Cool but still crazy humid.
Like yesterday. At least it wasn’t so hot in the attic.
Did some work yesterday, after picking up a small window AC unit and a 7cuft chest freezer. The freezer was scratch and dent, never even turned on. Still looking to sell it on, rather than fill it up. I might though.
Today I’m chained to the house. I’ll make the best of it. Plenty to do after all…
keep stacking.
n
Cool, but clear and sunny.
Sunday was another gorgeous day. Comfortable temps, clear and blue sky.
So I did a little work outside, picking up some of my decor. Then did some plumbing (see yesterday’s comments) and then some pressure washing.
Today I’ve got one ebay sale to ship, an auction pickup, pressure washing to finish, more decor to take down and put away, and all the general stuff of the week… We’re supposed to have a couple more dry days so I want to get all the decor in.
The weather is finally nice enough to do some work around the house too, so I have projects moving off the back burner. Naturally, just about the time I’ve worked up a good head of steam, we’ll be driving to Florida to spend Thanksgiving with my mom… I better get some stuff done before that.
I couldn’t really imagine what “election day violence” would look like. I didn’t have to courtesy of BLM and antifa. This is going to be a wild week. Hold on tight and hunker down.
(and keep stacking, although skills and connections might be more practical than shopping this week.)
nick
Cooler with a chance of rain. We got some short but strong downpours yesterday. Different parts of town had very different weather.
Spent yesterday driving around and doing some errands. Had some auction stuff, a radio for me, some household stuff, and I needed to get my ebay item out of storage and packed up. Everything was very spread out geographically. Very poor planning on my part.
I had to buy a special box to ship the big ebay item in. It will eventually end up in Germany so it took a while to safely pack it. Still, nice profit on a quick flip. $275 on $25 investment, not counting taxes and fees on both sides. I sold another case of disinfectant too. Maybe my sales are picking up? That would be nice. The UPS guy seemed happy to see me twice in the same week.
The stuff I put in my local industrial auction went for about a dollar a lot. It was a blowout. I’d have been better off dumping it in the trash. No idea why prices were so low. They were generally low for all the items in the auction, not just mine, but mine were exceptionally low. Yikes. I hope he will accept my next load of stuff for consignment.
I didn’t watch the debate. I’ll look at clips today if there was anything surprising. I’m betting ‘not’.
FWIW, far more Trump Pense signs in my area than Biden. Lots of signs for the Dems in lower and state offices though. Clearly the battle is local. Vote. Even Bob voted in the last Presidential election, and he was pretty convinced of the futility of it. Vote. Especially for Sheriff and Judges. Local. When everything blows up, local is what’s left.
And keep stacking.
n
Cooler, maybe some rain. Certainly humid.
Almost 10F cooler outside than in my office when I wrote this late last night. During the day it got into the low 90s in the sun, but it took longer, and it didn’t stay there very long. I expect the same today, only there is a bigger chance of rain.
Daughter one got on the right bus twice yesterday and got where she was supposed to be first try. Nice change of pace :-/ She’s still adjusting to being at school all day. She says “it’s exhausting”. Daughter two likes virtual better than in person, but is getting bored being chained to the lappy. The district (passing the buck to the state) has managed to crush the best aspect of remote learning by requiring the kids to stay in sight of the lappy camera for their required time. No more finishing your work and taking out a book… no more working ahead either- by diktat of the district.
I managed to sell a couple of items on ebay, so I’ve got shipping to do today. One is easy, just a medium flat rate box. The other is sensitive and going to Germany, so needs a sturdy and large box. I hope I got the weight right, for the buyer’s sake. He’s pre-paying for the shipping based on what I had in the listing. I was offering free shipping so I didn’t worry too much about the weight I listed. Hmm. I wonder what happens if it weighs more than I thought? Never came up before. Nice to have some items selling though.
Spent a bunch of time getting some stuff ready to list. It ate more time than I thought, so I still don’t have my NVR running on linux. It’s running under windows, even if I can’t see the live cam view, it is still saving the video files so I’ve got coverage if something happens. I got really used to just glancing up to see what’s going on outside though. I can still access the stream from the cameras individually, it just takes another couple of steps. Carry that task over to today.
