

Hacking The iPod: How I Earned $65K In High School - ted0
http://teddy.is/ipod/

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jack-r-abbit
_I started to buy broken iPods that were still under warranty, mailing them
back to Apple and receiving brand new refurbished iPods for the cost of
shipping. This was the most lucrative venture of all but it was the primary
reason why an Apple lawyer had called me that day. Understandably so, they did
not like me taking advantage of their transferrable warranties. They knew that
I was a kid and let me off the hook_

I don't get it. If you were buying units still under warranty and Apple had
transferable warranties then I'm not sure what they let you off the hook from.
You were not doing anything wrong. It sounds more like just another dick move
from Apple.

~~~
J3L2404
More like a dick move by him not telling them they could just get a new iPod.

~~~
fleitz
It could also be construed as an arbitrage opportunity vis-a-via the time
value of money.

Obviously some parties to the transaction might be unaware that their device
is still under warranty, but the OP is providing a valuable service allowing
them to liquidate their broken iPod into immediate cash and avoiding the risk
that the warranty might be void, as well as the delay between sending and
receiving the repaired unit.

The OP didn't force the people to put their broken iPod on ebay, he's merely
taking advantage of an existing offer.

~~~
J3L2404
I doubt many people would take the deal rather than get a new iPod if they
knew all the facts.

~~~
jack-r-abbit
Since the OP did not write about his interactions with these sellers it is
hard to know if he did or did not inform them. But I don't believe the OP was
obligated in any way to tell everyone about Apple's warranty terms... so I
don't think not telling them was a "dick move". I can also think of plenty of
reasons why a person might know all those facts and still choose to sell the
broken, still-in-warranty iPod. One of them being that you don't get a new
iPod... you get a refurbished iPod and some people just don't want someone
else's used stuff. Other people may have already upgraded to a new/different
model and no longer need the broken one replaced.

~~~
ted0
"Other people may have already upgraded to a new/different model and no longer
need the broken one replaced."

That was usually the case. People often felt they were due for an upgrade
anyway and wanted to simply part ways rather than dealing with the warranty
process.

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afterburner
"$65,000 in _revenue_ " "My profit margin was not monstrous"

So, not sure what the actual profit was, but nice nonetheless.

~~~
JTon
Good catch. Now I'm a little disappointed

~~~
ted0
It was indeed $65,000 in revenue. I hope there wasn't too much confusion there
:)

~~~
jarek
You have a bright future ahead of yourself as a VC-backed tech company CFO.

~~~
jeffclark
Almost: except that he actually has revenue.

~~~
jarek
Eh, so did Groupon.

------
hkmurakami
The best part of the story to me, is the Apple Attorney who decided to give a
slap on the wrist before moving on to the potential legal carpet bomb mission.

In the age of organizations such as the RIAA suing teenagers or the elderly
without such gestures, it is refreshing to read.

~~~
corin_
Sounds to me like they gave a slap on the wrist because he had done nothing
illegal and therefore all they could do was try to scare him... and it worked.
I could be wrong, though.

~~~
dendory
We all know the company could have brought up a ton of charges if they didn't
like him abusing warranty. I think as a kid, he was smart to agree and walk
away with the money he made so far, rather than risk a costly legal battle.

~~~
nooop
Of course it was smarter. But that does not make Apple actions "refreshing".

------
TamDenholm
I had a similar little side business in high school putting chips into 1st gen
playstations and selling pirated games, then someone i knew who did the same
but at a much higher volume got busted and I immediately stopped. The only
thing that ever happened to him though was he got his computers seized.

~~~
ComputerGuru
How did you go from perfect English in your first sentence to ridiculous
abbreviations in your second? ("tht ... tho")?

~~~
TamDenholm
I'm not the best typist on the iPad, I have corrected my mistakes.

~~~
ComputerGuru
Sorry.

------
sthulbourn
There used to be a sub-telco called Genie in the UK (powered by O2/One2One)
when I was in school, they offered unlimited texts on a pre-paid sim card
tariff for £10 a month. I used to tell them around my school for £15 per sim
card, I learnt a lot about supply and demand... eventually, I became known in
my area and started to sell them to students in other schools, this kept me in
pocket money for a year before they dissolved the sub-telco. It wasn't much
but it was enough to make me understand some principles of business.

