Originally Posted by Churnman

You face a difficult prospect as the golden age of ms is not the same. It takes lots of time, study/research to see what will work for each individual. I started before I knew there was even a nickname for the hobby and before I knew anything about forums, so it was organic learning for me. Reselling also isn't the same as it was when certain auction sites were attracting regular consumers who were buyers and sellers. As fees have gone up and some sites focused more on full time large resellers who had the capital to absorb a few returns and a few bad actors, the small time seller moved to other avenues. You'll find your niche if you really need to meet certain goals by time and effort. It took me years to find and get into certain circles of like-minded hobbyist and now after redeeming millions of points/miles including for charity I now focus more attention on other things. Free travel isn't as important to me as it once was, but I now focus on booking for others (mostly established people). Reselling can become direct without high fees after business relationships are established and even that changes as more and more goods are available to more people in their locale depending on that countries taxes and also currency differences. I study as much as I can even if it's just deciding where we want to go next, safety and ability. No more hiking the Napali Coast for me... been there, done that more than once (never in 'winter' for sure for me anymore). Individual needs, abilities and desires is what it boils down to and most important - time.