Side Hustle is quite the buzz word these days. Everything from gig jobs like Uber and Grub Hub to selling on Ebay or Etsy can be a side hustle, as well as freelancing, contracting, or owning your own business. I’d love to get some feedback from the audience and see what your side hustles were/are. Also, if you’re looking for a great place to gain knowledge about side hustles, check out https://www.sidehustlenation.com/blog/ . This is a great resource for all things side hustle. Now, for a little bit of my history.
When I was in third grade my family moved. Shortly after the move, we had a yard sale. I was always interested in sports and collectibles, and had a decent sports card collection for a kid. I decided to set up a little table at our yard sale and see if I could make a few bucks to buy a Nintendo game or two. I took my time picking out some good cards, making sure they were in sleeves and in good shape, tagging them with asking prices, and then sat outside with them for 2 days waiting for anyone who might be interested. I only had a couple of interested parties, but one man in short jean shorts and aviator sun glasses bought several (that should give you an idea of the year…) I got the NES game I was after, and quickly learned that I wasn’t half bad at sorting and selling things.
My grandmother came to our house every day and watched my sister and I all through our school years. She was a fantastic cook, grew up on a farm, and loved teaching us all that she knew. I took it a step further and coerced her into helping me make baked goods that we could sell. We came up with pricing baked on ingredient prices and profit margin, and created a menu. I passed it out all over the place, but one place it stuck was the hair salon my parents used. The owner of the shop had my menu up on the wall, and a lot of older clients would place an order once a week for cookies, bread, and other baked goods. I would bake everything Thursday or Friday, and deliver it Friday or Saturday, with my grandma’s help. We made a lot of money for the little business we were running! Eventually I just got tired of baking, and gave this one up.
In middle school I went back to sports cards. I had a few binders and a carrying case that I always had with me, and at lunch I’d have my cards on display. Other kids and teachers alike would come by and take a look. I had two teachers that were regular customers! I would take the money they paid and go get new cards, packs, etc from the local card shop that was within walking distance of my house. I would then add them to inventory and display what I believed I could sell, then the cycle would repeat. I had a few players that I personally liked and would look for. Some other kids would bring their cards in trying to imitate me, or trade with me, but they were always less organized and less successful. Once I traded a few cards for a kids entire collection he had brought because he valued a few players that I had more than all of the cards in his binder. He was wrong about the value, but sports tend to get people emotionally invested, and can easily cloud the monetary value. I quit taking them to school when I pulled a Shaq rookie card from a pack that wasn’t in the price guides yet, but based on what other Shaq rookie cards were going for, the card shop told me it would probably be worth at least $50-$60. I was a big Ken Griffey Jr fan, and one of the teachers at school offered to trade me the Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr rookie card for my new Shaq rookie card. I of course accepted with them being about the same value at the time. Then the price guide prices on the Shaq card came out. Turned out I had swindled one of my favorite teachers! Well, I paid him back slowly with extra lunch money for the difference, and he let me keep the Griffey, but I had lost my interest in selling for the time being.
When I got to be a junior in high school I didn’t take my classes very seriously, but I got a job bagging at Kroger. I still had a side hustle or two as well. Don’t ask me where they got them, but I had friends that could get super cheap cartons of cigarettes, and I kept several in my trunk, selling other kids cigarettes in the school parking lot before and after classes. Fortunately I quit this hustle before any administration caught me!
In my college years I played a lot of Magic: the Gathering. I learned a lot about the cards, and their monetary value as well and began selling some on EBay which had just gotten to be a popular sales platform. Eventually I got really good at this side hustle. I could invest about $500 and sell for a $500-$700 profit using a system I devised, all while keeping some great cards for myself to play with! I did this once or twice a month, and this was a really awesome way to make some cash on the side while I took classes and bounced around between low paying jobs. I sold enough consistently enough that for several months I was considered and EBay Power Seller! I still list this accomplishment on my resume, and have a mousepad to show for it.
Eventually I found online poker. I was again really good at this as a side hustle. I deposited about $200 total on various sites. I had withdrawn several thousand before poker black Friday happened (the justice department closed down the biggest poker sites in the US and banned online poker through a rider on a port bill.) I had several thousand still tied up on one of the sites too, eventually I got some of it back through one of the class action law suits against the site. I continued to make some side cash regularly from poker games, both exclusively with friends, and in larger games where I may know only one or two of the players. I love poker, both in person and online, and I’m very good at it, but I just don’t have the time anymore, and it’s still not legal to play online in Ohio.
I’ve off and on searched for a side hustle since poker, but I’ve started a family and my time is very limited. This is my second blog, and I wouldn’t be upset if one of them took off, but I’m not banking on that. For now I’m still searching for the right thing to make some side cash to throw toward our debt, and eventually toward assets. So please, what’s your side hustle???