$5000 Challenge

2006 Challenge

2005-12-26T01:06:00.000-08:00

For 2006, I'm beginning a new challenge of turning nothing into $1,000,000 - as you might expect, this will be a long term challenge. You can keep track of this challenge through the below link:

2006 Money Challenge

The challenge comes to an end

2005-12-26T01:01:00.000-08:00

It appears I will end this challenge well short of my goal of $5,000. I didn't give up on it becasue I wasn't going to make the goal, but because Nate and I decided to try and make the site into a full time job. That has meant that the free time I did have for the challenge, I haven't had the last couple of months.

Part of any goal setting is to re-evaluate the goals and priorities from time to time. While the challenge was fun and a good experience, it made little sense to continue with it when given the chance to try and turn the site into my full time job since doing so would be my dream job. In an effort to make that happen, I have been spending every spare minute I have working on some aspect of the site and thus no activity on with the challenge this past month.

For those who were following my challenge, my apologies for the lack of entries toward the end, but I hope you can understand the reasons for it. I placed my time and efforts toward what I believe will be most beneficial for me (and the site) in the long run.

I am looking forward to the new challenge beginning this January. I will definitely be taking part although the monetary goal will be a lot less as I expect the vast majority of my time will still be dedicated to building and improving the site. Since I have an extra six months this time, I hope to move beyond the $1,300 I was able to earn with this challenge.

October Advertising Revenue

2005-11-12T17:55:00.000-08:00

Previous Total: $1326.00

Current Total: $1327.13

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 65 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges - 11 photos - 1 video - 1 Super 8mm movie - 3 books - 15 cards

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 17 hour 41 minutes

October advertising revenue on the separate sites I set up for this challenge was disappointing to say the least. The total came to $1.13 between them all which is far less than I hoped for. Then again, I didn't promote it at all so I guess I shouldn't expect much. I'm not expecting much of an improvement at all this month either, but won't turn away any of it :)

Updates On All That Has Been Happening

2005-11-12T17:45:00.000-08:00

Previous Total: $1326.00

Current Total: $1326.00

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 65 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges - 11 photos - 1 video - 1 Super 8mm movie - 3 books - 15 cards

Time Spent Since Last Post: 1 hours 45 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 17 hour 41 minutes

Time for a long overdue update. First off, I've come to the realization that I won't make the $5000 goal by the end of the year. While I'm disappointed, it was simply a matter of where I needed to dedicate the time I had. My main priority at this point and time is growing the main site so that I can make it into my full time job and that has meant a lot of extra hours which I hadn't anticipated when I began this challenge. part of all goals is reassessing them as new developments take place and while I won't meet this goal, it hasn't been because I have been lazy (I'm still watching virtually zero TV) , but because I decided that there was something more important than this challenge where I needed to dedicate my time.

That being said, I'm not giving up on the challenge all together because it does bring in some extra money that is well worth the time when I have it. I'm lowing my goal to half the original and $2500 by the end of the year. Not sure if I can meet that either, but with the stock I currently have I should be able to come close without having to go and find a lot of new stuff.

I will update the changes since m last post that has added a bit to my total individually...again, mainly to keep it straight in my own mind.

Time Continues To Be My Enemy

2005-10-21T19:36:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $1243.82

Current Total: $1326.00

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 65 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges - 11 photos - 1 video - 1 Super 8mm movie - 3 books - 15 cards

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 36 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 15 hour 56 minutes

Time is my current enemy on this challenge. I just don't seem to have much of it anywhere. I'm not sure how much more organized I can get. I feel that I'm more organized and productive than I have been for a long time, but still don't have much spare time to work on this challenge.

Part of it is moving full time to the website as my main job. I could work 24 hours a day and still not do everything I want to do on it, so I find that I'm spending more time trying to make this succeed than i was doing my previous work. The inevitable result is less time to spend on the challenge. I'm not sure how I will address this problem, but I need to find a system that works with all aspects taken into consideration.

It isn't going to help that I have friends coming in for 10 days to visit. It's going to be great spending time with them and taking them around Japan, but it won't help out this challenge any.

I did have 9 cups sell the other day for a total of $186.59 - $21.03 in fees for a profit of $165.56. That gets divided in half which adds $82.78 to my total. I also put up another of the hunting badges on auction which takes $0.60 off the total. I didn't find the time to put on any of the items I had found last weekend which isn't a good sign. Hopefully I can spare a couple of hours this weekend to get them photographed and set up to put on auction.

I won't be making my usual weekend flea market rounds (that is how busy it's become) so that should free up a bit of time. I just have to remind myself to keep plugging away at it when I do have a few moments of free time. Back to work on the site....

Some Good Finds

2005-10-16T16:38:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $1313.82

Current Total: $1243.82

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 76 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges - 11 photos - 1 video - 1 Super 8mm movie - 3 books - 15 cards

Time Spent Since Last Post: 1 hours 13 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 15 hour 20 minutes

It was an interesting day at the flea market. I found what could possibly help me get a lot closer to the goal in an old book box. i had to do some digging through a lot of junk to find it, but when I did and hear the price, I grabbed it in a second. I paid $40 for a box that contained 3 books, a video, an super 8 film and 11 photos. Although the Super 8 movie and video are post war items, the rest are pre war and I think will sell well. The books aren't in the greatest of shape, but they still should have collector interest. I'll get those up this week.

I also purchased 15 Star Wars cards for $30. I'm not sure if that was a smart move or not. When the latest movie came out and there was hype left and right, they would have sold easily for $10 each, but now that the hype has died and there aren't any future movies to keep the fire burning, I'm not sure how well or if they will sell. They are rarer ones, but it is a toss-up. I don't think I'll lose money on them, but they aren't a sure home run either.

That took $70 off my total, but all these are mine so any profits will go 100% to my bottom line. They should make for an interesting week.

A Sliver Of Light In A Disappointing Week

2005-10-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $1256.51

Current Total: $1313.82

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 76 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 4 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 14 hour 07 minutes

Just when I though that that this week was going to be a complete waste, a glimmer of light came through to keep me motivated for next week.

While for the most part all my cups did rather poorly selling last week, there was one that basically saved the entire week which sold for over $60. This one helped make up for all those that sold for less than $1 and a truly depressing week.

After it sold, I looked at the cups that I still had and found that I had 2 more of the same pattern. Since it sold at a price that I was more than willing to get for it, I decided to send 2nd chance offers to the next bidders and as luck would have it, both of them purchased the second chance offers (here and here) for a total of $123.33. With $8.71 in fees, the total came to $114.62 and a happily added $57.31 to my total. Let's hope this is a harbinger of things to come next week...

The Week Ends Like It Started

2005-10-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $1205.45

Current Total: $1256.51

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 78 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 17 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 14 hour 03 minutes

I've had a number of things happen since my last post. As usual, to keep it all straight I'll make a post for each of them.

I had another 13 sake cups sell and it was gain not a pretty site. The total came to $108.54 which again just made me a bit of a profit. i guess I shouldn't really complain because there was a profit, but it wasn't what I wanted for the time I spent and to reach closer to the goal. Due to the low prices that the cups with chips and cracks are getting, I think the alternative strategy that I've been thinking about (only unique cups on ebay, the rest sold through the Internet at a set price) is the way to go.

The fees came to $6.42 for a total of $102.12 and my share coming to $51.06. It wasn't a good week for all the auctions I had, but I still came out ahead, even if it was by just a bit...

A Few More Auctions Listed

2005-10-14T05:45:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $1208.15

Current Total: $1205.45

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 91 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 38 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 13 hour 46 minutes

I went through a portion of the cups that I still have and cherry picked the best of the lot to put on auction. The ones that were a bit unusual that could possibly get collectors in a bidding war. That gave me 9 new cups that I put on for a cost of $5.40 and $2.70 to me. The rest I think I will list at a set price and see if they sell.

There are a number of countries in Europe that can't access my auctions because of laws regarding WW2 with German items. Ebay's solution was to block items in those categories even if they were perfectly legal like mine. I'm sure that collectors there would like the cups, but I haven't figured out a good way to sell them. I'm hoping search engines will pick up the ones I list and that will eventually get some sales. I'll have to think about how to approach that a bit more.

I did put a couple of unusual items up that will either sell for very little or a lot - you just can never tell. One is a whistle sake cup which you don't come across too often. Another surprise find was that one of the "sake cups" was actually a tea cup which is quite unusual and has the potential to sell for a bit - especially since it has a nice pattern on it and was made by Kutani. I just will keep my fingers crossed on them and hope that the decision to try the auctions was the right move.

