How I sold 80 major pieces of art, starting without a dime, while homeless

It's a really long and crazy story.  At age 49, I wound up living with my mom in a small North Carolina town, and could not get hired for any job whatsoever.  I sold a drawing in my weird Sharpie "scribble style," now and then.  I decided to focus on making money with my art.  That was in November of 2015.  I literally didn't have a dime to my name.  I had my art supplies, a room in a small apartment, and a refurbished HP laptop still running Windows XP.

I still don't make an actual decent living from my artwork.  But in the last 3 1/2 years, I've sold over 80 of my drawings, most of them for $120 to $160 each, a few sold through a gallery for $250 each.  These drawings, 18" X 24," take me 35 to 45 hours each to draw, on average.  That's not much money per hour of drawing, mostly because I was homeless most of the time I've been drawing and selling these drawings, and have been selling them to pay basic living expenses.  Obviously, if you start in a better position than I did, and you art is of a good quality, much more is possible.

Here's how I sold those 80 drawings:

1.  I committed to doing what it took to actually sell my work.  I decided I was actually going to do the day to day work needed to make and sell my Sharpie drawings.

2.  I sat down at the computer one night, looked through all kinds of art online for about three hours, and asked myself, "What would I actually want to put on my wall?"  I simple stencil of my first childhood hero, Bruce Lee, was the answer to that question.  So I printed out the photo, and drew it in my style.  I knew then that I needed to focus on drawing picture of inspiring people.  That was the subject matter that worked best for my style at that time.

3.  I tapped into the online following I already had from my BMX freestyle blog.  I primarily used Facebook, my main social media platform at the time, to show people my artwork, and ask if anyone would like me to draw them something.  My first orders came within a week or two of doing that.

4.  I sold my art cheap to start with, and offered to re-draw any drawing people didn't like.  A lot of people will tell you, "Don't lower your price, your art is worth much more than that."  Those people don't actually sell art.  They may make a lot of it, and show it off on Instagram and Facebook, but they don't sell much.  Let people get a cool piece of your work for a reasonable price, and make sure they're happy with it.  My first few drawings I sold were 12" X 18," they took me 8 to 12 hours to draw, and I sold them for $20-$25.  The key word there is, I SOLD them.

Then I sold a bunch of 18" X 24" drawings, that took me 18 to 22 hours to draw, for $40 to $50 each.  Again, I SOLD them.  I got better at my craft, my drawings improved, and I raised my prices to $75 each, then to $100 each, then to the $120-$160 range.  I always offered to re-do the drawings if people weren't satisfied.  I never really want to re-draw anything, but I do want people to be happy with my work.  These days, after thousands of hours of drawing, that's not really an issue.  Guess what, not one person who bought a $50 drawing is bummed that my drawings later sold for $150.  I'm now at the point where I'm raising the prices to $350.  I'd rather not sell the original and sell prints at this point, anyhow.

5.  I started a Go Fund Me campaign early on, the idea was to earn raise $1,000 quickly so I would have money to make prints to sell.  I didn't just ask for donations, I did drawings for everyone who pledged money.  In reality, I did raise the $1,000, but I did it drawing by drawing over four months time.  The Go Fund Me campaign just became an easy way to order and pay for my drawings online.  The $1,000 goal encouraged people to help me out and order a drawing.  It also allowed me to draw every single day for four months straight, and get into the rhythm of being an actual working artist.  By the time I reached my goal, I got set up on Paypal, and just kept taking orders online.

6.  Moved to a city that had a decent art scene in North Carolina, though I couldn't afford any place to live.  I wound up living in a tent in the woods, which I definitely DON'T recommend, and scraped by.  Some guys who saw me drawing one day suggested I show my work to a local record shop, which I did.  They liked it, and I wound up doing a small art show there.  That shop, a really cool one, was Earshot Music, and Phred, the owner used my Kurt Cobain drawing for the online flyer (above).  Only a handful of people came to the show, but one was an artist and collector from the 1980's New York City art scene.  He bought the Cobain drawing the day before the show, and wound up buying three more drawings form me.  I also sold about 10 more drawings through the record shop, most to one couple.  That just shows the power of getting artwork out where people can see it. 

I also found one studio/gallery owner who really liked my work in the downtown art scene there, and she sold a few more.  I wound up having trouble getting paid for some of my work there, so that relationship wound up bittersweet.  She promoted my work a lot, but also had trouble paying me sometimes because her cash flow issues.  That's another risk of this that you just have to deal with as things happen. 

7.  When I moved into the tent in the woods, I had several blogs going.  I brought them all into one single personal blog, Steve Emig: The White Bear.  Though three of my blogs drew good sized followings over the seven years before that, I wasn't sure anyone would read a blog about old school BMX freestyle stories, Sharpie artwork, and my thoughts on the future and the economy.  But that blog just had its two year anniversary, and has 76,000 page views in two years.  My blog readers are where most of the early buyers of my artwork came from, and where I still keep getting some art sales from.  I highly recommend a blog, or for most people these days, a Vlog, to promote your artwork, in addition to Instagram, Facebook, and whatever other social media you're using. 

