Disneysteve's Common Cents Blog

Quick recap: I'm a family practice physician and I get to do various medical surveys and market research programs for doctors only. Most are online. Occasionally, they are by phone or in person.

March 2009 was a very good month. I earned $629 from surveys. My wife also got $20 from MySurvey.

I just sent another $680 to my wife's Roth account. That brings us to $3,550 for the year. I also just checked our checking account and both our state and federal refunds were deposited on Friday. That money will also be going to the Roths. That's about another $4,000. Once I transfer that, I'll post again and update my total.

A few days ago, I posted that I was only at $65.46 for the month and wasn't sure I'd make my monthly goal of $100. I should have been more optimistic.

My last 5 auctions for the month ended today. Four of five sold, bringing in $66.97.

That brings my total for the month to $132.43. My total year-to-date is now $516.50.

I didn't list anything today, so I haven't started on April yet. And half.com has been dead for me lately. I've got a dozen books listed but haven't sold anything for weeks.

I usually don't update my ebay progress until Wednesday or Thursday since my auctions end Wednesday night, but I'm excited about how this week is going.

Last post, I said I was struggling to make my goal for the month. I listed 5 more items on Wednesday night and a couple were a bit higher priced than my average items.

As of right now, all 5 have watchers (between 1 and 4 watchers per item) and 2 items have bids ($9.99 and $19.99). That brings me to at least $95.44 for the month and I still have 2 more days before they end. If I get just one bid on any of the 3 remaining items, that will put me over $100 for the month (or if the bids I already have get increased by at least $4.56). So it looks like I should hit the goal (or fall short by less than $5) for March.

I'll report the final numbers Wednesday night. Also, I will list more items then, but they'll end in April, so this batch is my last shot for March.

Today was a spending day, but a fun one.

My daughter has attended theatre camp the past 2 summers and will do so again this summer. This year's show is "Dear Edwina" which none of us was familiar with. I happened to be browsing at Theatermania.com last weekend and discovered that the show is currently playing off-Broadway. We decided to go so I ordered tickets for today.

We just went for the day as we were busy last night and are busy tomorrow. We got to NY about 10am, parked at the Port Authority and set off on foot in the direction of the theater (at 4th and 15th, across from Union Square). I wasn't sure if we'd walk the whole way because my daughter hurt her knee a couple of days ago. I figured if we needed to, we could hop in a cab or on the subway. We took our time as we were in no hurry and had time to kill. At 23rd street, we stopped for lunch in a nice Greek diner. That gave her a chance to rest her leg, too. From there, we continued on our way.

We stopped in a drug store across from Union Square to buy snacks for the theatre and headed over to wait for the show.

The show was cute and well done. The cast was great. If you have middle school or older elementary school kids, it is good for that age group. In fact, there was a middle school group that filled 6 or 8 rows of seats behind us (theater only sat 99 people) and they all sounded like they were enjoying the show.

We did not walk back to the car. We got on the subway right at Union Square and rode it back to 42nd street. Then we headed home. Normally, we'd hang out in the city, but since DD couldn't walk that well and had already trudged from 41st and 8th to 15th and 4th, I thought she had done more than enough for one day.

Money wise, it wasn't the cheapest of days, but we all love the theatre and don't get to shows nearly as often as we'd like. Here's a rough tally of what we spent.

Tickets: $88.00
Parking: $28.00
Lunch: $45.00
Snacks: $6.00
Tolls: $20.00
Gas: $13.00
____________
Total: $200.00

It was well worth it and is sure cheaper than if we had seen a Broadway show. One ticket would have cost more than all 3 tickets to this show.

I have 2 auctions end tonight bringing in another $9.49. That brings me up to $65.46 for March so far.

I just listed 5 more items on ebay. I'm struggling a bit this month but hoping I can still pull it out and hit $100. It is starting to look like meeting this challenge is going to be harder than I thought unless I bring in some new merchandise. I'm hoping that when I clean the garage more, I'll dig up some more stuff to sell. Plus I'm hoping that yard sale season helps out.

Just a quick update.

I've got 4 active auctions that end on Wednesday.

2 have bids totaling $8.98.

I went into the basement earlier to pack an item and was struck by the amount of empty space on some of the shelves where I store my inventory. Since starting back on ebay in November, I've sold quite a few items including several that were on the larger side. Also, any items that went unsold are now in the garage waiting for a yard sale. It is really starting to show down there. Perhaps this week, I'll spend a little time reorganizing down there to condense stuff. I'll probably find some good stuff to list in the process. All part of the decluttering process. There is a lot of stuff in the basement (not ebay merchandise) that needs to be stored more neatly, so clearing space in the ebay area will help.

I just sent $720 to my Roth account. That brings our 2009 contributions to $2,870. Only $7,130 to go.

Today turned out to be a good day moneywise.

I bought Bank of America stock a few weeks ago for $5/share. It proceeded to drop as low as $2.53 before recovering a bit. With this week's rally, it started climbing. I put in a limit order to sell half my shares (250 of 500) if the price hit $5.75 which it did today. I made $187.50 profit (minus $14 commission) so a net profit of $173.50. I'm going to hold onto the other 250 shares for a while and see what happens.

