If you’ve red The Story you know that I’m a saver. I like to save – but not just money – anything that can be accumulated. I’ve always been a bit of a collector, really.
I’ve collected bottle caps, DVDs (before that, it was VHS tapes), stones (no you idiot, not the ones you find on the beach – you know, the special colorful quartz-stones that you buy in expensive stores, because they have “special attributes”…OK, I get it – I’m the idiot…), smurfs, ninja turtles, coins, stamps, toy cars etc. You get the picture.
In recent years, I’ve tried to let go of my collector-habit, which hasn’t been easy (my wife threw out my stones – HA! That didn’t sound right – but I still have the smurfs somewhere. EDIT: The wife claims I still have my stones…).
A recent post from one of my favorite FIRE bloggers got me thinking, how this habit of collecting could somehow be turned into profit – in that I can often see value where others can’t. My collecting never really had a purpose. I wasn’t collecting smurfs or coins in the belief that I could some day sell them for a profit.
As I grew older, I stopped collecting – except for DVDs. My wife an I merged our DVD collection when we moved in together more than 10 years ago (she also had a book-collecting mania, which she has been scaling down since I pointed out that she used those books even less than the DVDs) and they are now all boxed up in storage, as we don’t even own a DVD player anymore (this is actually untrue – we have a PS3, an Xbox and a Nintendo Wii, which we also never use). There goes 20+ years of collecting.
As you (might) know, I’m a big advocate of buying 2nd hand merchandise. If you find yourself in desperate need of a robot vacuum (who doesn’t?) it can be found for cheap on the 2nd hand market – provided that you have the patience to wait for the exact model that you’d like. – Because obviously, you wouldn’t buy just any old robot, would you? No, you want the best that your budget (cheap-ass) will allow you to buy. The same can be said for your next Iphone, your couch, you dining room table or your sweater-vest that is apparently now back in style! ANYTHING you can think of, you can buy 2nd hand (there’s a few items that I wouldn’t buy 2nd hand, obviously – none the less, people are selling these items as well… 😉 ).
My favorite App on my phone, is the Danish equivalent to Ebay/craigslist (dba.dk). I’ve made a habit of not opening it though, unless there’s something specific that I’m looking for. The reason for this is, if I see something for sale that I KNOW I can buy and resell at a premium, I will do it…And it ALWAYS takes longer than I anticipate, to resell it. None the less, I’ve yet to sell an item with a loss. Actually, I’ve made quite a decent profit on iphones, ipads – and my favorite item to buy and resell: TVs.
Yea, most people don’t have a clue what they are buying/selling (or just don’t care). It’s all about knowing the specs/features/models, and it’s fairly quick to determine whether something is over/undervalued.
I do not recommend buying and reselling items that wont fit in a shoe box. It’s simply too much of a hassle to hall around a 50″ TV. And yet, I’ve done it 3 times now. – Actually, when I started writing this post I had a buyer lined up to purchase my latest flip-object (another 50″ Smart-TV – yes, I’m a moron), but he bailed it seems (it happens quite often…). So again, it’s proving to take longer than I anticipated to resell an item, but I’m confident I will sell it eventually. If it happens, I will earn a little over €100 on a combined 1-hour effort (finding the object, negotiating a good price, picking it up, fiddling with it a bit to make sure it works as expected, posting an add with some nice pictures, finding a buyer, negotiate the selling price – out the door).
I know that there are niches for buying/selling anything – so if you have a particular knowledge in something like bicycle parts, tin cans, silver cutlery or ceramics – go for it! (as stated before, I really don’t recommend flipping larger objects. For some reason, I just can’t help myself…).
So there you have it. Saver, collector, hustler. My resume just keeps growing. Obviously, this is not something that is going to make me rich – but it’s certainly going to keep me busy…
Luckily, this “new” skill of mine goes excellent in line with one of the main dogmas of the FIRE movement: Get yourself a side hustle!
✔ Establish side hustle (check)
What’s your side hustle? (Future side hustle plans are also valid).
Another X collector here. 🙂
Indeed, bottle caps – they never lived up to their purpose… Anyway, after I changed country I only took the bare necessities with me, so now I don’t own almost anything more than I need. Life becomes much easier when there are less things around. Currently working on improving the digital hoarding habits by not just dumping everything on HDDs that I’ll “review later”.
I think selling things is a nice way to increment the sources of income. Even going international or establishing a drop-shipping brand can be a next step if you build a practice around it and know how to spot the right niches. Have you thought about scaling or just keeping it simple for now?
