[ali k]

Just a shame it's not sustainable income - I found what starts off as a really good hourly rate (occasionally >£100 p/h) drops off...got to the stage where I felt I'd picked all the low to medium hanging fruit and not really worth the time grubbing around for a tenner here and there.

I did some matched betting a few years back when I was only working part-time. I stopped when I was working more regularly and the amount of money and time required to be put in, I was not comfortable with.

I guess this is what always put me off before. Seemed like a lot of effort for little reward. But now I spend more time WFH thought it could be good to do while I'm sat at my desk anyway. Still not sure I trust myself not to lose it all though...

[DAVETHOMAS90]

First off, and a bit of a bump, went back to the place I picked (rolled back on a skateboard) up the coffee machine last night - both to make sure it had been left, unwanted, and cheekily, to ask if they had any of the portafilters, which they did:



Very nice 

In case anyone is interested, they've put a really good looking range/stove outside too. About 700 Abbeydale Road, Sheffield, if you're passing with a van. It was there just now; 7pm.

The owners used to be involved/part own Nonna's on Ecclesall Road. They're opening an Italian themed café/deli/bar pop-up, on a similar theme to Bragazzi's on London Road. I'm sure it'll be well worth a visit. Five minutes from The Climbing Works.

Regarding the matched betting, I'd say an extra £300 a month for not a great deal of investment (time) should be quite achievable. There's certainly scope for making a lot more. I signed up to Profit Accumulator - https://www.profitaccumulator.co.uk/  (if you ask me for a referal code, there's a £20 bonus for both when fully signed up )
Their monthly fee is £24.99 after a free trial period, and with great support.

As something you can do on your laptop/mobile from your Gite/tent/climbing wall, I'd say it's definitely worth exploring. It takes a bit of time to get set up efficiently, make sure you're able to cross-reference payments/bets etc, in order to minimise time, but also relatively foolproof.

It doesn't feel in any way related to the gambling, although you can introduce betting on a "value" basis. I've made a couple of minor mistakes so far. One cost me about £3 on a qualifying/offer bet, which was very well covered by the profit from the subsequent free bet. The other mistake (which I need to check out fully) was that I somehow selected "early cash out" on the Tottenham/Man U match on Sunday. Tottenham were 1-0 up at half time, so the early cash out netted me an extra £20 I wouldn't have had. The matched bet had been a free £10 bet, backing Tottenham with Betway, offset with the corresponding lay bet at Matchbook. This part netted £9.55 profit, so £29.55 for no personal outlay, and very little time.

You could look for all the sign-up and repeat (reload) offers yourself, but I think the monthly fee will probably be worth it. I'm happy with a few quid here and there, as an extra top-up, for little time. I'm finding it a useful way of exploring other things too. Made about £220 in the first couple of weeks. It's tax free too.

If nothing else, it's a fun thing to explore. 

[DAVETHOMAS90]

OK. Matched betting.
Little bit of an update.

Earlier, I sat down for less than the time I've spent sitting on the mats at the Foundry, yapping between attempts on a problem, loading four free bets, matched, to settle on the football tonight.

The return will be about £31 profit, plus a £10 Über Eats voucher.

Support from the platform I'm using (Profit Accumulator) is great.
If you have a stressful job, and the little time available to you is better spent getting out to the crag/down the wall/spending time with the family/being creative in other ways, then it may not be viable. As something to explore, and possibly take further as a useful top-up, I can't see why it wouldn't be worth trying for a couple of months.


It'll pay for my motorbike fuel/insurance 

[lagerstarfish]

I can't see why it wouldn't be worth trying for a couple of months

because for some people it is extremely habit forming and starts to reorder other priorities

(it's fine for most people though)

[DAVETHOMAS90]

I can't see why it wouldn't be worth trying for a couple of months

because for some people it is extremely habit forming and starts to reorder other priorities

(it's fine for most people though)

Some of my friends have tried giving this rock climbing thing a go.. 

Seriously though, I'm not sure how much that's the case. It seems to take quite a bit of effort to sit down and put the work in, with a reasonably predictable effort/remuneration scale - unlike running around, rummaging through skips in the middle of the night.. afraid of missing out on some hidden trove 
Will be interesting to see how things go. Does take some work.

[DAVETHOMAS90]

So..

lost my sense of priority earlier this evening, and a couple of hours drifted by looking for matched betting deals 
Sort of.. partly true, and a bit of an update later.

However, I'd forgotten about bank holiday opening times; Tesco was already shut when I left the house, and I couldn't
face paying x 2 the going rate for a bottle of brown ale from the corner shop. So I figured it was worth a punt  to look in a few skips for booze on the way back home.



