Find work or Learn How To Sell With FBA?

I always had an interest in taking things apart and understanding how they worked or why I would want to sell them. Before I was old enough to have a job, small black-and-white TVs and even radios evolved into small engines, motorcycles, and cars. I wasn’t necessarily fascinated with fixing anything but more so with what made things do what they did. That’s not to say I didn’t drive my single mother nuts coming home and seeing a house filled with smoke due to a snowmobile I took months to take apart and reassemble in our basement finally running, but it’s an important part of myself that I would not realize the importance of until decades later.

In school, I was never very good at paying attention in class and had behavioral issues, eventually causing me to drop out of high school, get my GED, and join the Army reserve. The majority of my professional career was not very proficient. I’ve worked in a variety of industries, including fast food, car sales, and newspaper advertising sales. I went a long period not being able to hold down a job. There was a long time of me being dependent on other people. I wasn’t responsible for myself and spent too long being down on myself instead of doing anything about it.

Aside from being on the verge of depression, having other behavioral issues, and a general lack of accountability for myself, I found myself in a place where I alienated the entire family that I grew up with and one night ended up sleeping alone in the woods with no place left to turn.

Being homeless without knowing where to turn is a very profound place to find yourself. I spent the night with my mind spinning, trying to fall asleep under a tree. I was bouncing back and forth between being upset about my situation and thinking about what I could do now that I was where I found myself.

What can I sell fast that will benefit my future?

The next day, I spoke with some distant family on my father’s side of the family. I never had the chance to disappoint much before due to my parents getting divorced when I was young.

My aunt agreed to help me find a temporary place to stay. My primary focus was to not put myself in a bad position as I already had with everyone else. Again, I struggled with holding down even simple jobs. I couldn’t understand why I was not able to bring myself to do what everyone else was doing. I had to suck it up and deal with each horrific job that I just couldn’t tolerate. When my uncle sat me down and asked me why I didn’t like to work, it was a difficult discussion to have.

Eventually, I remembered my stepfather telling me he was saving some old metal to turn into scrap for cash. Desperate, I began searching my aunt’s home for anything they wanted to get rid of that I could take to the scrap yard, which turned out to be conveniently close. I can’t remember how much I made from the scrap run, but it was more than I had in prospects doing anything else.

What’s in the garage my uncle has not been in for years that I can get rid of? A cast iron heater, broken yard tools, old scrap that’s been rusting, a bent car rim? The scrap yard will take it! I might get a hernia trying to get it into the truck, but I can make a few bucks just for bringing it there. I spent a few weeks running around looking for scraps and figuring out what the scrap yard paid more money for.

Starting work with selling scrap metals

I eventually figured out that I wanted to be searching for copper. So, I watched YouTube videos on how to tell different metals apart and learned the return value I could make. This led me to start finding more things that were destined for the trash that I could sell on Craigslist.

Sometimes I would come across strange items that might not sell on my local Craigslist. Items such as the clear canister for a vacuum that holds the dirt filter. The vacuum was totally busted, but the plastic filter canister was in perfect condition. I needed to find a larger audience that was looking for specific items who didn’t want to drive far to pick up what I was selling..

I found out that I could create an eBay account and list a few items every month for free, if they did not sell, I would not have to pay as long as I only sold like 20 or fewer items a month.

When the canister sold for what I now remember as about $28 plus shipping, a few light bulbs started going off in my head. I realized I could make money selling people’s “trash” and YouTube had great videos on how to do it.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure… to sell

This was still not a predictable income job, but at least I was making something. I would watch the free section on Craigslist and noticed it would update every 20 minutes. I would take that time to jump into dumpsters to find stuff that I could sell online.

During my Craigslist hunt for free stuff that I could scrap or resell, I got a free pop-up camper. I used this for towing behind my rusted-out Ford Explorer to pick up bigger items. The camper came gutted except for some small things like a tiny shower bowl that I eventually sold that for $70 to a guy building tiny homes.

I realized just how wasteful people could be

Throwing away so many perfectly fine items. This whole sub-economy existed for making money out of how imprudent other people are. I saw this day in and day out and made me realize how little I needed to actually survive. I ended up shaping what I now understand to be a minimalistic lifestyle. It really helped me grow a business easier than it would have been before having this perspective.

After a few weeks of scrapping, dumpster diving, and watching Craigslist and YouTube videos, I realized something. I figured out that there is only so much stuff you can find in dumpsters. I started to think of ways I could get more stuff proactively. The idea began by contacting Craigslist yard sale listings. Once the sale was over, they were practically paying people like me to take the items off their hands. This evolved as more and more items were sold on eBay. By this time I was only making $200 to $300 a week.

But more importantly, I was learning about how eBay worked, what sold, how much to price items for, how to ship them for cheap, and learning as much as I could to become proficient at listing items. I spent countless hours between dumpster diving, watching YouTube, and listing items, to the point my family started to ask me where I had been all day.

I would pick up hundreds of items from yard sale leftovers while working 18 hours a day. A repetition of listing these items and preparing them for delivery. Some nights I would fall asleep during this process just to wake up and get right back to it.

I could work all along once I knew how to sell

I was completely hooked; I was able to make money and work as much as I want. Finally, I was in complete control of earning just enough money to cover my basic needs.

I realized I didn’t have an issue working, I had an issue working for other people, I loved to work! I was ecstatic to realize I had a lot of pride in jumping into dumpsters. This was even if it meant progress toward being able to look after myself. Eventually, I started to conjure up ideas of living on my own.

I started having hope for myself and my future, and I wanted to really expand on these ideas and commit myself to something I could take pride in and feel accomplished about.

So I made a plan, I was going to figure out what I needed to do to take care of myself, have my own place, live on my own, and not need to depend on help from other people. So I made it my goal to do whatever it takes to one day not have to be in a position to worry about how I was going to afford to take care of myself.