I also went to do my taxes today. My accountant is up the street from the casino. Ironic, I suppose, but he was there many years before the casino came along. I stopped in for about half an hour and played a little blackjack. I started with $200 and left with $225, so that was a quick 12.5% return on my investment.

So all together, I earned about $200 today that I wasn't expecting.

I had 3 auctions end today. One sold for $17.00. That brings my March total to $55.97.

I listed 4 new items today and still had 1 active item for a total of 5 auctions running.

ETA: Just 2 hours after listing, I already have a bid on 1 item, so that's at least another $3.99 that will come in next week, if not more.

There is a shelf under my printer that has been jammed full of computer manuals, books and magazines that I never, ever use at all. It finally occurred to me that it was a total waste of space. A couple of weeks ago, I checked half.com and amazon to see if any of the books were worth selling. None were. Tonight, I pulled off all of the magazines and put them in the recycling bin. I'm going to put the books in with the stuff for Goodwill. I'll keep the manuals because I think I should, even though I will still never look at them again.

Once I do that, I'll take all the various computer papers that are piled on the floor and organize them on that shelf, which will open up that floor space and make the room look a bit neater.

I sold two items to someone online (not through ebay) for $18.98, so that brings my March total to $38.97. It is going kind of slow this month compared to the last two months, but I haven't listed as much. I have 4 active ebay auctions. No bids yet, but 2 have watchers.

I'm looking forward to yard sale season which should be starting up shortly around here. I'm hoping to have a yard sale in late April or early May. I also like going to other sales where I often find items to resell for a profit.

Or at least I started to clean the garage. It is NOT a one-day endeavor. It is more of a lifelong challenge. LOL.

The temp rose into the 60s today - actually may have broken 70 - so I took advantage of the nice weather and spent a few hours in the garage. I made some progress, though there is certainly still much to be done. I broke down a bunch of cardboard boxes that went into the recycling bin. I filled a couple of trash bags. I got rid of some boxes from things that I just don't need to save anymore, like our laptop that we've had for 4 years or the CD player that we've also had for years. No reason to save the boxes anymore and they were taking up a lot of shelf space that can be used for stuff we actually need. I also moved some boxes from the floor area onto open space on one shelving unit. And, I packed up a few things to donate to Goodwill - stuff that we've tried to sell at least twice at yard sales without success. I didn't make it to Goodwill today but maybe later this week I'll run that stuff over. I also found one item that I put on ebay this evening, so I may even make a few bucks out of the cleaning effort.

I haven't had anything to update for a week because I haven't had anything listed for sale. I just finished listing 3 items and sending a second chance offer on a 4th (something that I had a duplicate of).

I sent the 2nd chance offer at 7:04pm. I got an e-mail at 7:20pm that it has sold. Well, that was certainly easy. So I can add $19.99 to my challenge total. That's the first sale for March and puts me 20% of the way toward my $100/month goal.

I was also contacted the other day by a buyer who was interested in an item that I had previously listed and not sold. He also asked if I had any other similar items. I have 2 others and he may be interested in all 3. I sent him prices and photos and I'm waiting to hear back from him. If he buys all 3, that would be another $26.00, so I'm hoping he follows through.

No half.com sales lately. I'm going to check my inventory tonight and see if any prices need adjusting.

I want to keep on top of the ebay stuff to meet my goal for the year. I just agreed to take a leadership position at my synagogue. That will start July 1 and I'll have less free time after that so I want to sell as much as I can in the first half of the year to be sure and meet the $1,200 goal.

For the newbies - I'm a family practice physician. I have the opportunity to participate in a variety of online (and occasionally in-person) surveys for which I am well compensated. These are for doctors only, not available to the general public.

For the month of February, I earned $490 from surveys which was a nice total. It had dropped off a few months back because I wasn't keeping on top of all the invites I get, but I've been sticking with it better.

I had 4 auctions end this week, 1 on Sunday and 3 today. None of them sold so I've got nothing to add to my challenge total.

Unless I get a half.com sale in the next 2 days, my total for February will be $175.08. That will bring my year-to-date total to $384.07.

I don't currently have anything active on ebay. I will try and list on Sunday evening as I didn't get to list last night.

I sold another book on Half.com for $7.99. That brings my February Ebay Challenge total to $175.08.

I also added up my 2008 Half.com sales. Total sales were $141.83. Profit after all expenses was $120.19. Add that to the $112.14 profit I made on ebay and my total profit for the year was $232.33. Not bad at all, but this year will be even better.

I'm working on my taxes and finally tallied up my ebay sales for 2008. I didn't do a whole lot last year. I had a burst of selling in the first quarter and then didn't do anything again until late November.

Total Sales: $515.05
Profit after all fees and expenses: $112.14

Not a lot of money but it is nearly a 22% profit margin which isn't too bad. I actually sold a number of items at a loss last year and I'm glad to be rid of them. They were purchased many years ago and have been taking up space ever since. As I've posted before, getting back on ebay is as much about decluttering as it is about making money for me.

