How To Make College Cash

How To Make Money Blogging

2011-12-15T20:33:00.000-08:00

Want to make money by blogging? All you have to do is type! More and more people are starting blogging because they find that the profits are highly enticing. You can earn that few dollars extra a week for a coffee or frappe, or if you are really good you can earn a hundred dollars a month or more. Thousands of teens blog these days, it is really easy and a great way to make some extra cash.

This blog will show you how to earn money just by typing something just like you would for a paper for school. The picture below shows you some ways people make money by blogging.

The first step is to obviously sign up. Go to blogger.com just like you are viewing this blog on and click the Sign Up button. It is really easy to get signed up, and then choose your layout with the Design tap. Then you are ready to start writing!

Now I am going to rank some of the top ways, from the highest outcome paying to the lowest, of ways to make money by blogging.

1. Adsense:

Adsense is arguably the biggest and best way to earn revenue off your blogs. Basically all you do is go to www.google.com/adsense and sign up! You have to provide personal information because they do pay you real money, but there are no fees, no costs, no credit card information. You can have the money sent by check or straight to your bank account. The "main idea" of Adsense put into simple terms is that you write these blogs on whatever you want (Hint: write on what people are interested in so you get LOTS of views) and then they put up ads on your site and when people click on them you make money. I have earned over $2 on one ad per click sometimes! The ads change randomly and will normally form to your site and what it is about so people will click on what they are interested in. That is why you see eBay, silver, gold, and money ads on my site. Then once you make over your first $100 they send you a check or deposit the money and then continue to pay you each month.

2. Affiliate Programs:
These include recommending quality products like these here on Blogger: Thesis WordPress theme, Yaro’s Blog Mastermind Coaching Program and How to Launch the F*** out of your E-Book (and others) as well as some great products on my photography blog including 123 of Digital Imaging, David DuChemin’s amazing Photography E-Books and Mitchell Kanashkevich’s great ebooks.

You can sign up for these and then when your site recommends someone, you get money. Easy as that.

3. Private Ads:
This involves doing a bit more work. You have to find and email companies or private sponsors willing to host an ad on your site and pay you a certain amount to host that ad. Normally you will need a lot of traffic or at least a decent amount per day and a good CPR to get a private sponsor.

4. Amazon's Products:

Depending on your blog topic this could be a BIG money maker. Amazon’s affiliate program basically lets you earn 15% of the products price that you host on your site. So say you advertise a $100 camera on your site and someone buys it, that would be $15 for you! This could make your profits jump sky high!

If you have ANY questions on how to get started with blogging or making/increasing revenue from your blog, comment on this post and I will respond ASAP and help you out in every way I possibly can!

HP TouchPad Wi-Fi 16 GB 9.7-Inch Tablet Computer

2011-12-13T23:26:00.000-08:00

Anyone else try to get one at the "FireSale!" this past Saturday? Or the better question may be, did anyone get one? Personally, I tried for 2 hours......Without success. Which honestly just sucks. This may not be related to "College Cash" so much, but I was going to try and get 2, one to sell, and one for a Christmas gift for someone very special.

So if anyone has one and is willing to be a generous donor for a blog they enjoy, post it here and ill pay up to $140 for the 16 or 32gb if anyone is willing, thanks!

New Blog Post Coming Soon!

Making Money With Online Surveys: Scam or Not?

2011-12-06T11:22:00.000-08:00

Many people always ask whether a certain "Awesome site!" they heard about from another online site or post that will make them "Hundreds per month!" or even if it specifically tells you "$10 a day for only 10 minutes!" is a scam or real. Well, I can tell you flat off the bat, 99.9% of those sites are scams and lies.

Is it a Trick???

Don't you think that if you could make $10 in ten minutes ($60 an hour) most people would do that? Probably. Even if you think "oh, well you can only make $10 a day and it takes only 10 minutes so you can make a few hundred a month", NO. If anyone could earn a few hundred dollars by filling out a couple multiple choice tests, most people would. Which is why I'm here to guide you. It may be difficult to find out whether or not these sites are scams because believe it or not, these sites pay people to go posting on common places you would go to look up if it is reliable or not, like Yahoo Answers, and say that it's an ""Awesome site!"

I am not saying there is no such site that will pay you a certain amount of money, because they all do. And I even have personal experience with this. I've personally tried Cashcrate.com, SurveyMonkey.com, and SurveyMasterMind.com. All popular sites, but all never actually paying me what they said they will.

Here is the catch. You get roped in with offers saying "Earn up to $75 per survey!" or anything of that sort and so you sign up, enter your email address, information, etc. And all of these sites are free to join! Which is true. Important: If a survey site asks you for financial information such as credit card numbers or payments, do NOT join, they will literally take your money from you. But the ones that don't ask that are fine, go ahead and join you just won't make the money you were promised, but they will not steal money from you because they do not have your financial information and they will not ask for it. I have never run into a popular survey site to ask for my financial information.

Anyways, back to how you waste your time with these surveys. Here is the TRUE story about what will happen once you get into a survey site with offers to make money:

You will see that you have a $10 limit per day or something close to that
You will see each survey is only worth $1.00 or less (between $.25 cents and $1.00 depending on how long it takes to complete)
You will spend 15 minutes on ONE $.75 cent survey.
Then when you have spent 2 hours and have about $5.00 total, you will see that they do not send a check until you reach the goal of $30, $40, or $50 it requires to get your check.

THIS is real life online survey taking. I have personally experienced it and so has everyone else trying the "Get Rich Quick" Scheme. You can try these sites if you want, and once in, they WILL do what they promise, if you earn $30 and that is when you can receive a check, they will send it. But it will have taken you 3 weeks 2 hours a day to earn $30. Which is equal to earning 71 cents per hour. Great huh? Also if you do happen to get to that goal, it will take them 4-8 weeks to send your check. But I am all for online entrepreneurship so if you want to try, go ahead! Nothing will hurt except it is a waste of your own time. If you want real money, try the ideas throughout my blog, they work.

Last quick tip, if you have any questions about sites that are reliable or not, post it as a comment below and I will answer for you after doing research on it. Or go to http://www.mywot.com to check if it has been rated reliable and trustworthy by others.

How to Sell your Gold!

2011-11-24T12:03:00.000-08:00

When you are first trying to make some money by either selling gold you bought, or selling something made of gold that is possibly worth a lot of money, the first question you have to ask yourself is what kind of gold are you trying to sell?

Many different kinds of gold exist but the most common are grouped into two categories: scrap gold or gold bullion. Gold bars, coins, and certificates are all gold bullion while dental gold, any jewelry made from gold, or really anything that needs to be smelted down is scrap gold. Most people’s gold possessions are in the form of scrap gold, gold jewelry to be exact.

Scrap Gold

When you have old, used , or even broken jewelry, you may think that selling it for scrap gold is the best way to make some extra cash off of it, but honestly, that may not be the case. When selling gold jewelry based on its worth in gold, it won’t account for craftsmanship or the beauty of the item. When selling gold jewelry, first take it to a jewelry shop that buys used items and see what it is worth vs. its weight in gold. You could also try selling it online on eBay or some website if it is worth more than its gold value.