8.  I used Pinterest to help build my web presence for my artwork, and I found one good hashtag to use all the time, #sharpiescribblestyle.  I use other hashtags, particularly on Instagram, which I'm not very psyched on, to be honest.  But Instagran has a huge reach, and can definitely get you followers, and maybe sales.  Use the social media platforms most that you actually like most.  Nearly all my online sales I've done have been handled on Facebook from people who read my blog.  But I took the time to make sure that is you look up #sharpiescribblestyle on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or Google images, you'll see A LOT of my drawings.  That just took work, day after day, of actually taking the time to put stuff on each platform, with tags and hashtags, day after day. 

Like I said, I did this while living much lower, and with less resources, than most all of you reading this will ever have to deal with.  I'll go into more depth on these ideas in this blog as time goes by.  But these 8 ideas above are the basics of how I sold over 80 major pieces of art, while homeless most of the time, in the last 3 1/2 years.  Hopefully soon I'll be able to finally get to a place where I can turn this writing and art into an actual, stable living.  I've had a lot of headwinds holding me back at times, but I've had a lot of people help me out, as well, at key moments. 

My battery's going dead, no place to charge at the moment, so I'm going to post this and proffread it when I can.  Sorry for any typos at the moment...

A few of my best Sharpie Scribble Style drawings

 Out of the 100 or so drawings I've done in the last three years, these are a few of my best.  "Tainted Love/Harley Quinn" I last saw hanging in The Mix Gallery in Richmond, Virginia's arts district on Broad.  I left Richmond about six weeks ago, and with help from a friend, made it back out to Southern California.  I sold this drawing cheap, to get a motel room, after spending a week in the hospital from a severe medicine allergic reaction.  I was homeless and just needed another night to recover, I didn't really want to sell it.  This my personal favorite drawing, it's one I did to hang on my own wall, someday.  I drew it while living in a tent, for a day when I eventually worked my way out of homelessness, and actually had a wall. 

 "Biggie Smalls" is another one that turned out really well, and sold immediately, for $120, I think.  Yes, these drawings are all done with Sharpie markers.  I blow up a photo I like on a copy machine, and tape the big pieces together to get a large version of the image.  Usually I put on the music or a documentary about who I am drawing, to get their vibe and story, and I shade the entire back of the large copy with pencil.  Then I position it over my actual drawing paper, tape it down with masking tape, and go over the basic outline with a pencil.  It's called a graphite transfer, when I go over the front of the photo copy, the pencil dust on the back leaves faint lines.  That's a technique I leanred in grade school, I think.  I transfer the basic outline, and where the main shadows are.  So yes, I cheat.  People who aren't artists, when I would tell them this, usually say, "Oh, you just trace it."  Actual working artists, then they see my faint penciling of the image would say, "That's not cheating, lots of artists trasnfer images in some way."  Mostly they'd say that, because they couldn't even figure out who it was a picture of.  I outline the shadows as much as the actual outline of the image in the photo, so it looks weird, and even I have trouble figuring out what line is what sometimes.

 Then I take a normal size, fine point, black Sharpie, and outline whatever I can.  Some outlines I end up doing with ultra fine points, or just with shading, if it's too subtle for a heavy black line.  Then I start the shading process.  In my drawings, every single color is actually 3 to 8 colors of Sharpie, ultra fine point scribbles, layered over each other.  I started playing with markers in 2002, came up with my "scribble style" shading in 2005, and kept working on and refining it for another ten years, before I started doing these drawings.

 Almost every area of the drawing starts with either lime green scribbles, yellow, or pastel orange.  I start with a color close to opposite of what the final color will be.  I may do half the drawing in lime green scribbles, to start.  But some will be tight scribbles, some will be medium density scribbles, and some will be wide, spread out scribbles, depending on what's needed to wind up at the final color necessary.  I do one pass of each color, at the density needed.  So my drawing will look mostly lime green for a while.  Then green-yellow, then orange.  I usually color in several large areas, that will end up being completely different colors, at the same time.  So during the drawing, they all look pretty much the same, until the last one or two colors are scribbled on top .

 Once I have the large areas at close to their final color, I start working on the smaller and more detailed areas.  After the original pencil sketch, it's all in ink, and I simply try to mess up as little as possible.  I almost always to the face last, so if I fuck that up, then I spent 30 or 40 or more hours drawing for nothing.  I like the bit of added pressure that gives.  Once I have the detailed areas colored.  Then I go back and blend the transition areas of the drawing.  My drawings can look like they're done, and I'll sit down and put 4 or 5 more hours in, getting the details the best I can.  Since it's ink, if I don't stop at the right time, I'll over-do it, which does happen. 

