Gettin' Ready

The lack of posts this week is because I'm getting things ready for a yard sale tomorrow and Saturday.

Making extra money is nice, but what we're really trying to make is extra space, so we're pricing things low to get them out of here! If you're local and want the address, email me at imannies (at) gmail.com.

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On an entirely different note, Shane and I were invited by Quiltgranny Sharon and her husband Kevin to attend an advanced screening of Julie & Julia. What a wonderful movie!! It was funny and charming, as much a romantic comedy as it was a movie about food and cooking. Meryl Streep did a fantastic job as Julia Child. I highly recommend the movie to everyone.

Recapping Mystery Shopping

In the last two or three weeks, two of my friends have asked me for information on mystery shopping. I sent them specific information, but I thought I’d revisit the topic and tell what I’ve done in the seven months I've been mystery shopping.

Let me start by saying that I’m not in any way a career mystery shopper. On average, I do just ten shops a month.

Rarely do I go out only to do mystery shopping. I usually only schedule shops to coincide with my other errands or appointments. Of course, there are exceptions. In fact, just yesterday I went out specifically for "secret" shopping because a commission was raised to an unusually high amount and I couldn't pass it up, especially since I could add two other lesser shops in the same area.

There are many mystery shopping companies to work for; I have done work for four. However, I choose to do most of my shopping for just one company. I like the shops they offer as well as their payment method and schedule.

As I’ve mentioned before, most of the shops I do pay a commission in addition to reimbursing all or part of a purchase. Some only reimburse for a purchase. A few are commission-only and require no purchase. Finally, one was not a shop at all, but rather a product demonstration that paid an hourly wage.

With those points in mind, here is what I’ve been able to do in seven months:

Cash earnings (commissions and product demo) - $488
Fully reimbursed carryout or delivery pizzas – approx. 25 large pizzas
Fully reimbursed pizza buffet lunches for one – 4
Fully reimbursed sports bar lunch for one - 1
Fully reimbursed Mongolian BBQ dinner for two – 1
Reimbursement up to $14 for a clothing item – 2
Reimbursement up to $8 for a household item - 1
Reimbursement of $1-$2 purchases made to prove I shopped – approximately 33

The reimbursements total close to $380. So, the total value of all my shops is approximately $868, or about $125 a month.

The commissions I’ve earned have ranged from $4 to $50 and can vary greatly from one month to the next, even for the same store or business. The shops also vary in difficulty. Some are as easy as driving by a fast food restaurant after dark to check signs and lights for outages. Others have meant posing as a prospective renter at an apartment complex. Most simply require a review of a store’s appearance and customer service along with a token purchase to prove I was there.

The shops can be learning experiences as well. I’m now up to speed on new models of refrigerators, gas ranges, computer printers, and closet organizing systems. Should we need to buy any of those in the near future, I know just what I want and where to find it. And believe me, there’s no doubt in my mind who has the best pizza in town!

As with any job, there is time involved. There is time required to do the shop and time required to complete the online reports. There is usually a window of several hours to submit the report after the shopping portion is done; just as with the shopping, I work the reporting into my schedule more or less at my leisure. The more shops I do, the more quickly I am able to do both the shopping and the reporting.

There is also the issue of taxes to consider. In most cases, it’s up to the mystery shopper to report his or her own earnings at tax time. However, a few companies do collect the necessary information and send out 1099 forms at the end of the year.

I think mystery shopping is a pretty good gig for something that’s really nothing more than a hobby for me. But who knows what a person could do if they applied themselves and worked for several companies at a time?

Mystery Shopping For Fun and Profit

I'm not a shopaholic. Except for garage sales and grocery stores, I'd usually rather avoid shopping altogether. Yet I recently signed up to become a "mystery shopper".

I've wondered about mystery shopping for several years; finally, my curiosity won out and I decided to look into it. If nothing else, it would get me out of the house once in a while and give me something to blog about.

Let me say upfront that I'm not going to make a fortune, or even a living, from mystery shopping. What I will be able to do is score a few free meals for my family and make enough to pay for my gas for my own necessary errands.

Here's how it works for me:

I signed up for a sort of clearing house or job broker for many different mystery shopping companies. After the fact, I realized with a little deeper research, I could probably have located the companies on my own, but the investment was small ($20 for three months) and I earned that much back in the first week. I don't think it will be necessary to renew the subscription when the three months have passed.

