Live For Free: The Chronicles of A Nerd Saving For A Startup

By Hunter Davis

Live For Free is an ebook I wrote and distributed in part on www.liveforfree.net from 2008 to 2010. In it, I chronicle the trials and tips I accumulated whilst saving for my startup, Discursive Labs. In a series of 27 easy to digest chapters, I detail the methodologies and money saving practices which allowed me to "live for free" and save the capital necessary to bootstrap a successful startup. From selling items online with eBay and Craigslist to gauging market fluctuations and historical pricing metrics, these concrete examples can help you save tremendous amounts of money, while still living the cutting edge high tech lifestyle. An enjoyable afternoon read, I present you this eBook in the hopes that it helps you, in a concrete and direct fashion, achieve your dream. It helped me achieve mine.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hunter Davis
• Release date: Jul 28, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466164543

Book preview

Live For Free

The Chronicles of A Nerd Saving for a Startup

Hunter Davis

Hunter Davis

Copyright 2011 by Hunter Davis

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords License Statement This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Introduction to Live For Free - The Book

Introduction to Live For Free - The Blog

BrokenItems and the Cult of the New

Make $40 Today, Right Now!

The $100 iPhone (Unlocked and No Contract)

It Never Hurts to Try….Getting a Lifetime Warranty 6 Years After Purchase Date!

Perceived Value and the Barter System

A Different Kind of Repair Service

Adding Value Services at Value Prices

Dealing with the Recession

Emotional vs. Actual Depreciation

Gain Time Where There is No Time

How to Avoid the Secret Costs of Online Selling

How to Deal with Worthless Items

How to Maintain a 100% rating on eBay

Leveraging False Expectations

Product Releases are Cyclical

The Big City Paradox, and Other Laptop Tips

Upgrades That Pay For Themselves

The Canadian Dollar: EBay’s Secret Money Maker

The Easiest Money

The Everlasting Laptop

The Power of Competition

The Snowboard Incident

Using Seasonal Holidays to Live Free

The Value Add

Aftermath

Bibliography

Glossary Of Terms

Introduction to Live For Free - The Book

When I started the Live For Free blog in late 2008, I wasn't sure what to expect. After a solid year of living for free and posting my experiences, I quit my daily nine-to-five grind and bootstrapped a startup. Was it life-changing? Certainly the Live for Free philosophy allowed me to save the money required to bootstrap my startup. The advertising revenue from the Live For Free blog also paid for my hosting and computer expenses while I was posting. I enjoyed writing it. Am I sure a blog is the best format for the material? No. For many, blogs are the morning brew that kicks starts the brain before work. While those of us lucky enough to run our own business may be able to schedule our day around an evening read of the Live For Free blog, there is a lot to be said for the coherency and portability of a book. As the writing and posting of this book has already allowed me to successfully bootstrap my startup, it only seems fair to release it for a tenner. I hope you enjoy it, or at least save yourself a few dollars and have yourself a good read.

~Hunter

Introduction to Live For Free - The Blog

There are many blogs out there that offer advice on the best ways to sell products online. These blogs aim at a variety of audiences from people with no experience with online retail to those who are just looking to improve their current online sales. These blogs vary in almost every way and identifying which blog is right for you can be a challenge in and of itself. The one thing that these blogs have in common is that they present online retail as no different from any other form of retail. This is not exactly correct.

The commonly presented viewpoint is that online retail, like other forms of retail, is just about buying low and selling high. This is a perfectly valid way of looking at the issue but unfortunately, it misses the most important differences in the new online marketplace. These details can cause both sellers and buyers in the online world to waste a great deal of money – not to mention time and other resources. This blog will discuss these differences and show how you can use this new knowledge to your advantage.

The posts of this blog will help you understand the new markets that are changing the way that retail is conducted online and the philosophies behind these new markets. With these changes in philosophy comes the breakdown of the normal idea of ‘consumer’ and ‘retailer.’ This breakdown opens up room for the much older idea of ‘owner’ and new sense of the temporal nature of ownership which revives the old idea of bartering.

It is important to start out by saying that no one involved with this blog is a lawyer, (tax or otherwise) and that nothing in this post or any other part of this blog should be construed as legal advice. That said, I personally have been living the Live For Free lifestyle for going on ten years, and it has done me a world of good and saved me a load of cash. I’ve been a consistent online seller and eBay buyer, as well as an ever-vigilant purchaser of new technology. It is my hope that the lessons that I’ve learned will help some of you out there live for free.

BrokenItems and the Cult of the New

Our culture is obsessed with the new. We are constantly bombarded by marketing designed to promote commerce and one can easily be forgiven for deciding that something old is also something broken. As is often the case with the march of technology, that which is viewed as broken is also viewed as worthless. Knowing this, and with a keen sense of treasure hunting, one may rescue abandoned technology from eBay sellers at pennies on the dollar. The first thing to realize is that those items which seem broken are often not broken at all. And while it may run counter to popular opinion, the virus is certainly the most profitable item for an eBay buyer.

It takes less than six minutes to infect the average Windows PC connected directly to the Internet (Survival Time, 2010). Millions of computers are infected every day, with no signs of slowing down. For those not in the know, viruses are self-replicating pieces of computer code which slow down computers with any number of malicious actions. As many viruses are designed to infect computers with even more viruses, it is often the case that a computer becomes so infected that it will not boot into Windows. *Note: I say Windows because Linux and Mac operating systems are generally not affected by viruses, and thus do not apply here. Given the low cost of computers and the high cost of computer repair, many simply put these virus-infected computers up on eBay, stating that they are broken and will not boot. To these sellers, these computers are broken beyond repair. To us buyers, they are an incredibly bargain opportunity, if you know what to look for. *Note: The same principles apply to both desktops and laptops, but laptops have a higher resale value and a broader secondhand market.

First, one must ensure that there is no physical damage to the laptop. I have seen virus-infected laptops with large cracks in their screen or missing keys from the keyboard, cracked shells, broken hinges, missing ports and the like. These are often caused by the owner of the laptop taking their frustration out on a broken and worthless item. It is important then, to ensure that you have quality photos for the laptop before purchasing. More importantly, you must assess your own knowledge of laptops and computers in general and determine if you are able to repair the item.

Can you replace a hard drive? On most PC based laptops, a hard drive replacement is a two minute task. For this reason, laptops that are listed broken with clicking sounds may be a good purchase. These clicking sounds are often the sound of a dying hard drive.

Can you solder a connection? If so, many laptops have loose or frayed power connectors, and thus will not draw a charge. If you have the skills to fix this one connection, you can get a laptop at incredible discount.

Can you replace a screen? If you can replace an LCD panel, about an hour's work for the skilled repairman, then a laptop with a broken LCD may be for you.

Assessing the physical condition of the laptop, and determining your ability to correct its flaws, is paramount to a good purchase.

Second, one should tailor the search for broken laptops to one's particular skill set or experience level. If you know how to install Ubuntu Linux, (a ten minute task everyone should be able to do) then a virus-infected laptop that won't get past the Windows screen is an excellent purchase. Not only will the laptop no longer have viruses, but its resale value will generally more than double. Anything internal to the laptop will be a complete mystery to the average user. If you know how to install mini-PCI cards, then a laptop with broken wireless is a no-brainer. Just install a new mini-PCI wireless card in the laptop and your laptop is now vastly more marketable, and therefore more valuable. A broken sound card is often a driver issue and may be fixed with an operating system change. If the