[OGNorCal707]

Next hypothetical hustle, (again, I would never recommend anyone do this), the passport hustle.

Let's say Pitt has a couple friends who are in a pinch, they need to make some money. These same friends are either more "simple" types who aren't interested in traveling abroad, or perhaps their situation in life demands that they stay put for at least a few years, (crushing debt, 9-5 career job, just got married, new born baby, sick elderly parent, etc.)

These friends apply for a new British passport, Pitt gets 3 friends to get passports for him. Upon arrival in NYC, Pitt makes connections with some African homies, or perhaps, E. European, Jamaican, or Colombian. With the right connections, he's only a couple guys removed from someone who will pay him between $1000-2000 for a authentic new British passport.

Pitt hustles 3 passports for a total of $4500, which he splits 50/50 with his homies back in the UK, each homie gets the equivilent of $750 USD, while Pitt makes $2250, covering the cost of his round trip flight and part of his living expenses.

The homies report that their passports were stolen, if you need a back story, it was boosted by gypsies from his bag when riding the crowded "tube" or whatever the fuck you Brits call the subway.

*All these examples are provide, are just ideas, the only one I would attempt would be maybe the clothing hustle*

However, the opportunites to hustle are endless, you just got to think outside the box.

[shameus_o'reaaly]

(07-31-2012 01:15 AM)Soma Wrote:  

I'd recommend collecting cans and bottles around NYC, using a friend's mail truck designated to carry excess, spillover mail the week before Mother's day to a sorting facility in Michigan to bring the bottles and refunding them there for $0.10, instead of $0.05 as in other states.

On a related note, how about collecting scrap metal? Most places that buy it have a ceiling, but they pay cash or used to. I think they changed the requirements since people started ripping off copper wire and lead from church roofing and selling it to junkyards and recyclers.

[Giovonny]

(07-31-2012 01:15 AM)Soma Wrote:  

I'd recommend collecting cans and bottles

I use to do this as a kid and I would get 30-40 bucks a day. Which was ballin back then!

I use to go to a big public recycling center at night and fill up about 6 big bags of cans. Then in the morning, I would go to a different recycling center and sell them for cash.

Other hustles I did as a kid...

I used to steal and sell lawn ornaments, like this...



I had little league baseball practice in the rich part of town. It was about a 3 mile walk back to the middle class area that I lived, my friend and I would walk it but along the way we would steal ornaments from the rich peoples houses, we would walk a few blocks and then knock on peoples doors saying that we were selling them to raise money for our baseball team. We would get 10-20 bucks each and people bought them up quick. I think because we were kids. That was a good one.

I'm not proud of the stealing but I was a poor kid trying to get a few bucks.

[shameus_o'reaaly]

(07-30-2012 03:51 PM)pitt Wrote:  

(07-30-2012 03:49 PM)OGNorCal707 Wrote:  

(07-30-2012 03:43 PM)pitt Wrote:  

Great example.unfortunately it wasnt a real example but i am looking for that kind of hustle.

Well FYI, cigarettes are crazy cheap in NC, and crazy expensive in NYC....

Just wondering..have you done this before or you heard of anybody who has done this?

Yep:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/nyregi...wanted=all
not only but also, in UK, people running small restaurants would go to calais on the Channel Tunnel, buy cheap booze and save on having to get repeat orders from suppliers. Same with weddings- this would be a massive saving.
Not really a hustle, but say you were in events and wanted to improve your margin without really doing anything. Get a panel truck, fill up with decent bottled beers/champagne/wine, and you can sell the booze at regular price, and, by saving some coin when you by, and not passing that saving on, you can get some extra money for the cost of renting the truck/van

[pitt]

(07-30-2012 04:07 PM)Enfant_Terrible Wrote:  

(07-30-2012 01:22 PM)pitt Wrote:  

Sup Fellas


2 - Become a photagrapher - Buy a professional camera, get an account on facebook about your photo company, make small cards and hit clubs and bars around the city, take pictures for free and whoever liked their pictures, charge them 5 dollars per picture and email their pictures instantaneously (get a camera that allows you to email photos right there and then) or ask people for their facebooks accounts and send their pictures on facebook. I have a friend who just came from Spain and he was doing that during his stay there, i am meeting him soon, i will ask him more questions about this because i am seriously considering doing that in New York.