Knowing the current price of gold is crucial. Check the price of gold per ounce to have an idea of what it is worth so no pawnshop can rip you off. You can check these current prices at Kitco.com or BullionVault.com.

You may know the current price of gold per ounce but when selling old jewelry or scrap gold, you may not know the weight and purity. Purity is important because it can drastically increase or decrease the price. A jewelry shop can help you weight the pieces on a scale and test the purity with a substance called aqua regia.

The easiest, fastest, and most profitable way to sell gold jewelry is to separate it by purity, and for gold jewelry that is in karats. So 18 karats here, etc. Then you can weigh them together and sell them all as a bundle to make the most profit and know the amount of gold for sale. The lower the karats means the more metal alloy there is mixed with the gold so the value decreases.

But make sure, when selling gold for money, experts warn to be extremely cautious and basically in general just completely avoid “Cash For Gold” buyers who set up small shops in temporary places such as a small strip mall or hotel room. Very seldom will they give you the current and accurate price of gold per ounce. Only deal with reputable buyers when trying to sell your gold. When selling your scrap gold, search around and see what everyone is offering. You may decide a local pawnshop is the easiest way for you if you only lose out on a few percent of the real value. But take it to 3-4 reputable pawn shop dealers and try to compare offers before you accept the first one. A rule of thumb is that you should try to get at least 75% of the market price for gold. That may not seem like a greatttt deal to you but you have to remember, if you sell it to a pawnshop or reseller, they need to make a profit too. And it honestly may not even be worth your time to spend a large chunck of time getting 10-15% more. That’s different for gold bullion which you normally can get just a slight bit underneath the actual price for considering it is high in demand and so valuable.

Gold Bullion

Gold bullion is a lot different from gold jewelry. First off, a small increase in the purity can mean THOUSANDS of dollars more. That’s how important the purity or fineness is. Gold Bullion can come in gold bars, coins, or other valuables. When selling gold bullion, you most likely won’t sell it for a collector’s item unless it is a rare coin or something with substantial collectors value, if you have that, you have A LOT of money on your hands.

You will need to know the amount of gold for sale because that determines the price at which you sell. If it is less than 24 karats, it has metal alloys mixed in with the gold which decreases the value. When having a clerk at a pawn shop or store weigh your gold make sure they show you the weight so you are not tricked. Selling gold bullion your best bet is to find a gold only business or gold dealer at a coin store, maybe a jewelry shop. Again, call around and see what each place will offer you for gram per gold so you get the best price.

If selling a gold coin, try to take it somewhere first to have it inspected to make sure it is not something that is worth more as a collector’s item. Many items may have more value than you think, and have a professional examine any high priced gold item you have whether it be a bar or coin because if you are dealing with thousands of dollars, spending $30 to get it checked out may save you from getting scammed out of hundreds.

How to Make Money Buying Gold

2011-11-19T18:52:00.000-08:00

Want to make some money buying gold? Here’s the How To:

The oldest form of legal and long-term money is gold. Gold prices have consistently moved up and up over the years. The market may have swings and lose you money, yet gold has stayed strong and profitable. Follow these steps to learn how to make money buying gold.

Instructions On Making Money By Buying Gold

1. There is an essential key element to gold. When the economy is doing well, gold prices tend to fall. When the economy is bad, gold prices soar. You must learn the trends and patterns of gold before you buy.

2. Hit the books and study up. Find out and study the historical prices of gold in the past. Back in 1999, gold was selling for about $250 per ounce. By 2008 it topped $1,000 per ounce. This exact trend happens over and over again in history. Gold prices won’t make you rich over a day considering they don’t tend to fluctuate much per day, but often will steadily rise or fall over a period of time.

3. As I said in my haggle blog, “Buy low and sell high.” This may sound obvious, but if it was easy then everyone would do it. If you are buying gold, buy it when everyone else is looking to get rid of gold. Don’t follow the trend of others buying when it is popular.

4. Get the unpopular gold. High-quality gold coins are the most demanded gold items. With gold coins, the condition and rarity increase the price dramatically one increase in condition rating could mean THOUSANDS of dollars. Buy the ones that nobody wants and are in bad condition. You can often buy these in cheap lots from gold and coin dealers who want to unload them since most of their customers want the high-quality gold coins. When the price of gold increases to outstanding amounts, your bad conditioned gold will sell just as fast and very high.

5. Patience is a virtue. Holding your gold will pay off. Gather as much gold as you can when the economy is good and gold prices fall. Wait until the economy crashes downwards and then gold prices will skyrocket leaving you with heaps of profit.

6. “Buy as a wholesaler but sell as a retailer.” The reason Walmart, Sam’s Club, etc. have cheaper prices is because they buy as a wholesaler and in bulk to reduce prices. Many gold dealers waive sales tax and shipping when you buy a certain amount. When you sell you want to sell to the general public, not another wholesaler like yourself. A gold dealer will want a wholesale price from you but regular people will pay market retail. Internet auction sites, coin shows, or to another investor who isn't as smart as you are great places to sell your gold.

“Creativity is money”

2011-11-18T19:12:00.001-08:00

“Creativity is money”

Once upon a mystical time the writer of this blog said the phrase above. And it is true. Those with less creativity will be less enthused to make money and have less ideas on how to do it. It’s really not that hard to spend some time thinking of how it make money. And it’s kind of fun. All these ideas on this blog I thought of or have heard of. There are plenty of fun easy creative ways to make money.

Just a few ideas are:

1. Read the blog. There are plenty on here already.

2. Think of what you are good at. Video games? Poker? Etc. Have a tournament with some friends. $5 buy ins winner takes 75% 2^nd gets 25%. If you are good at it there is a good chance you will win. And even if you only make $10, that’s $10 and you played a game that you would for free to get it.

3. Figure out what to sell, have a garage sale, go to garage sales and buy things then sell them for more at your own garage sale

4. Get easy jobs around you. Mow some lawns, babysit, watch pets, clean garages, carry things for people, unload trucks, help with gardening, watch houses and collect mail while people are out of town, etc.

5. Set up some flyers for advertising for any of the above ideas

6. Do things for your relatives, wash some cars, sell baked goods

7. BE INNOVATIVE

All of these ideas may seem either childish or simple, but if you don’t like them get a job. Fill out some applications. But these are the basics. You gotta start somewhere with making money. And sometimes people like to be on their own schedule and these are things that let you do that. Jumping right into a job may not be for everyone because it is a big time commitment. But after doing some smaller ideas, and seeing how much more money you have to just do anything with, it may inspire them to get a job. Remember, everyone starts small and it is where you go after you start that matters.

Learn To Use The Stock Market

2011-11-14T09:57:00.000-08:00

Using the stock market is a GREAT way to make money. But beware, it is also a great way to lose money. The stock market is no doubt risky, but it can yield greater profit than almost anything else, but also greater losses. The stock market also takes time. It is no get rich quick scheme unless you start off with a large loan, invest it, and get very lucky. Not something I'd suggest doing unless you want to spend most of your life in debt.

Before you begin to look at the stock market there are some basic terms you need to know. These stock market terms will be used every day and are basics in using the market.

Ask – This is the lowest price that a seller will accept when selling a stock.

Bear – This refers to an investor who believes the stock market or a particular stock is declining. This is the opposite of a Bull.

Bid – This is the highest price that a buyer is willing to pay for a stock.