Lastly, congratulations on checking the “establish side hustle” point! It’s a big one and can be a mindset shift for many.
Hey Mr. Monk, thanks for stopping by 😉
I think it’s more of a hobby/sport than an actual side-hustle really 😛 Buying used items and reselling them at a premium, is a risky business.
But it might not be such a bad idea, to set myself a goal of trying to achieve, let’s just say an extra €100/month doing it…You have to start somewhere, I guess. I’ve always liked the antique stores – not that I’m huge in buying antiques, but the idea of finding something of value that others might appreciate, and then making a living out of it really appeal to me. It seems antiques have had a huge revival since the early 2000’s. It’s become almost posh to decorate your home with antique furniture, and there a hundreds of small antique dealers popping up in- and around the city.
We have a local Red Cross shop that sells furniture/clothing/books/toys etc., and it’s my favorite place to shop. €1 for a book and a free toy for the kid 😛
Hey Nick! So you’re the ‘hurtig handel’ guy on DBA 😉
I’ve never been much of a collector, at least I never collected stuff consciously. Nevertheless, I have loads of old vinyl records, cd’s, dvd’s lying around (no smurfs and stones though).
Your side hustle sounds interesting. But have you never been faced with a situation that your – let’s say TV – loses value and becomes unsellable (for your price)? How long does it take you on average to sell stuff like that?
I have no particular side hustle currently, but did have some entrepreneurial things going on in the past (including running some other blogs). They never made me a fortune though 😉
I think it’s more of a hobby than an actual side hustle to be honest 😛 I’ve never lost money on my DBA dealings, but I remember I had to keep and Ipad once (I got impatient waiting for a good price, and just decided I needed a new Ipad!).
Some items might take longer to sell than anticipated, but typically I move them within a week. Whenever I finish a TV deal, I always promise myself not to do it again (until I then go and do it again).
I’m sort of looking for a TV for our home gym, so I’ll buy something that I think would look good in the there, but then quickly decide to resell it (for a profit, obviously). Should I one day fail to sell it again, at that point I would be forced to actually install it in the gym I guess 😛 (we don’t really need a TV in there – it would just be kind of cool to watch “Bad Boys” on a big screen while pumping iron 😛 )
The one I just sold (€80 worth of profit – I got impatient so I sold it to the first guy with a decent offer) was actually larger than our current TV, so I was seriously considering installing it in our living room. However, our current TV came with a wireless subwoofer (installed under the couch), which gives it a little more “umph”, so I decided just to keep the one I already had. I’m pretty sure that if I keep buying TVs, I will eventually end up having to keep one of them 😛
I know of a lot of people who does this with various items. You can make a decent buck out of it, but technically you should declare your earnings to the tax authorities…I doubt people do that though 😛 Unless you actually turn it into a business (it’s common with antiques – not electronics, as they obviously become obsolete faster than you can say “Bubba-Gump shrimps”.
What were the topics of those other blogs? 😛
It’s similar to going to flea markets, buying stuff (smurfs?) and then selling online or at the next flea market. I don’t know what things are worth, so I’d only lose money 😉 Well, a little market research before entering the market would help of course.
I mostly blogged about music. But I’ve had several online side hustles. I think I registered my first domain back in 1997 or so… 😉
This post reminded me that time when I was gathering information about buying stuff from China and reselling it on eBay or Amazon. I wanted to sell organic products, I even contacted some providers on Alibaba but at the end I didn’t go ahead as I thought there was too much competition and
hustle for a small profit.
When I was a teenager I used to collect key rings. I still keep them in a forgotten box kept in a place I can’t remember, covered by dust and probably some spiders
There seem to be a pattern building here. We were once all collectors, apparently 😛
Cool side hustle! You sound exactly like my wife – she is frequently on DBA.dk as well, and is really good at spotting the right things at the right price too! I’m the exact opposite. I think looking for “things” is extremely boring.
My side hustle is more and more becoming my blog with the increasing number of visitors and offers in my mailbox – I just wish I had more time to focus on it when not on a mini-retirement 🙂
How is the monetization going? I’ve noticed a high amount of posts in the crowdlending category lately 😛
I’m in a bit of an inner battle at the moment, in regards to monetizing my blog. You’ve been at this a lot longer than I have, so maybe you went through some of the same thoughts. On one hand, I did not start this blog to make money on it. I started it as an outlet for my thoughts/hopes/dreams.