Good thread idea, please get back to us with that. I dabble in photography and I want to do a similar hustle here in LA.

But...I'd like to say a few things about this. Just things to consider, not to discourage.

For anybody wanting to do this, night photography (assuming you're shooting nightlife photos) with a pro SLR camera is tricky and takes trial and error.

If you want to stand out from the rest of the guys trying to do this and want your pictures to come out "right":
You need to learn about how to technically work an SLR camera (very different animal from a "point and shoot") and artistic ways of getting a good picture. You also need proper lens/lighting gear.

Yeah i have spoken to him about this. He was telling me that he went to Spain as an Erasmus student and his target market were other Erasmus students. Basically he would go to all Erasmus parties and take pictures then put it on his facebook and word of mouth got around and local clubs were asking him to go to their clubs to take pictures and he was being paid by those clubs on the weekly basis..to tell you the truth i lost interest when he told me the whole story.

[Andy_B]

Here's a good hustle I've seen people doing in the club district in my city:

1. Buy a few dozen beer.

2. Stash in bookbag.

3. Sell on the streets in the club district between 11pm and 2am, for 50-75 cents cheaper than what people are paying in the clubs.

75 cents below club prices is still a huge markup vs. convenience store prices, so you can profit handsomely.

[Hades]

Is it legal to drink publicly where you're at? That's a solid hustle I think.
I'm digging that article on looseys too.
I always thought that a cigarette vending machine, chuck in a quarter, get one cigarette, would be pretty awesome. I'd never quit if those existed.

[user10726]

If you're in Europe you can make some good profit on alcohol.
I was in Spain and it cost me equivalent to £11 for 1 Litre of Jagermeister, back in the UK it costs £13 for 0.5L or £18 for 0.7L.
Flights can cost as little as £60, you can bring 10L back without being questioned, there's no limit (travelling within the EU) but you can be questioned and refused.

[Lothario]

Question to the Players who are familiar with both USA and England. Is there a significant Mark-Up on Apple Products like I-Phone, I-Pad, Mac-Books etc .

From what I have heard if I- pad is $ 500 in USA, It's priced at 500 GBP in England , True or not.

Anyone done this and if yes how do off load the electronics in England, Customs Issue ? Limit on number of products you can take, I assume you can at least one of each ?

[elabayarde]

(07-30-2012 03:31 PM)OGNorCal707 Wrote:  

I'm sorry bruv, but I don't see renting a room out on airbnb as "hustling"... Hustling to me would be more around the lines of flying in to NC, buying up 100 cartons of cigarettes for 20 dollars a carton. Then rent a car and drive up to NYC... When in NYC hit up all the shady bodegas in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, roll in with swag and talk business with the Russian or Lebanese cats running the joint. Break it down to them, and wholesale your cartons for $80 per box, at that rate you just came up $60 per carton, leaving you with a net profit of what, $6,000, or maybe a little less when you factor in expenses.

That was just an example, I don't know how much a carton of cigarettes cost, nor have, nor would I ever engage in any kind of illegal business practices. I would never recommend or advise a person to do any such things, however this was just a hypothetical example, of what I consider to be "hustling". To me, there are various forms of hustles, but the true essence of the hustle is to make something out of nothing, so to speak.

How is renting something on Airbnb not a hustle... u making money off of property. Most people are loosing money of one.