Broker – A person that buys or sells stocks, bonds, commodities and such in exchange for a fee which is called a commission.

Bull – An investor who believes the whole market or one individual stock is going to increase in price. This is the opposite of a Bear.

Dow Jones Industrial Average – This is a compilation of the 30 most traded blue chip stocks. This list is the most widely used for analyzing stock market indexes.

NASDAQ – This is a stock exchange consisting primarily of technology companies.

Stock – This is the smallest measurable unit of ownership in a company. Shares fall into either the common or preferred categories; companies issue shares of stock in order to raise capital without borrowing money.

Limit- This is a type of buy or sell. If you set a limit buy for a stock that is currently 25.55 and you set the limit buy for 25.00, the computer will auto buy the stock at that point and if it never reaches that point you will not buy the stock. Same with a limit sell. If you bought a stock at 25.00 and want to auto sell it at 29.00, that's where you put the limit sell, (you can put a max and a min so if it goes to low it also auto sells), and it will not sell until it hits that point.

Share- One single share in a company would be 1 share in a stock. So if it was priced 25.00, you would have 1 share for 25.00. If you bought two shares, it would be 50.00. And each share is affected by the increase and decrease in the stock value.

Portfolio- Your portfolio is all the stocks you own and how many shares of each.

Other Stock Market Terms

Investing terms – These words and phrases reflect stock market terms for various stock market strategies. These stock market terms are used to describe specific conditions or analysis.

Blue Chip – This term describes a company with a history of strong earning, traditionally increasing dividends and an outstanding balance sheet. Blue Chip stocks include Exxon-Mobile, Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart.
Book Value - This is the value of a company if assets and common stock equity are added together and all liabilities are subtracted. There is little correlation between the book value and the market value. Book value is used in such fundamental analysis measurements as Price to Book ratio.
Dividend – This is the portion of a company’s profit that is given back to the investors. Such payments are made on either an annual or quarterly basis.
Market Capitalization – A company's market capitalization, also known as its market cap, is calculated by taking the number of outstanding shares of stock multiplied by the current price per share.
P/E Ratio – This widely used analysis tool of Price to Earnings ratio measures now you pay for each dollar of corporate earnings. For example, if you have $30 stocks that report a profit of $2 per share, your P/E ratio is 15; $30 per share divided by $2 earnings per share equals 15. In this ratio the lower the P/E ratio, the better.
Spread: This stock market term reflects the difference between the Ask and the Bid.
Yield – This is the percentage of a dividend paid against the stock price. For example, if you receive a $3 dividend on a $30 per share stock, your yield is 10%.

Now to get to the actual fun part. Using it. You can kind of think of the stock market as a game. A very expensive, risky, game. But a game nonetheless. My suggestion would be to play around in a simulation for at least 1 month before you even think about investing real money. www.Smartstocks.com will provide you will a "similar" simulation to the real stock market. You will get 1 Million dollars in fake money to invest and it follows the real stock market changes. But you do not have to pay for orders such as you do in real life, what you do in the simulation does not affect the real market such as you do in real life, and you probably aren't reading this blog if you have $1 million. After you play around in the game, select a certain amount of money that you would use in REAL life and only use that much to play in the game. So if you only want to try investing $800, see how well you do with just that much, it makes it more realistic.

After you have decided you've had enough play time, let's get to the real market. First things first.

Set up an account with Etrade, ScottTrade, or AmeriTrade, research which one you want and what is better. Basically, Google it.

After setting up an account and knowing how to use the account, (there are tutorials on whichever trading site you use and I am not going to type out each tutorial), next comes the hard part.

Reasearch!!!!!

YOU MUST RESEARCH

Researching a stock (Average about 2 weeks everyday) before you buy it is crucial. Look at it's trends, ups and downs, latest news, what other investors think of it and especially recent quarter results (How much profit, net value, etc.)

Make sure you know everything about this stock before you get involved. You want to lose that money you invest? Didn't think so. Then research.

A tip is to not invest in high priced stock companies such as Apple and Google when you begin. This is because one single share can cost upwards of $400. They can and do fluctuate $10 a day but with only one share you are likely to only make or lose $20. It honestly isn't worth your time. Find stocks under $25 at the least for a beginner.

This is just a short summary on how to get involved in the stock market so here is one last tip. Diversify. This means have multiple different stocks in your portfolio. The reasoning behind this is because that way if ONE stock does bad, which most likely it will, the others that are doing good will make up for it. If you are buying only one stock, and it does bad, sorry, you are outta luck. So diversify your portfolio.

Video on How to Set Up eBay Account

2011-11-13T15:11:00.000-08:00

I just created my OWN How to Set Up an eBay account video on youtube. It is as below! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYDFLpBDpMU

Budgeting

2011-11-08T12:58:00.000-08:00

Now to budgeting........

Everyone is always wondering how they can make money right? Well how about saving money! If you save money, you will have more money than you would've if you didn't save that cash. Makes sense. So anyone who really wants to make more money, will always look at ways they can save money.

The first step is to Create a new budget every time you get money. For most people who receive a paycheck from their job, this is once every 2 weeks. Others, if you don't have a steady job and are just making money when you make it, say with the great creative ideas on this blog ;), then it will be more sporadic and infrequent. Either way, whether it's a regular or irregular interval, the best time to decide how you're going to spend your money is when you get it. Make it a rule that you don't spend any of your paycheck money until you've worked out your budget.

Make a list of the necessities to pay for until the next paycheck, such as:

Rent/mortgage
Utilities
Vehicle payments, insurance, maintenance (e.g. oil changes, tire rotations)
Debt (credit card payments, student loans, doctor's bills)
Gas
Tuition, school supplies
Food/groceries
Health insurance
Savings per paycheck! (Suggested amount is 20%-30% of each paycheck or payment put directly into your savings before you ever think about using for anything other than the necessities)

After you make a list of the items you need to pay for, create a chart with how much (or estimate) of how much they will cost. A great way to do this is in Microsoft Excel. For example, you groceries/food should be about the same amount each month, but for gas, you may drive a little more from one month to the next so always set an estimate higher than you think the actual cost will be, that way you will have extra spending money if you don't use it all.

If you are in high school you probably don't need to worry about MOST of this, but college students and older will.
If you make money sporadically instead of by paychecks, my suggestion is to always put away 20% right away without even thinking about it. You can put more in your savings later but this will be a fixed amount that you will always contribute before anything else.

Add up all of the amounts (necessities) and subtract it from your paycheck/payment amount. If you get a negative number, you have to cut some costs, find a way to live for cheaper. If you have a positive number (which you should) this is your excess money that is up to you to decide how to spend it. There are a few categories I would suggest using the excess money for:

Flex money. This should be about 10-20% of your regular expenses. It's for if something you need to pay for turns out to be slightly more expensive than you anticipated. Such as the gas example previously stated in the blog, or if your laptop breaks and you need a new one to work, etc.

Savings. Ideally, about 20%-30% of your paycheck/payment should go into your savings, but even if you are on a meager budget, 10% (if you do it consistently) is pretty good. Build up your savings account for emergencies, unexpected payments, investments, and your future. You should always have at least 5-6 times your regular expenses in your savings so you can deal with anything that comes your way, such as if you lose your job. NEVER let your savings go below that amount. After you reach that amount, keep saving for your future and investments.