Tomorrow's auctions ending look pretty miserable again. most cups are still under $5 which is never a good sign. I'm hoping that now that some people have purchased, they will want to add to save on shipping, but I'm not holding my breath on that.

A Bit Better, But Still A Long Way To Go

2005-10-14T05:16:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $1017.32

Current Total: $1208.15

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 91 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 17 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 13 hour 08 minutes

I had 7 bottles and 5 cups end and those were the only saving grace for this week. The total they sold for was $404.31 with $22.64 in fees for a total of $381.67 which gets split in 2 for an addition of $190.83 to my total. While today was a bit better, overall the selling of the cups has put me in a hole that will be difficult to crawl out of. There are only 2.5 months left and I still have an enormous way to go. I haven't given up completely, but I'm certainly not as confident as I was earlier.

I still have quite a bit of stock with my partner and now it is time for me to find some higher priced items that I can hopefully sell with a good margin. I will be searching hard this coming weekend.

Another Disappointing Round

2005-10-14T04:05:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $945.37

Current Total: $1017.32

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 96 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 25 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 12 hour 51 minutes

I will do this post in a couple of steps so that I can keep it all straight. The second batch of 26 cups sold, but they didn't do a whole lot better than the first batch of 20. I made a little bit, but a very little bit. They sold for a total of $155.48 with $11.58 in paypal and ebay fees for a total of $143.90. That gets divided in 2 for a total of $71.95 into the pot.

It was another disappointing round. Probably the only good thing is that I'm back above $1000, but a long, long way from my goal. I decided that I would alter my plan a slight bit. Most cups are going to go onto the blog site as I said before, but I will pick a few that I'm confident will sell well due to their pattern and past experience.

A Change In Tactics

2005-10-12T17:10:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $945.37

Current Total: $945.37

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 122 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 12 hour 26 minutes

Major change of plans. I spent an hour in bed thinking what I need to do to make this challenge work with my new time schedule. Looking at the auctions ending today, it's not going to be a pretty scene again. Instead of throwing more onto auction and hoping for the best, I'm going to relegate the cups to the blog that I set up and sell them at a set price. How and when they sell is anyone's guess, but it's better than selling them for little profit at all.

The other decision is that I will look to buy more items on my own. While the partnership has worked out well, I only get to add 50% of the profits to my total. It would be great to continue if I had more time, but since I don't, I need to concentrate on items that I can sell and wrap quickly myself. That will be the plan for this weekend.

Pretty Disastrous Day

2005-10-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $896.36

Current Total: $945.37

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 122 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 12 hour 26 minutes

I've been avoiding writing this entry as long as possible, but here goes. The auctions did not turn out well at all and overall we lost money when all the fees are taken into consideration. It was a lot of work for a negative return, but I guess that is part of the risk. Here are the numbers:

The 20 cups sold for $105.56 with $7.54 in ebay and paypal fees for a total of $98.02. That gets divided in half with adds $49.01 to my total.

Lessons Learned: Never, ever end auctions on a Sunday evening. Twice burned now and I'm not looking to strike out.

The verdict on the $0.01 starts is still out, but it looks like I may need to scrap it. The auctions ending later today also aren't doing very well. This is certainly a slump that I don't need at the moment.

That's because the decision to try and do the site and blog full time means I have little to no free time to work on this project. I love working on both, but they entail 16 hour days if I'm going to make them work. I will put in every spare moment I have into this challenge and hopefully in the end it will all work out. I sure hope I don't have to write another post like this in the evening (sweat dripping from the forehead with nervousness)

First Big Blunder?

2005-10-09T17:20:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $896.36

Current Total: $896.36

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 142 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 12 hour 26 minutes

Well, it looks like I may have made my first big mistake today. With 2 hours left for the auctions of 20 of the cups to end they are all selling for a grand total of $24. I need them to triple in price (have them all sell for $100 combined) just to break even on them which is definitely not a good sign. While a loss at this point won't hurt me in the sense that I can't go on, it will make it much more difficult to reach my goal, especially if the cups from the other auctions later this week sell the same way. My partner also won't be happy having to wrap all those packages for nothing.

I may have to rethink my $0.01 starting price on the auctions. I know doing so gets more people to look at them and this usually results in them selling for a higher price than if I set them starting off at a higher price, but when a day like this comes along, it makes me wonder if I should set them at $0.99 to start. I'll have to think that over.

Time to do something else to take my mind off this...otherwise I'll drive myself crazy. Will report on the final damage in a few hours.

Half The Cups Now Up

2005-10-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $902.36

Current Total: $896.36

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 142 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 1 hours 13 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 12 hour 26 minutes

Yikes! My total keep going in reverse. Actually, this isn't a problem because it's part of the price of doing business, but it's much more fun when the total is heading in the other direction.

I did get another 20 cups on auction meaning I still have 71 to get on. It won't happen this weekend, so I didn't reach my original goal of getting them all on, but I did manage to get half on and all the bottles. It should be feasible for me to get the rest of them on next week.

I will spend some free time I have this weekend to load photos into the sake cup blog I started to see if I can get some more traffic to that (and possible a little more income from advertising). Then when the cups sell I can let people know about the preview blog and maybe I can sell a few more that way.

Still not looking very good on the current auctions ending Sunday. Even the numbers on who is watching are way down. before I left, most had 8 - 10 people watching the auctions, now it's just one or two. I'm hoping that now I have more cups up it will attract a few more lookers.

More Listings

2005-10-06T19:58:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $905.36

Current Total: $902.36

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 142 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 56 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 11 hour 13 minutes

I managed to get the 7 bottles from our stock on auction along with another 5 cups for a total of $7,20 in fees and $3.60 off of my total. That leave 91 more cups, the mini tray and hunting badges to put on which leads me to believe I won't have the time to get them all on this week. I'll shoot for another 20 or so cups tomorrow and hopefully I can have them all up by next week.

I'm getting worried about this last set of cups I put up. I was gone for a few weeks and that kind of let the regulars who were watching my auctions move away. While there are still 3 days before the first 20 cups end, they are all way below what I paid for them. Keeping my fingers crossed that they move up at the end.

Got word that some friends are going to be visiting from the US later this month. That will mean a few more days where I won't have time to work on this challenge as I will be showing them around.

It will be nice when the total is moving in a northerly direction instead of slowly creeping down as it has been this week.

26 More Cups On Auction

2005-10-05T21:01:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $913.76

Current Total: $905.96

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 142 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 1 hours 32 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 10 hour 17 minutes

I managed to find the time to list another 26 cups (total cost $15.60 divided by 2 = $7.80 taken out of my total) today, but that still leaves me well short of my goal of getting all the cups and bottles on auction this week. I'm not sure if I'll be able to manage it, but I will do my best and get as many as I can on.

The first batch of 20 cups isn't doing so hot at the moment. All have bids, but most are still at $0.01. I'll have to hope for a lot of last minute bidding or find that I lost quite a bit on latest purchase.

I've been finding that trying to get myself motivated to place these on has been difficult as of late. Part of it is the decision to do the site full time and trying to figure out how to make that work (and the extra time needed to do all the things I want to do). I have to force myself to work on this project. That isn't a bad thing, it just takes more energy than if the challenge was more of a priority. Even though I have to motivate myself a bit, it's still better than doing nothing at all and since the sites are a long, long term project, an hour or two here and there for this challenge isn't going to kill me.

Okay, enough of the rambling. Time to get to work on my list of things to do and prepare to list some more auctions tomorrow.

Back In Business!

2005-10-02T19:44:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $919.76

Current Total: $913.76

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 142 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 1 hours 20 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 8 hour 44 minutes

I'm back in business! At least for this challenge. I listed 20 auctions from the stash of sake cups which cost $12 (split in half for a total of $6 off my saving total). This is kind of an experiment too. I haven't had much luck with these auctions ending on weekends (they sell, but not for as much as they do midweek), but I thought I'd give it one more try.

Although it is a bit ambitious, my goal this week will be to list all 142 cups and the 7 bottles I currently have in inventory. If I can accomplish that, I'll have a good idea where I really stand with this challenge in the middle of the month when everything has sold. That means a busy week in the limited spare time I have, but since I was gone for that long period, it has to be done.

It would be nice if the cups could bring in about $2000 in profit which would add an extra $1000 to my total - keeping my fingers crossed there. It's difficult to tell with this bunch of cups. Most seem to be fairly standard patters and a lot of them come with chips and cracks which will keep down their selling price. As with most things put on ebay, a little luck in timing (having two or more people want the same cup) makes a big difference. I just need to stay focused this week to be able to get everything done.

