@annelehman wrote:

Hello everyone! I have a little request. Could someone, or more people, fill me in on how to sell things on Ebay? How do you make a small Ebay business work? Thank you so much! Signed, Night Owl at 9:27 pm

The first thing you do is open an account with them. I've been selling on e-bay successfully since 2008. The hardest part was getting the account set up. After you've done that, PM me here.

I don't have a particular city since I live in the country.

My money is made, because I drive mileage and drive to areas where schedulers have a hard time filling. It can be spectacular one month. Another month, I'm singing "What was I thinking?", plus a few other country songs. ( I live in TX, country is what I can get on the radio)

If you want to take a mini vacation, I whole heartily recommend checking out the boards. Never know , you might get a bonus because schedulers need to diversify their shopper pool. Ten minutes of your day could put you in good stead with a scheduler; who may have profitable shops available in your locale.

@shoptastic wrote:

This is going to sound maybe very dumb or naive, but I had never thought of going outside of my city!!

Actually, I have gone to one neighboring city, because it's a good place and I am familiar with it, but the other city bordering mine is not the safest.

I also am not registered with enough companies (less than 50). And I fear doing too many shops in one day, because I don't want to make mistakes that will cost me the shop.

Also, I figure a lot of these $10 shops are not worth my time, because of the gas costs and wear and tear on my car. I would need a good number of shops and/or a high paying one to drive farther than 15-20 miles.

I appreciate everyone's stories so far, though! It makes me wonder how I can bunch things better and route my shops. I'll have to sign up with more companies AND do some research into how to schedule things on the same day.

Guys/gals - have you all calculated the gas you're spending and the wear and tear on your car into your shopping decisions?

Thank you, ceasesmith! I will work on setting up an account. Love to all of us, Signed, Night Owl at 2:30 am

@MA Smith wrote:

I don't have a particular city since I live in the country.

My money is made, because I drive mileage and drive to areas where schedulers have a hard time filling. It can be spectacular one month. Another month, I'm singing "What was I thinking?", plus a few other country songs. ( I live in TX, country is what I can get on the radio)

If you want to take a mini vacation, I whole heartily recommend checking out the boards. Never know , you might get a bonus because schedulers need to diversify their shopper pool. Ten minutes of your day could put you in good stead with a scheduler; who may have profitable shops available in your locale.

@shoptastic wrote:

This is going to sound maybe very dumb or naive, but I had never thought of going outside of my city!!

Actually, I have gone to one neighboring city, because it's a good place and I am familiar with it, but the other city bordering mine is not the safest.

I also am not registered with enough companies (less than 50). And I fear doing too many shops in one day, because I don't want to make mistakes that will cost me the shop.

Also, I figure a lot of these $10 shops are not worth my time, because of the gas costs and wear and tear on my car. I would need a good number of shops and/or a high paying one to drive farther than 15-20 miles.

I appreciate everyone's stories so far, though! It makes me wonder how I can bunch things better and route my shops. I'll have to sign up with more companies AND do some research into how to schedule things on the same day.

Guys/gals - have you all calculated the gas you're spending and the wear and tear on your car into your shopping decisions?

Sure, I do. I had an oil change last Tuesday, and have put 1200 miles on my car since then (yes, Tuesday THIS WEEK). I completed $1640 in shops since Tuesday noon.

I'm pretty sure that covers gas!

@ceasesmith wrote:

Sure, I do. I had an oil change last Tuesday, and have put 1200 miles on my car since then (yes, Tuesday THIS WEEK). I completed $1640 in shops since Tuesday noon.

I'm pretty sure that covers gas!

I want to learn how to do your shops!

I've decided to change things up to consider more high reimbursement shops when planning my schedule. I was somewhat of a credit card churner in the past with the simpler offers (50,000 points for $1,000-2,000 in purchases the first 3 months), but have decided to up my game in this with the more lucrative cards (~100,000 points for $3,000-4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months). I'll make a thread about this someday or maybe even freshen up the Mystery Shopper Forum Magazine with an article about diversifying your returns! Stay tuned....

