Do Not Get An Education - And Here Is Why...

[Pluto]

"Mr Kibblewhite said, "IT phenomena such as eBay trading and the boom in buy-to-let property and property prices has meant that people can make more money without high start-up costs or expensive education."

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0300busines...-name_page.html

There you have it - why get an expensive education when you can make "loadsa money" from BTL.

[dnd]

Well, perhaps a few years ago....

Nowadays BTL margins are razor thin and eBay dropship trading dries up within a week or two unless you have an exclusive supplier....

Edited December 6, 2006 by dnd

[Jason]

But, but... I thought we were a knowledge ec0n0my!

[Pluto]

But, but... I thought we were a knowledge ec0n0my!

We're a BTL and part time Ebay economy. Selling each other our houses and crap on Ebay is making everyone $ millionaires.

Aren't we lucky.

[dnd]

...crap on Ebay...

Yep, esp in the past year or so...

[DTMark]

Playing Monopoly at the weekend (don't ask) for the first time in years I was struck by one of the rules:

'If a property is mortgaged, you cannot charge rent on it'

Given it's a tycoon/empire kind of game, seems a bit odd compared with today. OK it's only a game, but did such a rule exist once perhaps?

[talksalot81]

There you have it - why get an expensive education when you can make "loadsa money" from BTL.

I have a really simple answer... there is more to life than "loadsa money". The education is what enables me to do things that others cant. I'd rather have that and a bit less money than have a load of money and be as incapable as the flock of uneducated.

[Guest The_Oldie]

"Mr Kibblewhite said, "IT phenomena such as eBay trading and the boom in buy-to-let property and property prices has meant that people can make more money without high start-up costs or expensive education."

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0300busines...-name_page.html

There you have it - why get an expensive education when you can make "loadsa money" from BTL.

This sounds a bit like the rubbishing of "Old Economy" companies by the tech stock junkies circa 1999 .

Edit: I knew a number of people who gave up their day jobs in favour of day trading in tech stocks, some of them were making serious money. A few of them came out of it smelling of roses, most didn't.

"Old Bloggs has just sold his (AIM listed) Whiz Bang Enterprises shares for 40p. He must be mad, they're worth £1." (Whiz Bang ended up at 3p some six months later).

[The Colour]

Playing Monopoly at the weekend (don't ask) for the first time in years I was struck by one of the rules:

'If a property is mortgaged, you cannot charge rent on it'

Given it's a tycoon/empire kind of game, seems a bit odd compared with today. OK it's only a game, but did such a rule exist once perhaps?

Isn't that still the law? I thought you had to get a btl mortgage if you were btl'ing. Otherwise it's technically illegal, though everyone does it (well everyone with more than one property anyways)

[Saving For a Space Ship]

So much for ebay, the amount of overlapping cheap listing days points to trouble IMO

I thought this was an interesting thread on the ebay business forum

eBay; A SATURATED VENUE?

http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?messa...2006#1201550647

Quite a few sellers complaining of a slowdown compared to previous years

Ebay sales slow Very Very slow. Where have all the bidders gone?

http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threa...d=1165474622880

Whats happened to the Christmas rush????

http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threa...d=1165326718521

[dnd]

So much for ebay, the amount of overlapping cheap listing days points to trouble IMO

I've been using eBay for 4 years - it used to be good with some quality stuff popping up for bargain prices - now it's just cr*p IMO - spoiled by the more cynical members

I've got a huge pile of stuff in the house I bought on eBay in the past year - all of it junk bought based on vauge descriptions and blurry photos - got to waste my time re-photographing it and putting it back on

Edited December 7, 2006 by dnd

[Gene Pool Lifeguard]

I've got a huge pile of stuff in the house I bought on eBay in the past year

eBaying houses is indeed the way forward. And may make the crash more steep when it comes ...

[dnd]

eBaying houses is indeed the way forward. And may make the crash more steep when it comes ...

What's the eBay/Paypal commission on something like that?

Does it include postage?

Edited December 7, 2006 by dnd

[adibrown]

I've been using eBay for 4 years - it used to be good with some quality stuff popping up for bargain prices - now it's just cr*p IMO - spoiled by the more cynical members

I've got a huge pile of stuff in the house I bought on eBay in the past year - all of it junk bought based on vauge descriptions and blurry photos - got to waste my time re-photographing it and putting it back on

Too many people on the make on ebay. The key is the postage charge. I think people are getting wise to this now and hence people are starting to look elsewhere. A mate used to make his money by selling CD-Roms full of Classic car pics (could be used for wallpaper etc) for £1. He used to charge £2 for Postage and packaging even though envelope and postage was only 50p at the most. So he made around £2.50 per cd and sold about 30 a day. I think he has now moved on to CD's full of Stadium pics.

The key is that he made most of his money from the postage charges. You see it all over ebay with £4.99 postage for small items. This is where the sellers are making their money and I think buyers are getting wise.

`

[talksalot81]

eBaying houses is indeed the way forward. And may make the crash more steep when it comes ...

That point wouldnt be understood, much less noticed if you didnt get an education

[SarahBell]

The key is that he made most of his money from the postage charges. You see it all over ebay with £4.99 postage for small items. This is where the sellers are making their money and I think buyers are getting wise.

`

Absolutely. There's either dead ripoff postage form UK sellers or stuff sold from hongkong for next to npothing but with even madder postage charges.

