Pimp My Twenty Bucks - Part Fourteen
It's important to remember that no matter how off topic I seem to appear, that I am going to make a point, so please, keep reading!
I remember the few weeks before I first became a fully functional Dad. Up until this point I had been the stunned husband with the occasional twitching eye, trying to reconcile the abstract notion of having a mini-me in the house with the reality that it was really going to happen.
When you're a kid time seems to have no meaning. A two hour trip to our family holiday spot seemed to drag on like Lawrence of Arabia, whereas the holidays themselves seemed like this amazing never ending cycle of lazy bliss. Then you become an adult and suddenly two hours doesn't seem like such a long time and two weeks off work doesn't seem long enough...
My point is, just when you think that your age has caused your brain to process time like a digital photo, suddenly you find yourself waiting for your first baby and your brain goes back to processing time like a 35 mm roll of film. The months move by like boulders in the sand until you get to the last three weeks of pregnancy (or at least your wife does) and time straps you to a chair in the waiting room of eternity...
At least that is what it was like for me. In the same way, when on those two hour road trips as a kid, I would ask my mother every five minutes, "Are we there yet?" I wanted to ask my wife, "Is this baby coming yet or what?" And my first child would kick me in bed at night through the narrow wall of her mother's stomach as if to remind me that there was nothing I could do but wait.
Which is the same position I find myself in now. Except this time I'm the one having the baby!
In this series of 14 articles (to date) I have proven that even a pecuniary dipstick like myself can take $20, plant it in a particular interest, such as my love for old books, and utilize the Internet to multiply my money until I reach my goal of a hundred dollars.
And now, with the gestation period almost complete I find myself feeling airily similar to how I did in those last few weeks of my wife's first pregnancy, wondering when on earth all of this is going to be over? Or rather, when will I finally get to spend this money I've labored so hard for?
Well, not this week.
As my last round of listings closed yesterday I sold the following:
Around the World in 80 days by Jules Verne - $2
Garden of Rama by Arthur C.Clarke -$3
Unfortunately I made a big mistake with the first book by listing it at $2 only. It has taught me a lesson about being meticulous when checking my listings. Even though the book initially cost me 50 cents, it also cost me 30 cents the first time I listed it and an additional 50 cents for the success fee once it finally sold. So I've only made 70 cents from that one. I should have been in the habit of checking my prices.
Never mind, you have no choice but to learn from your mistakes, and ripping my hair out over it isn't going to do anything for my hair line, so moving forward I spent $2.50 to replace the books I sold with four "new" titles, bringing my stock up to 49 books listed on Trademe!
That leaves me with $83.66, that's $16.34 short of my goal. But it's still nice to know that the amount I have to make to the finishing line is still less than the amount I started this race with!
I learned another valuable lesson on Trademe this week as well that I think everyone can benefit from, and that is:
Stick with what you know!
We had some old babies clothes lying around which even my wife wanted to be rid of. I assured her I could successfully sell them on trademe. Boy was I as wrong as a fairy in a pesticide factory! I was so proud of myself for selling a bundle of 5 t-shirts for $5 until a week after posting them I get an angry email from a mum who gave me a serious education in how much I failed at satisfying her expectations. She even quoted me, using actual quotation marks, to point out what a liar I was in my listings. As a man, and a dad, I can only say, "What stains? They looked fine to me!" But in the end I had to ask her if she wanted a refund. I'm still waiting for her reply. So stick to what you know. This is a great example of what happens when you venture into something you are a complete ignoramus about.
In the meantime I have to find out how to stimulate my trademe account's level of oxytocin so as to induce labour. If you're not a parent you'll have no idea what I'm talking about, so in pre-parental speak - I have to do some advertising so I can squeeze this one hundred dollars of of my account.
You can help me achieve this by pressing the "like" button or sharing this series with your friends!
I also have a facebook fan page, complete with four fans. Maybe you could be the fifth? Click here to "fan" me!
Until next week...
Click here to read Part Fifteen!