If I can pull of the goal of getting them all listed, I should be in good shape and can take the next steps I need to reach the challenge goal.

3 Months To Go

2005-10-01T01:39:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $917.97

Current Total: $919.76

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 142 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 1 hours 15 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 7 hour 24 minutes

Three months to go and still not at $1000, although that is a bit deceiving due to the large inventory I currently have. I need to sell that inventory, however, to have it count for my total. I spent over an hour taking photos of all the new cups, cropping them and loading them onto my computer. Now that is done, I can begin listing them on ebay this week.

It's going to be an extremely busy 3 months if I'm going to reach the $5000 goal. I still think it will be possible, but it will take a concerted effort to pull it off.

The trip back home didn't help as it disrupted the routine I had formed. It also didn't help with the blog - since I wasn't updating it as much as I had been, the advertising total came in at only $1.79 for all the sites. I think I had hoped to generate at least $10, but hopefully I can do a bit better in October.

Time To Hammer Down

2005-09-28T07:10:00.002-07:00

Previous Total: $917.97

Current Total: $917.97

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 142 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 6 hour 09 minutes

Well, I didn't do anything on my trip back to the US so I find Oct coming up and still a long way to go to reach my goal. I will be putting in some extra time to try and make up for my absence and lack of doing the challenge while I was away.

This is one of the reasons I don't like ebay as a permanent job. While the money isn't bad in certain areas, if you take some time off for vacation, your income stops including about a week on either side of the vacation. That is because you have to wrap up all your outstanding auctions before you leave and then it takes another week before the auctions begin selling again after you return.

It's time to hammer down and get to work on all those cups. I'm off to take pictures now!

Big Purchase

2005-09-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $1167.97

Current Total: $917.97

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 142 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 6 hour 09 minutes

I'm back under $1000, but it was due to a big purchase. My partner and I invested in 120 sake cups for $500. That comes to just under $4.20 per cup (which is under our target price of $5 a cup that we set) and we figure that we can earn a minimum of $10 per cup so hopefully we'll more than double our investment on that. It could be quite a bit more if a few of the cups are popular and fetch a bit more than expected.

I haven't done anything on generating money since heading back to the US. This weekend is already filled, so it will have to be next week that I begin getting things in order. If not, when I return back to Japan I'm going to have a ton of things to do.

Due to this time where I haven't been able to work on the challenge, I'm getting a bit nervous about whether or not I'll be able to meet the goal in time. I'll wait and see what happens next week before getting into a panic...

Airport Secret

2005-09-10T01:57:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $1167.97

Current Total: $1167.97

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 22 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 6 hour 09 minutes

I'm currently at the airport waiting for my flight to take off. I didn't get the number of photos I wanted to upload which means I will either have to find things while I'm back home to list or figure something else out. I'm not worried at the moment, but that will change if I can't figure out something and have no income for the challenge for the next 3 weeks. Completely off the subject (hey, I'm bored waiting for the plane to board)...

I figured out something quite interesting quite by accident. I always bring a few snacks when I head to the airport since food at the airport is so expensive. As I was wandering, I found out that airports in Japan have a special area for the airport employees so they don't have to pay the outrageous prices. The store was completely out of the way - down a maze of hallways and basically not marked at all, but the prices were half what they were charging at other stores. Anyone was allowed to purchase items there (I asked) - the challenge was finding it. I'm sure 99% of people don't know it exists. I wonder if they have similar stores in the US airports...

First Preview Sake Cup Sold

2005-09-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $1131.82

Current Total: $1167.97

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 22 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 7 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 6 hour 09 minutes

A good omen. My first cup from the sake cup blog sold for $75. No ebay fees, but take out $2.90 for paypal for a profit of $72.10. Divide that in 2 and it adds another $36.05 to the total. It will be great if I can get a steady stream of people to purchase the cups from the blog before going to ebay.

I still need to decide what I'm going to do over the next 3 weeks while I'm away. If I don't come up with a plan, making the goal will be quite difficult...

Mother Nature Foils Plans

2005-09-08T04:31:00.000-07:00

Setting Up Preview Blogs

2005-09-06T08:09:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $1131.82

Current Total: $1131.82

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 23 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 45 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 6 hour 02 minutes

As I mentioned previously, I will be gone for a few weeks and won't be able to list items on auction like I have been. Since not doing anything isn't an option if I'm going to make the goal, I'm going to try the following plan of action.

I spend the last 45 minutes setting up a number of free blogs that I will use to preview the items I have to sell. The plan is to get all my current inventory on the sake cup blog before I leave. I have also added similar blogs for medals and flags. Medals and flags are my "base salary" - they are what allow me to spend basically a full amount of time on the site while still being able to pay the bills. I was doing them before the challenge started so I have not included any of them in this challenge for that reason.

While I won't count the sale of any of the items on those 2 blogs towards the total, I will count any advertising income that the blogs generate since I would not have created them without this challenge. These should be extremely easy update - since they are preview only, detailed descriptions won't be needed since they will be geared toward those collectors that already know their stuff - and should get a decent following from the collectors as soon as they know the blog exists. That means all I need to do is load up the photos and set a price.

I'm debating whether to add 8% of each sale for the medals and flags to the challenge total. That would be what ebay would charge for a final value fee if I listed them in my ebay store which would be the obvious place to do so. I will think more about that.

To recap, I now have 4 blogs dedicated to this challenge:

1. The $5000 Challenge Blog
2. The Sake Cup Blog
3. The Japanese Medals Blog
4. The Japanese Flag Blog

I will see how these go over the next month and if they are producing income, then I might even consider expanding (again, time will be a big factore here). Time to start filling up the blogs with items...

Temporary Change Of Plans

2005-09-03T20:46:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $1131.82

Current Total: $1131.82

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 23 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 5 hour 17 minutes

I'm going to have to change my current plan of action over the next few weeks. I will be heading back to the US for 2 weeks and during that time. I won't be able to list on ebay due to logistical problems. That could leave a large dent in my total if I don't do anything during that time, so I need to sit down and think how I will approach the challenge during that time. If nothing elase, I'll spend time laying the groundwork and getting everything prepared so that when I do return, I'll have everything all ready to go.

I'm off to a flea market in about 30 minutes and hopefully that will add a bit more to my inventory.

More Sake Cups Sold

2005-09-03T04:09:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $1064.69

Current Total: $1131.82

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 23 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 5 hour 17 minutes

I had 11 more sake cups sell today for a total of $149.10 with $14.84 in ebay and paypal fees for a profit of $134.26. That gets split in half for $67.13 to be added to the total.

The older WW1 cups don't sell near as well as the later cups - I'm sure that it has do do with the color and scenes depicted. The earlier cups are basic usually in gold while later cups are much fancier - but the truth is that the earlier cups are much more difficult to find.

Off to find some more inventory.

The First Of 5 Hurdles

2005-09-03T03:47:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $994.73

Current Total: $1064.69

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 34 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 6 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 23 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 5 hour 17 minutes

I hit the $1000 mark! Only $4000 more to go. The flag from the trunk sold right in line of what I thought it would sell for at just over $50 and the hunting badge came in at just over $20. They totaled $76.22 with $6.26 in ebay and paypal fees for a profit of $69.96.

I will be heading to a flea market tomorrow and see if I can find some more items to keep the challenge on track.

August Advertising Income

2005-09-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $990.51

Current Total: $994.73

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 34 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 flag - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 4 hour 55 minutes

The two blogs that I set up ($5000 Challenge and Sake Cup Blog) generated $4.22 in advertising income - not a whole lot, but better than nothing. Considering the sake cup blog was only up a few days and still hasn't been set up properly and the $5000 Challenge blog is a simple cut and paste job, I'm happy with that amount for now. Especially since traffic to the two is minimal at the moment. I would like to see that increased to $10 this next month if possible - will work on that.

Nearing The $1000 mark

2005-09-02T07:53:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $876.33

Current Total: $990.51

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 34 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 flag - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 4 hour 55 minutes

In addition to the sake cup set and the trunk items which I had full ownership of, I also had 11 sake cups which I had half ownership in end. Again, one cup made the listing worthwhile selling for $103.50, well above what I thought it would sell for. The 11 cups sold for a total of $260.38 with $32.02 in ebay and paypal fees (those two companies must be enjoying this challenge as much as me!) for a total profit of $228.36. That gets split in half with my partner for an additional $114.18 into the saving pot.

That brings me to nearly $1000 - I will pass that mark today when the rest of the auctions end. That gives me 4 months to earn $4000 if I'm make the goal. Finding more lots and big ticket items I can sell for a nice profit will be esential in order to make it.

