Selling instead of pizza

Selling junk instead of delivering pizza, a question every person must ask at some point in their life…….

After decided that I would never take summer classes again, I took the summer off from school and needed to find a job.  I had applied for a highly competitive internship and to my surprise I was offered a job.  But, the job was only part time.  It was a paid internship at $10 an hour.  I would work 20 hours a week.  After taxes I would bring in about $740 a month. Well my bills were $760 a month and that doesn’t count food, gas, and everything else I might need.  I need to make an extra $400-$500 a month or else I would starve, my car would be repo-ed and I might end losing my house.   My first thought was deliver pizza. Why not, I figured I would make around $200 a weekend on tips if I worked 12-hour shifts Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So I went out and put in a few applications, only to hear back from one place.  I went to the job interview and saw I was one of two people who spoke English.  The pay was $4 an hour while delivering and 7.50 an hour cleaning and making pizza.  The manager told me I got the job and said to show up on Wednesday for work.  I never went in. I couldn’t do it. I would rather starve; lose my car and my house before I went to work at that place.  I figured I would challenge myself. Could I make a profit of $100 dollars a week selling junk?  And by junk I mean antiques, collectables and tools.  I just call it junk because saying I am an antique dealer sounds stupid.  Anyway, when not working my internship I hit the garage sales and estate sales hard. I stood in line for hours with the hoarders and other dealers (a whole post for another day) and battled for good stuff at cheap prices.  I would spend every Friday out looking for stuff to buy ( I worked Monday, Wednesday and Thursday).  The first few weeks went well.  I got lucky at a few sales and picked up so nice items. But the fact was I really had no idea what I was doing.  I went to the flea market that week with my car stuffed full of old beer cans, arrowheads, wooden crates, old bottles, and some tools.  I showed up at 930am to set up my table. I figured who the hell goes to the flea market before then. Wrong, buyers are there before the sun comes up with flash lights.  Those early birds are the real collectors, they pay top dollar for the stuff you have and I missed them all.  To make matters worse I really didn’t know the value of any of my items, I just took a guess and doubled what a paid for it in the first place.  Needless to say my first week I did not make my $100 dollar profit goal…..next time, getting better and selling and buying.

The Beginning of Junk Selling

I guess it would make sense here to start from the beginning.  I was driving to school one day last spring semester. I was really early because I just wanted to get out of the house with all the rain we were having.  So, I took the long way down Detroit into downtown.  Around West 50^th I saw a sign that said ESTATE SALE.  I had no idea what it was, so I stopped.  To my surprise an Estate sale is when they sell the contents of a dead person’s house.  I will admit that it kind of creped me out to be in some dead guy’s house but that all went away after I saw what was for sale inside the house.  Apparently, the former owner had spent years scuba diving Lake Erie and bring home whatever he happened to find on the bottom. The house was filled with old bottles, thousands of them. So I picked up a few that I thought looked cool and paid about $1 dollar a piece for them.  After class that day I went home and looked them up on Ebay.  I found they were worth around $10 each and I was hooked from that moment on.  Where else can you make a 900 percent profit in less than 4 hours, legally at least?  After a few more estate sales I had a nice big pile of old “junk” but I had no idea what to do with it. I am laughing as I write this because what was a big pile then, 3 old wooden crates and some odds and ends, is nothing compared to the 10 antique crates and piles of odds and ends sitting on my porch right now.  Anyway, not wanting to pay taxes or deal with shipping costs associated with Ebay, I decided to load up my car and head down to the local flea market for a Saturday afternoon.  I made $180 my first shot, not bad for having 3 wooden crates filled with nothing special.  Next time…..selling junk to pay my bills instead of delivering pizza!!

My First Failure

I made the decision after I got out of the military to never again spend one second of my life working for someone else.  With that idea in mind coupled with the fact that the economy of NE Ohio is about as bad as it gets for recent college grads I have spent the past few years planning and trying out business ideas that I seem to enjoy and bring a profit. This blog serves to chronicle my Adventures in Capitalism.   

My first attempt was a failure due to my impatience and ignorance. I saw there was a need for a large trash (appliances, yard waste, etc…) removal business in my area.  I already owned a truck so the most expensive investment I had to make to start the business was a website, a pair of gloves, and some gas. I figured I could do most jobs myself and hire a friend if I needed some help.  I made a website, and in my opinion did a damn fine job of it. For having no experience with web design it looked pretty professional.  Well, after I made the website I was sure that the calls would just come pouring in…..wrong. I waited 2 months and without a single job offer I cancelled the website and shut it all down.  Then a few months letter my phone starting ringing off the hook for trash removal jobs.  Good thing I had traded in my gas guzzling truck for a Ford Focus. Needless to say I had to turn down the jobs.  What I didn’t know was that when you make a website and submit your business to yellow pages and other business services it takes a few months for your business to begin showing up in people’s searches on the first page of the search engines.  Well lesson learned, and I really didn’t want to be a garbage man any way. What would I do with the business when I got too old to lift heavy things? 

Next time my first sucess