Greeting my shopper family. We have been doing some fall cleaning and I have a few items up with deep discounts. We do this about once per year. I have some open box equipment for sale. These have not been used, but they have been set up as a display at our trade shows. A lot of dealers would just polish it up and sell it to you as new. I don't think that is right. If I get new one, I want it brand new. These units are in like new condition. They have all the proper components. They still have the Lawmate 1 year warranty, and they are fully backed by Greyhawk. You just save a big chunk of money because it has been looked at.




I have (3) PV 500 L3 units with a BU 18 camera.

I have 2 PV 500 HDW/BU-18HD sets (no touch screen)




The price for each one is $315.00...




First folks to let me know they want one will get them. I will need to send you a custom marked down invoice. Give me a SHOUT!!!!




Dan

Greyhawk Video Solutions

greyhawkgear@outlook.com

704 434 5073

Looking for an inexpensive button camera for video secret shopping. I am a disabled veteran and this appears to be a way of earning some extra money. Any ideas??

@awfulart3
First, Thank you for your service.

Second, I would suggest that, if you target "inexpensive," you could be sacrificing quality or condition. If your camera does not capture video that meets industry standards or if it fails to work properly, you will be wasting both time and money. Be prepared to spend $350, give or take.

That said, your message suggests that you are not ready to lay out large amounts of money and that you are new to shopping, in general. Moreover, you may have some limitations in how much and what type of shopping you are able to do. My suggestions below are based on those presumptions.

Don't start with video shopping. This requires an immediate expenditure of a fair chunk of cash and if you find that this is not for you, you will be out the cash as well as a fair amount of time. Start with regular mystery shops that require no special equipment. You can start with grocery stores, gas stations and other types of business you frequent and where you are already spending money so that you are working in familiar settings and are not spending money that you would not otherwise spend. Open a bank account (through a mystery shop so you get paid to do it, of course!). Have all your mystery shopping money go into that new account and maintain the balance you need to support shopping habits. The rest can be transferred to your current bank. Other shops that you can often start to do as a beginning shopper that don't require any cash up front: apartments, car sales, bank inquiries, various phone shops, and more. You can also find shops that will cover expenses that you would have in day-to-day life, such as oil changes for your car.

Keep in mind, however, that pay is not instantaneous. Every company has different policies. For the most part, you can expect to be paid (and reimbursed!) 45-60 days after your shop. Some companies will have you paid within two weeks. Others might take four months. So, make sure you know when each job will pay/reimburse you and don't spend anything that you need right away.

While you are exploring shopping possibilities for yourself, make a note of any video shopping opportunities in your area. Then, do similar shops without video, just to see if you are going to be comfortable with that type of shop, in general. If you find that type of shop to appeal to you, start doing a lot of them. You want the shop to be second nature before you try to do it with video. For your first video shop, you will not want to have to worry about anything other than whether or not you are doing the video correctly.

Once you have accumulated enough cash in your shopping account, buy new equipment from a vendor that will stand by the product. I believe that most shoppers have had good experiences with Greyhawk.

You are right: As you get going, video shops will pay better than most other shops and you can earn enough money to modestly support yourself, if you do not have too many physical restrictions.

Excellent post.

MFJohnston made excellent suggestions, all of which I support. I would just add that since the better paid video shops are in apartments, new homes, senior or assisted living and high end automobile sales, most shoppers will seldom see those shops posted. For those, a shopper new to the world of video may need to sign up with, say, Ellis Property Management Systems (EPMS) which is one of the very few MS companies that will loan video equipment and do some minimal training for those new to video. Their written reports are very long and frustrating, but they are a low cost point of entry to video MS. I agree, however, that first doing non-video apartment shops (for any MS company except EPMS) is the way to get comfortable with apartment shops; doing non-video new car or new home shops, to get comfortable with those, before moving up to video, is a wise choice. (SOME shoppers simply dove into video and became great successes. I have met several of them and happen to know that they were extraordinary and experienced shoppers before they took the video plunge. I see them as the exception to the general rule.)

DO try out video using loaned equipment before making the decision to purchase equipment. Even though the technology is quite easy to master, these shops are not for everyone. In particular, those with longer interactions, like apartments, new homes, and senior/assisted living require that a believable scenario be maintained (acted) for 30 to 90 minutes or more, and that the shopper has developed the improvisational skills to adapt when the sales agent does something unexpected. The sales agents cannot be counted upon the "know the script" of the scene that you are sharing with them! OTOH, this is just the sort of challenge that the "hams" among us thrive upon!