With a good solid money base now, it will allow me to take a bit more risk to go with my gutt feeling on items that may turn a big profit since it won't mean absolute disaster if they don't sell well.

Gotta Find More Trunks!

2005-09-02T07:35:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $450.40

Current Total: $876.33

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 45 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 flag - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 4 hour 55 minutes

The trunk of items I purchased for $50 was extremely kind to me on auction. In fact, a number of the items went for more than what I paid for the entire trunk even though all the items were in poor condition. i will have to keep my eyes open for more deals like that in the future.

The best move I made was seperating the wool coat and the wool coat cap into seperate auction. The wool cap went for a surprising $61.99 while the coat only went for $36. I don't think the combined 2 would have gone for nearly as much. That more than made up for one of the undergarments that sold for $0.01.

All the items from the trunk sold for $474.29 (with the flag not counted which will be ending today) with ebay and paypal fees taking away $48.36. That adds another $425.93 to the total which basically doubles my current profit for the challenge. I need to create more days like today!

Wooden Sake Cup Set

2005-09-02T07:19:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $368.96

Current Total: $450.40

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 45 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 under garments (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two) - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 4 hours 11 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 4 hour 55 minutes

I will be making a number of posts to update the account - mainly for my own sanity and keeping things straight. The last couple of days have been busy and I remember why it's nice having a partner to wrap the items - while the gains are better for me doing it on my own, wrapping is by far my least favorite part of selling on eBay.

First, the sake cup set. It sold for $87.77 with $6.33 in ebay and paypal fees for a total of $81.44 to add to the pot (and about a $30 overal profit on that pick).

Good Day For The Challenge

2005-08-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $368.96

Current Total: $368.96

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 45 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 under garments (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two) - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 13 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 0 hour 44 minutes

A very busy day today and I will start working on all the details after this post. I had most of the items from the trunk sell today and they came in at over $400 and that isn't counting the flag that ends in a couple of days which I figured would cover the cost of the entire trunk. It's very good news and hopefully I can continue the trend.

The last minute bidders also came through on the sake cup set which ended above $80 meaning I made some money there, too.

I also had some sake cups ending today with half the profits going here - and another $100 cup sold. I don't think I'll reach $1000 today, but I will be a lot closer.

Another Star Wars Set Sells

2005-08-31T09:51:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $361.78

Current Total: $368.96

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 45 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 under garments (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two) - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 5 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 0 hour 31 minutes

Just received an email noticed that the Star Wars set was purchased with a buy it now. Take away $0.52 final value fee + $0.75 paypal fee + $2.50 for the set + $2.00 shipping and I can add another $7.17 to the total. Will have to pick up the set tomorrow when I do the grocery shopping and place another one up for auction.

I've been thinking. The hobby shop has a lot of different cards, but most I don't think would sell for much on ebay (and after listing fees, final value fees, paypal fees I don't think there would be much profit there) and that is why I haven't taken more time to take photos and list like I have with this set. I may, however, set up a blog with the photos and offer to sell them through that avoiding all the fees. Again, if I can get the photos, then there is little risk on my part and no initial investment. It would simply take time (something I seem to always be short of) to set it up.

3 Olympic Medals

2005-08-31T09:07:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $347.59

Current Total: $361.78

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 45 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 under garments (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two) - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 10 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 0 hour 26 minutes

I placed 3 more Olympic medals (one - two & three) on auction last week for my friend and they all sold for a total of $56.76 of which I get 25% (and he takes care of all the fees). That adds $14.19 to the total.

I have mixed feelings about the auctions ending tomorrow for this challenge. The trunk of goods has done wonderfully - the items from it are above $200 already. The sake cup set has me a bit worried. It is still at $10 with less than 12 hours left. My fingers are crossed that there is some last minute bidding on that or I will take a loss on that particular item.

No Go On Froogle

2005-08-30T06:26:00.000-07:00

Junk That Is Not Junk

2005-08-28T23:16:00.000-07:00

Froogle Account

2005-08-28T21:56:00.000-07:00

A New Free Selling Platform

2005-08-28T10:09:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $347.59

Current Total: $347.59

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 45 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 under garments (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two) - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 23 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 0 hour 09 minutes

I've been thinking a lot about how I could sell more of my items outside of ebay. I could start up a store, but that takes just as much time and work as listing the items on eBay and there are still fees to be paid. I could set up an area on the main site (which I had been planning to do) but loading the photos onto the server and all just takes a lot of time and effort. Then it came to me!

Why not set up a blog and use that as my selling platform. It's easy to load photos into the blogs now, there are no fees for doing so and no final price fees - 100% free and easy to do and manage.

The way I plan to use it is whenever I get new items in, I'll load up the photos as a preview. In the preview, I'll give the cup or other item a unique number and a "buy it now" price. Then if someone wants the cup, I can sell it quickly with no fees involved. If nobody wants it for the buy it now price, then I will list it on auction whenever I can.

Of course, I'll also place adsense ads so there is a chance to add a bit of money there too (what a concept...getting paid to list items for sale instead of the other way around!)

I think this will work perfect for previews of items I will be listing. I don't think it will be difficult to get people to go and see...I will just use a list of past winners and let them know I will be previewing my items from now on. I'm hoping this will help the turnover of the cups (since I'm not wrapping them) to generate a bigger income in less time.

You can take a look at the new preview blog at sakecups.blogspot.com - very basic set up and only a bunch of test posts at the moment, but I will work on it a bit tomorrow and hopefully have a few preview items up.

Busy Morning

2005-08-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $318.71

Current Total: $347.59

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 45 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 under garments (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two) - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 1 hours 47 minutes

Time Spent Total: 23 hour 46 minutes

Wow. I'm close to a full day of working on this project (or three full days of work). It was a busy morning here. I managed to place another 11 cups up for auction as well as one of the hunting license badges and the flag from the trunk. I also placed another of the Star Wars card sets on auction. The listing fee was $9.70 of which $6.40 is my responsibility. I'm looking forward to seeing how these turn out.

I also had 5 cups sell today for a total of $80.09 with $9.53 in ebay and paypal fees for a profit of $70.56 and an additional $35.28 to my total. So with all the items sold and placed on auction, I was able to add $28.88 to the total today.

While I'm a bit disappointed that my current total still being in the $300s, I do have quite a bit of inventory which will hopefully increase that amount quickly when it starts to sell.

Hunting Badge

2005-08-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $339.71

Current Total: $318.71

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 50 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 undergrmets (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two) - 7 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 10 minutes

Time Spent Total: 21 hour 54 minutes

I was at the local grocery store yesterday and popped into the antiques shop next door and found 7 hunting license badges which I purchased for $21 ($3 each). While these probably wouldn't be worth much usually, Japan prohibits firearms so there can't be a lot of these given out. I'm really interested in seeing how these sell and will put one on tonight. my guess is they will either sell for very little or a lot, so I'm curious to see what happens with them.

New Items

2005-08-25T18:04:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $464.71

Current Total: $339.71

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 50 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 undergrmets (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 10 minutes

Time Spent Total: 21 hour 44 minutes

My partner came by with what she picked up and I have a new supply of cups and bottles now. She picked up 40 new cups and 5 bottles for a total of $250 which is $125 to me. A lot of the cups are older - early 1900 cups - which I'm not sure how well will go over with collectors. Most have chips and the patterns on them are not as colorful or interesting as the later cups. I will start listing those tommorow and we'll find out

Today's Totals

2005-08-25T02:54:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $293.58

Current Total: $464.71

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 2 sake bottles, 10 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 undergrmets (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 21 hour 34 minutes

It was a busy day. Along with listing all the items, I also had 13 sake cups sell. There was a huge difference in their selling prices. As mentioned before, one sold for over $150 while another only went for $2.25. All 13 sold for a total of $380.22 with $37.40 in ebay and paypal fees for a profit of $342.60. That gets split in half for $171.13 that gets added to my total.

With the big selling cup, all the cups averaged a selling price of $29.25 but if I take away that one cup, the average price falls to $10.14 so that one auction really helped.

I will try and place the flag, the mini trays and the 2 sake bottles (the rest of our current inventory) on auction tomorrow. I'd love to make it to $1000 by the end of this month, but it isn't looking very good at the moment. I need to find some more big ticket items and possibly look at different ways to increase the savings.