Unlike paint, I can't go over a whole color, or start again.  I get one shot at each layer of color, in each part of the drawing.  I do use one or two small dabs of white-out on every second or third drawing, usually no bigger than a pencil eraser.  That happens when I draw a black line where it should be, usually.  Then I'll draw 5 or 6 layers over the dab of white-out, to fix it.  I screw up something, actually several little things, in every drawing.  The trick is to make them blend in, so no one else notices the fuck-ups.  When I look at my drawings, that's what I see, the mistakes that I should do better next time. 

These drawings, on average, take 35-45 hours each, for an 18" X 24" picture.  The Beatles drawing (on my personal blog here), took about 55 hours, that's the record so far.  I've done around 100 drawings since I got serious and started doing these for money in late November of 2015.  I've sold at least 81 drawings in the three years since, most for $120 to $160.  A handful have sold in galleries for $250.  Several of the early drawings I sold for $40 or $50.  I sold them "cheap" because I was homeless most of the time I was drawing these, and I'd work a week, make $120, and live off that while I drew the next one.  I was living in a tent in the woods, drawing at libraries or McDonald's, when I drew most of these.  To see more of my work, search #sharpiescribblestyle anywhere, my stuff's all over the internet and social media.

My best and worst storage unit auction buy

I was hoping I could find a video of a Sleekcraft by Nescher 23 foot jet boat, like the one I bought at a storage unit auction in Huntington Beach in 2007.  This not only looks like the one I bought, this looks like the very same boat.  It's that close.  The exterior seats had some tears, but were in a lot better shape, but otherwise, this looks identical.  I looked at the timing of this video.  This, possibly, could be the exact boat I boat I bought, it looks that close.  Crazy

From 2003 to to 2007, I got stuck in the the taxi business.  I came out of full homelessness in 2003, got my driver's license straightened out, got my taxi permit again, and went from being a guy living in the bushes and working in a restaurant at a mall, to a taxi driver working 7 days a week and sleeping my cab.  I planned to save up for 4 or 5 months, and then rent a room in a decent apartment and get back on track. 

Unfortunately, a month after I got going again, the taxi company took out the old CB radios we used to communicate, and put in the new dispatch computers.  I had just got back in the swing of things, I figured out which nightclubs were best which nights, and was making about $400 week for two weeks straight.  Then, literally from one day to the next, our business dropped to almost nothing, because of the new technology.  I struggled, like every other driver, to pay $550 or 600 every week for my taxi, and pay another $300 a week in gas.  All I had after that was food money for quite a while.  12 hour days turned to 14, then 16, then 17 or 18 hours, six days a week, and only 8 or 9 hours on my "day off."  I got a cheap motel room one night a week, bought a pizza, watched a little TV, then slept for 12 hours straight and did it all over. 

I made a little extra money buying storage units at auctions, and reselling the stuff, but not enough to leave the taxi business.  By June of 2007, I was burned out, I was having serious health issues, and looking for an escape from the taxi business.  One day there was an auction at the place where I had my storage unit in Huntington Beach, California.  I parked my cab, and joined the other 15 people walking around to bid on units. 

In the parking area right below my second floor unit, was a boat, one full of clothes and random junk, that I'd walked by many times.  It was a big, weathered jet boat, with a little cabin area inside, under the piles of junk.  The boat was up for auction that day.  Bidding started at $5, and a homeless man, who I knew spent his days in a storage unit in that complex, and made a little money helping people move, bid $5.  Someone else bid $10.  $10 on a 20 foot + boat, sitting on a double axle trailer, with weather and time flattened tires.  It looked to be in decent condition, in a sea worthy sense, it just needed work to clean it up and probably get it running.  I couldn't fucking believe it, without thinking, I said, "C'mon people, it's a BOAT."  I bid $15.  The homeless guy bid $20.  I bid $25.  One of the guys standing there, not bidding, said, "The trailer alone is worth $1,000."  Another guy jumped in, and we bid back and forth, and I wound up buying the old boat for $95. 

Over the next few days, I took some photos, did some research, and tried to find someone who would buy it for $500 or $1,000, just for trailer.  I learned it was a 1978, 23 foot, Sleekcraft by Nescher, made by the premiere jet boat maker in the 1970's His company was later purchased by AMF sporting goods, and 2 or 3 years after that they split again.  The boat had an inboard Oldsmobile 455 engine, I didn't know if it worked.  There didn't seem to be any oil leaks, it just looked weathered.  My research showed that for $95, I bought a $22,000 boat and trailer that needed about $2,000 to $4,000 of work to get it back on the water, even if the engine needed to be rebuilt.  It would take another $3,000 or so to completely re-cover the seats and stuff.  By the time I figured that out, it was the beginning of July, 2007. 

