HN Explorer

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

14 points by klbarry ↗ HN
Put down what you did and the profit you made. I'll start:

1) I sold homemade cookies in high school and made about $100 weekly (not pot cookies)

2) I sang on the subway in NYC with a friend making $100 a day each

3) I did SEO for a lumber company when I was learning the skills and made $200 a month

What's yours?

17 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 48.1 ms ] thread
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.
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.

klbarry
That's always fantastic. I had a friend once who did the same thing with the original iPhone (except it ran out of stock, it wasn't banned). He made thousands and thousands of dollars, I was so jealous.
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?

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.

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.
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. :(

klbarry
Wow, there are even some bargain hunters today who don't have on site research tools (if I remember from you used book reseller post). That's impressive.
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.
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.