I have picked two days out of the week to be my primary errand-running days. One is for local errands and the other coincides with my weekly vegetable pick-up which is in another part of the city. When searching for mystery shopping jobs, those days and locations are the only jobs I consider. I pick one or two "shops" for each of those days, and work them around my personal errands. That assures me that I'm making efficient use of gasoline, and it leaves the rest of my week free to do whatever else I need or want to do.

After just three weeks, I've earned $42 in cash commissions and received reimbursement for 2 free pizzas, 1 pizza buffet meal, 1 meal (up to $22) at a chain sports bar/grill, and 1 gallon of paint (we always need paint!). Because I'm working these into my other outings, the time involved is minimal. Reports are required to be submitted after each shop, but the are usually multiple choice and short answer forms to do online.

A typical "shop" will include going "under cover" to review a business' appearance, customer service, cleanliness, employee sincerity, etc. Sometimes a small purchase is required, then reimbursed. Occasionally, a purchase and return are both required. Sometimes, no purchase is required at all.

In fact, not all "shops" require shopping! One of my first assignments was simply to visit a chain fast food restaurant after dark, then document and photograph any of their lights or signs that weren't working properly. Another assignment paid an hourly wage for me to set up a table and hand out cheese samples for a few hours at one of the big box retailers.

Living in a major metro area, I believe I could put in as many hours mystery shopping as I'd like. For me, that's just a few a week, but there are many, many jobs available. There are even shops available in the more rural areas, including the small town where I grew up. I didn't take that job, but I might have, had I been planning a trip there at the right time.

I have to admit that I wondered if mystery shopping was a legitimate way to make money. It seems to be, albeit not a lot of money. Still, if you like to shop, and schedule your jobs carefully, you can wind up with some free food and a little cash in your pocket.

I'm not going to link to any of the companies I'm working for (only 3 at this point) because there may be some kind of rule against "going public", but if anyone is interested, contact me via email (in my profile), and I'll be glad to point you in the right direction.

eBay, Baby!

I'm unemployed, but not totally without income. I'm an eBay seller.

I've been selling stuff on eBay since 2003. I started out selling only on half.com, but soon started selling on eBay as well. Since then, I've made more than 800 transactions (at least 90% of them sales) and have a 100% feedback rating that I work hard to keep.

I sell anything and everything. The first thing I listed, and sold, was a Star Wars toy with a couple of pieces missing. I was pretty much hooked after that. I've sold clothing, shoes, china, knick-knacks, lots of book, lots of compact discs, some Playstation games, some gaming systems, Tupperware, Corelle dishes and a lot of other things I can't even begin to remember. Some of these items were new, but most were used. Some were from our own household and others were bought cheap with the intent to sell them on eBay.

I've had some surprising successes. A set of 6 juice glasses in a specific pattern that I bought for a dollar and sold for $27. An airtight, watertight, dust-tight case for photo equipment that we bought (not knowing what it was exactly) for $5 and sold for more than $200. The CD from my own collection that I didn't realize was a rare import; I didn't like it so I sold it for $25 dollars. The dozen or so pieces of Harley-Davidson women's clothing that I bought for 25¢ each then sold, down to the last piece, for at least $7 each. A digital carpenter's level Shane bought for $20, thinking he'd make a few bucks on it; it ended up selling for around $180.

Naturally, there have been just as many items that didn't sell for us even when we were SURE they would. No problem. We never pay much for anything, and if it won't sell on eBay, it might sell in a garage sale. If not, then it can be given away to someone who needs/wants it, or donated to a thrift store.

On a good month, I can do $200-$300 in sales. That's before eBay and PayPal fees. At this point, that's not nearly enough to consider it anything more than a profitable hobby. But everywhere you look, you see "Power Sellers" who ARE making a living this way. It may be an avenue for me to pursue, although it will require some money to get it going: for at least one more computer; a source of merchandise that is larger than what I'm able to get on my own, such as auctions or freight salvage; a place to store large quantities of merchandise; and possibly even hiring someone to help me with packaging and shipping.

My parents were retailers, so maybe this kind of thing is in my blood. It's something for me to think about, anyway.

Anyone else selling on eBay?

Will Blog For Money

Or maybe not.

I'm all for making money, especially when there is very little work involved, but going the Pay Per Post route just isn't for me.

I'm sure you've noticed the AdSense ads I've signed up for on this blog. They are (supposed to be) relevant to the subjects I write about and will hopefully contain information you can use. And they don't involve any written endorsement from me, genuine or otherwise. I don't expect them to make me a wealthy woman, but every penny adds up eventually. If you find the ads to be distracting, let me know. Maybe I can find better placement for them.

For now, that's all I'm going to do to try to generate an income from this blog. But you never know what the future might hold in store.