna Make MONEY, It is VERY Simple,,Roll up your Fu$k%ng Sleeves and go to WORK,,,and Believe me the Money Will COME,,,,EVERYTIME

[glacier922]

@slapped

I don't doubt that you make good money. But your friends don't sound too shabby either. I mean, going out to dinner more than 3 times per week and taking lots of vacation?

[slapped]

Originally Posted by glacier922

@slapped

I don't doubt that you make good money. But your friends don't sound too shabby either. I mean, going out to dinner more than 3 times per week and taking lots of vacation?

The point I was trying to make was that People put MORE Thought and Effort in SPENDING money rather than EARNING it, and because of such an "Inside Out" lifestyle tend to be jealous who do the Opposite,,,

[jeffweico]

Originally Posted by slapped

You Wanna Make MONEY, It is VERY Simple,,Roll up your Fu$k%ng Sleeves and go to WORK,,,and Believe me the Money Will COME,,,,EVERYTIME

It's funny... A friend of mine who works and has a decent job, but nothing that pays enough for him to be able to fulfill his "needs" (he defines needs as an above-ground pool, the Disney vacation club and ordering out 7 nights per week) once told me that I was always "lucky" when it came to money.

I told him, that it is a funny thing about luck... the HARDER I WORK, the LUCKIER I seem to get!

When I was selling on eBay back in the beginning (1995) I was working a full time job and coming home and filling orders and answering emails. I probably worked 16 hours a day.

When I went to my corporate job, I always worked FAR more than 40 hours per week. You CANNOT be taken seriously when you run out the door at 5pm. But I quickly rose to the Director level from Manager. Again, I would say that 16 hour days were pretty normal.

Now, I work eBay full-time and it may not be 16 hours a day, I'd say I still put in more than 8 hours on average. I've slowed down somewhat now that I'm older. I saved my money over the years, so I have a nice cushion.

But I would not be where I am if I decided I wanted that 9-5 job with an hour for lunch and put in the bare minimum required to get my paycheck.

[jeffweico]

Originally Posted by slapped

For MANY Years I had HORRENDOUS Sore on my fingers because I pack so Many boxes for my orders

You know what helps with that? Those rubber hospital gloves. The blue ones that come 100 to a box. They are maybe $15 or so and one box goes a LONG WAY! Not to mention, they are nice to have around if you have to clean up something gross...

[rsot]

Back in 1998-2001 when the US dollar exchange to Canadian was very high, I was in school and fulfilling orders....eastern standard time and pacific standard time...there were many nights were I would sleep only 4-5 hours and even less.

The gym kept me going

[itemauctions]

Originally Posted by rsot

Back in 1998-2001 when the US dollar exchange to Canadian was very high, I was in school and fulfilling orders....eastern standard time and pacific standard time...there were many nights were I would sleep only 4-5 hours and even less.

The gym kept me going

hah yeah the gym's a nice place to go when stressed

[jeffweico]

Originally Posted by Sandy D

Food trucks make some crazy money in the right location.

It is sad, we let American fall apart by importing everything now.

NC has textile factories, Ohio and Pa have steel factories that are empty and caving in. So stupid.

A friend of mine did this years ago, before the City of Chicago regulated it nearly out of existence. He made a TON of money! Him and his wife would prepare sub sandwiches (she made GOOD ONES, the meats were sliced exactly right, their sub sauce (mostly vinegar and oil with some spices) was awesome, regular sandwiches and even some warm foods - lasagna, Italian sausages, soups and more. They even made their own potato salad. Each day, he would make the rounds of area factories on lunch and dinner breaks.

I LOVED it, because at the end of the day, if there was food left over (there usually was) he would drop it off at my house and sell it to me for ridiculously low prices.

And America seems to get a little bit dumber every year. Discover magazine recently quoted a survey that revealed 25% of the adult population does not know that the Earth revolves around the sun. For years, they have known that at least 25% of the population is functionally illiterate. We consistently are beaten by most countries when our students are tested in math and science.

I don't know what the answer is. In some Asian countries, Japan and China in particular, they place a PREMIUM on education. I saw that in China, kids collect trading cards with famous scientists and inventors on them. These guys are their heroes. Our heroes are football players.

Here in America, we revere Britney Spears, the Kardashians and Paris Hilton. The most popular shows on television are reality shows, which mostly showcase young people behaving like morons. I once saw a show about people getting married (I think it was called "Bridezillas") and for the life of me, I can't figure out WHY anyone would want to marry ANY of these women! On the flip side, there is The Bachelor, where the men are every bit as bad, and even worse.

I hate to say it, because I love this country, but with greed run amok (greed IS a good thing, but only up to a certain point), and our fixation on short term profits at the expense of long term investment, out future may not be so bright. Add to that the decline of our educational system and a general disregard of civics (we used to have civics classes that taught the importance of being a good citizen, involved in our communities and helping others to lift all of us up) I think the rest of the world is going to start kicking our you-know-what. We are living on the coattails of our past, and that cannot continue forever.