[Berliner]

(08-01-2012 09:56 AM)bret Wrote:  

If you're in Europe you can make some good profit on alcohol.
I was in Spain and it cost me equivalent to £11 for 1 Litre of Jagermeister, back in the UK it costs £13 for 0.5L or £18 for 0.7L.
Flights can cost as little as £60, you can bring 10L back without being questioned, there's no limit (travelling within the EU) but you can be questioned and refused.

If you don't have some friends interested in buying,who are you going to sell the alcohol to?

Nearly all of the ideas discussed in the topic are viewed by the law as contraband/smuggling,theft or operating an unlicensed activity at best.For most of those activities,there are solid fines,if you get caught of course.

Regarding Airbnb-if you aren't renting your own apartment,but renting per month/year and leasing it yourself,you may have some serious issues when the landlord finds out.There was one case all over the internet,dating from a few months back,where a tenant got evicted from his accommodation and in NYC and as far as I remember even got some ban to rent elsewhere in the city too.

Also keep in mind that nobody would freely share ideas that they're currently exploiting on the internet.It doesn't make any sense.I'll throw some ideas at you,that I don't intend to take advantage of myself.

1.Electronics.As most of you probably know,the lowest prices are in the US,highest in Brazil.Some countries in Europe also have an Apple store,so you can see what the exact prices are.From the European countries,the cheapest Apple products are in Switzerland,then the UK,then Western Europe,then Eastern Europe.You have to look up on the internet how many items can you take with you in your luggage,without being considered a smuggler by the airport control.Apple products should be the easiest to flip,due to currently having the highest brand recognition.I don't think you can make mad coin from this,but you'd sure be able to at least pay your flights with the profits.

2.Clothes,shoes.Somebody suggested buying t-shirts from the US and selling them in the UK(his currency exchange numbers were completely off,he could've just checked google and this gives serious alert,that he doesn't know what he's talking about).Also,I don't know how strong your contacts have to be,so that the people from the store would buy the items from you,instead of their official delivery guys.I don't think the margins would be high enough either.Where there's more money to be made is in rare,very sought after items.Limited edition items are often not so hard to get if you do your homework and you can make a quick and solid profit with them,while they're still trending hot.Let's say Nike releases 500 pairs of X,they sell out in 5 hours,some famous ball player wears them,if they sold for 200,they'd go for 500+.I won't name any specific brands/opportunities,but watch this video by a true China man hustler to draw inspiration and just go for it:

3.Football(soccer) boots.Their prices are quite low in the UK,compared to all of Eastern Europe,where the prices in the stores are very high(Last time I've looked at the prices a pair,which costs 120gbp and goes on sale for 60-90gbp after 3-6 months is sold in EE for 200gbp+).As a 15-year-old prototype G,I was selling boots to people around the country,giving them some price in the middle between what I get the shoes for and what they are sold in the local stores.The issues were that I had to deal with tons of lame spoiled kids,who were telling me for weeks that they want to buy the shoes,asking hundreds of questions,wasting my time,telling me they want to pay on delivery,instead of in advance and in the end writing 'fuck you,I don't want them anymore'...If you're interested in this opportunity and want to relocate for longer period of time to an EE country,you should relocate there permanently,set up an online store,sell the items for lower prices than local shop and set up a couple vans/trucks that go let's say 2 times a week from the UK to EE,so that the delivery of the shoes will be only 3-4 days after the order has been made.

The ideas above aren't illegal,as long as you don't sell in large quantities and don't sell on the street(you don't have a permission to sell on the streets)

4.Selling water/fruits on the beach.There are quite a few people doing this on the beaches of Spain,most seem like gypsies(no racial).They actually make quite nice money,they sell a slice of watermelon for 5-10 euro to the idiots on the beach,which is crazy.However,that's an illegal activity,there's "Policia local" patrols going by most of the beaches and if they catch you making a sale,you'll most likely get fined.I have no idea if the police would accept bribes or whether the people selling actually pay their fines in the end.I remember years ago on the beaches of Eastern Europe,there were always people selling boiled corn,but the price was 0.50 euro cents,so if you do this,I'd recommend trying the more expensive Western European resorts.