Trunk Items Listed

2005-08-25T02:32:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $304.98

Current Total: $293.58

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 2 sake bottles, 23 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 undergrmets (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 3 hours 11 minutes

Time Spent Total: 21 hour 34 minutes

I ended up listing a total of 24 items today for a total of $11.40 in eBay fees. That included 10 more sake cups of which I'm half owner (so only half fees on them) plus all the items from the trunk except the flag (14 items). I decided to split the winter coat and the winter coat cap into 2 auctions instead of a single auction since the cap wasn't attached to the coat when I took it out of the trunk. I will place the flag on auction tomorrow or the next day when I have more flags to place with it - they sell better in groups. I have placed links to all the auctions. As you can see, none of the items are in very good condition, but I'm still hoping that they sell fairly well.

It's time to start looking for more sake cups. They have been doing well so no reason to stop with them now. My partner has some, but I haven't been over there to see them yet or find out the cost to me for them. I will before the weekend.

The $150 Sake Cup

2005-08-25T01:49:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $304.98

Current Total: $304.98

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 2 sake bottles, 23 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays, 1 wood sake cup set, 1 flag, 1 pair of pants, 2 undergrmets, 3 belts, 1 officer's cap, 1 pair of gators, 1 winter coat, 2 helmets

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 18 hour 23 minutes

Got to love those surprise ebay auctions! I haven't gone through and done all the totals for the items that ended today (will do that right after finishing here), but it should add a bit of money to the pot when one of the auctions goes unexpectedly wild: who would have thought a sake cup would sell for over $150.00 (the one pictured). I will certainly keep my eyes open for more of that pattern.

Flea Market Finds

2005-08-24T08:36:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $404.98

Current Total: $304.98

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 2 sake bottles, 23 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays, 1 wood sake cup set, 1 flag, 1 pair of pants, 2 undergrmets, 3 belts, 1 officer's cap, 1 pair of gators, 1 winter coat, 2 helmets

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 18 hour 23 minutes

This past weekend I bought a couple of more expensive items. One is a wooden sake cup tray and set for $50 and the other was a trunk of clothes also for $50.

I'm off to start taking photos as soon as I finish writing here. I'm starting to get a bit of a backlog on the items I'ce purchased and want to get them all on auction. I don't need more things piling up around my house.

The wood cup set should be interesting. it was a bit more than I wanted to pay, but I decided to go for it anyway. It's going to be one of those where I lose a bit/ break even or make a lot on it, but I felt it was worth taking the chance.

The box should be a great income earner. I do sell quite a few flags and know that pre WW2 sell for $25 - $50 each. When I looked in the trunk there was a flag, so I figure that will pay for the trunk right there and everything else will be gravy. I don't usually buy trunks because 1) they take up too much space 2) the stuff inside is usually very old and in desperate need of a wash. That was not an exception in this case.

It was hard to resist though because besides the flag were two WW2 helmets, an officer's cap, a winter wool jacket with attachable cap, 2 undergarmets, a pair of leg warmers and 3 belts. All of these are in very poor condition, but even so I'M hoping that the purchase all together will net me over $100. I will put them all on auction tonight.

I picked up the Star Wars set to send and they still have more, so will also continue to list that set. I'm off to take photos...

Listed and Sold

2005-08-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $398.55

Current Total: $404.98

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 23 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 15 minutes

Time Spent Total: 18 hour 23 minutes

I finally got around to listing another of the Star Wars sets and it sold within a day. I had originally been selling them for $5.95 each since I could get them at $2.50, but it looks like I was selling them for less than I could. I decided to try a $6.95 start with a $9.95 buy it now and the buy it now was used right away. There was a $0.75 listing fee + a $0.52 final value fee + $0.75 paypal fee + $2.50 for the set +$2.00 shipping = $6.52 in costs for a profit of $6.43. It will be nice if I can continue that.

I will walk down to the store today and pick up the set to send out and make sure they still have plenty of others so I can relist again.

I also picked up some items over the weekend that were expensive, but have the chance to make a good profit. I will list that info in a bit when I have more time

Email Suggestion

2005-08-21T01:39:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $398.55

Current Total: $398.55

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 23 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 18 hour 08 minutes

Received a suggestion by email on how to solve my listing time problem:

Regarding the listing time on eBay, don't you have the option to list at a future desired time for a small added fee? This way you can list in the morning when you have the time to do as many auctions as you like, but have the auctions end in the evenings, when more people are able to bid.

A perfectly simple solution that would work except that I live in Japan and use a computer with a Japanese operating system (you can ask Nate all the trouble this causes when he wants me to do something new...lol).

I could do this but I would have to do my auctions through the eBay site instead of through a listing program that I currently use and that would end up taking up more time than it's worth. I started using a listing program because I can list about 4 times as many auctions through an automatic lister than I can by going through the steps on the ebay site.

For some reason, my Japanese operating system messes up a number of the functions that ebay offers - one of which is the setting future times for auctions. I guess I should go and see if I can get ebay support to help me solve the problem, but if any of you have tried using their support, you probably know why I haven't attempted to do so thus far. Maybe if I get a lot more courage... ;)

Change In Tactics

2005-08-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $398.55

Current Total: $398.55

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 23 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 18 hour 08 minutes

I think a change in tactics will be needed if I'm going to reach the $5000 goal. With only 3 and a half months left and I'm still not at the $500 in profit mark, I'm going to need to purchase a few larger items on my own with the potential of receiving a fairly big return on them. Now that I have more money, I can afford to take a bit more risk.

I will be looking for items that I think will at least sell for what I purchase them for with the possibility of a large return if they happen to catch the fancy of a particular collector. I have to go on my gutt feeling on a lot of these since it's impossible to do research - when you see something at the flea market, you usually have to make a good guess and go with your feeling if you think it will sell or not. it alsways helps to purchase boxes with a variety of stuff in them since this sort of spreads the risk - if one item doesn't sell, another can make up for it - especially in areas where I'm not familiar with the collectible in question.

I will be going to a flea market this weekend and will be looking to purchase a few items in the $50 to $100 area with the hopes of at least doubling the money when sold.

Missing Auctions

2005-08-20T19:43:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $299.96

Current Total: $398.55

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 23 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 18 hour 08 minutes

Oooooops. With all the Interent connection issues, it seems I missed a series of 12 cups that sold on th 16th of this month. Here is the information on them.

the 12 cups sold for a total of $223.35 with $26.18 in ebay and paypal fees for a profit of $197.17. Divided by 2 and a profit of $98.58 gets added to the total.

I wish I could predict with better certainty which cups are likely to sell for a lot an which aren't. Almost all of them sell for more than we purchased them for, but some make only a few dollars profit while others make over $20 in profit with some as high as $40. If I could consistently pick the cups that would sell for a $20 profit, I would be more than willing to spend the time wrapping them. I'll have to do some more research to get better at picking out those high value cups.

5 More Cups On Auction

2005-08-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $302.96

Current Total: $299.96

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 35 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 10 minutes

Time Spent Total: 18 hour 08 minutes

Still fighting my Internet connection - will be glad when this whole episode is over. I did manage to get another 5 cups up on auction for a cost of $3, but then my access went out again.

I'm debating whether to list the items whenever I can. From experieince, I find that weekdays in the evening are the best times to sell my stuff to get the best prices, but that means listing them here in the early morning. I'm wondering if I just list everything when I have the time, if the extra listings will make up for the slightly lower prices I'm likely to see. Something for me to think about.

Access Troubles & More Auctions

2005-08-18T17:48:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $310.76

Current Total: $302.96

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 35 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 22 minutes

Time Spent Total: 17 hour 58 minutes

Internet access has hurt the challenge over the past week or so...still haven't figured out completely what's going on, but my access has been limited at best. It has meant that I haven't been able to put up many of the auctions I have wanted to. I did manage to get another 13 up yesterday at a cost of $7.80 in ebay fees and I hope to get the rest up tomorrow (Internet access Gods willing).

A Domain

2005-08-15T04:22:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $276.27

Current Total: $270.28

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 50 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 17 hour 19 minutes

My planes to get up more of the cups failed miserably when my Internet connection went out the last few days - it didn't go out completely, but would only work for a few minutes, then go out, then work for a few minutes, then go out again. It was extremelty frustrating (not only for this challenge, but all the other things I wanted to do on the computer). Hopefully that has now been solved (fingers crossed). I'm looking at monday to list more since Sunday has never been a good selling day for me on ebay.

I did cave in and purchase a domain name for this little adventure. The way that it has been going, I feel that I will continu it even after the time period has passed (maybe a different challenge) I chose activeinvestingblog.com which cost $5.99 for the year and has been deducted. I can host it on our current server so there will be no costs there. It's just a matter of finding the time to get it set up.

