How you can make some "small potatoes" from something that most people throw away with the garbage

You can sometimes get lots of very interesting business ideas on ebay.... I'm sometimes amazed by what people buy and sell there!

Here are some auctions I found interesting.... How can you make money from something that many people throw away?

A lot of people throw away their old magazines.... After they've read them, to them they are worthless and go out with the trash.

Well, if you can get these cheaply (or even for nothing), you could have a product. It won't make you rich - it's a "small potatoes" type of project, but you could have a product nevertheless.... The product is....

CLIPPINGS!

Several people on ebay are selling magazine clippings. They go through old magazines, and clip out articles and photos of various celebrities. They put the same ones together, so all the Jodie Foster clippings go in one pile, and all the Michael J. Fox clippings go in another pile. Then, they sell them.

Here's an example of some Hayley Mills clippings on auction.... and here are some Ewan McGregor clippings on auction.... If you look for "clippings" on ebay you'll find plenty more. It seems to me that older clippings tend to get higher prices.

This won't make you rich, but for someone who reads these magazines anyway then throws them away, why not make some money from it on the side? I don't think I could do this (I don't read the right magazines, and couldn't be bothered clipping things), but if you like these kinds of magazines anyway you could do this in your spare time, at home, while watching your kids or even in front of the TV.

Anyhow, this was just to give some Sowpubbers some ideas....

If you see any interesting auctions on ebay, please post them here so we can all learn something from them. :)

Cheers,

Dien Rice