The taxi business in Orange County sucked 9 months out of the year, but the summers were decent.  Working my standard 80-100 hours a week, I could make $350 to $400 a week in June and July, and maybe a bit more.  I spent a lot on food, but not much else.  In August, the best month, I could usually make $600 to $700 a week in my pocket.  With this info in mind, I formulated my plan. 

I paid $200 to rent the parking spot where the boat was parked, right outside my own storage unit.  I cleaned all the junk out of the boat, mostly clothes and random junk that people who were moving from units had dumped in it.  I cleaned the whole boat, and took some Armour All to the seats.  I used gaffer's tape to cover the rips in the seat for the time being.  It was a fucking cool boat, capable of over 60 mph, once running, and carrying 6 or 8 people.  I was happy with my purchase.

 I paid another $200 for the parking space in August, planning to pump of the tires, and find an friend in the desert somewhere who'd let me park it cheap, while I had a mechanic go over the engine, and a boat expert get everything else up and running, while I drove the cab all day.  My plan was to get it water ready, maybe take it out once of twice, and then put it up for sale for $16,000 to $18,000, and come down to maybe $12,000 to $14,000 for a quick sale.  That would be enough to get me away from taxi driving, and start doing the storage auction thing full time.  I thought I was finally about to escape the miserable life that taxi driving had become.  I actually liked driving a taxi, but the dispatch computers killed the industry, and worked us all into the ground, even before Uber and Lyft entered the picture. 

But business didn't pick up, in fact, August 2007 kinda sucked.  The only month a year I made decent money fizzled in to $300 weeks.  As it turned out, the first inklings of trouble in the stock market, what would eventually become the Great Recession, hit investors in August 2007, and apparently a lot of people I drove were day traders, or took a quit hit in their investments, and partying at the local bars and clubs dropped off dramatically.  So I never made enough to get the boat repaired.  I didn't have the contacts to find a partner to work with, and get it done.  I was working 80-100 hours a week, I didn't have time to mess with it.  I had to put those hours in just to survive as a taxi driver then. 

I went into the office of my storage place, I knew the lady there well, and told her the story.  She now knew it was a $22,000 boat sitting out there, if fully fixed up.  Rather than not pay the parking space rent for three months, she said I could sign the boat over to her, and she'd find a buyer, and get her parking space back.  So I did that.  The boat, MY $95 jet boat, was gone in a week.  So my biggest opportunity I ever bought while buying storage unit auctions ended up costing me $495.  That was the only time I ever lost money buying a storage unit at auction. 

Gary Vaynerchuk's Trash Talk #5

It's spring time, and that means entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk is driving around New Jersey harassing deer, and snapping up garage sale deals on coffee mugs, stuffed animals, collectible toys, and whatever else looks flippable.  And you knew it was coming, limited edition Mug Life T-shirts are out.  #muglife.  Entertaining, informative, and inspiring, like usual. 

How my friend had a $1200 garage sale every year

I just picked a random garage sale picking video for this post.  But this couple scores some good finds here. I just needed a garage sale video to catch your attetnion.

In the mid 1990's I burned out, after spending five summers as a TV show crew guy on shows like American Gladiators.  It was pretty fun to work on, but I was sick of working on other people's goofy TV show ideas.  I wanted to work on my own ideas, but didn't have what it took to sell an idea and make it happen.  I went back to Huntington Beach, and wound up working as a furniture mover for a local company called Happy Movers.  Yeah, every freakin' morning we'd pull up in a big truck that said Happy Movers, and a woman would ask, "Are you guys happy?"  We'd say, "No ma'am, we're movers, it's an oxymoron."  Moving other people's furniture and crap is a hot, brutal, hard, torturous job.  I was without a strong direction at that point, so I just rolled with it.

Since we did mostly local moves, in and around Orange County, California, we had one big tractor trailer, and 7 or 8 bobtails, also known as box vans.  Our Class A, tractor trailer driver was a skinny guy, with longish rocker hair.  He was a really cool guy to work with, had a great sense of humor, and amazingly strong for how skinny he was.  It was Dan who showed me how he managed to have a $1200, one day garage sale every single year.  That one garage sale paid his and his wife's rent one month each year.

Here's how he did it.  When we would show up to move people's houses or apartments, people were stressed.  It's a big day for most people.  Suddenly people realize just how much junk they have, because they have to pack it all, we'd move it, and they they'd have to unpack it all, and reorganize in another house or apartment.  Since we moved at least one house, and sometimes two or three in a day (really, 3 a day), we ran into a lot of people who had stuff they just wanted to get rid of.  Sometimes they'd have us haul some junk to the dumpster for them.  Or maybe set it on the curb.  But often, people would say, "Can you guys get rid of this old washing machine for us?"  Since I lived in a small apartment, I usually turned it down.  But Dan and his wife rented a three bedroom house with a two car garage.  Dan would just put all those giveaway items against one wall, and leave them on the truck when he and his crew unloaded.  On the way back to our office, he'd stop by his house, unload the washer, refrigerator, end tables, or whatever people gave him.  If the wife liked it, it might wind up in the house.  But most of the stuff he just packed into the garage.