"Slightly" out of date, but fine to drink, and a pair of mini parallettes and a foam roller to boot.
Yay!

 

Quick update on the matched betting.
So, just over a month, and £750 of profit "accumulated".
It takes quite a bit of work, but a lot of that is down to learning how best to profit from the deals available after the initial promotions. It is something that you could take with you and do on your laptop/phone, in order to help pay for a trip, or continue regardless. I've lost a small amount of money (maybe £20) due to minor errors, not interpreting T/Cs correctly, but it's part of a process of learning, and has very slightly reduced overall profit.

Perhaps more significantly, it's helped open my eyes to what is really out there in terms of alternative forms of investing and ways of making money online.

[tommytwotone]

Good effort on the Matched Betting Dave - as an ex-gambling industry (and ex-Trading) person, I'd be interested in seeing how this pans out.

Are you just looking at "standard" arbitrage here (i.e. backing both sides of a Tennis / Basketball game, and trying to get into a "no lose" scenario)? Or more exploiting introductory offers like "free £50 credit when you open account"?

What I would say is that most firms will have monitoring of activity to try and combat arb-ers, so you may find your account restricted / closed if they pick you up.

Exploiting opening offers is a lucrative game, but obviously have a limited shelf life as there are only so many accounts one can offer.

There used to be some crazy deals about - the old Bet365 "bet £50 prematch and we'll match it with a no-lose £50 in-play bet" being one of them - but a lot of them have been pared back.

[DAVETHOMAS90]

Hi 3T 

Really sorry, didn't see your post, so apologies for not replying.

You're right about "arbs". It's something I didn't really understand, and I thought the +ve odds differential was due more to instability in the price of the lay bet on the exchange.

Now understand that the lay bet is probably a better reflection of the odds, and any exploitation of higher odds at the bookies will result in accounts being closed - actually, they tend to just restrict further promotional offers.

A lot of sites offer "insurance" on accumulator bets - ie, a return if one leg loses - and this additional value can be used.

The way the offers work, is that you may be offered something like the Bet365 welcome offer you're referring to - they now give you £100 in free bets, for depositing £100. When placing the £100 at Bet365, you sell the corresponding position on the exchange (Betfair, Smarkets etc). Yes, the returns with the bookie are balanced against the liability you accept at the exchange, but the "margin" in the position, is the £100 you've been given to play with by the bookie.

I made £86 from this with Bet365.

There are a lot of opening offers out there, which do dry up. Speaking with an auntie of mine, who introduced me to it, apparently some people place regular bets (still laying on the exchange) - accepting some very small losses, in order to continue to receive promotional offers.

Many of the "reload" offers are what they call "bet & get" - e.g. one with Betway - weekly - is place £25 on accumulators and receive £10 in free bets on the Monday.

Once up to speed, it takes very little time to place/lay your bets.

At the beginning, most time is spent learning about the process - this will be different for different people, as I had practically no knowledge of betting beforehand.

I've only concentrated on bets on a "no lose" basis - free bets etc - and made £1K in the first six weeks, but now want to look at what tend to be more profitable longer term - betting/laying on the "estimated value". That's not risk free in the short term, but will return a profit in the long run.

Anyone with a house is betting on the position of the market - making a decision, based partly on which way you expect things to move n the long run. I know it's a poor analogy, because we have "homes" too, but just pointing out that most of us already have money invested on an "estimated value" basis already.

As far as viability in the short term - for e.g. something fun to do while away on a trip - it's quite satisfying to sit down with a coffee and your phone, and place a couple of bets, and make a tenner. Would be a bit more fun doing that from a beach in Tenerife, than in Sheffield in the rain 

OK, so there you have it - for now.
Drop me a line if you want to ask anything, and I'll probably have a few questions to ask you!

Sorry for the delay getting back.

Dave.

[DAVETHOMAS90]

Something else I wanted to post, that I find really quite upsetting.

One of the most common "disposable domestic products" that I find in skips, are Dyson vacuum cleaners.

I have one on Gumtree now, which I'd pulled from a skip a little while ago. I thought it needed a new filter - I was looking in the wrong place - so tried to look for support from Dyson.

Even putting in the model number brought up nothing on their support system, so I sent them an email.

Had a reply this morning, explaining the reason is that it's an "unsupported product", and you'll have to go to a third party to find spare parts.

I appreciate that's often the way - it can be difficult to get spares for older cars - but to have nothing on their site, I found really poor.

I can understand the difficulty of keeping a stock of old spares, however some support would actively help encourage people to go and look for a solution to keep an older machine running - rather than just chucking it in a skip because a switch has broken, or something like that. Very often - actually more often than not - the Dysons I find are in good working order.

