I had a realization the other day that when it hit me, it slapped me in the face. I’ve subconsciously known for a long time, I think, but it was one of those out of the blue thoughts while you’re doing something completely different that are so profound, you could call it an epiphany. I had just picked my 3 year old up from preschool, yes she still goes to in person preschool while my other 4 are remote learners this year, and when we pulled in the garage, and I unbuckled her and she ran inside, I was walking in behind her and..
*WHAM*
Slapped me right across the face as I looked at some things of my father’s that I had brought home to sell for him on Facebook Marketplace.
I really enjoy buying, managing inventory, and selling things, especially online, or by myself.
Back in 2004 I bought and sold Magic: the Gathering cards on Ebay, to the point that I was a power seller, while going to college. There were ups and downs, a learning curve, all the things you’d expect trying to manage a new business venture, but I overcame them all and did this for several years. I even went back to it once when in between 9-5 employment. I’ve had a dream to own a gaming store for 20+ years, and while I never quite got to the store front experience, this was very close, and only one game. I’ve imagined what I could do if completely dedicated to it and covering multiple games many times, but never had the start up capital to make it a reality.
I’m a gamer. Have been since my Dad showed me his Atari 2600 when I was about 4yrs old, and then we got a Nintendo in 1986. In my adult life I still enjoy it when I have time, and have on and off played World of Warcraft since launch. I say this because WoW has its own economy. Player’s characters can have professions and make or collect items to sell on an in game auction house for in game money. Now, while this is not lucrative outside of the game, it sure can be inside of it. But, when starting a new character once I have enough to do so, I’ve always been able to build up quite a bit of gold very quickly by finding undervalued items on the auction house, purchasing them, and then reselling them for a more market value price. Sometimes these profits could be very dramatic and in a matter of days I could have a character with plenty of gold to purchase anything they may need in the immediate future.
My most recent job before my current was in IT asset management. I had my own stock room, and managed the ordering and inventory for desktop IT equipment for one large office of a fortune 500 finance business. This consisted of desktop and laptop computers, peripherals, networking equipment, audio/visual equipment, and miscellaneous items that users would request. All of these things were my responsibility from the moment they were requested to the moment they were thrown out or salvaged. I had the stock room to myself with an office in it, and would get visitors throughout the day in the form of desktop technicians or business analysts that needed equipment or information about inventory. This has so far been my favorite W2 employment. If it had paid more, I probably would not have left.
While I was walking in through my garage with my three year old, having just listened to an episode of Afford Anything, I realized that while it may not be what I was put on this earth to do, I am good at buying, maintaining inventory, and selling. But most of all, I enjoy it. I enjoy it as a hobby, and I’ve enjoyed it as a job. There has to be some value there, and I’ll be further exploring that.
I enjoy writing too, hence this blog. This leads to one of the tenants of Credits and Debits, Time. We only have so much of it, and while each day we’re credited a fresh 24 hours with unlimited potential, each thing we choose to do that day debits minutes, or hours of it. If I’m writing the blog, I’m not gaming. If I’m monitoring Ebay for items below market value to resell, I’m not spending time with my family. If I’m working my 9-5 job, I’m not doing any of those other things (in theory. Corona has a way of blurring some of those lines.) The next few months are going to be spent figuring out and working on my time management, so that I can fit in the things that I have to do, and also the things that I want to do.
How do you manage those debits to your time? Any systems that you’d recommend? Any struggles you’d like to share? We all have to decide what we’ll debit our time for.