Then, at least once a year, they'd have a big garage sale.  He'd have four washing machines, five dryers, usually working.  He'd have two or three fridges.  He'd have 20 or 30 cabinets, coffee tables, end tables, and chairs.  He'd also have boxes of random little items he'd been given, everything from dozens of ballpoint pens to dishes, to knick knacks, antiques, and toasters.  Dan said the annual garage sale always brought in over $1100, usually it was in the $1200 to $1300 range.  This was back in the '96-'97.  Their rent was a little under $1200 a month, and so the sale paid a month's rent each year.  And everything they sold they got FOR FREE.

OK, most of you are not furniture movers.  But many of you reading this may be pickers and flippers.  So here's where you can profit form this idea.  First, if you want to find deals on furniture and appliances, contact your local furniture movers.  They get free stuff all the freakin' time, like Dan and I did.  Most movers just want some extra cash, they don't want to store stuff  like Dan.  Have them call you when they get a piece of furniture or something that's decent.  Meet up, they may even deliver it, and offer them an amount that will pay for their time and effort.  Movers will often sell a $200 piece of furniture,that they got for free, for $40 that day.  It's very little work, and like a tip for them.

A word of caution, DO NOT buy electronics, tools, jewelry or video games and small items from movers, there are a lot of thieves in that business, and you don't want to be buying stolen property.  Or, you can give movers you number, and have them call you when their cutomers are giving stuff away, and you met them on site, and maybe pay them $20 for the phone call.  Most movers would be down for that.

The other way to use this idea is if you're a picker, someone who buys stuff at thrift stores, auctions, garage sales or where ever, you wind up with a lot of low end items.  If you have the space, just store those items somewhere.  Put them aside for a few months, until there's a lot of that stuff.  Then have your own garage sale, or take the stuff to a flea market or swap meet.  You might be surprised with what you earn for the "leftover junk."

Back in 2006, I was trying to get away from the downward spiral of the taxi business.  But I was homeless and living in my taxi, working 80+ hours a week in the cab to survive.  I stumbled into buying units at storage unit auctions.  I rented a big 10' by 30' unit as my "warehouse," and I startee buying units, and selling the higher end items.  That left me with a lot of junk.  Garage sale type stuff.  So I had my own storage unit half full of random junk.  This was before storage unit auctions ever appeared on TV.  Things sold for much more reasonable prices back then.  In effect, I had collected the random stuff, like Dan the mover did.

One day, there was a storage unit auction at the place where my unit was.  About 12 buyer were there, but there were only two units were up for sale.  After the those two units were auctioned off, the buyers were disappointed.  I spoke up, "Hey everybody, I have a bunch of stuff in my personal unit I need to sell, anyone who wants, follow me, and I'll auction that stuff off.  Here's the thing, I had already sold enough from my buys to make money from the stuff I'd bought.  Everything I was auctioning off had been paid for, it was all free to me.  Mostly I just wanted to get rid of it.  So everyone checked the stuff out, and I auctioned it off myself.  I wound up getting $250 for my "leftover junk."  And it all got cleaned out that day.  That's about what I was making for 80 hours of taxi driving at the time.  I was happy to put $250 cash in my pocket for stuff I just wanted to get rid of. 

Gary Vaynerchuk's Trash Talk #4

Gary Vaynerchuk, known for taking his family's liquor store from $3 million a year to $60 million a year with Google Adwords and a YouTube wine tasting channel.  Now he runs a $200 million digital agency, VaynerMedia.  He puts out a ton of content, and gives keynote speeches around the world, telling big business types they need to realize nobody watches TV commercials anymore. 

After a winter hiatus, Gary hits the spring 2019 New Jersey garage sale season, the first Trash Talk of this year, and scores big on Nerf guns, a vintage Jets jacket, some Zelda games, and more.  Yeah, he cusses a lot, but he makes some great finds. 

Gary Vaynerchuk's Trash Talk #3

Here's episode #3 of Trash Talk from multi-millionaire digital agency owner, Gary Vaynerchuk, and posse.  Stuffed animals (OK, "plush toys," that name just sounds so dumb to me) vintage coffee mugs, and Thomas the Train toys are some of the key finds this episode.  Gary goes back to his hustling roots in Jersey, bargaining for deals at garage sales, then reselling the stuff on Ebay for bigger bucks.  He's funny, entertaining, and he wants to show everyone who needs a side hustle how he did it back in the day. 

Wheelin' and dealin' is now "Flipping"- and it's still fun and profitable

 The toys above are half of a thrift store purchase that cost me $1.90 in Richmond, Virginia, at the Goodwill Outlet store, last fall.  Dumbo was from about 1975-1980, and sells for $12 or so on Ebay.  I paid about 20 cents.  Ernie was from 1980-85, and was selling for $6-$8 then.  Since I was homeless at the time, Ebay was difficult, without an address, a bank account, and a place to store these things.  I tried to sell them locally, on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, But had no takers.  I ended up giving them away.  Yes, I lost my $2 that time.  But the deals are out there, that's the point.