Not much movement on the campaign trail, given the explosive nature of the allegations against the Bidens. There must be some frantic activity behind closed doors. If the stuff in the emails is true, and no one seems to be saying it’s not, then the only way to avoid jail is to win the Presidency, or hope that being the failed candidate is a shield, like it was for Hillarity. Or fake a medical issue and then retire to ‘spend more time with family.’
Uncertainty is not good for markets. The markets and the ‘financialization’ of our economy have gotten us into a lot of trouble and will likely get us into more. I feel better with food in the freezer and a big pile of stuff to use if the going gets tough. I think it’s probably a question of ‘when’ not ‘if’, so keep stacking.
n
Cooler and damp.
It was 58F when I went to bed last night, and it was about that cool most of the day. Overcast and misty rain finally burned off late in the afternoon.
Most of what I picked up yesterday was household related. Of the prepper stuff, the Dometic porta-jon was brand new in the box. The RV inverter wasn’t. It was the old 12v power supply module from whatever RV old boy updated later with the part that came in the box. It looks intact and included a fused multi-circuit 12v distro panel. It will make a great 12vdc power supply for my ham radios, whenever I get around to it. Lemonade from lemons and all that…
I harvested an actual lemon from my lemon tree. The other citrus is getting yellower every day. I hope some is not woody and hard, but I’ll take a dozen fruits, even if they’re not great this year, and hope for better next year. Planting trees is an act of faith that there will be a future.
No other visible sprouts, so I’ll try replanting with different seed packets. My neighbor at my secondary location is getting a good fall garden, so it isn’t just a bad year in Houston, it’s me. Try try again. (And buy more canned food.)
Lots of articles out there about people bum rushing to rural housing, buying lots of guns and ammo, and stocking up. The flip side is I’m seeing weird stuff in the amazon (and other store) returns auctions. Most of the online and brick and mortar stores just take their returns and auction them off in bulk to wholesalers. The wholesalers sometimes auction smaller bulk pallets, and sometimes auction individual lots. That’s what I mean when I talk about ‘returns’ auctions. Well, in the last couple of months, I’ve seen some interesting stuff. Chicken coops (reviews were that they were too small.) Chicken waterers. Chicken nesting pads and nesting boxes (lots of people trying to grow chickens.) Small animal nesting and bedding. Farrier starter tool kits (several in this week’s auction.) Farriers! Moon cups (reusable menstrual supplies are a prepper staple.) Solar panels.
Of course I’m seeing lots of other stuff that speaks of the lockdown, exercise equipment, bikes, and home reno bits and pieces, home decor too.
One puzzler is the TONS of child safety gates. I mean TONS. Every auction has dozens of lots. And just general human debris, as summer ends a lot of yard tools are being returned. Freaking thieves and returns fraud. Tents and camping gear are being returned in bulk as well.
Firearms and ammo are showing up in the consignment and estate auctions. Not much in the way of modern defensive arms, (except Hi-Point pistols- the modern ‘Saturday night special’.) Most of what I’m seeing is single shot rifles, old single shot shotguns- unloved brown rifles in other words. The ammo is usually sort of “cleaned out a drawer” quantities and a lot of non-defense calibers. It all sells for high prices, and defensive ammo or modern defensive arms are bringing eye watering prices compared to a year ago.
Surprising me, there are a couple of campers/trailers in this week’s auction. I figured people would hold on to them as a last resort living arrangement, but there must be folks who don’t expect to get to that point, who are looking to cash in on high demand.
On another note, I drove across all of Houston Friday, all the way to Baytown, and then up to IAH. Today I’ll be going down to Dickenson and back up through Bellaire. I crisscross Houston fairly regularly. I’m seeing a LOT of empty commercial buildings. I’m seeing a LOT of ‘For Lease’ signs. I even saw two new ones a few blocks from my house. The landslide has just started rumbling, a few pebbles are starting to roll down hill… I’ve got a feeling that ‘we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.’ But not in a good way.
Keep stacking, and keep your eyes and mind open to opportunity. There are always opportunities.
nick
Wet and windy.
Yesterday was a mix of rain and storms with nice sunny blue sky and cool breezes. Lot of rain and wind though.
And the trunk I left open to dry out after I left it open through a storm?? Yep. Left it open through a storm again. I hope it will be dry at some point today.
Didn’t get much done on the bigger projects but I did do some more work on a couple of smaller things. Didn’t end up going to my client’s house yesterday but will be out there later today.
