Setting Up Free Sites

Previous Total: $27.63

Current Total: $27.63

Inventory: none

I talked about doing this as part of last year's challenge, but never quite got around to doing it as fully as I wanted to. That was to set up free sites that feature some of the antique items I sell to make ends meet as I try to make my sites my full time job. I actually have a few reasons for doing this. One is to educate people a bit more about these items since there isn't a whole lot of information out there on them. Second is possible begin selling the items through those sites rather than through ebay where I have all the fees. Lastly, they give me an opportunity to earn a few dollars a month through adsense. I'm hoping that I can make a bit of extra time to get these sites going this year.

This are pretty niche sites that will probably only be of interest to a handful of collectors and therefore at this time I don't see a benefit of setting up a completely separate site for them. if they become popular, however, I can always go in that direction - especially if sales take off.

While I won't count the items sold on these sites (unless they are part of my inventory), I will place the amount of the fees I save if I do eventually sell anything. I just created one to document Japanese Flags and hopefully more will follow.

More Items To Sell

Previous Total: $30.23

Current Total: $27.63

Inventory: none

I had a good day today finding items I could sell without laying out any money ahead of time. In a sense, it's like drop shipping except I have to pick up and send the items myself. When I went to the hobby shop to pick up the Coca Cola world cup pin set and asked how many he has remaining (2 more) he said that he also had about 10 partial sets. The sets are missing 2 of the pins and the special pin (14/17) and he said he would sell me these partial sets for $5. I took a photo and have placed that up on ebay already.



In addition I found a set of 6 winter Coca Cola key chains that I can get for $2.50 each



Then I also found a Coca Cola bottle cap set which would be $10. All these seem like reasonable prices and I have placed them on auction and we'll see of any of them sell. The listing fees for the three comes to $2.60 which I've subtracted from my total.



Now that I have a bit of money, I will begin to look for some investments. It's winter here so there aren't many flea markets so I'll have to look elsewhere to get some stock. I also don't have near as much time to search for items, so hopefully I'll come across some nice stashes somewhere.

It is now January first here in Japan (Happy New year to one and all) so I guess this challenge is officially started for me (even though I began a few days early) - onto $1,000,000 :)

Another Sale

Previous Total: $24.68

Current Total: $30.23

Inventory: none

Just about ready to go to bed (12.30 AM here in Japan) and checked my email to see that the Star Wars card set sold for $9.95. That means another trip to the hobby shop tomorrow (it's a short walk from my house). The good news is that they have a lot of these sets, so I should be able to continue to sell them without having to put out any money as long as people want to buy them.

The set cost me $2.50 plus $1.20 in fees. Take that away from the $9.95 and it is a $6.25 profit. I listed the set again which takes away $0.70 so I end up being able to add $5.55 to my total. Time for bed...

Starting On The Right Foot

Since I decided to start with nothing, I had to come up with a way to start making money without expending any money right away. I had a couple of choices here. I could find stuff for free and sell it or I could take a page out of my old challenge and place items up for sale that I didn't actually purchase, but know I can purchase if they end up selling. While I plan to utilize both strategies, I started off by placing a couple of auctions with items I knew I could get at a local hobby shop.

While there are expenses for placing items on eBay, I could still get away with this due to the float in time before I actually had to pay. That is, even though there is a cost, I don't have to pay that cost until the bill comes which gives me a window of about a month to earn enough to cover the bill before it comes. Not something that I would normally want to do, but when you're starting our with $0 you have to be a little creative in making things happen.

I started off with a Coca Cola world cup set. I had listed this a couple of times in the other challenge and it hadn't sold, but with world cup news now getting more air time, I thought it would be worth a try again.

I sold a set today. I have another one still available and I hope it will sell too. I only listed 2 sets because the store has 4 full sets available and I want to make sure that i can get hold of them if they sell. I will go down there today to pick up the set that sold and make sure there are still 3 sets available.

In addition to the coca cola set, I listed a Star Wars card set. I sold this set a number of times in the last challenge so I figured I should keep a good thing going. Again, there is no cost to me unless the set sells and then I can pick it up for $2.50.

The last thing I put up were sets of packaging for Star Wars figures. This was completely free - it's just packaging, but I have learned from past experience that for collectors anything has a chance to sell. If it doesn't, I'm only out the cost of listing the item for sale.

To place the items on ebay cost $1.35. The cost of the Coca Cola pin set to me is $20.00. paypal fees and ebay end of auction fees came to $3.92 and the set sold for $49.95. That puts me up $24.68 after deducting all expenses and means I now have a cushion to make this challenge work.

Previous Total: $0.00

Current Total: $24.68

Inventory: none

First Step - Monetize

The first step when starting off without any money is to do what you can for free to earn money. That means the first step is to place ads on this page. From past experience I know they won7t bring in much money, but they may bring in a few dollars a month and since this is a loooong term project, hopefully more than a few in the years to come. No matter how small, it is free money and an easy first step to get things going. All it takes is signing up for a adsense account (free) and them placing the code on the site. Onto more steps...

Starting Out

This is my new challenge that I figure will take upward of several decades. It was inspired by a challenge by my partner in 2005 who said it would be impossible to turn $20 into $5,000 in 6 months. While I did fail in that endeavor, I did turn the $20 into over $1,300 with a bunch of stock left over. With the New Year right around the corner, I will be beginning a new challenge and decided that I would make this into a looooong term challenge by starting with nothing and seeing how long it takes me to turn it into $1,000,000 while documenting the steps all along the way.

Is it possible? I have no doubt that it can be done - although it will take a lot of patience to accomplish it. Here are the rules I have set for myself:

1. This challenge can only be done in my spare time.

2. All money made must be beyond my regular income and put aside into savings or reinvested into this challenge.

So let the challenge begin...