 Wheelin' and Dealin'
I'm a kid of the 1970's, my dad was what people called a "packrat" back then, what's called a "collector" on American Pickers, and what some people a hoarder now.  We didn't have the crazy hoarder houses you see on TV shows.  Even though we moved nearly every year our basements and garages were full of shelving units, boxes, and cabinets, all piled with pieces of machines, tools, gun parts, motorcycle parts, and random mechanical things, that my dad intended to fix or build, "some day."  Most of this stuff he either traded a friend for, or picked up at garage sales and gun shows.  So I tagged along with him, learning the fine art of "wheelin' and dealin' as people called it then.

Buying and selling was a hobby for my dad, and for most people into garage sales, back then.  The factories in Ohio, where we lived, and the whole country, were booming.  Most people made solid, Middle Class incomes, and making a living off of garage sales wasn't necessary.  But my dad nearly always made a little bit of money on his deals.  When my mom was a little short for food money or whatever, my dad would always tell her he'd try to "borrow $5 or $10" from somebody at work.  It wasn't until I was 14 that my dad told me all that "borrowed" money came from his gun money, well over $2,000, a few dollars at a time. 

Though my dad hated violence, he was an avid target shooter and gun owner.  Once I was about 8, he'd take me to gun shows, where he'd buy and sell guns, gun parts, reloading supplies, military surplus stuff, and whatever seemed interesting.  He taught me to walk the whole show, see what was there, and scout out what seemed like good deals.  He taught me to talk casually to people who had something he wanted to buy, and not seem to eager.  He taught me to walk away when they wouldn't come down to the price he wanted to pay.  That walking away, in a polite and friendly way, often was the trick that got the price to a decent level.  He also taught me to bundle a few things together at times, or add something in trade to sweeten a deal.

My favorite deal I saw him do was when friend, a guy from work, another avid gun owner, had a little suitcase with 30,000 pro gun bumper stickers.  Yes, I know a ton of people are anti-gun now, because of all the horrible mass shootings.  Those are terrible tragedies, and there is no easy answer to solve that issue.  But those incidents were rare when I was a kid, and target shooting was a common recreational sport, and many people in Ohio hunted as well. 

In any case, my dad paid $30 for the case of 30,000 bumper stickers when I was about 5 or 6 years old.  That's 1/10th of a cent each.  There were 6 different bumper stickers, and he had 5,000 of each.  For the next ten years, I watched my dad sell those stickers for $1 each, 1,000 times what he paid for each one.  I watched him add a few stickers to a deal to sweeten the pot.  He didn't try hard.  Bumper stickers were a natural trading item at gun shows.  Ultimately, my dad made well over $300 cash for his $30 investment, and got another $300 to $500 in trade, maybe more.  Then, with my mom sick of seeing that little case in the basement, he sold the case, and the 20,000 or so remaining stickers, to another guy, for $30.  Watching him milk that $30 investment for a decade, in my childhood, was a great lesson.

In today's world, the high paying factory jobs are mostly gone.  Tens of millions of people are struggling.  More important, we have the internet, computers, and smart phones, which offer a whole bunch of new ways to both buy an sell things, to a much, much wider audience.  Flipping, as wheelin' and dealin' is now called, and retail arbitrage (buying consumer goods at one store and selling somewhere else), is a huge industry.  Ebay, Amazon resellers, online stores, and all the other web platforms  and apps, have tens of millions of items, new and used, that people are buying cheap and reselling somewhere else. 

My own main experience in this was mostly from buying units at storage unit auctions, which I discovered accidentally in about 2005.  I tried to turn this into a business to escape the downward spiral of the taxi industry, and I did make money consistently.  But I was working 80 + hours a week in the cab, and I didn't make enough to make it a career.  The funny thing is, the Storage Wars TV show started a couple of years later, and Daryl, "The Gambler" on the show, is from Huntington Beach, where I lived, and he was at the first storage auction I ever went to .

This is a Snoopy/Peanuts colorform set, where you have the little, rubber, flat people inside, and you stick them on the background scene in some way.  This version, with the circle seal in the lower right corner, is the 35th anniversary remake of the original set.  I bought this for about 20 cents (paid by the pound) at a Goodwill outlet store.  These sell for $9-$10 on Ebay, and the 1972 originals sell for about $20.

I'll go into more detail in future posts on flipping ideas.  But here are some places you can buy items to flip: garage sales, thrift stores, auctions of all kinds, online auctions, Craigslist, and Chinese distributors like Alli Express.  

Here's where you can sell these items at a higher price (hopefully)- Ebay, a Shopify or other online store, your personal website, Facebook Marketplace, Let Go, Wallapop, the local flea market or swap meet, or Craigslist.  