My wife decided that we needed to proceed with some sort of above the ground temporary pool. Only problem is, they are sold out everywhere. EXCEPT— in my auctions. Amazon returns and damaged in shipping auctions had several of the Intex pools. I ended up buying one, 15ft x 42″ high. After fees and taxes it was slightly more than list price- for an open box I didn’t inspect. I figure I can MacGiver around any issues. One other pool went for $100 more than mine, and the last one went for $200 more than mine. It is a seller’s market for above ground pools at the moment. Funny thing is, I picked up a pump/filter a couple of auctions ago thinking it could be a gross filter for my “water tank” inflatable kiddie pool, and I got 3 filters for it too. So even if the filter part of the set is missing, I’ve got it covered.
I’ll be doing pickups at four auctions today before heading over to my client’s house. They had another power outage, and half the stuff is offline, plus AT&T should be there to fix the DSL. The auctions were for some tactical accessories and camping stuff, toilet paper (don’t need it, but figured if I could restock with a good brand, I might as well), the pool, and a weird mix of photography LED lighting and backdrops and a couple of antennas.
The ‘weird mix’ auction seller is new to me. They are perhaps the second worst at it I’ve ever come across. Their pictures suck, what few there are, and their descriptions are all the same- general merchandise. By looking at all the listings, I could tell what some of the unidentified items were despite the bad pix and no description. If the stuff is actually there in the lots, I might have done really well. 20 lots for $109 is great pricing. The two antennas would have been most of that, and I got a bunch of other useful stuff, including practice arrows! The photography stuff should help me get better pix for my new listings. Turns out there is a whole slew of photo lighting and backdrop stuff aimed directly at youtubers. You wouldn’t think that would be a big enough market, but you’d be wrong. It is super cheap cr@p but should be fine for the limited use I’m putting it to.
One of the items in with all the tactical stuff was a marine rescue rope in a throw bag. We were talking about swimming the other day. I didn’t mention that I have self inflating life vests in my truck, and now I’ll have a rescue throw rope too. I’m not a strong swimmer, so I prep…
Dinner was frozen hamburger patties from 2017, and a couple of skewers of frozen shrimp. I opened a jar of sweet peppers I ‘cold canned’ a few years ago. They’ve been un-opened in the fridge this whole time. They are crunchy and delicious. The commercial jar of pickled beets from a couple of years ago is starting to fade, and the beets are maybe a little softer than originally, but they are still tasty and good eating.
I found two more buckets of bulk in the garage, one 25# bucket of salt, and one 25# bucket of flour from 2017. The salt is fine for sure, and I don’t want to break the seal on the flour, so I’m just putting it back on the shelf. That HAS to be all the food in the garage at this point. I don’t have that much more area to go through.
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In the wider world, China is pushing India AND Hong Kong. And, at the same time, locking down new cities because of new wuflu outbreaks. There are so many ways this can go wrong.
Russia is getting frisky in the air with our pilots.
There seem to be some riots going on from the usual crew, for the usual reasons in MN and LA. If it spreads like it did a few summers ago, things will be getting sporty soon. Avoid crowds. Make sure you can get out of one if you get caught up.
And people all over the US have lost their dang minds. For now, I’m going to let someone else poke their finger into the flame to see if flames are still hot. I’m holding steady (although I admit to looking at auctions again, and doing the pickups – curbside.) We should know in just a couple of weeks what effect the changes in restrictions will have, if any. I’ll reassess my stance then.
Nothing I see is changing my mind that things are going to get a lot worse before they start to get better. Keep stacking. Don’t let fatigue make you lower your guard.
nick
Damp, overcast, sunny, and hot. [somewhat sunny, somewhat damp, def hot]
Yesterday was nice for a while, overcast, then gentle light rain, then nice again. High 80s, possibly into the low 90s.
Possible depression forming off the East coast next week, first of the season if so…
Spent the morning online, and shopping. Spent the afternoon cleaning, organizing, and finding stuff I’d put away literal years ago in the garage. I’m getting to the bottom layers of the stacks. At some point I tweaked something in my neck and shoulders. I’m still sore today.
