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I made $100K from a dick joke

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Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#101

Post by cute_boi »

bpye wrote: post #85
snowwrestler wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s astounding how bad FB Marketplace search is, though. For very popular things, it’s fine. For browsing and “huh, that’s interesting,” it’s fine. But if I am looking for something specific, it is an incredible failure. It’s so bad I suspect they intentionally don’t want it to work well. That is, I think they only want to optimize for low-effort social buying, not picky people who know exactly what they want. For t…

It seems to just ignore filters like “date listed” sometimes too. And people will list items at nominal prices and give the actual price in the description. Generally a poor experience.

Was looking for car, and found out they mentioned down payment lolz. FB marketplace is very bad.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#102

Post by lmm »

scrollaway wrote: post #84
tiffanyh wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone shares your rigor to not buying from strangers. Pieter Levels is a one-person show that has started multiple businesses with just a single page & a Stripe Checkout earning millions per year and I don’t believe he’s incorporated. https://x.com/levelsio

A stripe account requires a legal entity of some sort behind it. This can be a "physical person" (eg a freelance activity), depending on the country, but that still requires registration -- and if it's millions per year, it's usually a terrible idea to do it as a freelancer. The money has to go somewhere. That somewhere needs to be banked. That banked entity needs to be incorporated, or treatable as a corporation.

> This can be a "physical person" (eg a freelance activity), depending on the country, but that still requires registration

Not necessarily. Many countries do not require sole proprietors to be registered.

> if it's millions per year, it's usually a terrible idea to do it as a freelancer.

In the US with its liability lawsuit culture yes. Elsewhere operating as a sole proprietor is not always such a terrible idea.

> That banked entity needs to be incorporated, or treatable as a corporation.

It really doesn't.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#104

Post by m463 »

anonu wrote: post #32
oaththrowaway wrote: post #19

I sold a laptop on eBay once long, long ago. Someone did the "Buy it now" option but never paid. I'm trying to remember the exact situation (probably more than 10 years ago), but I had exchanged messages with him several times and he always had an excuse to not pay. Then I noticed he was selling the exact same model of laptop so it was easy for me to realize that he had just "bought" my laptop to remove the listing s…

I cant believe ebay hasnt been disrupted yet...

they actually were disrupted -- craigslist

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#107

Post by Beijinger »

segmondy wrote: post #64
kgilpin wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my kids’ generation (college aged) they all use Facebook Marketplace.

ebay is still useful for obscure stuff. if you want to buy used servers, GPU, electronics, car parts, etc. I don't think ebay and FB MP really overlapped, MP ate craigslist. The closest thing to eating ebay is Aliexpress.

I found ebay more reliable, interesting and smoother than Amazon. Amazon screwed me over for 40 USD now they are nagging that I should sign up for "Prime"

(I ordered a bunch of stuff, maybe 800 USD. They decided the order is fraudulent, and canceled it, without ever telling me. When I moved into my new place, there was nothing. No sheets, no nothing from Amazon. That this order was "canceled" without any email seemed to puzzle Amazon support. They told me in the chat to reorder with fasted shipping, and that they would reimburse the shipping. Of course, they did not. And the chat protocols clearly stating Amazon would reimburse the express shipping were a "misunderstanding".

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#108

Post by bemmu »

dakiol wrote: post #12

Perhaps I missed it, but at what point the author sets an LLC or something similar? For me, that’s the main blocker: in Europe it costs money to start a business, some paperwork and taxes is involved, even if you don’t make a single sale. Also, for selling online you kinda have to show in your website your “business id” (or tax id or similar)… otherwise how do people know you are a legit business? For example, I’m no…

Trying to do things 100% properly isn't necessarily good.

I know it's sort of a difficult shift in mentality especially for anyone with a programming background, but not doing anything at all for fear of doing it incorrectly, or delaying doing the thing because of all the setup seem much higher risks to me.

In my experience, you can just start doing the thing. It probably won't make any money anyway, in which case you can just stop. If you make some money, then you give some (say ~$1k) of that money to a bookkeeper who will then figure out how to declare it properly.

I get your fear though, as I used to have it. But this world is not like an API call that completely fails if you have one thing wrong. Instead it's people, who talk with you and figure things out with you.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#109

Post by petesergeant »

tiffanyh wrote: post #23
dakiol wrote: post #12

Perhaps I missed it, but at what point the author sets an LLC or something similar? For me, that’s the main blocker: in Europe it costs money to start a business, some paperwork and taxes is involved, even if you don’t make a single sale. Also, for selling online you kinda have to show in your website your “business id” (or tax id or similar)… otherwise how do people know you are a legit business? For example, I’m no…

Not everyone shares your rigor to not buying from strangers. Pieter Levels is a one-person show that has started multiple businesses with just a single page & a Stripe Checkout earning millions per year and I don’t believe he’s incorporated. https://x.com/levelsio

> and I don’t believe he’s incorporated

Why would you believe that? He was incorporated in Singapore last I spoke to him. Looking back 8 years ago, to last time I bought something from him, it's from an NL company with a VAT number.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#110

Post by mixmastamyk »

ninkendo wrote: post #36
oaththrowaway wrote: post #19

I sold a laptop on eBay once long, long ago. Someone did the "Buy it now" option but never paid. I'm trying to remember the exact situation (probably more than 10 years ago), but I had exchanged messages with him several times and he always had an excuse to not pay. Then I noticed he was selling the exact same model of laptop so it was easy for me to realize that he had just "bought" my laptop to remove the listing s…

I had the exact experience selling an iMac on eBay about 10 years ago. Buyer clicked buy it now, my listing was removed, they never paid. They deleted their account shortly after (it was some .ru email address.) eBay had nothing to say other than “try again after X weeks”. Why, so it can just happen again? They admitted they have zero protection against it. I deleted my account and sold it on Amazon instead. How anyo…

I sold quite a few things on Amazon back in the day. Was great for getting things off my shelves collecting dust at a good price. At some point maybe ten years ago they started requiring very invasive identity validation to sell. My account from '98? and good selling karma does not matter apparently, not grandfathered in.

Long story short, don't expect Amazon to be more reasonable than Ebay these days.

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