At the same time, I really like the progress that I’ve made so far, in terms of visitors (growing steadily month by month), but I feel I could be doing more, to attract more readers. However, I’m happy with the readers that I do have, and I really don’t feel that I would benefit from having more readers, really. More wants more, and I feel it’s a dangerous path to start chasing visitors/views, just for the thrill of it. I should be quite happy with the progress I’ve made so far. I’m in no rush to get anywhere (besides early retirement! 😛 ) so I will try to keep my cool, and soldier on at the same steady pace as I’ve been doing so far. We’ll see where that all leads 😉 – But I feel it needs to come at a natural pace. I don’t want to force things.
What’s your experience?
Please keep your blog as it is, I am a long time reader of you both and I think it’s obvious that the “sales” focus has become stronger on moneymow, causing me to go there less frequently. Still love that blog, but maybe not as much as I used to.
Thank you for reading (and commenting), Johan 🙂
I’m glad to hear real opinions, from real readers! I shall do my very best, not to disappoint you 😉
I’m sorry you feel that way, Johan. I try to stay honest and transparent I can when I monetize something on the blog. It’s still only small amounts I earn on the blog and my hourly wage is horrible, so what keeps me going is still a strong motivation to share my journey and thoughts about financial independence, money and life in general.
Hi Carl
I totally understand and I’m sorry for being a bit harsh. I really do appreciate all the work you put in. I don’t think it is an issue of honesty or transparency, some blogs have those issues but not yours I think. I’m talking about just small things like the “in text” adds and the pop-ups for the newsletter, it just detracts from the blog. The pop-up is extra annoying because I can’t make it close by clicking close. Just small things that are good for the blog if it makes income to keep you going, but as a reader the site would be better without.
Keep it up, really love reading your blog, I check it daily 🙂
br
Johan
Thanks for the great feedback, Johan. I didn’t know the pop-up was not closing – it works on my computer, so I’ll try to see whether I can replicate the issue and work on a better solution. I’ve considered getting rid of the ads as it’s just pennies I’m making on it, but the newsletter part is quite important, so I’ll just have to find a good solution for that.
It’s a great question and something I have thought a lot about too. For me, it is a balance. I started the blog to track my journey towards financial independence and to keep myself accountable towards readers. However, I also really like blogging, and if monetizing part of my site could enable me to blog as a side-hustle or potentially a full-time hustle, I do believe that is very cool too. So at the moment I post all of the non-monetized articles I would normally post, and then I post some monetized too to see what it can lead to 🙂 So far my blog income is nothing you need to change your “forskudsopgørelse” for, and I have never had a worse hourly wage than I have on blogging, so the main motivation is still to share my journey.
Hey Nick! Your writing voice is funny as hell. It caught my attention and had my laughing the whole time. Great post! The side hustle that I’m in to is retail arbitrage. I’ve been catching items at low prices at Walmart, dollar tree, target and turn around and sell it. As a fellow collector of comic books I’ve hid those so well from the kids I had to put a note in my phone to remind where they are.
P.s P I’m going to have to get in with that challenge.
Hi Brandon,
thanks for stopping by! It’s cool that we’re now trans-atlantic! 😛
And thank you for laughing! I’m glad you were amused (that was my intention!). Good luck on your future endeavors. I’ll be sure to keep an eye on your progress 😉
I lost my comic book collection long time ago (unfortunately). I don’t think old worn-out DuckTales comics would be worth a whole lot today anyway. I’d like to read them for sentimental value, more than the street-value 😛
The oldest one I had was from 1967 (which is pretty old to me, as I was born in 1983).
Hi NIck. Nice side hustle. Im thinking of ubering some as a side hustle. Btw off topic. Im gatheting DGI blogers for a 1 push-up chalange. Wana join? 🙂 https://p2035.com/2019/01/15/1-pushup-challange/
Hi P2035,
Interesting challenge! I like the idea, and I understand the concept (once you’re one the floor, there’s no reason to stop at 1 push-up) – but I already have a working 3-day/week gym-routine that I adhere strictly to (I’ve been out of my gym-routine for a while, but am now back in!).
The pushup is not my favorite exercise though – I would much rather go with a 1-minute plank-challenge. That’ll wake you up! 😉
Ok, deal, 1 minute plank challenge! im doing pull-ups (now 4 each morning) myself not push-ups. It doesnt matter what type your doing as long as you do it. So im including you in with a * then 🙂
Ha! Deal! How do we keep track of the progress, and when is the challenge “finished”? 😉
I suppose its a y2019 thing. I will track my status at quarte updates in my blog. For others its up to you 😀 would be nice to write in comment how your doing. Ill keep a list who joined and what are they doing 🙂