Spending money. This is your leftover after you subtract flex money and savings money and necessities. Everyone needs relaxing time and de-stress time. Use this money for what you enjoy: things like clothes, eating out, movies, gifts, and anything fun. "If you start to cry when you realize how little fun money you have, then you need learn How to Reduce Your Expenses."

Keep everything except your spending money out of reach! This will make sure you don't touch it and it is there when you need it. The best way to do this is just to keep it in the bank and keep your spending money in cash or a seperate account.

Good luck!

Something broken? No problem! Make some money!

2011-11-06T18:31:00.000-08:00

This is a problem a lot of people have. They think something is broken, and it is, so they throw it out.

WRONG!

If something is broken you look if you can sell it first. Not many broken items sell, but certain ones do. And the best is electronics. The great thing about electronics is when one part is broken, it normally doesn't mean the whole unit is broken. Usually you can sell it for parts, as I have done a multitude of times.

First things first, if you have something that is broken, get it. And then look up what it is worth working, and take about 1/6 of that price and that is probably what you are going to get for it, at least if it is electronic. Cell phones in my opinion sell the best while broken, but video games consoles, controllers, etc. sell well too.

See if you can find a reference point for what it sells for in its current condition. Looking it up on eBay and then checking the little box "For Parts or Not Working" is a fast and easy way to do this. I have sold cell phones, the old ones from early 2000's for $20+ in broken condition. The parts are what they go for, or someone may be able to fix it up and sell it as refurbished.

So research the price, then Go Here to my selling blog and sell it on eBay! Congrats, you just made easy money.

Also, if your friends think they broke their phone and got a new one, give them $5 for it before they throw it away! You can make a good profit by doing the work of selling it.

eBay: What and When to Sell

2011-11-02T14:59:00.000-07:00

Alright so after reading The Master Selling eBay Guide and the post before on how to get set up on eBay, you should be a novice and have already started selling/buying on eBay. But how serious are you? Do you want this just as something to do when you have extra stuff lying around? Or do you actually want to make some real cash?
The latter obviously is a loaded question, of course everyone wants to make more cash, but don't be fooled. It will take a lot more time to make money. And if you just want to make some side cash by selling the items you don't want anymore, that's completely fine! There's nothing wrong with not wanting to work that hard and just get some extra cash on the side for some splurging!

But, if you are the one who wants to actually start this as a semi-part-time job, let's get to work on answering those questions you have. Yes I realize semi-part-time isn't real, but hey, if you are in college or busy, making a part time job on eBay is REALLY hard and takes a lot of time and learning.

One of your first questions is probably: "When is the best time to sell?"

Well let me give you the answer. If you sell consistently year round, remember Sunday afternoon-night is the best time to end your auctions. But there are certain spots of the year you want to hit eBay hard like a mad seller!
You need to do what retailers do. Don't you notice? When are the shelves empty? When is EVERYONE in the stores? Easy answer. Christmas.

Right before Christmas people go on a mad spree to get what they need to make their little child, teen, lover, or friend, happy.
People are generally lazy. That's a fact. They will wait until the last second until they realize that they need this item and will pay for it as long as they get it.
Stocking up before Christmas is sometimes a good idea. Things are on short supply during Christmas sales and when the retailers run out, you are there to provide for those who want ;)

Black Friday is right before Christmas so go out and get a bunch of deals then! Save em' up for Christmas and sell, sell, SELL!

Other great times of the year to sell are during the summer, lots of kids get summer jobs and want to use that extra money for something! So maybe focusing on teenage-young adult groups is a good way to make more money on eBay in the summer. Also, back to school shopping? Yea, people go nuts for that. Right before the school year starts give some people what they need.....for a price.

"What should I sell?"

Again, back to Black Friday. HIT UP THE DEALS! Get those deals at 3 A.M. for cheap and sell it to those who wanted to sleep in but lose $75 to you who got up on time!
Keep your eyes peeled. If you see something that's a great deal or that you have a suspicion mannyyy people will want for the holidays, grab it.
One of the best techniques you could use to get money for Christmas is to look up and find out what will be on short supply and high demand in the Christmas season. Two years ago, it was the Wii. So many people wanted it yet there wasn't enough. Some people went out and bought 10-20 consoles 2 months before and made $125 per console when they sold them on eBay.
Look for what people want. That's the only way you are going to sell anything. People have to want it and want to compete for it for you to get the profit you want.

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The Master eBay Selling Guide

2011-10-30T19:29:00.000-07:00

The Master eBay Selling Guide below is a collection of tips, tricks, and ways to maximize profit by selling on eBay collected from years of personal experience, forums, and sites all around the web. If you have read my previous two blogs and have followed the directions, right now you should have a feedback rating of 98-100%, have bough 5-10 items, researched items you might want to sell and categories you are interested selling in.

The first step to selling is ALWAYS to calculate all costs: all Paypal/eBay fees, shipping/DC/packaging materials, item cost, minimum profit you'll accept, self insurance if applicable. The combined total is good marker for where you will need your starting/selling price to begin. Go Here to see all of eBay's fees, and make sure you calculate all the other fees I have listed on top of those.

Next, start low. You don't want to put out an item that sells for average of $550 out as your first item sold on eBay. First off it's a little suspicious and since you are new, you won't have a lot of trust in your rating, not as many people will fully trust you, so it will scare away some bidders and you could lose a lot of profit on that big item. So start small, sell a few lower priced items that are easy to ship. The easiest way to start selling is to identify items that are around your house and are no longer used, and put them for sale on eBay. This will help you boost your trustworthiness and experience as a new eBay seller and won’t cost you any money up front because you already own what you are going to sell. Eventually however, you will run out of things around your house that you can sell so you’ll have to look elsewhere for your inventory. The best way to do this is finding a few highly demanded product for relatively low cost and then selling it on eBay for a profit.

When you are actually listing the price your item, be very cautious. A lower price will attract more attention and bidders but you may end up getting a lower price for it, also some bidders may be scared off by the competition for the item and resign themselves to not being able to get it. If you price higher, some people may just not like the price and be deterred by that itself. Shipping price is also crucial. People really get put off by shipping charges that are too high and unfair. Free shipping attracts buyers and you will more than likely be able to get more money for your item , which in turn will cover the original shipping cost you thought would be fair. Research how you are going to ship it before you actually do.Your profits will suffer if you do not learn how to control your shipping costs. Make sure that you are getting the best deal possible on your shipping materials BEFORE you list anything for sale on eBay. I personally think that it is a MUST to have a digital shipping scale if you are serious about buying/selling for a profit. This will let you know exact prices in shipping and let you calculate down to the penny.

Ship everything ASAP that is bought from you. The faster you ship, the happier people are since they get their item. You can list that it will take 2-5 business days to ship but if you make the effort and ship THAT day as soon as it is bought, you will get extremely good feedback and it encourages that people are in good hands and they are going to get their purchase faster than anywhere else.

Chose a category for your listing carefully, it can be difficult as there are hundreds to choose from, this is important as by this is what many buyers base their purchases off of.

