Tuesday, 23 April 2013

Day One of Business 101 ... 0110110


The Less Immediate Present

Ok so, I’m turning 26 this year and thought;
“Hey, why don’t you become a billionaire this year?”

“You should definitely start a business…or something to that effect. There’s nothing else to do here anyway, is there?”

Nope…

So I figured, why not get started small and try to learn business step by step in a practical, warts-and-all fashion while in my small home town? Sure, it half sounds boring and dangerous, but the other half is completely bonkers fun. eBay was surprisingly easy to set up on, so I thought I’d give it a shot as a seller. The reassuringly small transaction fees are appealing – it’s literally a couple of pence for now. I’m sure as time passes, though, my eager thirst for business prowess will eventually swallow me whole. After which point, obviously, my stellar sales will be drawing eBay’s fangs closer to my throat… But that’s probably much later down the line, two years minimum.

The More Immediate Present

My first listings are as follows:

1x Silent Hill Playstation 1 Game (PAL region) with original Silent Hill (PS1) Demo disc (including original sleeve/manual). Pretty good nick too

1x Similarly good-nick Bust-A-Groove Playstation 1 Game (PAL region).

Total cost to me; £1.00 (or £0.50 each)
Total expected profits: £19.00 (or £20.00 – £1.00 original investment)

Chance of first time buyer making significant profit via this endeavour? I’m going to say fifty-fifty. Why?

The Actual Present

I’ve listed the Silent Hill game first, and am presently uploading the Bust-A-Groove auction on eBay. I recently became an eBay addict and splurged on a total of three things – all Gamecube related. A few months ago I had a similar experience with Amazon, but am presently over that phase. eBay is intense though. The power it puts in ordinary people’s hands (and fast access to boot) to monetise their property to complete strangers across a worldwide market is truly phenomenal. I don’t mean to gush eBay or admit my sexy love affair with Google (I’m something of a fetishist nerd), but seriously. I’ve managed to acquire some curious property for a meaningless price, and have managed to sell it on pseudo-anonymously with almost no effort on my own part. I truly feel like a capitalist today…

So I just finished uploading Bust-A-Groove, and noticed that a default product description came up (likely written by a seller of the same item elsewhere) and it was so badly written. I couldn’t edit it, so I emailed eBay customer support saying, you know:

Heeeeeey eBay,
New User here, just wondering… Can you help me with this thing I can’t do?
Thaaaaaanks,
Kind regards,
New User.

I’m expecting no reply anyway – this is no man’s land, ain’t no-one gonna help me but me.

Two items for sale, postage mostly covered, and the will of the fortune goddess on my side, I’ll meet my targets and be a true business entrepreneur or something to that effect…

While write things like this, BackwaterTyrant is busily trying to better himself by sleeping in and watching Game of Thrones. If you’d like to follow his odd journey into business further, please show your support with a kind email to bananahammock12@googlemail.com

Yes you read that email right.  

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