Selling plasma?

[Leros]

I was talking to a friend and she was considering selling plasma to make a little extra money.

Those signs have always seemed a little shady to me. How safe is it? Why do they have to pray on poor college kids and not run like blood donation drives do?

 

[nakedfrog]

I did it and didn't have any problems. It's been awhile, but I probably went at least 8 times.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

How much is plasma worth anyhow?

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
How much is plasma worth anyhow?

Signs I've seen around campus say $150.... I think.

 

[Kirby]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
How much is plasma worth anyhow?

The one I've been to is $40 for the first time, and $60 the second if you come back within the week. It's lower after that though.

 

[thedarkwolf]

It depends. Back when I did it in order to make any money you had to do it twice a week. They'd give you like $15 for the first trip and another $35 for the second as long as it was with in 5 days of the first. It wasn't too bad but wasn't really worth the trouble to do that often. I did pay for my k6-2 350 that way though .

 

[jagec]

I've done it. $220 for the first four donations, IIRC. Then $65 a week for 2 donations...$25 the first, $40 the second. I think the price has dropped since then.

After the first session (which takes the longest since they need to run a bunch of tests) it's usually about an hour-long process, all told. They stick you to test for plasma quality (I forget exactly what they looked for), then you go to the back room and watch trashy TV while they put a clean needle in you and let the centrifuge machine take over. Everything that contacts blood is new every time...this stuff is being used for big pharmaceutical companies, even if they don't care about the donors they can't afford to let disease pass to the end user.

IMHO it's worth it for some quick, easy cash for a broke college-age person, but after 8-10 sessions you probably want to stop. You can donate up to twice a week, but it starts getting more painful as it doesn't completely heal in 3-4 days. I didn't want to get to the point where I was putting my veins at risk.

 

[ballmode]

I don't value my health at the expense of "petty cash"

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: ballmode
I don't value my health at the expense of "petty cash"

Too bad every job, ever, has some amount of health risk.

 

[Squisher]

I wonder how much it takes to make one of those TV sets?

 

[Epic Fail]

Originally posted by: Squisher
I wonder how much it takes to make one of those TV sets?

LOL

 

[miri]

.

 

[akshatp]

Originally posted by: ballmode
I don't value my health at the expense of "petty cash"

It is not unhealthy to donate plasma.

 

[Pliablemoose]

I worked at a plasma center for about a year, drink a LOT of water the day before, it'll really speed up the whole process.

I donated while I worked there, biggest downside is the scars it leaves on the inside of your elbows.

Donating can be unhealthy, some people have seizures during & after donation and I was a a couple young people have strokes that were regular donors. I'm not sure about why they seized or had the strokes, but it was sort of a nasty business & management wasn't particularly ethical at the place I worked at.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: ballmode
I don't value my health at the expense of "petty cash"

Too bad every job, ever, has some amount of health risk.

Which probably would pay more than 'petty cash'.

I knew students to do the plasma, blood, sperm thing in college. Some chick from our school got in the paper for selling eggs which can be really profitable but really invasive too.

You can also sign up for experiments, not all have 3 pages of fine print and disclaimers.

 

[Agentbolt]

The only trouble is finding a place that'll do it. Bloodbanker.com I think has info on it.

 

[akshatp]

Hmm this thread makes me wonder.. If I got a fridge for the basement could I extract my own blood and store it myself? And then sell it on eBay for uber amounts of money during a time of crisis?

Of course I would totally misrepresent the blood type depending on what was selling for the highest final bid and wouldn't really ship it in dry ice like I would promise on the ad.... But who cares, I'll just leave a retaliatory negative feedback for the person who buys it!!