Adding a picture of your item is a must; around 30% more people look at items with pictures than items without, the more people who look at your item the better chance you have of selling it. Make sure you have a high quality digital camera, a bad photo is a great way to ruin an awesome eBay listing. A photo will show people exactly what they are buying.

Communication is key. Communicating with a buyer by leaving feedback or messaging them to let them know the item is on its way will build up your reputation.

Here comes maybe the most important part of selling:

Listing:

This includes the Title AND Description. The title and description should be done in a profession and clean way. That doesn't mean including random signs that make it pop like, IT'5 S000 C00L! GET iT NOW! CHEAP CA$H! PHONE! No. You want to include as much detail as possible while still saying exactly what it is and getting the most searches. So if it's a silver dollar coin don't put just that and leave the rest to your description. You would want something like Silver Lincoln MS-22 Penny Coin 1858. That may not be historically accurate but that's what I mean. That way if someone just searches, coin, or silver coin, or Lincoln, or penny, your listing will come up in all of them. The description people want to see what is exactly entailed when they buy this product and what are its features and what it comes with.

For the description make sure to describe the condition and the details of your item as accurately as possible. If you are selling an item on eBay that is brand new then the condition of the item will pretty much speak for itself. But if it is used, make sure to include EVERY single defect about the product that would be different about a brand new product, it doesn't matter how inconsequential it is to you, it isn't like that for the buyer.Your buyers will expect and understand that used products will have some degree of wear and tear. Document all of the wear and tear with photographs and display them in your listings so that the buyer knows how it looks and how severe the wear and tear actually is.

Some final tips before I end this blog:
These next few tips and tricks are CRUCIAL to improving profit and only experienced seller's normally know of these.

1. Listing Time: If you want the most people to see your product as possible, set the auction up to end on between 7-9 pm. That is when most people are home, have unwound and ate dinner, and are on their computer. Sunday is probably your best option but Monday works as well. If you can't end it at those times, no worries, but you may lose out on a few bucks.

2. Always Add .99 onto Your Shipping: Pretty simple. Make your shipping 1.99 or 2.99 or 5.99 if you have a shipping price. Not $6 or $4. People don't always add up the costs of the cents and it gives you an extra dollar or more sometimes.

3. Ship for free? Or not?

Buyers naturally love free shipping but to sellers it’s just another cost of doing business on eBay. Some sellers claim that by offering free shipping you can typically recuperate the shipping cost in your auction price because people will bid higher when an auction has free shipping. Here’s a suggestion: If free shipping is the norm for a particular product then I too will offer free shipping if I am trying to also sell THAT particular product. Electronics items for example, are usually sold with free shipping because competition amongst sellers is pretty intense in that market. However some other items such as collectables may be best to not be sold with free shipping..

4. Start your auctions at a low price.

A low auction start price will attract more buyers and will cost you less money in eBay listing fees. Some sellers prefer to list ALL their auctions at .99 cents and have no reserve price (A reserve price means if the auction does not go above $__ then you don't have to sell it) Do your research in this department however, there are some markets where you would want to start your auction at a higher price and or use a reserve price. Also, those who start ALL auctions at .99 cents normally have been on eBay a very long time, have a great reputation and a lot more customers than a new seller.

Now your ready to list! Go for it! Find some items and start making money.

eBay: Getting Ready to Sell!

2011-10-29T13:40:00.000-07:00

Alright, so if you read the eBay/PayPal Tutorial in the post before this you will now have an eBay and PayPal account and be slightly familiar with both sites. If you just want to buy on eBay, you are all set! :) Go start buying.

Yet if you want to sell on eBay and make the most profit, you are far from being done. Right now you are just a young cocoon and you need to wait until you can blossom into a beautiful butterfly.......so yea.

Anyways, you are still a novice seller. Before you actually sell you need to get ready to sell.

First of all, you need to decide what it is that you are wanting to sell. You want to start by searching some of the items that are already listed on eBay for sale and get an idea of the prices and margins of the items/categories you are interested selling in. You can use listings and prices that you find as a guide to what you are planning to sell. "Watch” is a good eBay tool that will assist you in watching how other eBayers bid on the items and what is the average price they go for. You will be able to monitor the progress and see what the selling prices usually end up being. Look closely at how the item is described and make sure that when you describe your item, it is done in a way that is professional and clean. So look around and see how others who sell a lot have described and listed their products.

Next, you actually get to use eBay, yayyyy!

Every eBay buyer or seller has a rating. If its anything below 95%, normally that is bad. You get bad ratings when you describe your products wrong, don't communicate between you and your customer, take too long to ship it, or really anything that would displease someone with your selling services and product or how you buy.

So you want to start off by having a good rating. So every seller needs to start as a buyer to get a rating and show that they can be expected to make and receive payments and follow common courtesy. You want to search up some items (preferably ones that you actually want) and buy them off eBay. I would suggest between 5-10 items. It doesn't matter the price, just make sure you make the payments fast and you get something you would want, not just to waste money.You will receive good feedback and it will show that you can be trusted. The buyer or seller can leave feedback first but just make sure you get your feedback. If you leave feedback and they don't, contact them.

This is enough for now, there will be one more part to getting ready to sell, work on buying the items, seeing average prices that the items you would be interested in selling go for, and looking at how others describe theirs for now. In the next blog you will actually list your first item!

How To Get Started on eBay/PayPal!

2011-10-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

Alright people, it's eBay/PayPal week so first I'm just going to post a blog of how to get started on eBay, get signed up for an account, and show you how to start. Other blogs with come with selling, buying, tips/tricks, etc. But first off, if you just want to get general overview information about eBay and not step by step procedures to becoming a regular and professional eBayer, go to my other post a few weeks ago. The direct link is right below, its short and simple but not for those trying to learn how to better themselves, mainly useful links and some tips:
http://collegecashes.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-to-use-ebay-basics.html

It's hard to know what to do first, so lets start with just signing up.

Sign Up For A Free eBay Account: Click Here to sign up for a free eBay account and enter in the information.
(Don't worry millions of people use eBay, it's safe and your information will be completely protected.)

Sign Up For A Free PayPal Account: Click Here to sign up for a free PayPal account. Again, millions use it and your information will be safe. This is actually the safest, easiest and fastest way to buy/sell on eBay so it is something you will need.

So now you have you have both your accounts set up. Let's start now with getting verified on PayPal and linking your credit/debit card and bank account so you can make purchases and receive your money.

Link Your Credit/Debit Cards: Linking these will let you make purchases on eBay and basically use your credit or debit card without entering the information each time to make a purchase. This way you don't have to keep money in your PayPal account, you can have it in your bank account or pay the bill of your credit card.

Put your cursor over the "Profile" Tab and select "Add or Edit Credit Card"
Then follow the steps provided by PayPal (Have your debit/credit card ready with you)

Link Your Bank Account: Linking your bank account will let you freely transfer money to and from your PayPal account to your bank account. FOR FREE! You can get checks sent in the mail to you if you prefer but they will take out around $2.50 to send the check to you and it takes 2-3 weeks while the online transfer is instantaneous.

Put your cursor over the "Profile" Tab and select "Add or Edit Bank Account"
Follow PayPal's Instructions on how to do this

Once you have added your bank account, go to your PayPal "My Account" And "Overview" and click the "Get Verified" link next to Status that is under your name. You will have to have an online account with whichever bank provider you have (Chase, Bank of America, Etc) and they will deposit 2 small amounts between .01 cents and .99 cents within the next few days and you need to enter what they deposited to become verified.