You get the idea.  For more ideas on how to make some extra cash, or how to help get your own small business going, check out WPOS Kreative on Pinterest. 

Gary Vaynerchuk's Trash Talk #2

Mug life bitches!  No that's not a typo... MUG, not THUG.  America's favorite garage sale hunting multi-millionaire hits the driveways and garages of New Jersey on a rainy Saturday last fall (2018).  He finds the cheap coffee mugs, he scores big with Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars, stuffed animals ("plush toys" these days), and lands a huge collection of collectible Olympic pins.  All told, his $75 in garage sale finds turns into about a grand on Ebay.  Why does a guy who owns a $150 million a year digital agency do this?  To prove to everyone out there that hustling can make virtually anyone some cash.  He's a hustler from childhood.  #fliplife #garyvee Check out his content, it's everywhere.  Gary's entertaining, and gives you ideas on how to make some cash when you're starting out. 

Check out WPOS Kreative on Pinterest for more ideas on making money and building a small business in today's crazy world.

Gary Vaynerchuk's Trash Talk #1

First of all, Gary Vayherchuk cusses a lot, or curses, as he says.  If that bothers you, don't watch this.

Why would a guy with a $150 million digital agency get filmed going to garage sales, and trying to get 50 cents off of a $1  coffee mug?  Some people would say hype or image.  Seriously, I consume a lot of his content.  He likes, maybe straight up loves, doing this shit.  He talks about it all the time in other videos, behind the scenes, business consulting sessions, and even keynote speeches.  Gary's entertaining, and this series of videos shows you something pretty much anyone can do to earn some extra money.  If you go really hardcore into it, you can make a living doing this type of thing. 

I've done this, at a small level, since taking a Magic Rub eraser my dad gave me (he got them free at work as a draftsman), cutting it into 8 little pieces, and selling each one for a dime.  That was in 2nd grade in Massillon, Ohio.  My dad was loved "wheeling and dealing," as we called it when I was a kid in the 70's, and I got the bug from him.  I've never done it full time, but I've made some money through my life doing "flipping," as it's now called.  I love these videos, as entertainment, inspiration, and as a money making how-to.  Maybe you will, too.  If you don't know, check out Gary's content, it's everywhere, @garyvee.  This is his first installment of Trash Talk, from last fall (2018).

Check out WPOS Kreative on Pinterest, or hit me up (Steve Emig, Lancaster, CA) on Facebook, and ask to join the WPOS Kreative FB group. 

19 Ways to LEGALLY put Cash in your Pocket TODAY

So... you're in a bind, this thing happened, that money didn't come through, money is stuck in some account you can't access because it's on hold or something.  You just need a little money in your pocket, wallet, bra, or on your card, TODAY!  What do you do?

Nearly everyone gets into this situation at some point.  Crazy ideas may pop into your mind.  You think about selling a kidney, but that sounds really painful, and you don't have a black market organ donor in your Snapchat contacts.  You could put Grandma on the corner to turn tricks.  She's got dementia, she wouldn't remember, anyhow.  But that's mean... and she was the Grandma that always made you cinnamon toast as a kid, you don't want to do that to her.  You could start selling crack, but, let's face it, you're not as street as you pretend to be when you sing along to old gangsta rap songs, and Biggie and Tupac got shot.  You don't want that.  You need a LEGIT way to put a little bit of cash in your pocket TODAY.

Here are some real ideas...