Kid 1 had a “science” unit today that was all about changes to the environment. And while they kept saying that not all changes were bad, the only examples given were in fact bad. Then they used Silent Spring to justify the banning of DDT, with NO discussion of malaria, or WHY we were spraying DDT, or what the effect was on countries that still have malaria… and a whole page on acid rain. Again, no indication where the acid rain came from or why. No indication of the current conditions. Freaking old hippies with the same old chants, Silent Spring, DDT, Acid rain, draining wetlands…. and a section about deer. How they became a nuisance species- without any note that the ban on hunting contributed, or that HUNTING is how we control the population currently. Add in the poor grammar, and I’m pretty sure the science is sloppy, the editorial slant is most of the way to horizontal, and the worksheets are BS. At least with the sheet in front of me, I could go through it with the kid and talk about the parts they left out. What does the rest of the curriculum look like, I wonder?
Eventually, even a drip of water will wear away stone. The left has been all wet for decades, but they’ve managed to ooze into every nook and cranny of the world.
Dinner was sirloin steak from the last Costco instacart delivery, with boxed scalloped potatoes, and a can of Butter Beans. Scalloped potatoes were almost in date, only a month over. Most of my older ones rotted in the black crate that got damp. Easter candy for dessert.
More of the same today as yesterday…
Keep working, stacking, improving, and prepping.
nick
Cool and clear. [65F]
Yesterday ended up beautiful and clear with a nice breeze to dry everything out and cool everything off.
I ended up not getting as much done as I wanted to. I was hoping to get at least one load of stuff for the hamfest to my house for loading. I’ll have to go get all of it today, and load up. Something will be slipping and I’m pretty sure it will be watching the news develop.
The hamfest is in Ft Bend county at the Rosenberg fairgrounds. I was very glad to hear that the cases there were travel related. UNhappy to think about all the people I’m going to interact with tomorrow. It’s outside which will help, I’ll keep my distance, and I’m not going to be shaking hands much. Since ebay killed my listing, I’ll probably bring at least a box or two of masks. I’ll ask less than my ebay price.
Another thing that will slip is putting a piece of test gear back together for sale. I’m the king of taking stuff apart, not so much putting it back together. It will sell well on ebay, so I’ll do that.
Tried to drop off 17 3m Breathe easy turbo PAPR forced air respirator units, only slightly moldy, at my local auction. Spent over 2 hours trying to do so, only to discover they won’t take anything that someone might breathe through. Sucks. I really wanted to quickly sell the lot and not ship anything. Maybe one of the other local auctions will take it. They are NOT ready to use, needing cleaning, batteries, and filters.
Between my unscheduled shopping trip, my unsuccessful auction trip, and checking on my truck, I am behind where I hoped to be getting ready for my swapmeet.
So, I’m gonna be off line most of today, once I get out of the house.
KEEP STACKING.
nick
Some people here have expressed interest in my business (former sideline, now primary) and conveniently there is an article on survivalblog…
https://survivalblog.com/unemployed-starting-home-based-business-w-l/#more-44752
I wrote this response as a comment, but promoted it to post due to length. It’s still a bit rough though.
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This article isn’t horrible, and in fact has some good stuff, but the author seems to completely miss the point:
“I am, again, currently unemployed. However, I finally took the initiative and started an online business to bring in some extra cash.”
She says this like it’s a revelation, yet she previously started and failed at two other businesses “I have had my own HR consulting company,[and] started my own sporting goods store”– what she really means is “This time I decided to buy and sell stuff online” thinking that it would be easier than working.
Online business is a BUSINESS. It’s got differences but it’s a business, not a magical unicorn that farts money.
Throughout the previous 25 years, she keeps going back to being an employee, subject to the whims and vicissitudes of others. This time is no different, she’s still got the mindset of an employee (do as little as possible, collect check).
Even with this statement– “In 2015 I saw the collapse in the oil and gas industry coming and decided that I needed to generate some “mailbox money” then to help supplement my unemployment insurance until it ran out. I was finally RIF’ed (selected as part of the Reduction in Force) in February 2016. My unemployment insurance ran out August 2016. Fortunately, I began prepping for that moment back in 2015 when I began investigating the fastest ways to make money and build a business. Not only that, but I doubled my efforts putting up canned goods and other consumable items.” — And so she reveals herself. She PLANNED to fail, coasting until her benefits were gone. She’s looking for the next ‘get rich quick’ scheme. She does start stacking, which is to the good, but that’s the only positive thing in the paragraph.