Congratulations you are now verified and ready to go on PayPal!

Next we want to get you familiar with eBay. Getting to know the site, how it works, and what sells best is all a part of becoming a great eBayer. Before you can make money you have to figure out the site.

Explore: Go to eBay, log in, and check out what are interested in. Use the search bar at the top of the page if you know a specific item you are interested in, or go to "Categories" on the left if you want ideas of what may be interesting to look through.

Your home page will look something like the above picture. Check out "My eBay" in the top right hand corner to see your past sales, what items you are watching, your bids/offers, etc. Go to "Community" and then the "Answer Center" or "Discussion Forums" if you want help with a problem or are confused about something on the site.

That is all for right now, spend some time getting to know the site and in the next blog we will get you even closer to making money and selling/buying on eBay! You are on your way!

How to Haggle

2011-10-23T10:24:00.000-07:00

^This is the wrong way to haggle.

Alright, how to haggle. Let's see, the basic concept. If you are the seller, you want the highest price possible, if you are the buyer, you want the lowest price possible. This should be a pretty quick blog, there's not much "skill" to haggling, if you know how to it is not a difficult concept. You have to be asking realistic prices while at the same time driving the other person to the price you want. Haggling also involves this: become a good salesman and know how to bluff. This goes for both buyer and seller. For the seller you want to convince the buyer to have the highest view possible of this product your selling such that he/she thinks it is absolutely INCREDIBLE and they need it now before someone else gets to it. For the buyer you want to instill fear into your seller convincing them that you don't want it that much, it's not all that interesting, and it's really not that good of a product.

Seller:

Approach 1: Start with a price you would NOT expect to get. Don't make it ridiculous so the buyer walks right out the door right then and there. If you would like to get $50 for it don't say $150. Start around $75 or $80. Then say the buyer goes $30. You try to decrease SLOWER than the buyer increases or the same. So the best way for this situation to go would be then you to go down to 70 from 75 and get them to go to 40, then you could go to 60, they go to 50, and you say lets meet in the middle at 55. Voila you have $55.

Make sure you have the lowest price you are willing to go in your mind before you start haggling. Say your lowest was $40, when it gets too low and the buyer refuses to come up, just say sorry and tell them no deal and walk away. Sometimes you may just have to go find another buyer but other times they will stop you and say "Alright well what do you want for it?" And then it is in your hands because you KNOW they want it. Don't try to over sell them but if their highest was $35 then tell them $55. And haggle from there and try to get $45 at least.

Buyer:

Approach 1: If you are the buyer and you get to make the first move, ask the seller what they want for it. Make sure before you ask you know the average price the item goes for. Say it goes for average of $50. Your objective is to get it for LESS than you can get it somewhere else. You want the seller to lower the price more than you up your offer. So if you start out at $25 and they start out at $65. You go $30 they go $55. Then $35 and $50. Then you say $40. They accept. The end and you save $10. And if they reject whatever your highest offer is you walk away and manyyyy times they will stop you and accept it. Or accept it a day later. If not, just go find another seller.

The starting offer/selling price is everything for the buyer and seller. Buyer, don't go too low but low enough they know you are interested and they lower their price, seller, don't go too high you scare them off.

How To Use eBay (Basics)

2011-10-17T19:41:00.000-07:00

http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/getting-started.html

^ There you go. Follow that and you're good.

......................................................What? You are still here? Fine, I guess I'll teach you what I know.

Obviously as with anything there are steps and you need to get set up and know the basics before you really start buying/selling. This guide can help you use eBay whether you want to use it to sell all of your personal items or ones you have picked up from garage sales, friends, online, etc. Or you can use it to buy a bunch of things you find interesting/want and get them for way lower than retail. Or you can buy/sell and try to make a profit.

First off, you need to get started with an account. http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/getting-started.html <--------Now you actually want to go to this link.

1. Register - Click it on the home page of eBay or on the link provided above. Choose a username and password, enter your email and information and voila! There's your new eBay account. Remember it.

2. IMPORTANT! Don't get scammed with fake emails!- eBay is an excellent and very reliable site. Your information IS and WILL BE protected. eBay will NEVER ask for your password or if you find something fishy, report it. Follow the steps below to remain safe on eBay

"Learn about trust and safety on eBay

Beware of spoof (fake)emails that claim to be sent by eBay. They ask you to reply with personal information, such as your credit card number, social security number, or account password. Learn how to spot a spoof email and what to do about it.
Before you buy an item, review the feedback that other members have left for a seller. Learning about a seller's trading history helps you decide whether they are someone you feel secure trading with.
To help create a safe and fair trading environment, we have rules and policies for all members.
To help keep you safe when buying and selling, we also offer protection programs for buyers and sellers.
If you ever need to resolve a dispute you can use our Resolution Center."

3. Start Learning - It's not going to come naturally but eBay is literally made for a 4th grader to be able to work it. So anyone above the age of 10 should know how to use this. If you are under 18 please get parental permission. Just figure out how to buy/sell, how to list items, how to bid, how to navigate the pages, find out what the site offers and the best deals. Please do NOT bid on the first item you see that you THINK is an awesome price. Please read the description. eBay DOES sell broken items and it is allowed because many people use them for parts but it is required to be described under the listing. Just read the listing, figure out exactly what is being sold and if it is for the right price for you or not. Do your research and it will be fine. Reading this article is the first big step in the right direction.

If you want to learn more about how exactly to buy/sell, place a bid, list items, etc. Go to these links:
How to Buy: http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/questions/buy-item.html
How to List an Item for Sale: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/questions/list-item.html

Those are the basics. In a later blog I will give personal techniques and tips on how to expertly use eBay, make the most profit off of a listing, snipe an item, and more.

4. eBay Uses REAL Money! - Yes, I find this a little ridiculous I have to post this but if I don't I will get a comment, "THEY ASKED FOR MY CREDIT CARD INFO OMG WHAT DO I DO???" Well no duh. You buy something, you pay for it. That's how it works in the real world.
But have no fear! PayPal is here!.....Yea, use PayPal. In a later blog I will explain how to use PayPal and set up an account but again, it's relatively easy and anyone could figure it out so for those that aren't super lazy, go take a whack at it and set up an account. It's the best way to pay, fastest way to pay, and easiest way to pay. You don't even have to transfer money anywhere, just link it to your bank account, credit card, or debit card.
Let me repeat that eBay and PayPal are completely safe, millions of people use it worldwide and as long as you keep your information safe you will be completely fine. It's just as safe as carrying around a credit card.

So yes if you want to buy or sell something, you should join PayPal. eBay and PayPal are completely free to sign up and everything. If you signed up and never did anything again you would never pay a cent. There are fees taken from your profit if you sell something on eBay and fees to transact it through PayPal. It's normally only a few bucks for every $100 so it's not bad at all for using their services, and again, its only if you sell something.

How to Pay: http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/pay-on-ebay.html
Go here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/receivingpayment.html and view the top questions on RECEIVING payment.