I can't think when i last bought anything on ebay.

[adamUK]

Surely the charge is for Postage and packing. There is a cost for using Jiffy bags, parcel tape etc and what is your time worth packing up the item, sourcing the packing materials and taking it to the Post Office. Why would you do all this for free and just charge the true postage cost?

If you bump up the postage to reduce the listed cost of the item then ebay's fees are lower. It's a well-known ebay fee dodge. Especially since they poked fees up again recently.

[adibrown]

Surely the charge is for Postage and packing. There is a cost for using Jiffy bags, parcel tape etc and what is your time worth packing up the item, sourcing the packing materials and taking it to the Post Office. Why would you do all this for free and just charge the true postage cost?

50p was taking that into account. He buys his padded envelopes in bulk, that way they cost about 10p a pop.

As for effort surely that should be factored into the price your charging for the product. After all P&P is just that it isnt P&P + effort.

[talksalot81]

As for effort surely that should be factored into the price your charging for the product. After all P&P is just that it isnt P&P + effort.

I certainly dont agree with you on that one. My time and effort are fixed, the selling price is variable on the auction. I need to be certain that no matter the auction outcome, it does not actually cost me money (time and effort ARE money) to dispose of the item. Otherwise I might as well throw it in a skip.

[CrashedOutAndBurned]

You can't talk about Ebay as one market - it's thousands of little sub-markets.

A few years back I used to get cheap cult DVDs from Europe for e5 and they'd often go for 10, 15, sometimes £25. Now you can get any DVD from mainstream to collectable for just a few pounds as it's so saturated. For a while a guy I knew was making a nice income selling hand-printed screenprint t-shirts for £12 but then there were hundreds of shops and £4.99 price points. Another chap did canvas printing a few years back (high quality, varnished on proper artists' stretcher bars) and trebled his income selling on ebay - again soon everyone was doing it and far cheaper junky amatuer stuff appeared and the prices were barely break-even.

On the flipside, when I try to bid on good secondhand studio lighting accessories or decent audio gear the prices often get extremely close to the better mail order prices so there's hardly any saving. I still think ebay is strongest for picking up and selling good second hand gear. Still, the good items are sometimes swamped by zillions of 'I've been to globalsources.com and imported loads of tat' listings.

[SarahBell]

Surely the charge is for Postage and packing. There is a cost for using Jiffy bags, parcel tape etc and what is your time worth packing up the item, sourcing the packing materials and taking it to the Post Office. Why would you do all this for free and just charge the true postage cost?

Because the £4.50 you want for your time completely negates any price advantage of buying online.

If it isn't competitive with other sources (going the shop yourself) then why buy online and have to wait for someone to drag their butt to the post office.

[homeowner595]

I started ebay'ing to look for used car and motorbike parts. It's made keeping older cars on the road cheaper.

I'm now doing quite well breaking an old 'bike and selling the parts for spares. For 'bikes in particular (where there aren't the problems of bodywork corrosion suffered by old cars so they can be kept going for longer) things are kept in check by the availability of used parts, and the extraordinary cost of new.

I've got a load of old computer parts that may as well go to the tip though.

[steve99]

Think the problem with ebay is the comercial sellers, was hunting down a memory stick and found them new on ebay for a good price, however the postage was well over the top, ok, it was still cheaper all up than going to a shop, however the chances of a cheap and nasty chinese reject turning up was very high and if I had to send it back for a replacement then it would cost far more than marching into Dixons and paying full retail price. Still think its a brilliant venue for the individual or part time sellers with real stuff, not cheap chinese nik naks.

As for education, everything Ive done and paid for over the years has fizzled out to nothing, employers are so picky these days and if you dont have their exact right requirements to the lettter you are dismissed as a nothing/nobody and I can see why people get very cynical.

I personaly have started to learn share trading and am putting hundereds of hours into the study of it, the ambition is to make £100 per week consistantly in up, down and sideways markets, when I can do that then I can up the game somewhat, however anyone trying to get rich quick will be broke within days/weeks. The reasoning behind this is the fact that the market will always be there (barring nuke war), I dont have to depend on Mr Employer, I can do it until Im senile and I can work from anywhere in the world. Definitlty worth the effort

[Orbital]

education opens many doors in life, got me doing a job i enjoy. The old phrase "make your hobby your job and never work again" springs to mind. Not gonna make me a millionaire - but who needs to be a millionaire?

That said, higher education isnt right for everyone and the governments 50%> into uni plan is ludicrous. That many people in my teacher mate's secondary school wont even get 5 GCSEs. Its sad to hear some of the kids just dont care, they just dont understand that education and qulifications will actually get them to where they want to go. And they will only learnt his lesson when its too late. I went to a pretty normal s.london state school and wasnt particularly outstanding, I just did what my teach told me to do - wasnt hard really. Went on to A levels, then Uni, and then a job that pays enough and I enjoy. Enabled me to get on the property ladder, and concentrate on more important things in life.

So yeah I dont think you HAVE to get an education but it makes life easier and without one you better be the kinda person who can get up and make things happen, not the type of person who sits around blaming their pathetic lives on everyone but themselves. If you cant be arsed to make things happen and didnt think you needed an education when everyone else around you was trying to tell you that you did then tough luck, people are responsible for their own lives and if that means you'll never afford a property... unlucky. You only get one chance at life.