I worked out today what is greatly missing in my life, what I really need that has been missing...the obvious...I need a picker.
I'm reclusive. I have a pretty low threshold for social interaction. But I sell stuff on the Internet; I've been selling stuff on the Internet for the last 15 years.
I'm informed and skilled, and even agile with this process.
It's the finding of stuff that has become problematic of late, since I lost my last picker.
My last picker and I had a consignment deal going on, where he'd put in the money and I'd give him back half the net upon sale.
That was a sort of okay business model, but I don't want to do it that way anymore.
I want a traditional picker, who will go out and buy stuff cheap and shop it to me.
I have a candidate. He is very outgoing and a yard sale thrift shop hound, all of that. He gets around. He's another bicyclist, but he owns an SUV, though he rarely uses it.
My offer to him is that I'll fund him $10 a week for three months, and teach him how to buy used books for resale. He's already fairly ahead of the curve, he's very smart and into books, reads a lot.
Whatever he finds me, I guarantee to reimburse up to $10 per week. He will be privy to my research processes, and if he scores well, we'll agree on my buying from him for more, and still having the $10 to work with, even if he moves faster than once a week. Long as I don't run out of money.
He'll make money, if perhaps slowly. If he buys books for fifty cents to a dollar, and I buy them from him for two dollars, he'll make money. And he's already doing this, this roaming around town looking for distractions.
I'll take the risk, but after ten years of this, I do have something of a clue as to what I am doing.
I don't think much of anybody is doing used books in Carlsbad. We have lots of old people here, and wealthy people.
It's time to check this out. $40 a month is a fairly paltry cash outlay for this. And the upside of this sort of arrangement is that, even if you don't make any money, you get to look at cool books, have interesting stuff to read, or donate to some deserving non-profit.
Win-win.
I broached this subject to him the other day, he was definitely intrigued. "I'd like that," he said.
A lot of what I'm trying to get across here, is that he's already doing this, and that business opportunities are more upbeat and hopeful and potentially successful, when you're already doing something that is required for the business to work.
Work with your strengths, sez I.
I post this in the hopes that other Kossacks might think about these sorts of business arrangements, times being so tough and all. I have yet to get into the "Growing Heirloom Plants And Selling Them To The Locals" thing, but I might, I might.
I spent more hours today on the garden; it's shaping up nicely. Photos soon.
Love.