5. Selling (Buy It Now vs Auction) - When selling, you can list a Buy It Now price which means the user HAS to buy it for that price there is no debating. That way it will either go unsold or sell for the price you want. You can just list it as a Buy It Now, or you can just list it as an auction, or have both. An auction you can set a $100 item for .01 cent and let the buyers fight it out to who gets the item. This will instill competition and you may get a MUCH better price than you could have for a Buy It Now or you may end up getting less than you could have. That's the risk. But as a buyer, the Buy It Now lets you buy it right away no time on waiting for an auction to end and no chance of being outbid, but an auction allows you to get the same item for a much lower price. Just do your research on the cost of the item and as a buyer, try to get it lower or the same average cost, and a seller try to get the same average cost or higher.

6. Buyer Protection- Don't worry, you may be wondering, "What if I pay $150 for an item and the buyer never gives it to me or it doesn't work?" Well there's protection and eBay won't let that happen, they got your back. It covers your purchase AND original shipping payment.
eBay Buyer Protection: http://pages.ebay.com/coverage/index.html

7. You Are Ready! - Start buying and selling! I have provided links at the bottom of the page to provide additional help on using eBay. Remember: RESEARCH your item before you buy or sell. Nobody is going to buy an item for $100 when everyone else is selling for $10 all over eBay. And don't buy that $100 item when its $10 from everyone else. Just make sure you do your research and learning and you will make TONS of profit and money! GO: http://www.ebay.com/

Now watch how Weird Al Yankovic Shows off his Pro eBay Skillz:

Helpful links:
Rules for buying: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/buyer-rules-overview.html
Rules for selling: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/overview.html
Seller Fees: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/questions/what-fees.html
How to Find Items: http://pages.ebay.com/help/search/questions/how-do-i-find.html
How to Update your Account: http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/questions/update-account.html
Packaging and Shipping: http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/packing.html

For more in depth help look through all of the links on the left hand side of the page of these links I have provided and just keep reading through all the help and hints. It's quite easy and very profitable once you figure out how to use eBay.

Links

2011-10-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

http://www.college-party-tips.com/

http://moneyinpjs.co/

http://www.adpostingjob.com/

http://www.pharmacy-merchant-account.net

http://www.sunrisedata1.net

FreeWebSubmission.com
http://www.cambodiavietnamholidays.com/Information-Resources/ (PR 0)

http://www.theinternetgateway.com/

http://www.home-based-sales-jobs.com/links2.html (PR 0)

http://www.cambodiavietnamholidays.com/Information-Resources/ (PR 0)

http://Link2me.com Directory

http://www.cambodiavietnamholidays.com/

Search Engine Submission - AddMe

http://www.offshoremerchants.com

The site just gives creative ideas and advice on how to make extra cash as a college student or just around the house, around a few hundred dollars a month for extra spending money. It also has tutorials on how to use eBay, etc. and it gets updated every few days so keep checking back on it. If you want more wants to learn how to make money on the side or online go to:
http://collegecashes.blogspot.com/

Some of the most popular links are

Sell Your Gold for Money: http://collegecashes.blogspot.com/2011/11/how-to-sell-your-gold.html
Learn the Stock Market: http://collegecashes.blogspot.com/2011/11/learn-to-use-stock-market.html
Budgeting: http://collegecashes.blogspot.com/2011/11/budgeting.html
The MASTER eBay Selling Guide: http://collegecashes.blogspot.com/2011/10/ebay-selling.html

Reselling (Part Two: Buy/Sell Normal Items)

2011-10-14T18:12:00.000-07:00

First of all, some of the steps are in different orders. The first thing you need to do is find what item you are going to buy and once you have figured that out, you have to find the average selling price for this item. Whenever I am selling an item that is not super high in demand, but still modestly demanded, such as maybe a paintball gun, I will fix in my mind that I am going to sell it at the lower end of the average sale. So if it normally sells for about $200-$300, then I will assume I am going to make $200 and anything past that is luck and more profit

Next, you have to assume this might take a little more time than say a ticket or something that sells extremely easy, such as an iPhone. I resell a lot of electronics and phones and iPhones especially are GREAT for reselling, but so is any electronic. But you have to get them for the right price.

Before buying the item you need to map out how much time and energy it will take you to sell this item. Because is $15 really worth 5 hours of time? Probably not. And you can find better items. But $15 for 30 minutes isn't bad extra cash. Or $50 for 3 hours is pretty good too. Here are the things you need to consider:

Time it will take you to research and sell
Cost of shipping (If you ship), cost of listing (If you list it on a site such as eBay)
Profit you will make if you buy it for what you think you will and sell it for the lowest average cost

Those will tell you if it is worth it to buy the item and take the time to sell it.

After all of this is done, you need to buy the item. Remember: BUY LOW, SELL HIGH. Try to haggle it as low as you can to gain maximum profit. I will be posting a blog soon about how to haggle. When you have bought the item, start selling. I PERSONALLY suggest eBay for multiple reasons. It has the most traffic daily (more than amazon), and an auction is at the advantage for you so multiple people can compete and you can always put a Buy It Now price. (I will be blogging on how to use eBay soon!) And you probably won't find someone randomly who is like, "Oh yea I was looking for a Pxx200 Softshot Paintball Gun! That's so convenient your selling it!"

When selling try to remember these tips.

Keep the price reasonable. Don't sell it for $100 more than what it is worth. Trust me, it won't sell.
If it doesn't sell the first time, list it again for the same price and advertise more. Facebook, Online Forums, etc.
If it doesn't sell the second time, lower the price and list it again.
Keep listing until you get to the lowest price you are willing to accept.

If it doesn't sell by the end of these steps, you either didn't do your research and bought an item that is nowhere near worth the value you are trying to sell it for, it's really hard to sell and you should keep trying, or you are doing something wrong in steps to sell it.

The last thing I want to reiterate is very important. Don't Get Greedy. This mainly applies to when not reselling online, but online don't list for too high a price. When you aren't selling online, and let's say you bought a ticket for $20 and have an offer for $50. Well you set up a meeting time and already confirmed the buy, then someone comes and says "Hey I'll give you $55!" The problem with that is once you cancel the person you have already confirmed the buy with, they will go find another seller and/or won't come back to you. And then a lot of times the other guy will end up not giving you the $55 because he doesn't want the ticket anymore and then you are stuck with no buyer and a loss of money.

Really, this is a greattttt way to make money. Both with the tickets/events and just other random items, you can make up to a few hundred dollars a month and that's a good amount of spare change for a really small amount of work.

Now if your are reselling an ITEM (and your buying it from a person or something like that), not something such as a ticket that has a certain date you have to sell it by or that increases in price as time goes one, there are different steps and rules.

Still please remember to follow the steps about supply and demand, Buy LOW-Sell HIGH,
Buy something people want/are interested in, and RESEARCH!!!

Reselling! (Part 1:Tickets/Limited Time Frame)

2011-10-14T15:16:00.000-07:00

Reselling is one of the easiest ways to make some quick cash without a lot of work. The key is finding an item that you can sell easily to either online or selling to the public (Your College, high school, etc). The rule of resellers is: Buy LOW, Sell HIGH. If you look around, you can figure out that a bunch of people are actually really uninformed about prices of different items. And with 30 minutes of research you can be way more informed, know the buying and selling prices and make tons of profit.