If some of you guys are interested in more opportunities to make a quick buck Europe,I'd throw some more tips at you,here or on private,however if none of you intends to take advantage of these opportunities,I'd be just wasting my time writing stuff

[OGNorCal707]

(08-01-2012 01:49 PM)Berliner Wrote:  

2.Clothes,shoes.Somebody suggested buying t-shirts from the US and selling them in the UK(his currency exchange numbers were completely off,he could've just checked google and this gives serious alert,that he doesn't know what he's talking about).

Yeah the last time I passed through the Heathrow Airport was about 10 years ago, I was a bit off with the currency conversion. But, guess what I don't give a fuck, I'm posting on an internet forum, not writing a senior thesis for a PHD. Furthermore, I was just dropping an idea, which was pretty good one. In the future I will make sure to research every piece of info I post, so little bitches like you won't talk shit.

[Berliner]

(08-01-2012 04:07 PM)OGNorCal707 Wrote:  

(08-01-2012 01:49 PM)Berliner Wrote:  

2.Clothes,shoes.Somebody suggested buying t-shirts from the US and selling them in the UK(his currency exchange numbers were completely off,he could've just checked google and this gives serious alert,that he doesn't know what he's talking about).

Yeah the last time I passed through the Heathrow Airport was about 10 years ago, I was a bit off with the currency conversion. But, guess what I don't give a fuck, I'm posting on an internet forum, not writing a senior thesis for a PHD. Furthermore, I was just dropping an idea, which was pretty good one. In the future I will make sure to research every piece of info I post, so little bitches like you won't talk shit.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=1gbp+to+usd
I believe I added some valuable info with the above post on how to make quick $,without much skills required in a relatively legal way.I didn't tell you that the exchange rate was 1.56,instead of 1.557.Don't mean to get into arguments,but you're being the bitch here.You also later suggested a passport scam,which is a serious crime

[shameus_o'reaaly]

(08-01-2012 10:25 AM)Lothario Wrote:  

Question to the Players who are familiar with both USA and England. Is there a significant Mark-Up on Apple Products like I-Phone, I-Pad, Mac-Books etc .

From what I have heard if I- pad is $ 500 in USA, It's priced at 500 GBP in England , True or not.

Anyone done this and if yes how do off load the electronics in England, Customs Issue ? Limit on number of products you can take, I assume you can at least one of each ?

This covers it
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/arriving/...gnoneu.htm

Price of electronics is really unstable though. I mean, Amazon has ipad3 for £380.
I don't know if Customs would value a suitcase of ipads according to the apple store price, or Amazon, or whatever, so you might find it difficult to budget accurately

One thing you could do, no travel, or import duty expenses:
whenever there's a launch for new products, offer to be a pro-shopper for anyone who wants their ipad4 or whatever on the first day, charge $50 or £50 per person (plus the retail price of each), camp out for 1-2 days, buy all of them you can= 500 to 1000 cash.
They did this when ipad 2 was released, i.e. offered it as a service, so clearly someone is making money for not doing very much.

[Thomas the Rhymer]

I just read this article where a 13 year old hustled by setting up fake company websites to sell non-existent goods.

[Parlay44]

I've done the cigarette thing Smokes in NC are half of what they cost in NJ and almost 1/3 of what they cost in NY.
A carton of Marlboro lights or Newports goes for $35 in NC and $70+ in NJ. Sell them to your friends for $50 and their friends for $60.
Easy profit.

Buy up a shitload of fireworks a month before the 4th of July and sell them.