1. Get cash a advance on your credit card.  Yes, you have to pay it back, it's a loan, usually with hefty interest.  But it might be necessary of you're really in a bind.
2. Draw money out of a line of credit you already have set up.  Again, this is actually a loan, and you have to pay it back, with interest.  But it can help in tough times.
3. Go to your bank, talk to the manager, and ask for a line of credit that you can draw on today.  If you've been banking there a while, and are in good standing, it's likely you may qualify for a line of credit.  Again, this is a loan, and you have to pay it back, with interest, over time.
4. Sell something you have laying around to a friend, family member, or neighbor.
5. Sell something you have laying around on Craigslist.  Yes, we've all heard bad stories about Craigslist.  But those are rare.  Use your head, take a friend to the meet up, meet in a public place that has video.  You can even meet in front of the local police station.  Be safe, but it works.  I've done this many times myself.
6. Sell something you have laying around on an app like Let Go, Wallapop, or a similar apps.  Same thing, be safe, you know the drill
7. Cash in a jar of change you have.  Coinstar machines take a HUGE cut, nearly 12%, but they're convenient.  There are similar machines, with no fee, at most bank offices now, and the money goes right into your account.  If you roll up coins, old school style, you may be able to sell them to a local store.  Hint:  If you actually use money, like real, old fashioned paper money, to buy things on a regular basis, take the change left over and put it in a jar somewhere.  We tend to forget about these things, until we really need them.  See that change in the photo above?  Guess where it came from.  That's right, my "change for a rainy (or broke) day" jar.
8. Cash in recyclables.  Here in California, these add up pretty quick.  Most other states they don't have the same deposit they do here, but aluminum cans are always worth a little.
9. Pawn something of value (power tools, jewelry, musical instruments, guns, bicycles, your kid sister, etc.) at a pawn shop.  Pawning something is a way of getting a short term loan.  The pawn shop gives you a tiny loan, usually about 10% of the resale value, for an item, and you pay them back with a little bit of interest, usually in 30-60-90 days.  See all that stuff sitting in the pawn shop, that's mostly stuff people pawned and never picked up.  Don't be one of those people. 
10. Sell something at a pawn shop.  Pawn shops buy stuff, too.  They'll pay you a low price for it, but it's cash in your hand on the spot.  In tough times, it can be worth it, especially if the item is something you don't use anymore.
11. Have a garage, yard, or inside sale.  This takes a bit of planning the night before, and you can post your sale online, and make actual signs to hang up, directing people to your sale.  This, obviously, is mostly a weekend thing.  An "inside sale" is a garage-type sale when you live in an apartment.  Direct people to your door, and set stuff up in your living room or kitchen.  This has some risks, but in a decent neighborhood, with friends there to help you keep an eye on things, can be done safely. 
12. Sell plasma.  Plasma is basically the fluid in your blood.  It's almost the same as giving blood, except that you're hooked up to a machine for 45 minutes or so.  If you don't like needles, this isn't for you.  There are basic health criteria you have to meet.  If you have a recent tattoo, have been in jail in the last 30 days, are homeless, or have spent lots of time in foreign countries, you probably won't qualify.  This can be done twice a week, generally, and you get around $20 the first time, and $40 or so the next time.  Drink lots of water the day before, and get to the place an hour before it opens, and get in line.  Yes, I've done this before.  It's not bad, actually, if you have the time.
13. Sell jewelry, gold, or silver coins to one of those "Cash for gold" places.
14. Sell jewelry, gold, or silver coins to a local jeweler.
15. Sell an old cell phone in one of those "Cash for phones" machines.  I've seen these most in Walmart entry ways.  I've never done it, but it's another possibility.
16. Sell vinyl record albums, CD's or DVD's to an old school record shop.  This isn't near as big a thing as it once was, but there are still record shops in most large cities that will pay cash for good music.
17. Sell old CD's and DVD's to a pawn shop.  You won't get much, but it is possible.
18. Do some kind of small job for someone.  It could be a friend, family member, someone in your dorm, or whomever.  Clean out the garage, walk the dog, clean up the dog poop in the yard, paint their kitchen, whatever.  You get the idea.
19.  Drive around your area, check the curbs, the dumpsters at local apartment buildings, and pick up the things people are giving/throwing away.  Then sell those things on Craigslist, Let Go, or similar place.  Curb giveaways, and dumpster giveaways.  You'd be surprised what people give away.  True story, I actually found an antique, oak dining table, handmade in France in the 1870's or so, by the dumpster at my storage unit.  This was in 2006 or so.  It was in two pieces, and needed work, but was really high quality.  So I put it in my storage unit, and I took  some photos of it, and took them to 5 or 6 antique shops.  One shop paid me $150 cash for the table, about 4 days later.  If I would have spent $1,000 getting the table repaired and refinished, I could have sold it for $5,000 to $8,000, on consignment, in a few months.  That's how good of a table it was.  But I didn't have a grand to drop repairing it.  There are some really amazing things being given away.  People give old pianos away all the time on Craigslist.  They need work, and they're hard to move, but there's money to be made for the right person.
20. Go to the Craigslist section called "Free," and find something that has a little value that someone is giving away.  Go pick up that item, then sell the item on another site or platform, like Facebook Marketplace, or LetGo.  Yes, Gary Vaynerchuk made this idea famous a couple years ago.  But it's a variation of the idea above, which I actually did before I ever heard of Gary Vee.  His content rocks, by the way.  Check it out.
21. Babysit for someone.  
22. Panhandle.  This is for the really desperate people out there.  Get a piece of cardboard and a marker.  Write "down and out," "homeless," "just lazy" or whatever applies on it. Then go to a local freeway off ramp, or urban street corner, look pathetic, and stand there until someone gives you a little money.  I've been homeless where I had to do this to survive.  People panhandle because a small percentage of strangers will give you a little money (or food) to help you out.  ONLY do this if you are homeless or truly in need.  I'm talking to you, you young hippies who travel this way because you don't want to get a job.  You can get a real job, but many people can't.  Always be polite when panhandling, and always say "Thank you."  When you get back on our feet, give to someone else in need.  Keep the circle going.

Check out WPOS Kreative on Pinterest for more ideas on building a small business and to see my Sharpie art, #sharpiescribblestyle