Unless we start emphasizing education, especially in math and science and start thinking of the long term, rather than worrying only about the next quarter, we are doomed. Everything is now all about me, me, me - I got mine and screw everyone else - and that only hurts us in the long run. But trying to get people interested in talking about these things is nearly impossible. We are too busy discussing "Big Brother", watching Miley Cyrus and debating gay marriage. Instead of "We the People" we now have "I, the Individual". And that does not bode well for the future.

[glacier922]

@jeffweico

Very insightful post! I have similar thoughts to yours but I never have the drive to actually write it all out. At least someone is taking the words out if my mouth, literally

[Sandy D]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

Anyone with some gray matter and energy can find a way to make some money. Maybe not everyone can be Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, but there is money to be had for those who are willing to work for it.

When it comes to business, people are their own worst enemies. They have an idea, but they decide they would rather rest on Saturday than sit out at the fair and sell cotton candy. They are too busy (usually watching television) to work a business part-time. They WOULD go and sell water at the Gay Pride Parade, but they couldn't get everything together in time. If you could make money selling excuses, EVERYONE would be a millionaire!

And no, I am NOT dissing those who just don't have the brains to do it, or are disabled, or whatever. But for most of us, if we cannot earn money it is our own fault.

My cousin saw my eBay success and wanted to know how he could do it. I gave him my list of suppliers, I taught him how to find rare books, and told him what he could expect financially. He bought a total of 10 books and listed them for a month. Only one sold and he used the excuse that he could not really afford to risk any money buying inventory. He told everybody else that he TRIED the eBay thing, but that it didn't work for him.

If any of the above describes you, then go watch TV. There is no hope...

You said what I wanted to say.

People are lazy, couch potatos who only want what little they have and no more. Then their kids do without and learn how to sit on the couch and watch tv for countless hours.

I feel for people who are poor and have nothing but I also know what it is like to go 2 days with no sleep.

Dont like whiners about not having money or anything of value.

Its called get off your butt and work a little.

Crap I was making 200-300 a week hustling antiques or anything I could find to flip at 13 years old to people. I was hitting yard sales for anything musical etc and selling them to kids at school. Anything to turn a buck.

At 16 I had cash to pay for my first car. Parents had plenty of their own but I wanted to buy it with my money, my earned money. No darn handout either.

I spent all of my 20s working like a dog, running a business with employees and spending many days on the road, in a plane or out of town selling my items at wholesale shows etc.

I have always had some kind of side business. I never stopped wanting to succeed.

Those who do not want anything out of life other then sitting on the couch and watching TV saddens me. Sure I like my relaxing family time like anyone else but if I have a spare minute and my family is all doing well I am working on and off. I enjoy it.

Hard work pays off, I am in my early 40s and have everything I would ever need and desire to have. All from hard work, no stupid handouts or give me's.

Sick of people whining about minimum wage jobs, get two or three jobs. Start you own business or do something to make yourself valuable to someone.

Ticks me off more then anything to get a message from someone who says I dont have time to sit and run through 100s of postings to learn this stuff.

Why not? Dont you want to succeed at something?

I you cannot spend 1 hour a day reading a FREE forum to learn from some very bright successful people then you need to go flip burgers or something because you do not have what it takes to be successful running your own business.

One day last week we purchased an entire estate of items. House, basement, garage, out building jammed full top to bottom.

We started at 7 am, stopped at 3 to go get my kids from school. Took them home, fed them and back to the house. Stayed until 9. Took the kids home got them ready for bed. Next day, back a 7 am, worked all day until 8 pm that night.

Issue was the two men I hired to help us do this would not put in more then 8 hours of work even at 15.00 per hour to carry boxes or totes from a house to a trailer. Then one complained the entire time he was getting tired and hope we would get done soon. Same whiner who asked if we had any work for him because his house payment is due and he needed the money.

Hubby took a day off work because this is probably one of our largest and most profitable buys ever and you have young men in their 20s who are just plain lazy butts. Then complain because they have no money or are poor.
If you are healthy the only reason you would be poor is your lazy and wont work or give the effort.

My girl at my warehouse worked 18 straight hours to sort, clean and get items ready for pictures. We dropped her off lunch and supper and made sure the frig was stocked with tea etc. Shes 50 something and never complain one single time about working long hours.

America is falling apart not only because we are getting suckered to buy everything from everyone else killing American manufacturing jobs but the 20-30 something now a days are flat out lazy butts who want money coming in for doing nothing and do not want to sweat for anything.

Ok, rants over. Time to get to work.