[snoop]

Step 1: Educate yourself about a field that pays well

Step 2: Find job in that field

Step 3: Get to work

[Veloce]

One of the easiest hustles out there is for the managers out there who have some authority in ordering physical goods. The kickback hustle. Let's say you work as a store manager for a retail company. You have a company you buy your office supplies from. Sure it could be OfficeMax, or you could go with some knock off office supply company, hopefully owned by a Russian. There's a certain wink-wink nudge-nudge handshake you can do, mention casually that you're looking to set up some passive income in your life and are thinking of different ways. You'll know by your rep's response, you should be able to know which vendors are down with kickback schemes. If they're lesser known, off-brand companies chances are high they're good to go. Your rep for the supply company might be direct, maybe not, but you basically want to infer that if maybe, by accident, the supply company charged DOUBLE for a case of pens, you'd still buy them and take a "tip". So the company you work for pays too much for supplies, and you get an extra few hundred a week depending on how many supplies you go through.

Obviously, only do this if you don't give a shit about getting fired, because all it takes is one smartass in accounting to raise the red flag and wonder why you're paying so much in office supplies and realize what's going on. That's why if you run kickback schemes, you don't want to go crazy in overcharging the company you work for, so it doesn't show up glaringly obvious, and you wanna get kickbacks from several different vendors. If you do it right you can pull in an extra 20-30K a year.

[Spike]

(08-03-2012 11:30 AM)thedude3737 Wrote:  

One of the easiest hustles out there is for the managers out there who have some authority in ordering physical goods. The kickback hustle. Let's say you work as a store manager for a retail company. You have a company you buy your office supplies from. Sure it could be OfficeMax, or you could go with some knock off office supply company, hopefully owned by a Russian. There's a certain wink-wink nudge-nudge handshake you can do, mention casually that you're looking to set up some passive income in your life and are thinking of different ways. You'll know by your rep's response, you should be able to know which vendors are down with kickback schemes. If they're lesser known, off-brand companies chances are high they're good to go. Your rep for the supply company might be direct, maybe not, but you basically want to infer that if maybe, by accident, the supply company charged DOUBLE for a case of pens, you'd still buy them and take a "tip". So the company you work for pays too much for supplies, and you get an extra few hundred a week depending on how many supplies you go through.

Obviously, only do this if you don't give a shit about getting fired, because all it takes is one smartass in accounting to raise the red flag and wonder why you're paying so much in office supplies and realize what's going on. That's why if you run kickback schemes, you don't want to go crazy in overcharging the company you work for, so it doesn't show up glaringly obvious, and you wanna get kickbacks from several different vendors. If you do it right you can pull in an extra 20-30K a year.

I used to be an assistant buyer for about 3 years and would hand over a business card with my personal address on it around November/December. I got some nice Christmas presents for suppliers. Nothing big but a bit more than your usual bottle of cheap wine at the office. I didn't really exploit all my options back in my beta days.

[The Fantasist]

Regarding cigarettes: would it not be possible to post sleeves of cigarettes back to the US from countries where they are cheap? It's not as though cigs are contraband so why would customs stop a sleeve getting through particularly if you posted less then the duty free allowance. Could be a good way to supplement an income in a poor country. You post the sleeves back to a friend in the US/UK who sells them and you go halfs on the profit. Considering in some places you can live well for $40 a day you don't need to send too many back to have a decent lifestyle. Thoughts?

[The Fantasist]

(08-02-2012 12:37 PM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  

I just read this article where a 13 year old hustled by setting up fake company websites to sell non-existent goods.

That is legendary! Not that he scammed people but that as a 13 year old he spent his money drinking vintage champagne,fucking high class escorts and setting up modelling and dating agencies. The little fucker even rented offices and hired staff!! At 13 I was still believing in fucking tooth fairies,this kid was was making thousands and fucking. I doff my cap to the little fucker.

[Parlay44]

(08-04-2012 06:41 AM)Vorkuta Wrote:  

Regarding cigarettes: would it not be possible to post sleeves of cigarettes back to the US from countries where they are cheap? It's not as though cigs are contraband so why would customs stop a sleeve getting through particularly if you posted less then the duty free allowance. Could be a good way to supplement an income in a poor country. You post the sleeves back to a friend in the US/UK who sells them and you go halfs on the profit. Considering in some places you can live well for $40 a day you don't need to send too many back to have a decent lifestyle. Thoughts?

