Sort of debt-free but hope to be a super-scrimper in 2019

[Deleted User]

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

That's a huge amount to make on surveys Elizabeth, you have done well :T.

I agree with PA being a good payer and I find their surveys interesting to do too. I hope you manage to do enought surveys and find enough things to sell to treat yourself now and again Carboot.

Have you ever thought about buying things to sell on ebay? If you find an absolute bargain and know it would sell for more? I don't think I would have the knowlede of what sells, but you're an experienced ebayer.

Have you done mystery shopping or that type of thing in the past? I know your nearest town is not that near, but they may pay travel expenses. There do seem to be more money making opportunities if you can drive and have a car I always think.

Thanks, HH:T. You always have such good ideas:beer:


I don't want to start spending money to buy things to sell although I heard about someone who snaps up bargains in charity shops and sells them on eBay for a small profit. To be honest, I'm not sure I could be bothered if it was for a very small margin as writing the listing, taking and uploading the photos all takes time and the fees they charge after something sells means profit can be practically wiped out on cheap items:eek:. Our nearest post office is about 5 miles away so the cost of packaging things up and travelling to post them all needs to be taken into account too. I really need to declutter, we have some structural work on the house that desperately needs doing (connected to subsidence:eek:) and we need to clear as much out as we can. I don't want to bring anything else in at the moment, however small it might be.


I must confess I once bought a job lot of second hand books on eBay with the idea of reading some and selling some. It was a bit of a disaster to be honest:eek:. They were ex-charity shop stock, from the storage rooms of small charity shops which were overwhelmed with book donations and just couldn't display and sell them. The seller was the man who had a contract with the charity shops to clear the excess/unwanted stock. I think he was supposed to take them to be pulped but he was making a bit on the side.


The batch I bought consisted of a totally random mix of 1000 books, assorted HB and paperback, all genres and all condition states. The whole lot cost only £25. The seller lived only 15 miles away from here and he offered to drop them off free:j. So far. so good I thought. I paid by Paypal and he was supposed to drop them off about 2 o'clock. I was out in the morning and when I got home about 11 o'clock I couldn't turn into the driveway, there was a mountain of books, lots in fruit boxes but mainly loose. He'd come early without notice and finding no one in just unloaded them in the first space he got to, the entrance to the driveway:eek:


OH got home a few minutes after me and we carried them all to the garage which was reasonably empty but a long walk. We used wheelbarrows:rotfl:. We counted them up and there were approximately 3500 books:eek:. Great value for a total of £25 which I'd already paid but totally overwhelming. The condition of some was terrible and they went to the tip but about 85% were OK and a few looked as good as new. All this happened about 6 years ago, just before I started my DMP when I was desperate to make some money from somewhere. I still haven't managed to get rid of them all even now, either by donating to other charity shops, selling online or at car boot sales:o. Just over 3000 (which is about what I had left after throwing out the rubbish) is a massive amount of books:eek:. I found a lot of interesting ones among them though, often on subjects I'd never thought I might be interested in before:rotfl:.


I phoned the seller before we'd put the books in the garage to make sure I wasn't going to have to pay extra because I didn't want or ask for all these books and I was totally broke anyway. The original £25 just about cleaned me out:eek:. He said he was going to stop collecting the shop's surplus and these were the last of what he already had and he just wanted rid. Definitely no extra charge. Phew!


Will rabbit on about Mystery Shopping on the next post. This one is a bit long!

HairyHandofDartmoor

3500 books :eek: good grief :eek:. The margins on books are tiny so it's not worth doing unless you buy and sell in bulk.

I know of someone who buys stuff and sells it on ebay and makes around £2000 a month, but he buys antiques and collectibles cheaply in various places and then sells for more on Ebay. He must have a lot of knowledge about what items are valuable though and how cheaply to buy them in order to make a profit, so I don't think I could ever reproduce his success .

[Deleted User]

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

3500 books :eek: good grief :eek:. The margins on books are tiny so it's not worth doing unless you buy and sell in bulk.