For this blog I'm going to use an example a hypothetical college student with a ticket(s) to a concert or sporting event. But this is just one of hundreds of ideas you can come up with.

First Step: Find an item that people have, and more importantly, that people want.

For this, there are HUNDREDS great ideas, but one in particular is tickets. Any kind of tickets, but mostly sporting events and concerts. Don't you think a lot of people would pay quite a bit of money in order to see Drake perform in person? I'm sure they will. A lot of schools have concerts that sell out quickly but are super low prices for student tickets. Get there 1 hour before the ticket stand opens and you should be able to get a ticket. If its a high performing artist and you get a good seat, a $30 ticket can go for $80+. And if your not in college, check where performances are held in your area and figure out how and where to get them cheap and first.
Like I said, you can buy it at the ticket stand for usually lower than what it will go for a week before the concert or game, but there is another way to buy them. Hundreds of students buy these tickets. So that means there are a lot of people who either figure out they can't go, or just don't want to anymore. The trick is to find and buy their tickets EARLY. The prices get higher the closer to the concert you get. So if you get them the day after they go on sale or close after, you can buy it for face value or even sometimes less with enough convincing, and you can get more tickets this way and either double or triple your profit. People are uninformed about prices normally. If they waited they could do the same thing you do and make a profit. But they want everything NOW and just want their money back or even will sometimes take a small loss, this means good news for you.

Second Step: Wait

The day after you buy it people aren't going to buy it for $50+ what you got it. Normally as the date of whatever you bought the ticket for gets closer, the higher the price is. You choose when you want to sell it. Don't sell it too late, but don't sell it too early. If it's too early you could be losing out on a lot of cash, and if it's too late, there may be an excess of tickets or everyone who wants one may have already gotten one and you have to sell it for a super discounted price or not at all.

Third Step: Sell It

People are generally lazy. That's a fact. They will wait until the last second until they realize that they want to go to this concert or event and realize it's too late to buy a ticket from the stand because they are sold out. So this is where you come in. Of course they will look online for people selling tickets. So you can advertise. Post it on Facebook, on your college page, eBay, Amazon, and a forum for people who want tickets to this event. And since they figure out so late that they just "neeeeedddd" this ticket, they are willing to pay through the roof for it. And you are there to provide it. And so you figure out a price you would want (look it up online and figure out the average price they are going for at that time, just like I said in my last blog) Then try to haggle them to a price you would sell it for. (I will explain how to haggle in a later blog).

The whole deal has to do with supply and demand and economics. When the supply is greater than the demand, the price is driven down. When the demand is greater than the supply, the price is driven up. The equilibrium price will be when there is an equal amount of demand and supply. But as the event date gets closer, on average the price normally goes up because more people demand it and are frantically searching for a ticket that someone will sell or doesn't want.

If you follow these steps, its an easy way to make $10-$50 profit per ticket you sell and it depends on how many events you buy tickets too and how demanded they are. Remember: Don't buy a ticket to an event just to buy it, make sure its something popular people will actually be interested in going to or buying. And don't buy a ticket when the ticket stand has unlimited amounts of tickets to sell and they will never sell out. Your going to lose money if you do that, not make money. The key is to buy an easy to sell, popular, LIMITED audience ticket that will have people wanting it still two days before the event.

These are ideas and opinions and I am not using personal stories or reference so I hold no liability to anything in this blog. Also remember I am not responsible for profits/losses that you make, and before you do anything make sure it is legal with your college, school, etc. Scalping tickets is not always legal in college/a town, etc.

Selling Rarely Used Items

2011-10-13T22:36:00.000-07:00

People always think making money is A LOT harder than it really is. It's really all about how much you are willing to think of it, how creative you are, and how much time you want to put into it. Personally, I sell my own stuff I don't use anymore, or really anything that the cash would be of more use to me than the item. When you first look through your room back home (if your a college kid) or just in your room if you live at home, then look through your old stuff that you never will use again or really doesn't have any value to you. Remember "One man's trash is another man's treasure", and as cliche as it is, it's true. I could sell a piece of my "junk" but it could go for 20$ or more. And how hard is that? I look through my room for ten minutes everywhere and in my closet and I could find maybe 20$-50$ worth of stuff easy. First off is to find stuff that LOOKS of value or really, the best thing you can possibly sell in today's world are electronics. They are small, easy to package, and sell for a lot higher prices than anything else. And a big hint, you can sell broken electronics pretty easily too.

Here's a list of some of the easiest selling items that are relatively common:

1.Electronics
2.DVD's
3.Textbooks
4.Video Games
5.Gifts you've never opened

(These are just the best items to sell, others can easily sell too, they just aren't as common in a high school/college students room, but I've sold things ranging from a briefcase to a book on how to organize your life to jewelry)

The big one is electronics. This is where most of the big cash will be made. You may say "I don't have any electronics!" I'd beg to differ. You don't have any games you don't use for the PSP, Xbox, PS2 or 3, etc? Memory Cards, Camera's, Phones, Mp3 Players, Watches, there's a ton! What about a controller? Controllers can go for 10-40$ depending on what system and what accessories are with them. They don't have to be new electronics either, I recently sold a crappy old 4gb mp3 player for 29$. Not bad right? I haven't used it in 4 years and I have an iPhone 4 now so its not like I need it.

The best way like I said is to take about a half an hour and shift through all your old stuff. Once you find a couple good items that you think you can sell, now comes the research part. Find out what they are worth. The time really depends on how many items you have. One item can take 5 minutes on the computer, if you have a lot of old items, it can take longer. But the basic concept is go to eBay, Amazon, Google, any place you can find the price of your item in the current condition it is in. AVERAGE. This is the hint. Don't expect 55$ off of an item that sells from 30$-55$. Normally electronics will yield a selling price closer to the highest selling price but other items will go for the average

The next step is to really figure out what's your best option for selling it. There are plenty of options:

First option: Online Selling

This will give you the option for having a bigger audience see your product you want to sell, but it comes with some setbacks:

You will probably take some time setting up an eBay or Amazon account (But thats a one time thing and personally I think its the most USEFUL thing ever)
You have to take time taking a picture of your item, posting details, and waiting for it to sell
IN ONE OF MY NEXT BLOGS I WILL EXPLAIN HOW TO USE EBAY!

Second Option: Sell to a friend

This will be probably easier, quicker and informal, but first off you have to find a friend wanting to buy that item so there is a more limited buying audience
Also you might feel bad charging your friend full price when they can pay the same to get it online, so this may not be the best way to sell and make a lot of money

Third Option: Advertise to the Public

This works well if you go to college, this is because at a college you can literally post flyers ANYWHERE. Post them in your dorm, on the quad, in buildings, anywhere on campus and leave your email address with them telling you to send offers. You can haggle once you get responses.

Lastly, after you figure out the best way to market the items you are selling, you have to figure out how to make the most profit. In my eBay blog I will describe how to maximize your cash, but the best way in person to haggle is basically start high and haggle down in increments until you reach a meeting point. If they go to low, just reject the offer and they may up their price they may not, it depends on how bad they want it.
Then, sell your item for what it's worth to you. You can easily make a few hundred bucks just by selling some things from your room that you don't use anymore. Enjoy the cash and wait for more updates on how to make money, I'll be posting a lot more soon!