Each state imposes its own tax on cigs. They are stamped on the bottom with the state where they are to be sold. It's actually illegal to buy in one state and resell in another. You can only buy 10 cartons at a time. I had to hit up a few different stores to buy more.

[Giovonny]

As a kid, I also used to buy cheap pizza from Dominos (7 bucks) and take them to the bars around closing time. I would sell big slices for 2 bucks and small slices for 1 buck. I would only make like 10 bucks per pizza but 2 or 3 of those gave me money for my weekend.

[cherico88]

I'm surprised no one has suggested "curb stoning" as a legitimate hustle. Curb stoning is selling used cars without a dealer license. In the 90's, I ran a used car lot with my brothers, part time. All we sold were VW Westfalia campers, vans and an occasional VW pickup. We also rented the campers for vacationers. My brother is a mechanic and he and I reconditioned the vehicles.

My friend worked for us as a salesman and curb stoned on the side. I told him he could make legitimate money and not to cheat people by selling them bombs. He was pulling in $3-4k a week from his curb stoning business.

He had a whole network of friends that looked for used cars. He was always out looking for cars and would offer to buy a car even if it wasn't for sale. If an owner wanted $5k for a car, he would offer $2k. He looked at 25-50 cars before he found a deal.

He had a part time mechanic that worked out of his home and was very cheap. Instead of fixing the car, all he would have him do is degrease the engine and get it running (if not operational) without fixing it right.

He would then clean the interior and remove any smells. He can now easily sell the car here in SoCal for $4500. He paid maybe $2500 and at the most put $200 into it. His profit on this deal is $1800. Do one of these a week and you are making good coin.

The trick is, here in Calif. you can only legally buy/sell a handful of cars each year. He got around this by putting title into his relatives and friends names. When he ran out of names, he left the buyer name on the title blank and filled it in when he resold it.

The obvious problem with this is, he's selling a bad car to hard working people. If he only spent a hew hundred more to get the car running right he would be gold. Because he was shady, there were always angry customers looking for him and he got a bad beat down once from an unhappy customer.

He also used to buy VW bugs in Mexico and resell them here in the US. In the 80's and 90's bugs could be purchased for half the price in Mexico. You have to equip/smog them if you want to register them here in the US.

What he did was take photos of bugs so he knew what they look like. He was living in Texas and went to a junk yard and bought id/model tags from a wrecked car. Then, he would buy US-styled bumpers which were the biggest difference between the US and Mexican models. He would also buy plates, reg and title from the yard.

He then xeroxed the title and reg. and whited out the name and id #. He then trimmed it to size and has a blank reg.

Next, he would go to Mexico with everything and buy the bug. His Spanish was bad and he used a Mexican lawyer to buy for him. He had a mechanic install the bumpers and id plates. He then typed in his name as owner and the id # on the reg paper. He then drove the car on some dirt roads to make it look used. At the time, all you needed in TX to reg was a bill of sale and a safety inspection. He also had a receipt from an upholstery shop in Mexico to explain why the interior looked new.

He then resold the vehicle and transferred it. I'm laughing my butt off thinking about how he did this. Too funny!

[Celtic]

I think the electronics thing would be a really good one, buying something in a country with low electronics cost and buying them in a country with high electronics cost. There's alot you could probably get down there and claim to be for personal use- take an iphone, ipad, high-end laptop, Video Camera, camcorder, video game system-

the problem is, how do you go about finding a buyer in the other country? It's not like you can just set up shop in the black market and not tell anyone. You also have to hope that whoever you sell the products to doesn't want to set up their own hustle by robbing you of all that stuff- or if it's someone who owes a favor to the cops and is going to help them to by turning in a gringo smuggler.

That's the real problem with hustling isn't? If you try to get into hustling but you're not the real deal you can get hustled by a real hustler.