Looking for home based internet work

Nel,

Some people like to collect postcards showing historic views of a city/town they like.

In a similiar light, stereoviews of cities/towns have attracted collectors also.

Dudley Doright

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It's not good enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required. - Winston Churchill

You realize, I assume, that the BUYER pays the shipping.

So buying a toaster for a quarter and selling it for $2 is bad...why?

So tell us after eBay takes out all it's fees, just how much of that $2 do you actually see? And, is that amount that you see really worth all the touble of posting the item for sale and taking the time to pack it up and ship it out. going to the post office to mail it, etc. Figure in your time, cost of materials to ship it, gas used to and from post office, pretty much got your quarter back and not much else.


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Obviously you hope for more. But everyone's circumstances are different. I have a postal meter and scale at home; I walk to the end of the driveway to places packages in the mailbox and raise the flag; my buyers pay for packaging.

I have not made less than $10,000 from eBay, NET, in any of the last three years.

I'm not selling anything. If anything, it is probably in my best interests if none of you try this. But don't try, from a position of ignorance, to tell me it does not work.

It doesn't have to be postcards. You can pretty much sell anything you find on ebay. Go through your own house and get rid of all the stuff you don't use anymore.

I have been making back my ebay fees and paypal fees by selling in a ebay store. I am not getting rich. My own website does good too. But ebay is my weekly paycheck. It pays for groceries, gas, all the business fees, and a little extra.

If anyone thinks there is any business you can run that is not going to be work than you may as well go work a job somewhere. I work more hours at my own business than I would at a job. I find it more satisfying and I like being my own boss.

Look at what you want to sell and then find a seller that sells it. Then see how many he sold in the last month. That will tell you if there is a market for it.

By the way, there are people making money selling postcards on ebay.

katlupe

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Homesteading On The Internet
Solar Baby
Reflections of katlupe

RichieC,
I'm not saying its bad, my question is why would anyone with a lick of sense buy a toaster on ebay for 6 dollars when they could by it for a quarter?

If it works great....I just can't get my little head around that concept.

If you need a toaster, can you COUNT ON finding one, tomorrow, for a quarter? I am certain that I can find one on eBay, any time of day or night. I will not have to leave home on a Saturday morning, sort through piles of junk, etc.

Look at it this way. The eBay seller is providing a service (basically being a personal shopper, only of the second-hand variety) and being paid for that service.

If you don't like the entrepenuerial, buy-and-sell approach to making money on-line, then answer me this. What employer with a lick of sense is going to hire you to sit at home on your PC, when it can hire someone in India to do the same for a couple bucks a day?

Hire someone. You'd have to pay them, but they would probably end up being a better deal than what you've got now.

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http://thefrenchneighbor.blogspot.com/

I am a home based medical transcriptionist too, as posted in the other thread referred to here. I have been doing it for 18 years now, tired of it now, but it is still the best paying job I have ever had and I have full benefits, medical, dental, vision, 401K, paid time off, short-term and long-term disability, life insurance, and to top it off, the company I work for is very flexible in hours. For instance, as a trade for working Monday through Friday, I have to work 1 weekend a month. With my husband being a pastor, this is quire tricky to work around. The weekend that I work, I get the Wednesday and Thursday off before and then work on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday I will work from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m., then 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., then 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. for my 8 hours. I still get to attend church, do my chores, and do my job, so it works well.

You do have to have an accredited medical terminology course behind you for most companies to accept "newbies." If you are interested, google Andrews School of Transcription. This is a former transcriptionist that now teaches the course. She is accredited and accepted by most of the companies hiring out there. If you are interested to see what the legitimate jobs look like and their websites, go to www.mtjobs.com.

New jobs are posted there every day and will tell you whether or not they accept newbies, but again, you must have an accredited course behind you for most of them, and some require some years experience.

The lady at the transcription school has a test on her web site and if you pass the test, then she will take you on as a student. If you don't do well on the test, she will tell you whether or not she thinks it would be worth your time and money and worth her time and effort to train. She's very open and honest about it. Doesn't want to waste people's money. Kind of expensive though. It is roughly $3000. She asks for the first $1000 down, (used to anyway) and the rest she will accept in payments with no interest for 2 years (again, used to anyway).

Hope this helps!

I feel your pain. Just you have to have the bank roll to play the game.

Most of my jobs are done today and once the bill is recieved I will be paid in 30-90 days. At any given time I have 350k in invoices. 350k sounds like alot. You as a contractor know. I have supplies, labor and insurance to pay. So that 350k is really like 30k in profit (if you run a short pay cycle). I offer these pay deals to deal with corperations. So that waiting will bring me in 62k

I do not factor. I factor my own bills.

I could work on a cash only basis. I could request the bill to be paid on 10 days, but I do not work cheap. I am competitive.

Any Joe Blow can go to home depot and pull up in a van to wire my house. Do you think I will check if he is "certified"? What matters HE SHOWS UP.

I use CNC electric out of Mascoutah Illinois. It took him a bit to get used to me. Now he understands and is doing very well. To well in my book. I now have to remind him.

They can do heavy industrial wiring. Yet, they got side tracked and took on new home contruction.

They do very little of this now. They figured out were the money is. Commercial and industrial. Every kid that did atleast some high school can figure out how to wire a house.

I helped them out. I am their small fry account. Just I get a little kick because I helped him wake up. HE HAD NO FORMAL TRAINING.

When I call. I want service. Price is not an issue. Send me a bill. All bills are paid on the 3rd.

If I want a deal I tell them when I call. I need a deal. That simple.

I got one on a rental house. The bill was all material. 2 cases of beer and they will get it done when they get it done. I also had to loan them my boat.