I know of someone who buys stuff and sells it on ebay and makes around £2000 a month, but he buys antiques and collectibles cheaply in various places and then sells for more on Ebay. He must have a lot of knowledge about what items are valuable though and how cheaply to buy them in order to make a profit, so I don't think I could ever reproduce his success .

I agree that the margins on books, especially second hand ones unless rare or first editions is very small. I thought it worth the risk though at the original deal of 1000 for £25 which works out at 2.5p per book. Even accounting for some duds it seemed like I'd make a profit. I did too in a limited way. Even run of the mill paperbacks sold for 40p each/3 for £1 at car boot sales made a brilliant return on the original outlay. I just wasn't selling enough to make any dents in my debts or the book mountain in the garage. Realistically I was never going to get rich was I? I was living in cloud cuckoo land. There were plenty of unsaleable ones among the 3500 though, including encyclopaedias(which no one wants), Readers Digest condensed books (ditto), paperbacks with really yellowed pages etc etc.. Trying to get rid of them was a real pain and quite upsetting as I can't bear to destroy books.


A profit of £2000 a month from collectibles and antiques bought cheaply and then sold on for a lot more seems exceptionally high:eek: especially as eBay charges quite high fees based on the final selling price. He really must know what he's doing, and I certainly don't know what I'm doing:rotfl:. I'll leave that area well alone. I've had my fingers burned by trying to be a second hand bookseller.

Sun_Addict

We did a Macmillan coffee morning back in September at work and had loads of books donated for a book stall. The state of a lot of them was appalling. We'd been offloaded with a lot of carp to be honest

[Deleted User]

Sun_Addict wrote: »

We did a Macmillan coffee morning back in September at work and had loads of books donated for a book stall. The state of a lot of them was appalling. We'd been offloaded with a lot of carp to be honest

What a shame when it was for such a good cause.


I think unwanted/tatty/uninteresting used books are a problem for people. No one knows what to do with them and offloading them on someone else is the easy option especially if they have masses of them:mad:


How did you manage to dispose of your rubbish books in the end?

Sayschezza

A friend sells ladies clothes on e.bay in large sizes ie 20/22/24 etc. She buys cheap from CS £1 shops and apparently does reasonably well.

teapot2

carbootcrazy wrote: »

I planned to write something of my musings on spending on potential 'treats' now I have a little money to indulge.

Hi CBC, I think the treats idea sounds a good one especially after all your amazing efforts. I understand the concerns about spending and increasing debt again so wondered if it might be worth having a monthly treat budget in cash in a separate treat budget purse? Then when its gone, its gone and you wait till the next month....

[Deleted User]

Sayschezza wrote: »

A friend sells ladies clothes on e.bay in large sizes ie 20/22/24 etc. She buys cheap from CS £1 shops and apparently does reasonably well.

Thank you:T. I think the secret is finding a niche market and sticking to it. Your friend is fulfilling a real need and I'm happy for her that she's doing well:j


I once read that supplying 'embarrassing' products was a lucrative niche, the type of things people wanted but were too embarrassed to go into a Chemist's to buy. I'm not sure what they'd be but apparently there are plenty of items. This was a while ago and it probably wouldn't work nowadays with most major chemists like Boots having the facility to buy online (with no strange looks from the salesperson;)). Another supposedly profitable niche market is for really big ladies' shoes , the high-heeled variety. Apparently they are in great demand by men who cross-dress and don't like going into a shop to buy them. Again though, they could get them from most shoe sellers online now. I expect the main attraction on eBay would be if they are 2nd-hand and cheap.

Karmacat

What an interesting discussion! I especially like the idea of buying large size ladies. Won't be for me right now, I'm like CBC in that there's building work and decluttering to be done (kitchen, for me) but part of me wishes I could do it.


Hope you're going to have a pleasant weekend, CBC

juliejim

Morning CBC

I'm late to the party as usual - happy not so new now diary!

Jue