@Tarantado wrote:

I've decided to change things up to consider more high reimbursement shops when planning my schedule. I was somewhat of a credit card churner in the past with the simpler offers (50,000 points for $1,000-2,000 in purchases the first 3 months), but have decided to up my game in this with the more lucrative cards (~100,000 points for $3,000-4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months). I'll make a thread about this someday or maybe even freshen up the Mystery Shopper Forum Magazine with an article about diversifying your returns! Stay tuned....

I do the same! Last fall I did $15K of spend in three months to earn 100K Amex Points (Business Platinum Reward Card) and 75K Delta Skymiles. I was lucky because Coyle had a client that was high dollar a night but reimbursement was not reversed, it was paid with regular payments (which as we know is unusual for them). I was still stressing over getting it all done - but success! I am cooling my heals now, especially since some of the banks (Chase, I am looking at you) have really tightened up their rules to combat us churners.

@MickeyB wrote:

@Tarantado wrote:

I've decided to change things up to consider more high reimbursement shops when planning my schedule. I was somewhat of a credit card churner in the past with the simpler offers (50,000 points for $1,000-2,000 in purchases the first 3 months), but have decided to up my game in this with the more lucrative cards (~100,000 points for $3,000-4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months). I'll make a thread about this someday or maybe even freshen up the Mystery Shopper Forum Magazine with an article about diversifying your returns! Stay tuned....

I do the same! Last fall I did $15K of spend in three months to earn 100K Amex Points (Business Platinum Reward Card) and 75K Delta Skymiles. I was lucky because Coyle had a client that was high dollar a night but reimbursement was not reversed, it was paid with regular payments (which as we know is unusual for them). I was still stressing over getting it all done - but success! I am cooling my heals now, especially since some of the banks (Chase, I am looking at you) have really tightened up their rules to combat us churners.

Oh yeah. Please feel free to share your strategies with getting credit card benefits. Never thought of that angle.

It's usually just a choice between airline mileage and cash back, right?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/2017 09:12AM by shoptastic.

I easily can do this and some months have made around $2500. This amount does include reimbursement for high end restaurants. I have been a shopper for over 10 years and have great credibility. Each month I do airport shops where I can easily do 10-15 shops at a pop. Each shop pays $11. I then pick up bank account opening and they pay anywhere from $50-$150 a shop. I then do shops that pay $25 for storage units. Each add up. You just need to be a good shopper with great reports and follow instructions for each and they companies will know to seek you out.

@shoptastic wrote:

Oh yeah. Please feel free to share your strategies with getting credit card benefits. Never thought of that angle.

It's usually just a choice between airline mileage and cash back, right?

Not exactly airline mileage vs. cash back... Every point program are kind of their own currencies. Marriott points vs. Starwood Preferred Guest points vs. American Airlines points.... And so on and so forth. You can redeem for hotels, flights, etc. Each program has their own terms and their points and their equivalent value of them vary as well. Some programs allow you to transfer "currencies," while other restrict you from this.

There are also additional incentives, whether its stacked benefits with hotels (complimentary breakfast at your hotel stays) and flights (free checked bags), or even vouchers for airline lounges at the hotel (open bar and food) or a vouchers redeemable for TSA Pre-Check.

One must understandable the concept of credit cards, where your credit stands, etc. to be able to churn cards in the first place. In other words, the quantity of cards you have has a much smaller effect on your credit, as opposed to having a clean credit history (all payments made on-time, EVERY time), a lengthy Average Age of Accounts and a low credit utilization ratio.

The best credit cards are the card that have high initial spending requirements to obtain the rewards (e.g. $4,000 spent in 3 months, or $1,000 in 3 months, etc.). Mystery shopping can help as we can get reimbursed for some of the work we do, but timing is everything and also having a 'money pot' to work worth. So hopefully as a business owner / mystery shopper, you're building that money pot anyways if you have shops in your schedule to that require money upfront. Additional planning to do this is needed, as the strategy is to ALWAYS pay your statement balance (charges accrued within a billing cycle) every month. Note that this does not necessarily mean to immediately pay after charging your credit card. There's a grace period after the end of a statement period, so that falls into play on planning your months if your money pot is slim with little room to mess with on the high reimbursement shops.