Re: Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] another way I could have become amillionaire...

[Jonathan King <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Thu, 12 Aug 2004 21:56:00 -0500, Nathan Odle <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> Jonathan King wrote:
> 
> >to do themselves.  All I can say is: Crud! I had this very idea. :-(
> >
> Huh...so did my brother and I...as did probably 3 other people I've
> talked to in the past few years :)

That bad, huh? :-)
 
> If it makes you feel any better, part of the reason we never did it was
> because we worked the numbers and the cash flow turned out to be 
> pretty dismal.  eBay's commission is partly to blame for this, although 
> bigger than that was the fact that you can automate this sort of thing 
> to the hilt, but it still just takes too much time per transaction (as is the
> case with many tangible goods), which makes it hard to get the 
> volume you need to make it pay.  I will say that franchising, as 
> those people did, is the *only chance* anyone has to make an 
> appreciable amount of money off this concept.

I can see your point on the transaction time, especially since you
probably end up wasting a bunch of time explaining to people why it's
pointless to list Useless and Ugly Object X on eBay.  To a significant
extent, what this really is is an appraisal business, and I know those
are only lucrative in some domains where people are willing to pay for
the effort (e.g., real estate) or in situations where you are allowed
to play the Oldest Trick in the Book:

    "OK, grandma; the afghan is worth $100 and the sofa is worth $2000.     
      The painting isn't really worth anything except I kind of like the 
      frame, so I'll give you $20 for it..."

Franchising is a way to make money off of many a losing idea you can
sell anyway, as is raising VC money, if the dot com bust is any
indication...

jking
_______________________________________________
discussion mailing list
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/discussion