------
blantonl
The most important part of this story is that he educated himself as a high
schooler on the concept of arbitrage.

Unfortunately, he succumbed to the concept of leverage.

------
acoyfellow
I enjoy the short sweetness of your story. Love your spirit, at such a young
age. You sound like the kid I wish I was.

What did you do with that money? Blow it on kid stuff, or save it? Use it for
anything specific?

~~~
K2h
agreed, the brevity and concise writing made this a great article. The author
obviosly learned something from HS english class, well done.

the logical progression from a one off fix, to fixing friends, to dealing with
parts shortages (buy bulk damaged units) to warranty repair scavange was
awesome.

------
raghavb
Awesome to hear, did something similar. In 2009 I failed a paper in high
school and as a result had to rewrite the paper in 2010. Being into computers
and stuff a few of my friends asked me to unlock their iPhones that they had
gotten(This is in India and people use to abuse the 200$ iPhone by getting
them through relatives in the US). I soon realized there was a market for this
sort of thing and started unlocking iPhones as a business by advertising on
craigslist. Made about 1100$ which in Indian rupees is about Rs 55000 which is
a lot. Helped paid for a lot of my computer gear.

~~~
icebraining
I started like you, but never made more than a few bucks. I unlocked Nokia
phones for a couple of friends and then charged ~$3 to other kids. I probably
made less than $100 overall.

This was when Nokia phones could be unlocked by simply inputting the IMEI and
phone network on a VB calculator and getting the code. I did tell them how it
was done, but back then few people had Internet at home or knew how to use it,
whereas I spent many Saturday mornings on the public library using their
machines and connection.

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caycep
everyone else that did something like this to Apple they eventually
hired...could the author have gotten an internship w/ a nice stipend at, say,
Apple's hardware design groups to replace his lost activity>

~~~
matt312
The author probably could not have gotten an internship with Apple. The one
person I heard of Apple hiring like you explain was @comex, who worked on
jailbreaks. By hiring @comex, they did 2 things:

1) Put an end to a jailbreaker's work 2) Hired someone to find security holes

While this is a pretty neat story, the author probably wouldn't be as valuable
for Apple as someone like @comex would be.

Here is more information about that hire:
[http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/26/apple-hires-iphone-
hacker-n...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/26/apple-hires-iphone-hacker-
nicholas-allegra-comex/)

~~~
daeken
For what it's worth, quite a few of the original iPhone Dev Team members got
hired by Apple, and they tried to recruit all of us. Not sure about the later
iPhone hackers, but in the early days they were trying hard to get all of us.

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grabeh
I'd be interested to read the terms of the warranty. Transferability may have
been limited to personal use rather than the bulk warranty claims undertaken
by the OP.

That's with my lawyer hat on at least.

With non-lawyer hat on, nice work OP in servicing a need and creating a
business opportunity for yourself.

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megablast
Nice work, I did the same with IBM Thinkpads, with the huge advantage that IBM
supplied full hardware manuals, and lots of the parts were interchangeable. I
would buy lots of broken laptops on ebay, use the parts, and sell parts that I
didn't use back on ebay. Then sell the fully working laptops on craigslist.

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neilparikh
Any advice you can give to me on starting a business in high school? This
sounds like it would be an interesting and challenging thing to undertake. I'm
16, almost done grade 10. I can program at a okay level, having created a few
web apps.

~~~
heretohelp
Identify an opportunity, then exploit it.

------
rudiger
Revenue != Earnings

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horsehead
You were making 65 grand whilst still in high school. I was playing final
fantasy VII. Not sure which was better .....

actually yes I am. Why the hell didn't i start tinkering with stuff earlier
on. Kudos to you, and thanks for writing about it!! Best of luck

~~~
afterburner
tbh I would guess he made something like 10-20k, as in the text he clarifies
that 65k was revenue not profit or earnings. Good learning experience though.

A full-time summer job would net you... 5k? Multiplied by number of summers.
Probably not as fun...

