Build Up Your Steemit Account with No Money Out of Pocket

Steemit is an amazing idea, one that is changing how people share information and interact. For the most part, there are no “haters” here as such douchebag activity has a physical consequence for those perpetuating it. I have been here just over a year and started thinking about ways to grow my Steemit account. I suck at day trading for anyone that is waiting with baited breath to state that being a wonderful way to build up your Steemit account. I am decent at writing, at least my clients tell me that, so I figured why not put some ideas into text here for my friends on Steemit?

Face for radio, voice for newspaper

That sums up my personal view in a nutshell. That is why I write more than I talk on podcasts or star in YouTube videos. I feel my better attributes are explained in text than other forms of expression available to me. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s discuss how eBay reselling can be used to help improve your Steemit account.

First, you need something to sell. I like to focus on cash flow rather than profits per sale. Cashflow is simply turning over money quickly so that it is not tied up in something very long.

Cash flow as described by Wikipedia –
Cash flow is the movement of money into or out of a business, project, or financial product. It is usually measured during a specified, limited period of time.

Sounds good to me.

I do a lot of reselling on-line, not just eBay but for this article we will focus on just eBay to keep things simple. Listing items on eBay is simple so I won’t spend a lot of time on that portion.

Reselling is simple, really. Buy low, sell high as they say. Anyone that has tried can tell you that it is not that easy though. What to buy that is cheap and resells for more can be a challenging task to say the least.

Factor in figuring out what is cheap, sells for a decent amount more but also sells QUICK. There, almost made your job impossible, didn’t I?

What about a no money down plan?

Yeah, you read that right. No money down. No money upfront. What if I told you there was a way to resell on eBay but were out literally no money upfront? Then add to the mix that I started this with an item category that most of us walk by every day of our lives, or at least whenever we are at any decently sized supermarket. Stumped? I will tell you what I am talking about in a minute. We need to get some ideals out of the way first.

Focus on helping rather than profiting

This is a simple idea. Yet, it is one that is so hard for most people reselling to get behind. The very idea of reselling is to profit. I am not disputing that fact. I am simply saying, focus on reselling things that help others first, then worry about profits afterwards.

What I mean is, if profits are your only desire to be a reseller then you are not doing it wrong, but you may be turning a blind eye to the real money makers. I have resold on-line for over 20 years and a good decade before that when I didn’t have access to the Internet (and during a period that it was completely different than it is today).

Financial gain is obviously a driving factor for anything. Including reselling to help others.

The first item that I started selling to help others was sugar free candy. I have had many family members live with diabetes and avoid candy because they simply could not find any locally. This was years before eBay was a thing. I was at a local Dollar Tree one day and saw some name brand sugar free candy available. Werther’s Original for anyone interested.

I grabbed a bag of each of the various flavors and my wife and me agreed on one flavor being better (Coffee Caramel). I took some to work and left them out, co-workers agreed the coffee caramel was the best. This got me to thinking about reselling on eBay, so I checked the sales were on this brand.

I was surprised to find out that tehre were people selling these, and other sugar free candies, in bulk at a rate of 3 or 4 bags for $22.95 plus shipping. I was floored. These were the same size bags that cost a buck each. I decided to list 5 bags in bulk for $15.95 with free shipping. I sold a few but not many. I adjusted the price, shipping times, etc. and hit on a decent price for these that they move at. I let the market dictate what the price was to be (I settled on $17.95 with free ship if anyone is interested).

You may be thinking – this guy is ripping people off. Here is the math on these sales:

$05.00 5 bags of Werther’s Sugar Free candy
$00.45 Sales tax on those bags
$02.69 eBay and PayPal fees
$02.77 shipping
$00.58 box from Walmart
$00.05 sales tax on the box
$00.05 label
$01.95 income taxes at 30%
=========
$3.96 profit

As you can see, I am not making a killing per sale here, but I am also doing one thing most resellers on eBay are not doing. I am making $4 for making a stop at Dollar Tree every time I sell one of these sets. If I am only making a trip to the store and post office for one sale then, yes, I am losing money. Keep reading to see how I am making money.

Volume is key

The easiest way to make money here is to do this in volume. If you are offering 10+ items in bulk like this and can easily source them at the same store, preferably on your way to a post office, then you can turn each trip into an easy $35 to $40 in your pocket as profit. Do this for 20+ items and you are looking at $80 profit, and so on.

Now the magic of no money down

Ever notice when you are in a store that they often have the same items day in, day out? This is especially true for stores like Wal-Mart and Kroger, chain stores basically. For the most part they all store the same items across many locations. This is the key to no money down reselling and how to improve your Steemit account at the same time.

How to only put money in your pocket, not take money out

Okay, do we have the wheels turning? I like to work in the consumables area of these stores. Why? Because of repeat customers. Take snack cakes for instance. Little Debbie to be exact. I have one customer that buys each month around the same time of the month.

The big seller for me are Little Debbie Peanut Butter Crunch snack cakes. $2 a box. I ship six boxes in a medium flat rate #1 box. With eBay shipping discount it costs $12 and some change to ship. Charge shipping and list the six-box lot for a price you feel is a decent profit (I like to list for about $35.70 plus shipping). When the snack cakes sell, I simply swing by Wal-Mart and pick up the snack cakes that sold, slap them in a flat rate box and drop off at my local post office.

This is how I make money on eBay with no money out of pocket. Listing items that are available at nearly every store around me and picking them up when they sell. Obviously, volume is key here to making money.

Convert profits and Power Up

Once you have your profits in your PayPal account I suggest using the PayPal debit card and converting that profit over to Steem or Steem Backed Dollars via a service such as Changelly. As with anything, fees will eat some of your profits but that is life when you are going from one currency to another.

Once you have your profits in Steem you can power up, or play the day trading game with the internal market to build your profits up even more.