And hell yes, I take lots of vacations, 2-3 day vacations mostly, Have traveled all over the world, taken multiple cruises, eat what I want when I want and wherever I want, buy what I want when I want it and still have a nice chunk put away for retirement, if I ever retire.

If you want, need or desire something is can be done with some effort and hard work.

[yotano211]

This is going back 5-8 years.

I would drive out to the Reno airshow and EAA air venture in Wisconsin, I love air shows and always wanted to be a pilot but I couldn't stand around for 10 years making less than $15k/year with $50k in college debts and another $60k debt for flight training. Anyways....


I would go to the airshows, by the end of the airshow, 1 hour before the end. I would go back to my car to sell water to the people that are getting out. I opened my car's trunk and put up a sign, "water for $2". I would first try to drive around to get a closer spot to the exit, so that people can see my sign. Sometimes the nearby girl scouts or boy scouts were fine with it but when they saw my prices was undercutting them, they would get nasty. They were selling their water for $3.

One time at the EAA airventure, the boy scouts upper management or director person, dont know the title, was really pissy at me for undercutting his sales. So he went to the air show folks, complaining about me selling on their turf without permission. Since I was parked on public roads and the airport didn't own the area around the airport, I was fine and the airport guys didn't or say anything to me.

So the boy scouts person decided to get the local Wisconsin police into the matter. The police started to say that I was selling things without a business license then when that failed, the boy scouts didn't have one too, he starts to say that I am selling without local town permission forms. That is were the boy scouts got me, they did have the town's correct permission paperwork.

I still had 3 cases of water remaining, so I had to get rid of it. So I remembered some things from living in Las Vegas. Some people in Vegas are on the parking lots with signs to wash cars for "donations". I know these guys are trying to make a living and cant get the proper business paperwork, either because they are here illegal or for other matters. But they have the full equipment to wash cars, a water dump, a large water tank, and the truck to tow it away. So they make money doing it.

So 10 minutes after the police left and the boy scout "guy" was happy that I wasn't selling anymore. I changed my sign from "$2/bottle" to "accepting donations only". Within 20min the same police officer returned to my location to "check up" on me. He saw my sign and drove off just saying "hello again". By not charging and saying "donations only" the police couldn't do anything. I'm technically not selling anything. In the end, I sold the last 3 cases of water for about 15% more.

I wasn't there to make any money or undersell anyone. I just wanted to make some money to pay for the trip. Anything extra would be greatly appreciated. I wish I can do it today but not with a 10 year boy with autism. He has no patience to sit around.

I still do these things today but I take small things to sell while I take road trips.

*** (added) I dont think I ever had the will to make money like some you guys (and gals) have but I have had "it" deep down. It just needed to release the feeling and try harder. The stories of everyone on here sure helps a lot. so thanks everyone.

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by yotano211

This is going back 5-8 years.

I would drive out to the Reno airshow and EAA air venture in Wisconsin, I love air shows and always wanted to be a pilot but I couldn't stand around for 10 years making less than $15k/year with $50k in college debts and another $60k debt for flight training. Anyways....

Was not standing around for 10 years waiting & studying..

Was because you were too short

[yotano211]

Originally Posted by Greenie

Was not standing around for 10 years waiting & studying..

Was because you were too short

no i am not short, I am 5'7, well ok a little on the short side but i dont complain about height. I would be kinda short if I had become a pilot for the majors airlines. I think I read somewhere the average height is 5"10, white, with light colored hair.

the 10 years part is just building up your flight hours working as a flight instructor. By US law, pilots are not allowed to fly more than 1000 hours per year. The majors airlines dont even look to hire anyone with less than 4-5k flight hours and with a college degree. So most pilots start as flight instructors until they get hired with the small national airlines at around 1,500 hours but they still make 15-20k/year for several more years. Most flight instructors only average 300-500/year flight time making less.

So there is those 10 years working in poverty with $100K+ in school debt. Most of it in flight training. And some national airlines dont even pay for the type certification. Its a certification for the type of airplane that airline wants you to train and fly on.

So you need to get a type certification and flight licenses.

[Karakolio]

If there is no eBay, just make one.
Since I was 14 I used to trade anything from perfumes to motorcycles. Finding great products and selling them with a profit, it's what I do.

One thing is sure, I'm not going to corporate life back again.

[rsot]

Mmm perfumes - dicey category

[Sandy D]

Originally Posted by Karakolio

If there is no eBay, just make one.
Since I was 14 I used to trade anything from perfumes to motorcycles. Finding great products and selling them with a profit, it's what I do.

One thing is sure, I'm not going to corporate life back again.

Did the same thing as a kid.

No way would I ever work for a corporation and be like a robot for someone else. Then again, if they paid me a couple of million a year I might reconsider.

[glacier922]

@sandy d

Too much nepotism and other bs that makes it unlikely to happen from a statistical standpoint for that to happen. I mean it just through statistics, not by actual person's ability.