Time Is A Challenge

2005-08-13T17:49:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $164.12

Current Total: $276.27

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 50 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 4 hours 22 minutes

Time Spent Total: 17 hour 19 minutes

Time. That is my biggest obstacle at the moment. I have too many things I want to do and not enough time to do them all. I need a 36 hour day ;)

I have found that I don't watch TV anymore since I started this challenge. Maybe news once every couple of days. That is where I've taken the time from. A good change since I tend to get mesmerized in front of it too often.

Since my last post I had 23 cups sell for $275.43 and incurred $36.74 in eBay and paypal fees for a profit of $238.69. That gets split in half with my partner for a profit of $119.35 to me.

Of the inventory we have, I've only been able to list 12 more of the cups (I put three sets of 5 on earlier) so there are 27 of the 50 currently on auction. I need to get the rest of them on and will try to do that tomorrow.

I need to begin listing those Star Wars items again too - I've just been lazy on that. No excuse for that. Time to take a bit more time and prepare some of the auctions.

Experimenting With Sets

2005-08-07T19:23:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $179.96

Current Total: $163.16

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 73 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 24 minutes

Time Spent Total: 12 hour 57 minutes

I listed three sets of cups today from the group of 50 I picked up over the weekend ($1.80 in listing fees - here is an example of one of them). This is kind of an experiment to 1) see if the cups sell as well in a group as they do individually 2) see how the sell on Sunday (I've only been listing them mid week thus far). If the cups sell well as a group, then listing them will be much easier for me. I'm hoping this is the case, but I'm doubtful it will be true.

I also found a couple of sake bottles that I picked up for $30 (split in half, so $15 to me). I made a big mistake of not checking the bottles carefully. One of them has hairline cracks that I didn't notice - had I noticed them, I could have gotten the bottle for much less I'm sure. It's a nice bottle so I don't think I'll lose money, but I'm not confident I'll make money either. I need to slap myself for not looking closely before buying.

I will try and list most of the cups and the bottles over the next couple of days.

More Items Sold!

2005-08-07T04:08:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $150.19

Current Total: $179.96

Inventory: 73 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 2 hours 10 minutes

Time Spent Total: 12 hour 33 minutes

The sake cup selling continues to go well. The last batch of 10 cups, 3 bottles and 3 mini plates sold for a total of $357.42 on eBay. Take out $38.73 in ebay and paypal fees and the profit comes to $309.53. That divides in two with my partner and it comes to $154.77 profit to me.

With the profit, I went out and bought another 50 sake cups and 5 mini trays I managed to find at another flea market this weekend. The cups came to $200 while the trays were $25. The cups I will split in half with my partner so the cost was $100 for those and the trays I am going to sell on my own (being metal, they should be easier to wrap without a lot of time or effort). That means I took $125.00 out of the profits leaving me with a current grand total of $179.96. I plan on putting up part of the items I found tomorrow (going to try a Sunday end time to see how that works) and the rest later in the week.

Now that I have started to make some money, I'm debating where to put the money. Banks in Japan give a whopping 0.3% interest (that isn't a typo - the decimal point is in the correct place - 0.003) so it doesn't make sense to leave it there.

I'm also not sure how long the sake cups will hold up. I've exhausted most of the places I know, so I'm going to have to find some other resources if I want to continue along these lines. I will surely continue as long as I can.

Good Selling!

2005-08-03T09:03:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $40.72

Current Total: $150.19

Inventory: 3 bottles (half ownership), 33 sake cups (half ownership), 3 mini plates (half ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 4 hours 32 minutes

Time Spent Total: 10 hour 23 minutes

A huge amount to update since the last entry. Over the weekend I went to a flea market and piked up another 23 cups. Again, I bought these as a group for $75.00 of which I had to pay half which took $37.50 out of the fund. There were some nice patterns, but I was pretty disappointed when I got back home to find almost all of them had chips and / or cracks. I guess that's the way it goes sometimes. Those have all been listed on auction already (one of the reasons the time spent on this has increased so much).

The first batch of auctions ended and the 17 cups did GREAT! They sold for a total of $321.96 of which half goes to me ($160.98). Take out $13.27 for my half of the ebay and paypal fees and it comes to $147.71 that gets added to the project. I wish I had more time and I would do all the wrapping myself if they keep selling like this.

That means I'm up to $150 plus a good inventory. It also means I can start looking at some more expensive items to buy 100% myself and resell and hopefully continue the sake cup partnership selling. I'll have a good time hunting this coming weekend.

Second Chance Offers

2005-08-01T02:06:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $36.35

Current Total: $40.72

Inventory: 3 bottles (half ownership), 27 sake cups (half ownership), 3 mini plates (half ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 5 minutes

Time Spent Total: 5 hour 51 minutes

An extra $4.37 added to the pot for a few minutes work. My friend who had me sell the Olympic items last week brought some more over this week. Among them were another Sapporo 1972 and Tokyo 1964 medal - we decided that instead of relisting them, we'd make a second chance offer to the bidder from the last auction. There is no cost to do this for him except the final value fee if the person accepts the 2nd chance offer - which the person did. The total for the 2 medals came to $17.51 of which I get 25% so that is where the $4.37 came from.

If you have multiples of the same item, second chance offers can make quite a few sales quickly instead of listing all your items again and again. I find that if I can get three or four of the same item, the second chance offers work well - and you only have to make the offer if the price is what you'd accept. When medals go for more than I expect, I often use this strategy.

Off To The Flea Market

2005-07-31T01:52:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $36.35

Current Total: $36.35

Inventory: 3 bottles (half ownership), 27 sake cups (half ownership), 3 mini plates (half ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 5 hour 46 minutes

It looks like I'll be starting the new month with $36 as a starting point. That means that I'll need to earn about $1000 a month for the next 5 months if I'm going to reach the goal. Seing how the bottles and cups sell will give me a good indication on whether or not I'll be able to continue with the current plan or will have to make some drastic changes. A few of the cups and bottles have risen in price, but I'm still hoping there will be a lot of last minute bidders to raise the prices a bit more.

I'm heading to a flea market tomorrow and will be looking for new possible things to sell. I hope to get some things that I can split the price on with me new wrapping partner as well as some things that will be easy to wrap so I can get the full price for them. My fingers are crossed and I'm looking forward to see what kinds of bargains I can find.

Olympic Pins

2005-07-28T22:47:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $0.14

Current Total: $36.35

Inventory: 3 bottles (half ownership), 27 sake cups (half ownership), 3 mini plates (half ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 16 minutes

Time Spent Total: 5 hour 46 minutes

Let's hear it for those Olympic pins! My friend's olympic medals all sold for about what we had thought they would: $3.77. $5.51 and $13.00. The two pins did wonderfully selling for $57.56 (the one pictured here) and $64.51 ( our little kappa friend I featured earlier - guess who is going to be looking for Olympic pins at flea markets from now on?) for a total take of $144.44 - I get 25% of that which adds $36.11 to my total. I spend 16 minutes mailing the people and I'm done - he will send the items out and collect the money.

It seems like I have put a lot of work into this so far with out much return (Only $36 ???), but I still have all those items on auction so hopefully next week it will be a lot more than that. The best part is that I've done my duties for all those items on auction. Other than mail back, I've finished since my partner will do all the wrapping. I have a good feeling going into the next month.

Listed New Items

2005-07-28T20:27:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $4.94

Current Total: $0.14

Inventory: 3 bottles (half ownership), 27 sake cups (half ownership), 3 mini plates (half ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 2 hours 13 minutes

Time Spent Total: 5 hour 30 minutes

I took all the photos of the newest batch of cups and bottles I purchased, loaded them up and placed them all on auction this evening. You can see everything we have invested in thus far here. Ebay lising cost came to $9.60 which gets split in half for $4.80 to me leaving me with a grand total of $0.14 and half ownership of all the stuff above. The other cups we plaed on auction earlier this week aren't doing so well at the moment, but most collectors seem to bid last minute on them so I have my fingers crossed.

Wrapping & Changing Sigs

2005-07-28T02:30:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $4.94

Current Total: $4.94

Inventory: 3 bottles (half ownership), 27 sake cups (half ownership), 3 mini plates (half ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 53 minutes

Time Spent Total: 3 hour 17 minutes

I spend 15 minutes wrapping the Star Wars cards sets to send out so that transaction is completely done - they will go out in the morning mail.

I also spent 38 minutes going to many of the forums I frequent and changing my signature to the $5000 Challenge blog. Again, I hope this will drive a bit more traffic to the site. I also made a few posts and replies so I'll check the stats tomorrow to see if more people have been visiting.

I'm off to take photos of the items I bought yesterday, load them up and prepare the auction listings for tomorrow.

