I got a crazy idea, and don't know what to do

[TheOldSalt]

Have you ever had a million dollar idea, you know, one that could make you filthy, stinking rich, only to realize that since it takes money to make it, there was nothing you could do with it?

Well, I've had three of them in the past month. There's no way a guy like me could ever afford to implement them, or even get them patented.

This really bugs me.

I had a goofy idea yesterday to sell my ideas on Ebay to the highest bidders, but with a high reserve price. That would not only get me some slice of the pie, but ensure that only rich guys who can afford to get richer will bid.

I've seen some pretty bizarre things sold on Ebay, but I don't recall anyone ever posting a lucrative idea. Has it ever happened to anyone's recollection? Did it sell?

Patenting these inventions myself is simply not an option. If I had a machine shop handy to make the required prototypes, then I could just as easily go into production.

Any opinions on how well this might work or badly this might fail?

I have a 4th idea, and it's a doozy, and best of all, I can do it for only around $8,000 one time to make 15K a month. Do you think anybody would be interested in buying the plans for the next big thing for around 15,000 if it could make them hundreds of millions?

[Shaggy]

Man, if you weren't oldsalt, I'd ban you..

Well, noone will give you $8000 without hearing the idea. But givong put the idea, may lead you to lose the idea to them.

Let me hear it and if I like it'll give you the $8000.

[shev]

beats me. I've seen comericals looking for inventors. I'm sure they have something to do with buying ideas or something.

[fishfreaks]

ive seen those commercials too, but id check with the bbb first so you dont take any chances on loosing that idead to someone else in business

[Lydia]

i dont know but good luck!

[TheOldSalt]

Those ads you saw are from ripoff scumbags.

As for the 4th idea, you're all going to know about that one, since a lot of you will be involved with it if you want to be. it's something I've been working on for a few years now, but could never make work due to a problem with production cost. A friend of mine in New Jersey pointed me to a new way to fix THAT, though, finally making it feasible.

The first invention is just a simple piece of angled stainless steel with some holes drilled into it. Doesn't sound like much, but about 50 people in every town in America would be pretty much forced to buy one for around 80 bucks, which is 75 bucks profit per unit.

The second idea is made from pieces of preexisting technology, all simply assembled together in a way no one thought of yet, which will keep tens of millions of people from wasting billions of dollars. If 50 million people were HAPPY to pay 40 bucks to protect their investment, ( and they would be..hooboy ) then that's 2 billion in sales.

The third is more of a new retail concept than a device, and one that we need pretty quick, but it would take big bucks to get it launched.

Yeah, I know that it's hard to sell something when just what that something is is a secret, but I see people bidding big bucks on mytery auctions sometimes, so I hoped that this just might have a chance. I guess it is a pretty goofy idea.

[Baby_Baby]

you could go on oprah . but that sound like a really good idea to me, selling your ideas on ebay. nice

[fishfreaks]

if you want to sell it on ebay i say go for it. People sell some wacky things these days there

[Baby_Baby]

people sell their identies and their souls on ebay

[euRasian32]

My suggestions would be to:

check the US Patent office to see if there isn't an existing idea, if not, patent it. i'm not sure if this covers copyrights, but look into that and get your idea/patent copyrighted. I think the patent fees are under a hundred bucks.

Then, sell the patent, copyrighted idea on ebay.

[MiSo]

most important that to do is patent your idea.
better to do it now before someone else beats you to it.

[fish_doc]

You can try the poor mans patent. You write the idea or even build a prototype than put it in a envelope have it notarized and mail it to yourself. The stamp and date from the post office proves your date and thought of the idea. Just never open it in case you have to use it in court. Keep a second copy and file them together so you can show it to a lawyer if anyone ever steals your idea before you get a chance to work it.