These machines seem to be a triumph of built-in obsolescence and marketing, and plastic waste.

Really disappointed with the response from Dyson. That said, I did pull a few spares from one in a skip last night, so can now sell the one I have, with a spare filter and all the tools.

Owt fer nowt 

[Bradders]

I think the EU are bringing in a 'right to repair' law, with manufacturers required to offer customers a repair if the product is less than 10 years old. No idea if it'll come to the UK though. Bloody Brexit. At least we can decide for ourselves not to do good things.

[SamT]

These machines seem to be a triumph of built-in obsolescence and marketing, and plastic waste.

Really disappointed with the response from Dyson.

Strange, I've found Dysons amazing for repairing, everything seems to unclip easily, and parts easily found on ebay/online. 

Ours is like triggars broom, new motor, new hose, new switch, couple of new plasticy bits that had broken, just keeps on going.

https://www.partscentre.co.uk/dyson?gclid=CjwKCAjwy42FBhB2EiwAJY0yQicIDtTxQPJ1WJIsm1z9N9yKMCz1k-ndQKnWKi7b4COKdVVkwote2hoCPvYQAvD_BwE

[T_B]

Yeah we must’ve had our Dyson for well over a decade. Had it serviced once. Top quality.

[DAVETHOMAS90]

Sam, they are. Which is why I find it disappointing that Dyson aren't better with support on older models, and seem to want to push buying something new. The last isn't surprising of course, but the reply from Dyson today was pretty much "We're making more efficient machines all the time. That's why we don't provide support for older models". I was then told that it's more environmentally friendly to buy a new machine - which, given what we've said, it obviously isn't.

I would really like to see some key manufacturers taking the lead in supporting longer term use of their products - especially, as you say (and TB) that they are easy to repair.

The Dyson from last night was a bit smashed up, but lots of very good parts. Just took the tools, a couple of clips, and the filters.

I was walking home from Broomgrove one evening, and some students had put their brand new machine out with the bins, because, in their own words, it had "stopped sucking up". A party and resulting puke had gunked up the first part of the hose/head, but it was clear and bright and shiney, and still brand new, about 30 mins later 

[kelvin]

Yeah we must’ve had our Dyson for well over a decade. Had it serviced once. Top quality.

Likewise - bought an original DC01 when they came out, had it serviced in the 90s just the once and gave it to a charity shop 4 years ago. They're still using it.

There are far better vacuums out there, I get to use my clients regularly (decorator) but the Dyson is just easy to take apart and fix.

[tomtom]

Yup. I’ve fixed. MrsTT’s DC04 a few times.

Only downside of them is that they’re heavy…

[webbo]

Yup. I’ve fixed. MrsTT’s DC04 a few times.

Only downside of them is that they’re heavy…

And they are shit.

[tomtom]

Yup. I’ve fixed. MrsTT’s DC04 a few times.

Only downside of them is that they’re heavy…

And they are shit.

Don’t you mean they suck?

[webbo]

No I mean they are crap. When I was a professional vacuum technician we used Miele to clean a large Manor House on a daily basis.

[DAVETHOMAS90]

Yup. I’ve fixed. MrsTT’s DC04 a few times.

Only downside of them is that they’re heavy…

And they are shit.

Don’t you mean they suck?

No. So they do suck?

Err.. Damn, I can't work this one out! 

No I mean they are crap. When I was a professional vacuum technician we used Miele to clean a large Manor House on a daily basis.

That's pretty much the report I've had back from anyone who works in contract cleaning too.
I quite like my Henry (two skips to get all the bits together).

Oh, and while we're at it, OMM, are you willing to sell anything separately, or just the job lot?

"Largely broken. Obsolete spares and scrap only."

[DAVETHOMAS90]

I was wondering if the "bladeless" design of the Dyson fan would make it safer to fall onto:




Sorry.

[tomtom]

*for the record I own two Henry’s..

[Oldmanmatt]

On the Dyson topic.
I think they’re shit.

Went through several at the wall and at home. At the wall, typically we’d get 8 months before the brushes fell off or the bearings gave out. At home, it was just a constant battle to empty/unblock (3 dogs and 3 long haired women).

At work, we have a Henry we bought to clean whilst building the wall, and it’s still going strong. For carpet, we switched to Shark, and our first is almost two years old and still great. Now use Shark at home too and vastly better. It was shocking the first time we used the Shark, because it looked like we’d never vacuumed before!

[SA Chris]

does he travel down from Sheffield to do it?

[SamT]

 

[tommytwotone]

It only hoovers the first 1/2 to 2/3s of the thing you're trying to clean, it can do that over and over for as long as you want but you'll never get the full thing clean.

*BOOM BOOM*