Reducing Paypal Fees

2005-07-28T00:15:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $4.94

Current Total: $4.94

Inventory: 3 bottles (half ownership), 27 sake cups (half ownership), 3 mini plates (half ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 2 hour 24 minutes

While I won't count this as income directly, over the next 5 months it should put more profit into this challenge. If you have payal, their standard merchant rate is 2.9% + $0.30 for receiving money. If you do more than $3,000 in transactions over a 3 month period, then you can get this rate lowered to 2.5% + $0.30 per transaction. If you do over $10,000 in a three month period, the rate can be put down to 2.2% + $0.30 per transaction.

The important factor here is that you have to apply for the rate - paypal won't automatically give it to you. I just passed the 3 month mark (I took some time off and didn't qualify for awhile) and my new rate is 2.2% instead of the 2.9% I had been paying. While .7 % doesn't seem like a whole lot, it's an extra $70 minimum per 3 months into my pocket instead of paypal's pocket.

Since I'm using auctions to invest and grow the money and most people pay by paypal, a portion of this fee reduction will come to my total earnings in this challenge.

The Little Geen Guy!

2005-07-27T07:42:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $4.94

Current Total: $4.94

Inventory: 3 bottles (half ownership), 27 sake cups (half ownership), 3 mini plates (half ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 2 hour 9 minutes

Let's hear it for the little green guy - in other words the "kappa" (mythical Japanese lake creature - okay, he's white in the pin, but usually he's green) that has jumped in price to $30 on auction. Those friend's Olympic pins are doing a lot better than either of us had dreamed and the five together are already above $80. That means at least another $20 will go into the fund. I hope the next batch does as well.

More Purchases

2005-07-27T02:33:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: 32.44

Current Total: $4.94

Inventory: 3 bottles (half ownership), 27 sake cups (half ownership), 3 mini plates (half ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 15 minutes

Time Spent Total: 2 hour 9 minutes

Went on a bit of a buying spree and picked up 3 bottles, 10 cups and 3 mini plates at the antique/rececly shop near our local grocery store. Since the trip to the grocery store was already planned, the time spent was only about 15 minutes in the store itself. The total came to $55 which gets split in half to $27.50 each. They are a bit more expensive than the last box we bought, but there are some nice ones inside that could sell really well. Will prepare those and list them on Thursday.

I also picked up the 10 sets of cards that I sold. The store still has sets left, so I will list them again too since the form is already done.

The Coca Cola set failed to sell again. A lot of people had it on their watch list, but nobody purchased it. Will give up on that for now and take my losses. Maybe when the world cup is in full swing again. At least I didn't buy the set and have it as excess inventory. That would have been a costly mistake att he beginning.

There were a lot of other interesting little things at the antique/recycle shop that I was temped to pick up (some old bike parts, some advertisement banners, etc), but the funds just weren't there at the moment. I will certainly be making another trip there if the cups sell.

Now it's just a wait and see game...

Back into the Black!

2005-07-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: - $2.74

Current Total: $32.44

Inventory: 17 sake cups (half ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 hour 54 minutes

I'm back in the black! The star wars 10 set sale came through and he made payment today. After deduction paypal fee and the cost of the sets, I come away with a $35.18 profit which puts me back into the black and means that we can now purchase those other cups that I had been wanting. I will go and purchase them today since the shop is next to our local grocery store and I will make a shopping run today.

One of the cups

2005-07-26T02:53:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd add a little color to the blog by showing one of the cups that is currently on auction. They are actually quite nice and make for nice display items.

Will the gamble pay off?

2005-07-26T02:46:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $2.56

Current Total: -$2.74

Inventory: 17 sake cups (half ownership)

Time Spent: 1 hour 54 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 hour 54 minutes

Techincally I'm bankrupt at this moment due to the $10.60 (split in half = $5.30 to me) in fees for listing the 17 sake cups today - but since I don't have to pay the ebay fees at this moment (not until the bill comes) I'm still solvent with a bit of money in my envelope here.

If the cups don't sell, then I'll be in real trouble and my challenge may be over, but it should (fingers crossed) work out okay in the end since I'll have a bit of money coming in when the medal auctions I listed for my friend end.

The SW card guy said he was going to purchase 10 sets, but I haven't heard anything back from him after send ing a few emails so I'm not sure that will pan out. It kind of hurts as I already knew what I was going to buy with the money when it came in (some more cups I came across), but I may have to pass on them since I don't have any funds at the moment.

I started recording the time it takes to do this challenge (good thing I found my stop watch). I spend just under 2 hours taking photos, loading them onto my computer and setting up the auctions. The time is a bit off on the total since I just started today, but over the next five months it shouldn't amount to much of a difference.

Here are the auctions I listed for anyone that is interested:

17 Sake Cup Auctions

Since I don't have any more money at this point, I will spend some time listing a few more items for my friend since that doesn't cost me any money to do. Again, it's finding the time.

Time

2005-07-25T02:33:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $2.56

Current Total: $2.56

Inventory: 17 sake cups (half ownership)

An interesting comment in the main section of the challenge:

"I think the only way (unless you're really lucky) to turn $20 into $5000 is by also investing a lot of time. I suppose with my job, I am continually trying to turn $20 into $5000 many times over. I buy a domain, get some hosting, and then try earn money through advertising. It doesn't just happen, though... it also requires a lot of work and time."

As I mentioned in my previous post, one of the biggest obstacles I'm finding with my challenge is finding the time. Obviously, working the ebay route means that I do put time into making this happen - I think from now on I'll also list the time it takes me to earn the extra money (time to go through the drawers and see if I can find my old stopwatch)

My goal is not to spend more than a couple of hours a day at the most, because that is all I really have and that is probably pushing it a bit. We'll see how the time factor works out as things progress.

Sake Cups & Partnership

2005-07-25T00:11:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $22.56

Current Total: $2.56

Stock: 17 sake cups (half ownership)

My wife and I went to a get together last night and I was talking to some of them about my $20 to $5,000 challenge and told them that one of my biggest problems with this task is finding the time to do it. As much time as I spend on savingadvice in addition to my other commitments, I have limited time to try and make the money.

I sell a lot of Japanese medals in my spare time because there is a decent profit margin and by doing so, it allows me to spend more time on the website (instead of going out and finding a part-time job to earn some extra cash). I know that there is quite a bit of potential profit in Japanses sake cups, but I don't sell them very often because of the time it takes to wrap them so they don't break while being shipped overseas. For the limited time I have, medals make more sense because they are easy to wrap and send meaning I can list more of them each week.

While talking, one of them suggested a split of duties: if I list the items, she will wrap, address and send them - we split the profits 50/50. If all I have to do is take the photos and list the items, then I should have time to do this and it could turn out to be quite profitable. I also have complete confidence with her wrapping the items as she is a perfectionist in such things.

Today I went to a local flea market and picked up a few nice boxes of cups. One box in particular I'm excited to list as I think they will sell quite well. I purchased 17 cups total for $40 ($20 mine, and $20 hers) which puts me down to only $2.56, but it's a chance worth taking. This will most likely be the make or break purchase of my challenge. if this works out, I should have a money cushion even if I make some mistakes later on. If not, I am counting that the promised sale of the Star Wars card sets comes through since I will need that money if this fails.

The cup price of about $2.35 a cup was a great find - usually these cups sell for $5 - $10 each when sold individually, so the bulk buy was the way to go). Not all of them are in perfect condition, but that is part of the risk in buying in bulk. Luckily, most are in good condition. A few have rim chips and acouple have hairline cracks, but even with the imperfections, the patterns are good and I still think they will sell. I will be listing them tomorrow and will keep my fingers crossed.

There hasn't been a whole lot of movement on the Olympic pins and medals I listed for my friend since the burst of bidding when they were first listed. Ebay tends to be this way - most bidding takes place on the first and last day of the auctions. I have some more items from him to list to, so tomorrow is going to be a busy listing day.

Time to start taking photos and preparing the listing for tomorrow...

Good News

2005-07-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $22.56

Current Total: $22.56

Inventory: Nothing

Some good news. The person says he wants to buy another 10 sets of the Star wars cards. I checked with the local shop and they still have plenty of the set so there isn't a problem there. Payment hasn't come yet, but that should add about $30 to the total after all the expenses and will give me a little more room to buy some items that have the potential to earn a bit more money.

Pleasant Surprise

2005-07-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $22.56

Current Total: $22.56

The auctions that I put up for my friend have done much better than I expeced thus far. Since I have no experience with olympic collectibles, I wasn't sure what to expect and figured if they all sold for about $5 or so, we would have done well. All the auctions have at least one bid with one of the pins already having been bid up to $39 which is a pleasant surprise for both of us. My take is 25% of the final price so that should add a few more dollars to the total when they end next week. I guess I should keep my eyes open for Olympic pins from now on when I visit flea markets and such.