Click here to view my listings
Click here to read this series from the beginning!
Click Here to follow my progress on Facebook!
I remember the few weeks before I first became a fully functional Dad. Up until this point I had been the stunned husband with the occasional twitching eye, trying to reconcile the abstract notion of having a mini-me in the house with the reality that it was really going to happen.
When you're a kid time seems to have no meaning. A two hour trip to our family holiday spot seemed to drag on like Lawrence of Arabia, whereas the holidays themselves seemed like this amazing never ending cycle of lazy bliss. Then you become an adult and suddenly two hours doesn't seem like such a long time and two weeks off work doesn't seem long enough...
My point is, just when you think that your age has caused your brain to process time like a digital photo, suddenly you find yourself waiting for your first baby and your brain goes back to processing time like a 35 mm roll of film. The months move by like boulders in the sand until you get to the last three weeks of pregnancy (or at least your wife does) and time straps you to a chair in the waiting room of eternity...
At least that is what it was like for me. In the same way, when on those two hour road trips as a kid, I would ask my mother every five minutes, "Are we there yet?" I wanted to ask my wife, "Is this baby coming yet or what?" And my first child would kick me in bed at night through the narrow wall of her mother's stomach as if to remind me that there was nothing I could do but wait.
Which is the same position I find myself in now. Except this time I'm the one having the baby!
In this series of 14 articles (to date) I have proven that even a pecuniary dipstick like myself can take $20, plant it in a particular interest, such as my love for old books, and utilize the Internet to multiply my money until I reach my goal of a hundred dollars.
And now, with the gestation period almost complete I find myself feeling airily similar to how I did in those last few weeks of my wife's first pregnancy, wondering when on earth all of this is going to be over? Or rather, when will I finally get to spend this money I've labored so hard for?
Well, not this week.
As my last round of listings closed yesterday I sold the following:
Around the World in 80 days by Jules Verne - $2
Garden of Rama by Arthur C.Clarke -$3
Unfortunately I made a big mistake with the first book by listing it at $2 only. It has taught me a lesson about being meticulous when checking my listings. Even though the book initially cost me 50 cents, it also cost me 30 cents the first time I listed it and an additional 50 cents for the success fee once it finally sold. So I've only made 70 cents from that one. I should have been in the habit of checking my prices.
Never mind, you have no choice but to learn from your mistakes, and ripping my hair out over it isn't going to do anything for my hair line, so moving forward I spent $2.50 to replace the books I sold with four "new" titles, bringing my stock up to 49 books listed on Trademe!
That leaves me with $83.66, that's $16.34 short of my goal. But it's still nice to know that the amount I have to make to the finishing line is still less than the amount I started this race with!
I learned another valuable lesson on Trademe this week as well that I think everyone can benefit from, and that is:
Stick with what you know!
We had some old babies clothes lying around which even my wife wanted to be rid of. I assured her I could successfully sell them on trademe. Boy was I as wrong as a fairy in a pesticide factory! I was so proud of myself for selling a bundle of 5 t-shirts for $5 until a week after posting them I get an angry email from a mum who gave me a serious education in how much I failed at satisfying her expectations. She even quoted me, using actual quotation marks, to point out what a liar I was in my listings. As a man, and a dad, I can only say, "What stains? They looked fine to me!" But in the end I had to ask her if she wanted a refund. I'm still waiting for her reply. So stick to what you know. This is a great example of what happens when you venture into something you are a complete ignoramus about.
In the meantime I have to find out how to stimulate my trademe account's level of oxytocin so as to induce labour. If you're not a parent you'll have no idea what I'm talking about, so in pre-parental speak - I have to do some advertising so I can squeeze this one hundred dollars of of my account.
You can help me achieve this by pressing the "like" button or sharing this series with your friends!
I also have a facebook fan page, complete with four fans. Maybe you could be the fifth? Click here to "fan" me!
Until next week...
Click here to read Part Fifteen!
Click here to view my listings
Click here to read this series from the beginning!
Click Here to follow my progress on Facebook!
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