Have you ever sold your plasma or blood?

[Demon_Hunter]

There's a couple places around town that will buy your plasma from you. Has anybody gone to one of these places? How much did you get? Did it hurt, make you dizzy?

[dozicusmaximus]

I haven't. But my buddy in college would donate plasma for beer money every once in a while. He seemed ok... haha.
I think he got $50 or so.

[line6man]

I've given blood for free (once), but never sold it.

It did hurt, but not too much. I think it would have hurt more if I had saw the needle. (I couldn't see my arm, the way I was lying flat on a table.) There is a picture of the massive needle they stick in your arm on Wikipedia. I won't post it here, incase it's NSFW, but it's a hell of a needle!

[agent77]

I used to sell my plasma when I lived in Norfolk, VA. IIRC, they paid $40 and the process took about 2 hrs. after waiting in line. Doesn't hurt, doesn't make you dizzy, just make sure you eat a good meal before AND after you donate. All in all not a bad experience, the place I used to go would have a movie playing, and really nice employees. I'd still donate if there was a place in my area to go.

[Marial]

I've never sold blood or plasma, but I donate blood on a regular schedule. If you've ever gotten a tattoo it hurts far less than that and it generally doesn't take long. I'm usually a little groggy for a couple of hours afterwards but as long as you drink plenty of fluids before and after you'll be right as rain in no time.

[Jim Nazium]

He said, I sold my blood for money
There was never any pain
But I just can't stand to think that
It's in someone else's veins

Those are lyrics from a Joan Osborne song that has been stuck in my head the last couple of days. Funny to find this thread ...

[electracoyote]

My company used to support blood drives and give employees a half day off (to be used whenever we chose) if we gave a pint during the drives. The Red Cross would come in with all the equipment and use one of the large conference rooms to set up recliners. They had about 30 people going at any given time, it was a huge effort and they collected lots of plasma. I'm O Neg, relatively rare and the "universal" blood type, so I was happy to give. If you're okay with an injection, chances are you'll be okay with the collection needle, it's pretty sharp and relatively painless.

You do need to sit for around 20 minutes directly thereafter, and they encourage you to drink some juice and eat a couple of cookies to tide you over while your spleen and marrow help you recover, but you're fine after that. No dizziness, just don't do anything strenuous for a couple of hours.

[RosieB]

My son sold his plasma for quite a while when he was unemployed. One of his friends had researched all the places in town and had been going for a while so my son went along to check it out. It was clean and he felt good about it so he signed up. It took about 4 hours the first trip because of the application process. I think they had to check his blood and approve him, too. Other trips varied due to line length, but generally about 2 hours. He got to know the busy times and avoided them. It seems like he got $50 the first visit or two, then a bit less per visit after that, but if he gave twice in one week and within a certain number of days he got a bonus, but there is also a mandatory wait between gives, too. He scheduled it all out to get the maximum payments each week. It didn't hurt much - he can be quite the wimp about stuff like that. Also, it's not like giving blood. They take the plasma out and route the blood back in so you don't get the dizzy effect afterward. He did mention that he glanced once or twice but decided it was better if he didn't watch the whole process.

It's an easy way to make some extra cash if you have the time.

[JohnMCA72]

I used to sell plasma for beer money, way back when (it paid US$15 per week, for some perspective how long ago that was). They'd let you do it twice a week, $7 one time & $8 the other. Not only could one get a fair amount of beer for that money, but it went a lot farther as well!

[pacojas]

did it ocasionally in college. lots of laughs, hot nurses, and donuts!

[Jeff K]

Sold plasma many times in the late '60s for drinking money while I was in the service. $15.00 a session back then, and it took a couple hours. That was a much higher hourly rate than I was making in the military...

[soulman969]

Do it all the time. Just make sure you eat and drink a lot of water before donating. The process itself is pretty simple unless you tend to faint if you have to get poked with a needle. You're helping to provide life saving medicines manufactured from that plasma.

What they pay varies a little from place to place but on average is comes out to about $30 a pop with some bonus for frequent donation.