Then she discovers that there is a learning curve, and she’s gotta WORK at it! “There is definitely a learning curve to selling online. One must take into consideration pricing your items correctly, selling fees, monetary transaction fees, shipping fees, shipping supplies, time listing the items, negotiating with buyers, and other issues. I lost money the first month and began to run out of stuff to sell. I had to find another way to find stuff to sell.” — JUST LIKE A BUSINESS, who’da thunk it? And how do you lose money selling off your old cr@p?
“Although I knew I was going to lose my job, I was not mentally prepared for it.” — which is because she never really accepted that it was going to happen, which is probably why she never treated the online selling as a business.
“PayPal account … Since it was difficult to get money out of that account, I left it there for my “rainy day”. ” — NO IDEA what she’s talking about here. Paypal is linked to a bank account. You hit “Transfer money to my bank” select an amount, and in 3-5 days go to your bank and withdraw the money. Simple. Or use Paypal at POS machines instead of cash or credit. LOTS of real life stores accept Paypal.
“Finding Sources of Products Online To Sell For A Profit” — here’s another mistake. She’s buying cheap crap from alibaba and aliexpress to resell. That’s a REALLY crowded field, with no way to differentiate yourself except price, AND it’s all cheap crap anyway. Liquidation.com sells large lots of store returns and open box merch (mainly) which are going to have issues. I’m gonna guess at a 20-40% breakage rate, or in other words, only 60-80% of it is going to be good. Might be wrong, because it’s been a while since I looked at that stuff. I decided it was too crowded on the buy side with all the newbies bidding up the prices past where you could make any money. Never looked at bulq . com
“Starting an online store is not that difficult, but it is very, very, very time consuming.”– more unnecessary work and expense. WHY build your own store at all? For this kind of thing, use ebay. Even setting up an ebay store (if you have the volume) is straightforward, and your customers are already looking there! No bothering with SEO, promotion, or ‘driving traffic’. NO web fees, SSL certs, or site management.
“When I ran out of stuff to sell around the house, I had to begin using the money I had to begin buying stuff. Since it takes time to sell stuff, I began running out of money fast to buy stuff and to live on at the same time.” — translated, ‘after I lost money, selling off all my old crap, I discovered that buying a bunch of cheap crap and hoping to make a few cents on each sale, ties up money in inventory, and when those sales don’t happen, there isn’t any PROFIT.’
So she takes on debt to further her ill considered business model– ” I borrow money from them, buy the product and sell it with a bit of a markup; in return, they get their money back in full plus interest.” — translated as ‘ I enter another business agreement with FAMILY to piss away their money too.’
Then she looks at entering ANOTHER agreement, to take on MORE debt, but (I think) didn’t qualify as she doesn’t say she actually signed up for the “Working Capital”.
Finally she closes by expressing her fervent desire to abandon her business venture, and return to the bosom of Big Corp at the approximate age of 5o? 55? –” I’ve been unemployed for a year and a half. By the grace of God, I will find another job. ” –her own words reveal that she never thought of herself as ‘working’ at her online business.
================================
So what can we learn from this?
The nature of work is changing. If your entire employment history is one desperate transfer from one sinking ship to another, STOP! Get out! Don’t expect to continue finding a chair when the music stops. Sooner or later you won’t and you’ll be forced to face that. Act at the time of your choosing. Change industries, fields, or start that other business.
If you have warning that your situation will be changing, TAKE THE TIME GIVEN! Take it seriously and get prepped! She should have learned her lessons while she had the cushion of a regular paycheck, or she should have been actively looking for another situation… NOT planning to coast and milk her benefits until they ran out THEN start looking.
Business is business. Being online doesn’t change that. You still need to know how a business runs, what makes it successful/profitable, and you need to put in the work. What is different about selling online is that your startup costs can be very low, and you can start very slowly. You don’t need to rent a building, stock it with inventory, and hire employees. (she did the virtual version of this- exactly what you DON’T need to do.)
As she did, you can start by selling stuff you already own. Old hobbies, and collections that no longer interest you are good sources of items. There is no way you should lose money doing this. If you can’t take free stuff, and sell it for a profit, that should be a lesson for you! (assume the stuff has 0 cost basis as it’s just sitting there unused and unwanted) Again, businesses have costs. Shipping, fees, commissions, supplies, etc are all part of the cost of doing business. If the price of the item won’t cover those things, DON’T SELL IT. If you do, you are paying someone to take your stuff. In that case, you’re better off piling it on the curb, or having a yard sale. Many things WON’T be economical to sell online, and you should just have a yard sale.
