So you got yourself $100. Not much scratch, but nothing to sneeze at either.
But how can you turn that $100 into MORE $100’s?
If you type the title of this post into google, you will get a bunch of jokesters saying different ways to spend it. There are plenty of ways to blow $100 by following bad advice.
Here are some things NOT to do with your $100 if you want to turn it into $1,000.
- Penny stocks
- Buy an eBook that will tell you the ‘secret’ of making money (Hint: It’s selling $97 eBooks about the hidden secrets of making money)
- Gambling
An actually decent answer is to invest it in an index fund, but it will take decades to turn into $1,000 – ain’t nobody got time fo ‘dat.
A better answer is use that to start your own business.
- You could buy a domain, hosting, logo and business cards for $100 and start selling a service that you do.
- You could buy up a used lawn mower and charge your neighbors to cut their grass. Or buy a used leaf blower and some bags and take clear out people’s yards of leaves.
- Another way would be to grow plants that have a large demand.
But what I do to turn my $100 into $1,000 over and over is flip things I buy locally on eBay or Amazon FBA.
In 2015 I made over $22,000 in gross sales, $12,000+ profit after COGS, fees and shipping/returns. 2016 wasn’t so good since I worked overseas for 6 months and had to stop the side gig.
I enjoy buying low and selling high, it is almost like no work at all. I love, love, love looking for the deals out there – it is like finding treasure. The only thing I don’t like so much is creating the listings if I use eBay.
Obviously you won’t make money by buying any old thing out there. You need to know what is desirable and a great deal. You also have to understand shipping costs and fees to know what you could possibly earn.
Luckily, there are loads of ways to learn.
I would suggest watching some Youtube videos of what people are selling. A few channels I like are:
You could research eBay’s sold listings and see what goes for good money.
Start by selling some small things around your house that you no longer need and is easy to ship. I started by selling off used video games. I made my listings and when they sold I wrapped them in pieces of paper bags that I got from the super market and hand wrote the address.
This is a good way to get your feet wet.
I used my early profit to buy a scale and an address label maker. That allowed me to earn even more as you get a shipping discount from eBay. The label maker is needed to label your Amazon FBA items too, so you won’t have to pay the fee to have Amazon label it for you.
Grow. Use the money you earn to get more items, which will allow you to hit that $1,000 faster!
Some people say to learn a niche and become a powerhouse in that subject. My father-in-law sells music, specifically vinyl records. He has two booths in consignment stores and sells on eBay too.
I am a generalist, always have been. A Jack-of-all-trades type of guy. I buy whatever I can make some money on.
While I might not have deep knowledge of every type of item, I know the top brands to be on the lookout for and use technology to help me not make a mistake.
If your item has a barcode you can use your Amazon seller app to scan it to see what it would net you after fees.
For other things you can use your eBay app and type in what it is under the ‘show only sold’ to get an idea of the value.
You can find items to resell off of craigslist, facebook selling pages, auctions, flea markets, garage sales, thrift stores, clearance items at big stores or even the trash. Yes, people will throw away things that you can sell for big money – most people don’t know the value of things. There are plenty of other ways to find things as well.
This isn’t easy passive income. This takes effort. It isn’t for everybody, but it’s definitely for me. I love the thrill of the hunt. If you love the art of the deal like me, then selling things you found could be a great way to earn some extra cash.
Heck, I think I will do it full time once I ‘retire’ in two years.
I wonder how much higher I can make that $22,000 number once I can focus on it full time…
My website: DoublingDollars.com