The Doubling Challenge - Finally above $1500 :)

In the last week I sold one of my vending machines, a few watches and some CD-ROMs.

Apart from that I am working 4 mornings a week, getting the garden ready for spring, running my other business, painting and working out my next doubling purchase !
Busy times !!

I've already decided on a course of action when I get to $2500 and it will be perfect timing for Xmas (hopefully !!).
Lately I've actually been checking out all the great online closeout sources in the USA. People over there are so lucky ! Many of them offer free shipping to the contig. 48 states and you can sell the items on eBay at lower than retail and still make an excellent profit !
It baffles me as to why most people aren't doing this, but I guess everyone has a different path :D
Found another nice little niche product the other day... I actually got it off an ebay seller who made a nice profit on a case of 12, but I can still make more than double by reselling them in NZ... so many profit opportunities, so little time !!!

Later,
Rachel.

Double To A Million - New Assets ect..

Double To A Million - New Assets ect..

So, what have I been up to ?
Well, this has been an exhausting week :) After reaching the $1280 mark, I decided I would have to make both larger investments and passive investments.

After checking up on Trademe for how my painting was doing, I noticed an ad for a vending machine.
I spent a day or so going around the forums and getting opinions on ROI and profit margin from these machines.
It seems that people have to pay between 0-40% to the business or place where they are placed.
Most seem to earn between 40-80% profit on the items sold.

So to me,I figure if you get a machine cheap enough, pay only a smaller percentageto the business owner and sell high profit margin items you may do a lot better than putting your stake in the bank.

I currently have $300 of my doubling stake in RaboPlus. On the first 20 odd days I earnt $1.31 in intrest which is pretty good ! I thought I might look into investing $300 into vending.

After having a very good look around, I used buy now for a mechanical machine which holds 20 lines for $100.
The guy, Andrew, called me the next night and offered me a couple more....
I ended up getting 3 machines plus spares for $216.30 !! There was $30 odd in one of the machines, so it brought the price down from $250.

So, I thought if I placed 2 machines and sold one, for $0 investment, I may get a turnover that turns out pretty well. I'll give it until the end of summer (Feb 2008) until reveiwing how they do. At that point I will either decide to keep them, or sell them as sited, profit earning machines.

I also sold my 20c NZ Pukaki painting so the total was $1300 ! Now it's back down to $1083.70.

My new set of canvas' are coming soon so the Aussie coins will be featured both on my Coin Art blog and at www.RachelHammond.net

I'll update again later....

Rachel.

Double to a Million - STEP 19 REACHED !!!!!!

That's Right !!

I just got home from my once a week chef job, and Sally (The Best Boss Ever...) Traded me some old coins that could only be cashed at the reserve bank.
I got lots of coins and a cool old New Zealand Five Dollar note ! That brought me up to $1282 and I'm taking the $2 out as the rules state !!

I keep a DYWTAM list on my wall and tick off each step as I go.
I was just updating it and I noticed the difference between the last step and the first ones.

For steps 10 through 15 I sold a few CD Roms, some seconhand stuff, but mainly 1-5 items per step.
I've just realised that in this step I used the following income sources;

• Watches
• CD Roms
• eBooks
• Audio CDs
• New Goods that were sold on for between 2-5 times what I paid
• Secondhand goods
• Dump goods
• Donation
• Found money
• Advertising

Quite a list !!
And for this step I get to add art works as well !

Later,
Rachel.

Double To A Million - How To's...

My stake is gradually creeping up by $10-$20 per day now which is nice.
If you look at my total sometimes, it looks as if I'm lower than the level I say I'm at.
This is due to me investing some of my Stake money into goods that will sell, to bring me to the next level.

I just wanted to clarify this for the uninitiated :)

Reading a reveiw that was done on this site, I also thought I should clear up a few things also.

Even though I'm in New Zealand, most if not all of the things I have done to reach this level are do-able in any country.

You may notice that the bulk of my funds come through selling on TradeMe (The New Zealand version of eBay).
What I don't mention is that everytime I consider buying something, I search through all the live listings and then all the expired auctions to get a good idea of whether the item will sell.

• I'll get the number of closed auctions for the item I am considering selling.
• The number of goods that have sold above or at reserve and the amount of times they were re-listed until sold.
• Run the numbers to see the probability of easy sales
• Check current selling prices against RRP in shops and determine if I can undercut the market.
• Put yourself in the Buyers shoes. Wouldn't you prefer the same item for a huge discount ?!
  

These are things that anyone in any country can do.
Considering that America is my primary buying country, I think all you US people could get far better deals...I have to pay for international shipping !!

This concept also applies with things like my mosaic plate lots and beach china.
My advice is simply read the market and give it what it wants.

Later...
Rachel.

Double Your Way To A Million - New Assets

A few days ago I tracked down something that i thought might sell well.
I was right.

As you can see from my accounting on the side, this was quite a windfall !!

While I'd love to share all the impressive details with the world....You'll all just have to wait for the book :D

On this journey you learn a lot of things, but one I'm just hitting now is "the trade secret". My father defines this as something you find out due to dumb luck and keep it secret for fear of losing the advantage. I concur !