This first part is your ‘learning’ period. You learn about Paypal and Ebay taking 10-13% You learn how to take good pictures so you don’t need to edit every one. You learn about shipping options and costs. You learn what sort of things sell for you. You learn how long it takes to measure, weigh, photograph, and list items, and you learn HOW MUCH you need to PROFIT on the item to make it worth doing! This is what she should have been doing during the year warning she had.
After learning the basics and building your transaction history and skills on ebay or etsy or your local FB group, then you need to start sourcing more stuff to sell. Decide what you LIKE looking for and LIKE selling. Do you have special knowledge or skills? Do you have a hobby or collection that gives you special insight? Keep in mind that ‘collector’ mindset will hurt you if you are doing it for profit. Keep in mind that each type of item will have its own learning curve wrt desirability, pricing, packaging, etc. For example, toy trains might interest you. You might start buying them at what you think is a reasonable cost, but it turns out they are all very common sets and don’t sell well unless deeply discounted. Every time I decide to sell some new type of items, I made mistakes in purchasing and selling. Sometimes they were VERY COSTLY mistakes. That’s why it’s very helpful to start out with items you know, and items that are LOW COST TO YOU.
Like any business, if you have low margins you need HIGH VOLUMES to make profits. If you can keep your margins up, you can sell a lot less and still make profit. You’ll work a lot less, and your costs will be lower too. This was the mistake she made. She had low margins on cheap crap, and was not in a position to sell high volumes.
Leverage existing networks/infrastructure. Ebay is the big dog for a reason. It costs you nothing but fees to get started on ebay. In the beginning ebay was like an online yard sale, but that has changed. There are sellers with MILLIONS of transactions. I routinely see sellers with 10s and even 100s of thousands of transactions. Almost everyone will go to ebay and search ebay, many of them looking for brand new commodity items or traditional retail items. Your listings are right there too! Whether you are selling one of a kind vintage items, or you aspire to 100s of thousands of sales, why NOT go where the customers already are? AND save the cost, time, and effort of developing your own store.
What sells well changes over time and is different for different sellers. Don’t build big inventory. Just in time works for little guys. Buy it with the goal of selling it right away. DO NOT sit on items! (this can be difficult for me, I like to let certain things age in my possession. You’re buying to SELL, not KEEP. Don’t get high on your own supply.)
The best way to maximize return on effort is to buy multiple items you can sell from one listing. It takes the same time to list a $20 item as a $200 item, or 20 items that are all the same and sell for $30 each. Guess which listing keeps paying you for the same effort?
Sometimes an item won’t sell for a LONG time. I’ve got stuff listed that finally sold after literal years. ONLY relist items like that if they are going to generate a good profit when sold, and when you have ‘free listings’.
Price aggressively. Use the “Sold Listings” search option to see what similar items sold for, then click on the “Sell one like this” button and start your listing from there. Always check if an item is selling, has dozens of unsold items just like it already listed, and what it actually sells for BEFORE buying the item. Even if you can double your money on that thrift store item, is it worth the effort for $5 net? If you don’t ask that question, you won’t make any money! Your goal should be to minimize any inventory. You want constant turn over on unique items, and quick sell out on lots.
Keep in mind that you need enough profit to fund more purchasing, and to throw off cash for your personal goals (eating this week, or funding the new bang toy, etc)
Do some research on youtube. See what other ebay sellers/ thrifters are doing. (this is a whole lifestyle thing, buying and selling online, with a vblog) Decide if it’s something that will work for you. (one prominent youtuber says they make good money selling Hometics power supplies. I see them all the time, so I started picking them up. I can’t seem to sell ANY. Not gonna pick up any more.)
Maximize your ‘edge’ whether it’s specialized knowledge, repair skills, or regional arbitrage (buying where an item is common, and selling where it is not.) Eventually, your edge might be that you can buy multi-pallet lots for thousands of dollars, and have your staff process the warehouse full for sale! You’ll be able to outbid me every time!
Finally, selling online is relatively easy, has very low barriers to entry, and can be profitable. Like most businesses, you get out of it what you put in. If it’s going to be a primary source of income for you, after that initial ‘trial period’ you need to COMMIT and put in the effort, but be smart and learn first WHERE your effort is best spent.
nick