Pimp My Twenty Bucks Part Five
It has been five weeks since I began the arduous task of becoming a Hundredaire (that’s like a millionaire only 10,000 times poorer) and I am proud to announce that I have finally earned enough to retire on, that is, if I was an ant.
However I do feel that I am finally getting some traction on the whole enterprise and as slow as it has been I’m definitely moving in the right direction – forward!
If you’ve just walked in on this series and can’t be bothered going back to the introduction to figure out what all this is about then allow me to bring you up to speed.
I had a dream. A dream that by manipulating the forces of the internet, I could turn a simple $20 note into a more appealing and usable $100. To be specific, I proposed to utilize my love and knowledge of popular fiction, by purchasing cheap editions from local opportunity shops and selling them online via Trademe, otherwise known as the Kiwi alternative to eBay.
With that $100 I would go on to greater things like adorning my feet with hole less shoes or visiting my dear old Mother who lives 300 kilometers the wrong way from here, or the even darker and dire possibility of paying a vet to castrate my testosterone heavy cat.
Armed with the optimism that believes I can achieve such things with only $100 as if it were 1985 I took that $20 and used half to credit my Trademe account. I then used the remaining $10 to purchase 9 paperback novels at 50 cents to $1 each from a local op shop…
But that was then.
This is now.
If you have braved the jungle of my last four blogs in this series you will notice that I have been making this up as I go along, feeling my way around like an entrepreneurial Tarzan swinging from one vine to the next, never knowing when I was going to grab the tail of a hungry snake instead. But I think I have the hang of this now. It’s a bit like farming really. Farming in a completely unpredictable environment that may or may not reap a harvest…
Last week I listed 26 books. I sold three. That’s like sowing 26 seeds and getting three cabbages back, except thankfully these seeds are magic and I can sow them again and again until they bear fruit (or vegetables).
I sold:
Whirlwind by James Clavell for $3
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole for $3
The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank) for another $3
That’s $9 for me to brag about this week.
My cat Felix, skeptical to the end regarding his eminent surgery, just raises his eyebrow at me. I didn’t even know cats had eyebrows!
I’ve been gathering my takings in a bank account I’ve named the Dog Ears Account; currently it is the lavish home of $17.
Last week’s sales left me with $3 in the old Trademe account.
Plus $9 equals $29!
It took me nearly five whole weeks but I have proven none the less that I, a dim-witted financially illiterate moron can, with persistence, patience and personality, can make money grow.
Now I just need some sort of financial growth hormone to make it grow bigger and faster!
Never the less I will soldier on until Felix raises two eyebrows in disbelief and faints in the vet clinic!
This week I have replaced the three books I sold with 6 books which I have now relisted at 30 cents per listing. I now have 31 books listed. (As an interesting side note, if I do ultimately fail in this endeavor I could always repackage this series as a guide to turning $20 into 100 books!)
Having spent $3 on the new product, $1.80 on listing fees and $10 on topping up my Trademe account I now have $11.50 in Trademe and $16 in Dog Ears.
Now I only hope I can make this project into a proverbial snowball… only is that one of those cartoon snow balls that grows exponentially bigger as it rolls down a mountain or is it one of those snow balls that hits you in the face when you aren’t looking?
Only time will tell…
Tune in next week when I let Felix write the next entry!
Click Here to read Part Six of this series!
To view this weeks listings click here!
Click Here to read Part One of this series!
Click Here to follow my progress on Facebook!
Click Here to listen to a completely random piece of music by me that has nothing to do with this series!
However I do feel that I am finally getting some traction on the whole enterprise and as slow as it has been I’m definitely moving in the right direction – forward!
If you’ve just walked in on this series and can’t be bothered going back to the introduction to figure out what all this is about then allow me to bring you up to speed.
I had a dream. A dream that by manipulating the forces of the internet, I could turn a simple $20 note into a more appealing and usable $100. To be specific, I proposed to utilize my love and knowledge of popular fiction, by purchasing cheap editions from local opportunity shops and selling them online via Trademe, otherwise known as the Kiwi alternative to eBay.
With that $100 I would go on to greater things like adorning my feet with hole less shoes or visiting my dear old Mother who lives 300 kilometers the wrong way from here, or the even darker and dire possibility of paying a vet to castrate my testosterone heavy cat.
Armed with the optimism that believes I can achieve such things with only $100 as if it were 1985 I took that $20 and used half to credit my Trademe account. I then used the remaining $10 to purchase 9 paperback novels at 50 cents to $1 each from a local op shop…
But that was then.
This is now.
If you have braved the jungle of my last four blogs in this series you will notice that I have been making this up as I go along, feeling my way around like an entrepreneurial Tarzan swinging from one vine to the next, never knowing when I was going to grab the tail of a hungry snake instead. But I think I have the hang of this now. It’s a bit like farming really. Farming in a completely unpredictable environment that may or may not reap a harvest…
Last week I listed 26 books. I sold three. That’s like sowing 26 seeds and getting three cabbages back, except thankfully these seeds are magic and I can sow them again and again until they bear fruit (or vegetables).
I sold:
Whirlwind by James Clavell for $3
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole for $3
The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank) for another $3
That’s $9 for me to brag about this week.
My cat Felix, skeptical to the end regarding his eminent surgery, just raises his eyebrow at me. I didn’t even know cats had eyebrows!
I’ve been gathering my takings in a bank account I’ve named the Dog Ears Account; currently it is the lavish home of $17.
Last week’s sales left me with $3 in the old Trademe account.
Plus $9 equals $29!
It took me nearly five whole weeks but I have proven none the less that I, a dim-witted financially illiterate moron can, with persistence, patience and personality, can make money grow.
Now I just need some sort of financial growth hormone to make it grow bigger and faster!
Never the less I will soldier on until Felix raises two eyebrows in disbelief and faints in the vet clinic!
This week I have replaced the three books I sold with 6 books which I have now relisted at 30 cents per listing. I now have 31 books listed. (As an interesting side note, if I do ultimately fail in this endeavor I could always repackage this series as a guide to turning $20 into 100 books!)
Having spent $3 on the new product, $1.80 on listing fees and $10 on topping up my Trademe account I now have $11.50 in Trademe and $16 in Dog Ears.
Now I only hope I can make this project into a proverbial snowball… only is that one of those cartoon snow balls that grows exponentially bigger as it rolls down a mountain or is it one of those snow balls that hits you in the face when you aren’t looking?
Only time will tell…
Tune in next week when I let Felix write the next entry!
Click Here to read Part Six of this series!
To view this weeks listings click here!
Click Here to read Part One of this series!
Click Here to follow my progress on Facebook!
Click Here to listen to a completely random piece of music by me that has nothing to do with this series!
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