With a little "luck" and some aggressive marketing I could reach the next level in a few weeks.
Good Luck everyone !

Rachel.

Double Your Way To A Million - Easter Update

So, yesterday I spent $23.50 of the stake money on the goods in the previous post. It would have been less, but I decided not to interfere (I didn't haggle when I normally would have...very difficult :D).
The reason for not haggling was simply to prove that anyone can make a profit by selling anything.
You don't have to be hugely creative or innovative...Just buy something that will somehow make a return on investment.

I've already sold the digital phone for $8 which puts me ahead a few dollars as I also sold one of the silicone cake moulds.

I'm also thinking of having a $1 RESERVE week on my auctions to bump my stake up a bit.
I want to be at the next level soon !

Later,
Rachel.

Doubling Strategy - Just Double It !

Today was our annual Lions market day in my town.

Basically, the Lions club collects stuff from people and sells it or auctions it on Easter weekend.
What I wanted to do was get a bunch of things...quite a random selection... and simply see how easy it is for absolutely anyone to make double their money.
I'm giving myself a week !!

So what did I get ?

• 1 Fax/Copier
• 1 digital cordless phone
• 1 Atari System with 2 joysticks & 2 games
• 5-6 sets of plates to be cut into mosaic tile pieces
• 2 CDs
• 1 bag of knitting needles
• 7 Woods & Soms plates
• 3 photo albums

An unusual mix of things, but I figured if I could double my money on these, then there would be no excuse for anyone !

Funnily enough, as one pair of women walked past me they said, "Oh, a tent full of junk we can't use" I had to laugh to myself.

Anyway, I'll update this little experiment in a week including prices ect...

Stay Tuned,
Rachel.

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Double Your Way To A Million ! Sales

Well, I've sold a couple more watches which brings my total up to $722.

I went into town yesterday (We travel 75km to the nearest
city to do food shopping) and came accross a few things that I knew were popular on Trademe. I've listed a couple of Audio Books and a couple of other things....

If you want to check out my auctions my personal ID is Abeyance and the auctions are HERE

I've also gotten some great ideas to lead me into the next step.

More later...

Rachel.

Double To A Million - More Assets to Report

OK,

I have sold 2 of the new shipment of watches ( A data-link and a Baby G).
I also saw a chance to get 3 silicone cake baking moulds for a good price that others may be interested in. I'll add a special CD-ROM filled with cooking recipes to sweeten the deal !
I noticed that these have been seling from $40-$50 on Trademe and I can offer them at half price !

We'll see how that goes.....

I'm keeping my dollar total up to date on the right so you can see my progress at any time :)

A couple more ideas.....

• If you have fish, read up on them and take notice when they spawn... You can sell the babies instead of letting the parents eat them.
• If there is a button or badge maker in your house, spend a couple of dollars on badges and offer to make your friends a badge with anything they want on it...for a small fee :D

More later !

Rachel.

Double Your Way To A Million ! Sales

My first sale from this lot of watches was one of the cool Data Link ones. It comes with software and everything !!

My total should start to creep back up again now :D

Thanks to everyone who said "get well" ! I still can't beleive I caught the Flu in Summer...Smacks a bit of "The Stand" :D
Anyway, with the help of nice drugs all I have now is a raucous cough and a husky voice !

I was going over my watch sales figures and I'm really quite happy with the percentage I get on them, but would like to impart a few words of wisdom;

1. Always make sure you can afford to undercut the competition
2. Look for well known brands that are not copied or "Faked"
3. Always factor shipping into the price of the goods
4. Make sure there is actually a market for what you want to sell.
5. Price so that people are TRULY getting a great deal...People want bargains !!

I know this all sounds elementary, but missing even one of these things tends to bring your sales into trouble.

OK, well I'm off to worry over my auction descriptions now....

Rachel.

Double Your Way To A Million ! Sales

Double Your Way To A Million - Couple More CD-ROMs to report

Double Your Way To A Million - Couple More CD-ROMs to report

Well, in the last few days I have sold 2 more CD-ROMs. That brings my total to $138 Cash & $425 Assets.

If you'd like to check on my progress, my auctions are here ; Abeyance on Trademe

I'm finding the watches to be selling slowly but luckily I had a contingency plan which is why I've almost made the entire stake up in the last few weeks.
It is definately all a learning curve - I would have been up to the next step by now.
I do however have assets, and they will sell so I'm still good !

I've listed some of my mosaic plates auctions and I have at least 4 more ready for tonight (Mon/Tues night are the busy ones in NZ).

Another idea; We have whistling Tree Frogs that lay their eggs in a bathtub pond at our house. They have hundreds of Tadpoles every year. I noticed that people are selling these !

These are things you could put an add in your local paper and sell, or even ship. To ship them, you need a solid plastic bag and an air pump. Just inflate the bag after putting the Tads & water in and seal it very tightly.
Pack them securely in a foam box and courier them !
They should last 3-4 days in this packaging.


Bye Now,
Rachel.