Comments on: the times they are a changin’

By: Samantha

Samantha — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 17:11:01 +0000

Hey debt kid, where do you live? Are you in Southern California? I sell stuff on eBay all of the time. I would be willing to work for 10-15% plus listing fees.

If you want, shoot me an e-mail if iSold it doesn’t work out for you.

By: Charles Nadolski

Charles Nadolski — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 15:28:50 +0000

Why don’t you try using Craigslist? On the right side of the site, choose your city, and you can post your stuff on there. It’s far more flexible than ebay, and you reach a lot more people instead of a garage sale. You can post your items individually, grouped together in lots, or just advertise the whole thing as a yard sale. Unlike ebay it’s also free. I’ve had very good experiences with craigslist.

Oh, and selling Books/CD’s on amazon is super-easy. You set up a merchant account, look up the ISBN/UPC of the item, post a short description and you’re done. Somebody buys the item, you ship it, and amazon sends you money. It’s a 2 step process instead of the 5+ step process on ebay. You don’t have to worry about lowball bids either. You just state a price.

Also, for the higher-ticket items (such as the high-tech electronics), it never hurts to try and sell it to a pawn store.

It may not seem like much money, but if you have a lot of stuff to sell, you might squeeze a few grand out of the deal!

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 00:36:19 +0000

#1 – I think that the bulk of registered trading assistants have jumped on that “let’s milk the person for what they’re worth” bandwagon and are charging fees that come close to that. One might be lucky to get one that goes down to 20 percent, but I don’t think it’ll be that easy to find one who will go lower.

I think the idea of doing it yourself is a good one, if you have the time to spare.

By: Zintradi

Zintradi — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 17:00:25 +0000

Is staying in your office ok with your landlord, or is that an issue?
At my work one of the owners sons set up a cot out in the shop and would lurk in the office at night and steal peoples food… they finally put a stop to that, but it’s a funny story around here especially since the ’son’ was 45 at the time, you’d think he’d know better.
And in the words of Red Green, “i’m pullin for ya, we’re all in this together!”

Do your employees know the boss is sleeping in the office because of his finacial problems? If not, I might consider letting them in on all this to avoid a potential embarrasing situation.(that is if they haven’t already read this blog and put 2-2 together)
Also, i would at least get a health club membership so you could do your daily hygene somewhere other than the office.
Anyway, as others have said, i admire your fortitude in attempting to make this right. And unlike the Casey serin guy, you have a legitamate income stream, and one that you can grow to get you out of trouble.

By: debt kid

debt kid — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 06:47:30 +0000

I would have to spend at least $500 a month on rent with utilities and that would be renting out one bedroom from a house somewhere in the city limits. So, staying in the office may be a longer term plan, we’ll have to cross that bridge when it comes…

By: defib

defib — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 14:49:58 +0000

Seems to me that you might consider living in the office for a longer, undetermined amount of time–maybe until you get the debt paid mostly off. It wouldn’t be fun at all but that’s a hefty chunk of change you can save every month. Otherwise, how much would you have to spend each month on rent? $1,000?

By: Frugal One

Frugal One — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 14:31:17 +0000

Assuming you are either unhappy with the results the drop off ebaY store gets for you (and many people are) and/or you think their commission rate is too high, you might consider finding someone living in your area who is signed up as a trading assistant with ebaY and use them instead. If I were you I’d offer to pay all the reasonable ebaY fees they incur and a lower than 35% commission if the item sells…you’d be likely to come out further ahead that way.