No problem.

This guy didn't have a thing. He got lucky. He met folks like me and others. I was his 5th solo customer. He advertised in the paper. He dosn't advertise anymore.

In 5 years he now is doing very well. 12+ vans. 2 bucket trucks and 3 trenchers doing AMERENIP work.

He isn't rich, but doing just fine. He had a HORRIBLE set back. He took care of it. I found him at Sams club and told him what his problem was.

I had been calling him. He never got back to me 2 days latter. He said. I get over 100 calls a day. I told him. Get a lady to feild your calls.

It took him a bit. The 3rd lady he got was the one. She is great. Talks the talk and knows her stuff. She turned the 100+ a day to under 40 with 5 a day being feed jobs. She is the gate keeper.

I didn't say it was a bad idea either, just that I did not understand it. I went and took a look and now it makes some sense - for those who are collecting something - but I
would'nt buy the toaster thing either.

There are a lot of people whose time is worth a lot more per hour than that $6.

To spend an afternoon, say 5 hours, going to garage sales could cost them $250 of wasted time. Just pay $6 and another $10 shipping and you've got that perfect art deco toaster to match your home.

And to have a personal shopper in the city buy it for you at an antique store will cost you $100. So that $16 is dirt cheap!

Trust me i would not buy it from ebay ,but if you have lived in a larger city very few people go to rummage sales , often there just arn't any or very few
so they see the only option as going to walmart to pay 20
they may have had that same toaster and it fits perfectly on the space they have on thier counter you name it or they are just plain lazy
what do you care.

but realy it is wize advice to start by going around your house and pick up all the stuff you would put in the yard sale if you had it in your front yard
then get an ebay account and sart listing it remember to calcilate shipping and include realistic pacaging prices , and keep your reserve so that you make what you want. then you will see if it works for you.

personaly i don't ebay , i don't buy and i don't sell. but i know people who do both i had a freind who whould by a circular saw use it for the one project and package it up in original box and sell it on ebay , if he had caught t on a good sale he would somtime even make a few bucks

i myself buy quality tools and keep them till they are dead many years later
i want to be able to run to the garage and have all my tools there and ready to be used

Well a toaster is not a big selling item. I have one boxed up and ready to go. I could not get the 5 bucks I wanted for it with the 5 bucks to ship it.

Buyer pays shipping.

I have purchased MANY items on ebay. I have sold many items on e bay.

I purchased a House site un seen. I purchased 3 vehiclas and I boat.

NOT A SINGLE PROBLEM.

Now, I have had 2 bad items. In all my dealings. One was a box of scrap metal that was said to be number one copper. It ended up being number two copper.

The other was a get rich quick program for 5 bucks. I was refunded on the get rich quick and at the copper. I broke even.

The boat I purchased. I put 1k into it and made 6k on it. I sold it on E bay.

The house. Took 15k to get it up to standards and is worth 90k. Not bad for the 8k I paid for it.

E bay is very simple to us. It is also a great place to use the if it is to good to be true then it prob is.

Watch out for excessive packaging fees and shipping fees.

Heck cords of fire wood sell fine on e bay if you are in the right area. I advertised one cord for 225 and the guy purchased 10 units. Sent a truck as it was pick up only. I did assist in loading.

Heck you can sell most anything on ebay, just not toasters. They do not sell well.

I think the problem here is that some people just sell one or two things and then think it doesn't pay off. Then some people treat it as a business and have the patience and time to put into it to see it pay off. I worked many years in an accounting firm and you rarely saw a business make profits for the first couple of years.

If you don't buy anything on eBay, then decide you want it to be your job and pay all your bills, it will be harder for you. You have to learn how it works and what to expect.

For me, I love it. I buy and sell on it. I have had times when I got disappointed in it. But I am glad I have not given up on it. I love the computer and working on. I love being home and able to do all my chores while I work. I would not like working for a "company" online though. I especially love being my own boss. I am a member of a eBay group of sellers and so we are networking and learning things together there.

I also sell in my own website store as well as having written my own eBook, with another on the way. I have many irons in the fire so to speak. Little steams of income coming from many different places. You just have to discover what you like to do.

katlupe

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Homesteading On The Internet
Solar Baby
Reflections of katlupe

Not many work at home schemes that actually pay. Medical transcriptionist is one, ebay/amazon is another.

Ebay is a good way of selling junk around the house or items you find or get at garage/estate sales. One man's junk is another man's treasure. If I try to sell one of my pieces of junque around here, I might be lucky to sell it for ten cents... but there's some fool *cough*, er, connoisseur, that may have been looking for this bric a brac forever... and be willing to pay it's true worth.

I've bought dozens of items off ebay... mainly antique broadaxes and old books... stuff that I can't find locally. Some items I got for a steal, some were overpriced, but unique.

If you've always wanted something but haven't ever found it, look on ebay....

I probably wouldn't buy any bulk lots of anything, especially anything Chinese, hoping to resell and make a profit.

Books are a great item to sell, especially on amazon and half.com...... where you don't pay any listing fees till you sell the item.

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

I sell on Ebay, we make declas and primitive signs, I alos buy on Ebay, I bought my chrome appliances, mixer, toaster and blender and a nifty bread box and matching tins, I looked and looked at yard sales and never found anything like them in the condition they were in.... so if you know what to look for, you can make some $$$!

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A day's work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig.

Check out our Ebay stuff! http://myworld.ebay.com/writelite/

Love that bread box!

katlupe

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Homesteading On The Internet
Solar Baby
Reflections of katlupe

Me too!! It would come in handy now that I have a devil cat who eats everything that isn't on top of the 6 foot hutch.

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