Hopefully, this year's numbers will be a lot larger. My challenge goal is $1,200 in sales and I'm already more than 1/4 of the way there.

Even though I don't have much of anything to report, I wanted to make a post just to remind everyone of the Ebay Challenge.

I typically list on Wednesday nights. Last week, I was out on Wednesday night so I didn't list anything.

As I posted the other day, I did buy something over the weekend to resell and listed one item on Sunday (from my hotel room in Maryland). So far, no bids.

Tonight got screwed up, too, so I didn't list anything this week. I will try to get something on in the next few days.

It has been quite a while since I bought items specifically to resell. Since I'm back doing ebay regularly, I've started looking out for stuff that can be resold.

We're on vacation in Maryland this weekend and went to a local outlet mall tonight. In one store, I saw an item that I know is fairly popular. Original price was $24.50. It was on sale for $5.99. Then a store employee pointed out to me that all items with red tags were an additional 40% off. That made this item just $3.59, about 86% off original price. That made it an offer I couldn't pass up. They had 3 remaining so I bought all 3.

When we got back to the hotel, I looked the item up on ebay. One auction for this item ended today for over $26.00, and a few others have sold recently for over $20 each, so it looks like I made a good buy. I spent $11.43 for all 3 of them. If I can sell them for $20 each I'll make a nice profit, even after all fees are accounted for.

I didn't get to list one tonight. I do have my camera with me so I may list one tomorrow. I'll report my results when I do auction one.

As I've often posted, I get to do a lot of medical surveys, mostly online, that pay me pretty well. In 2008, I earned over $5,200 doing surveys. Most of them are done on no particular schedule. Sometimes, I might get 2 or 3 from the same company in a month. Other times, weeks may go by without a survey from that company.

Last year, I was invited to join one panel that has an ongoing program. Each week, they post 3 new activities to their site and I earn $50/month if I do at least 10 of them, which I always do.

A couple of weeks ago, I got an invite from a different company with the same kind of offer - do weekly activities for a set monthly amount of $50. I filled out the qualifying information and heard back today that I was accepted onto their panel.

So that makes a guaranteed $100/month I know I will get as long as I do the surveys. Of course, I still get all the intermittent stuff from 8-10 other companies. If I don't slack off, maybe I can hit $6,000 in survey income for 2009. That would certainly be nice.

I sold 2 more items on ebay tonight for a total of $30.48 bringing my February total to $167.09.

I normally list on Wednesday nights but I was out tonight so nothing listed. I might get to put a few things on tomorrow night but probably not and we're going away for the holiday weekend, so it looks like this will be an off week for ebay. I still have stuff on half.com, though, so sales are always possible.

I sold 2 copies of a book on Half.com yesterday for $7.49 each, so that adds another $14.98 to my February sales total which stands at $136.61.

No action yet on this week's ebay auctions but I'm not expecting much this time around. I put some items on that probably won't spark much interest. I'll be happy if one or two sell.

Another paycheck means another Roth contribution. This week, it was $765.00. That brings the 2009 total to $2,150, more than 1/5 of the way there.

My first ebay auctions of February ended tonight. WOW! 4 of my 5 auctions sold, which is fine, but 3 of those 4 got into major bidding wars between multiple bidders.

One item sold for $3.99 but the other 3 sold for $41.00, $31.20 and $45.44. That makes my February total so far $121.63. I surpassed my goal in just one week!

I listed 5 more items tonight but I don't expect anywhere near that much interest (or money) from this group of items.

In the midst of my ebay challenge, I'm still doing lots of medical surveys. Just a reminder that these are for physicians only, not available to the general public.

For January, I earned $306 from surveys ($300 from medical, $6 from Pinecone). Not a bad month at all.

I thought I was done for January a I didn't have any more ebay auctions ending this month. Then I checked my e-mail this morning and discovered that I had sold another book on half.com for $7.99. That brings me to $208.99 for the month.

I have 5 active auctions that end on 2/4. Right now, 2 have bids totaling $22.49, so I'll make at least that much next week. A 3rd item has 11 watchers but no bids yet. It is certainly getting a lot of attention, though. I would think at least one of those watchers will bid, so that should bring at least $4.99, my starting bid.

ETA: I got a bid on that item during the night, so that's another $4.99 at least.

My last 5 ebay auctions of the month ended tonight. All 5 sold and 2 really took off from my starting bids. The 5 items sold for a total of $70.06!

That brings my January total to exactly $201.00. That means I've already met my sales goal for both January and February. If this keeps up, I may need to raise my goal for the year.

I just finished listing 5 more items.

I sent another $675 to the ROTH last night. That brings us to $1,385 so far for 2009. Only $8,615 to go.

I just checked My Ebay. I forgot I had 2 items ending today. One sold. One didn't. The one that sold went for $19.99 to a buyer in France. It was actually an item I bought a few months ago at a yard sale to resell. I paid $5.00.

That brings my January total to $130.94 so I'm well past my January goal and have a good running start on February. I have 5 auctions ending tomorrow. 3 already have bids and all 5 have multiple watchers.