Auctions Listed At No Risk

2005-07-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $22.56

Current Total: $22.56

Still no word on the other card sets. If I don't hear anything in the next 24 hours, I will list another set.

I listed 5 auction for my friend with Olympic related themes. The deal is I get 25% of the final price and he pays all fees, so no risk on my part in this.

Japanese 1964 Tokyo Olympics Medal Olympic Japan Fuji
Japanese 1964 Tokyo Olympics Medal Olympic Japan Bronze
Japanese 1972 Sapporo Olympics Medal Olympic Japan XI
Japan 1964 Tokyo Olympics Kappa Flag Pin Olympic Japan
Japan 1964 Tokyo Olympic Ring Pin Olympics Japanese NR

Hopefully all those will sell for a few dollars at a minimum - I don't know much about Olympic collectibles so not sure what to expect there. I still have some more items to list for him when I find the time.

Another Small Sale

2005-07-21T08:23:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $18.93

Current Total: $22.56

Ah, for the little joys in life. Another of the Star Wars card sets sold which means $3.63 profit after all expenses which actually puts me a couple dollars ahead of the initial $20 starting point finally. The better news (fingers crossed) is that he may be interested in multiple sets, so I will wait putting another set on ebay until I hear from him on that....time for bed since it's closing in on 1:00AM out here in Japan

Auctions Ended - Not as good as I hoped

2005-07-19T00:23:00.000-07:00

Previous Total: $17.55

Current Total: $18.93

Things have certainlt started out slow - I need to come up with some more ideas soon if I'm going to make it to the goal. Onlt one of the two auctions sold at the reduced prices I listed - the card set for $5.95 + $3.00 shipping. The final value fee was $0.26 and the paypal fee was $0.56. As mentioned before, the cost of the set to me was $2.50. Shipping came to $2.00 - I had placed an extra $1.00 onto shipping to help lessen the impact of the listing, final and paypal fees. That means the profit was $3.63 - not a lot, but since I can do this again and again, not much more work for me to list the auction. So, I placed another auction for the set up on ebay which cost another $0.70.

Even thought he coca cola set didn't sell, I placed it up again (another $1.55 listing fee) because there were 7 people that had put it on their watch list. I'm not sure why it didn't sell. If it doesn't sell this week at $39.95, I will give up on that.

So after totalling up my small gain and the expenses of listing again, overall I'm still under $20.

The good news is I received about 15 items from a friend that wants me to list them for him - since he'll be paying all the expenses for listing and final value, I don't have to worry about that. I will get 25% of the final price.

Not As I Had Planned - Making Adjustments

2005-07-16T18:40:00.000-07:00

Current Total: $17.55

Things haven't turned out exactly the way I had hoped, but then that is part of this experiment. Neither of the two auctions has sold. I was hoping that they would sell rather quickly and I could list multiples of them to get a better base, but things have not worked out that way. The good thing is that I didn't actually buy either of the sets so I'm not stuck with inventory. I've decided to lower the price on both of them to see if I can sell them before the auctions end.

I did receive some items from my friends to list on auction and we agreed on the 25% of selling price for them. Most of them don't look like they will sell for a whole lot of money, but again, it's a 100% risk free listing for me so I'll see how those turn out. my plan is to list those auctions on Monday.

New Stream of Income?

2005-07-14T18:52:00.000-07:00

I had a conversation with a few friends last night that may turn into a new stream of income. They have items that they want to sell, but not the time to do it. I offered to sell the items for them - either for a flat $10 fee or 25% of the final price, whichever they prefer. The nice think is that there is absolutely no risk for me - they pay for all the listing fees and final fees. They are supposed to bring some items over next week and I'll see how this works out.

Created This Blog

2005-07-11T23:14:00.000-07:00

I don't expect that this blog will generate a ton of money, but it should add a few dollars to the overall goal by the time six months are up with the google ads that are on it. The key to making it a success will be to trade links and try and get a following - the first step to doing that is getting the word out about the blog. I'll need to trade links, so anyone out there with a personal financial or money related blog or site that would like to trade links, feel free to email me at any time.

Listed Items

2005-07-11T22:49:00.000-07:00

I listed 2 auctions with the inatial $20 - one cost $0.70 and the other $1.55 bringing my current total to $17.55. Both items are available at a local hobby shop so I didn't have to actually purchase them before hand - I just went and took photos. That means if they don't sell, I'm only out the listing fee and not the cost of the items. While a little risky, the shop has plenty of both sets. I decided to list them at a set price to hopefully increase the $20 a little quicker.

The Coca Cola Coke Bottle Japanese Korea World Cup Pin Set is a set that I sold when the world cup was going on and it usually sold for between $25 and $50 so I have it listed at the high end. My cost is $25 - if it doesn't sell in the next few days, I may lower the price a little.

The Star Wars 7-11 AOTC 16 + 3 Insert Card Set is also a set that I have sold in the past - it is a bit oversold, but still should get between $5 and $10 since it includes the insert cards. My cost is $2.50. Hopefully I can sell a few of each to build up the money and move onto items with potentially greater profit margins.

I've set the shipping price at slightly higher than the actual shipping costs - this will help defray the paypal fees and final value fees (although it won't eliminate them). My fingers are crossed. The nice thing about these two sets are that if they do sell, I can relist them again as long as the hobby shop has them in stock.

More Possible Money Making Thoughts

2005-07-11T22:48:00.000-07:00

Due to some unexpected issues, I wasn't able to list my items on Friday. I find that my items don't sell as well on weekends as during the week, so I'm going to wait until Monday to list them.

I also rediscovered another way I can add some money at little cost. When I first started on ebay, I used to collect used phone cards left in phone booths in Japan. I haven't done that in a long time just because the profit margin wasn't as high as it was for other items I can buy and resell. With the $20 start, these will be a good base to start with again since I find them for free. Once I get a bit more of a cushion, I'll probably stop selling them and move to more profitable items, but it is a good way to start with minimal costs. If the auctions go well but I decide not to sell them any more, maybe I'll bulk sell the cards to other to sell - then I can make a little money without much time spend and someone else can also make some extra money. Something to think about.

More Research

2005-07-11T22:47:00.000-07:00

I spent about another 30 minutes yesterday taking photos and have decided on two items that he stocks. One is a set of Star Wars trading cards and the other is a set of Coke bottle caps - he has multiples of both these greatly reducing the risk that they will be sold to someone else if I sell them on eBay. I'm writing up the listing at the moment and will list them tomorrow to make sure they are placed on auction at a better ending time.

That also got me thinking about some other things I can do. pepsi is currently running a campaign out here for bottle caps for Star Wars that are exclusive to Japan. I can sell these as long as the campaign is running without purchasing the bottle caps unless I sell them. This works out well because I also get free drinks in the process. Kelloggs is also running a Japan campaign which again could lead to both some extra money and free breakfast cereal. I'll think a bit more on those this weekend.

Looking For Product To Sell

2005-07-11T22:46:00.000-07:00

I spent about 30 minutes looking for things to sell yesterday (no cost - all were within walking distance of my home) and found a number of possibilities, but most didn't fit the $20 starting budget. The problem is that eBay listing fees will eat up the $20 rather quickly. Technically, I won't have to pay them until the next credit card payment arrives, but to be conservative, I will count the money as being gone when I list the products.

So I had a dilemma of how to get started on the tight budget - and then it came to me. There was a hobby shop I visited that is selling a number of items I think I can resell for a profit. Most are over my $20 budget. To lessen the risk, I talked to the owner and asked if I could come back and take photos of certain items he has (I explained a friend in the US was looking for things and I wanted to make sure they were the right ones before buying them) and he agreed. So I will take pictures today and list the items tomorrow.

This means that on the money side, I have greatly reduced my risk (if I'm wrong and the item doesn't sell, then I don't have any dead stock and am only out the listing fee). Where I will increase my risk is on the supply side - I will be in real trouble if I sell something on eBay and then go back to the store and find the item has been sold. I will therefore ask what type of supply he has for each of the items to lessen the risk that they are all sold out.

Turning $20 into $5000

2005-07-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

One of the best ways to save money is to earn extra money on the side. I was discussing this with a good friend of mine and he said that doing a side business is a lot easier said than done, especially if you don't have a lot of money to start. I told him that I could turn $20 into $5000 by the end of the year and thus this challenge was born. I have $20 and over the next 6 months I will try and turn that $20 into $5000 in savings. This blog will follow my attempts to do this.