

Ask HN: Unusual ways you've made side-money in the past? - klbarry

Put down what you did and the profit you made. I'll start:<p>1) I sold homemade cookies in high school and made about $100 weekly (not pot cookies)<p>2) I sang on the subway in NYC with a friend making $100 a day each<p>3) I did SEO for a lumber company when I was learning the skills and made $200 a month<p>What's yours?
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keiferski
1) I made Pokemon cards out of cardboard in 2nd grade, selling them in
conjunction with a Lunchables promotion (cards on the back of food boxes). My
biggest sale was a 5ft tall Charmander. ;) Unfortunately, the teacher got wind
of my business and made me give all the money back. I'm still a little bitter
about that one.

2) Selling PSP game ISOS to friends in high school, and repairing/jailbreaking
PSPs to resell.

3) I waited in line 3 days for the PS3 launch -- went home and sold it on eBay
the next day for a $500 profit.

~~~
klbarry
I would be bitter too. My cookie selling was against school rules, but only
one of my "employees" ever got caught. I can't for the life of me figure out
what schools have against capitalism, it can give great lessons.

~~~
genieyclo
I'm assuming it has to do with the protectionism of lunch sales in the
cafeteria as well as administration wanting to keep a strong grip over all
activities in the school. Schools are ridiculously controlling over even the
smallest minutiae, nevermind free-enterprise involving students within the
cafeteria. I remember many getting suspended for fights or other things that
occurred in the neighborhood outside of school and school hours.

~~~
shadowpwner
Not exactly. Schools (at least ones in California) aren't allowed to
distribute anything home made. You know those parties in elementary school
where you brought brownies? Those are against the school code.

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cperciva
Aggregating and editing abstracts for a chemistry conference. Researchers
entered their abstracts into a wildly broken custom chemistry conference
abstract editor, which produced a file which would be sent to me. I imported
the non-broken files, did my best to fix the broken ones (among other
oddities, the software could _write_ a file containing a 64 kB image, but
couldn't _read_ such a file), then scanned through for obvious typos and
spelling/grammar errors (a large proportion of the submitters were not native
English speakers).

Two good things came out of this experience: First, I learned a lot of
chemistry (I remember asking my father, who was one of the conference
organizers "so... what exactly is a Highly Frustrated Magnet, anyway?"); and
second, my commentary on the abstract-processing software contributed to it
not being used in future years.

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kylelibra
My younger brother bought out all the 4 Loko (in bulk) from the local store
the week before it was banned in his college town. He now sells it at 1000%
mark up.

Legal issues aside, I'm impressed with the entrepreneurial drive.

~~~
Zev
_He now sells it at 1000% mark up._

People really pay $30/can of 4 Loko? Isn't the point of it that its cheap and
get you smashed, not that it tastes good? Or has that much really changed in
the ~3 weeks since I've finished college?

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smashing
I used to scour local thrift stores for collectable electronic children's toys
and portable electronics from the 70's and 80's. I used a Treo 300 to do my
research "on site" almost a decade ago(!) with Eudora's browser on Palm 3.5 to
logon to ebay's desktop site to get the completed auction prices. I could make
around a thousand a month with about 20 hours effort per week in college. I
was always amazed what could be accomplished with a new pair of batteries,
light but thorough cleaning, and a soldering gun.

OK, counting the years since I got a "real job" and stopped, makes me feel
old. :(

~~~
pkamb
Does any "on site value guide" exist like this today? I find a simple eBay
search so terrible for it because it doesn't keep past auctions/prices up for
long and current auctions don't show true value until they're over.

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retroafroman
For a while in college, I would review the electronics (especially cell
phones) listed on Craigslist, buy them up and selling them at a profit on eBay
or to one of the websites that recycles phones. There weren't very many real
big arbitrage opportunities, but I made maybe a total of a couple hundred
bucks cash during the time I was doing it for little effort.

~~~
klbarry
That's pretty cool - is the market still there for that, or is there to many
resellers now, do you think?

~~~
retroafroman
It seems to be a lot more common to buy and sell cell phones and electronics
on craigslist now, but there are still arbitrage opportunities I'm sure. The
key is being able to move quickly and snatch up a good deal as soon as it's
posted. I don't have that flexible of a job now, or maybe I'd still do it,
just to use and play with the different phones and junk before I sold them.

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iworkforthem
1) I sold soft drinks at a church event and made $130 in one afternoon.

2) I sold my iPhone for $1000 and loving every minute of my $35 non-
smartphone.

3) I bought brand new electronic from online forums and sold it on eBay or to
friends for a 10%-20% profit each time.

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venturebros
sold plasma

~~~
shadowpwner
Your blood?

