Strange Jobs Still Pay The Bills

September 6, 2008 at 6:25 pm · Filed under make moneys

Strange jobs? How do we define that? Years ago I stole cars as a repo-man, had some adventures as an investigative process-server, and even handed out samples in grocery stores. Here are some other unusual jobs you can aspire to:

Wrinkle Chaser

This is the person that irons wrinkles from shoes as they are being made to ensure they are perfectly smooth when you buy them.

Chicken Sexer

This is a real job title. A chicken sexer sorts through baby chicks to determine if they are male or female, and then segregate them.

Citrus Fruit Colorer

A Citrus Fruit Colorer, with the help of steam and chemicals, gives citrus fruit a more natural coloring, because fruit is usually picked before it is fully ripe.

Celluloid Trimmer

A Celluloid Trimmer shaves down a golf club and then adds celluloid bands onto the golf clubs to make the leather grip stay in place.

Odor Judgers

Want to smell armpits all day to help make effective deodorants? I’m not sure why somebody other than some strange fetishist would want this job.

Furniture Tester

Now here’s a good one. The La-z-Boy Company (and probably others) employs furniture testers to check out their recliners. Want to relax for a living?

Cowpuncher

You can herd, castrate and brand cattle. Then, when you get bored castrating cattle, you can repair fences, watering troughs and do other maintenance work on the ranch.

Alligator Wrangler

This is more of a dangerous job than a strange one, and probably not worth the pay, unless you get a T.V. show like the The Crocodile Hunter.

This is just a small sampling of the weird jobs out there. I understand that sumo-wrestlers need helpers in the bathroom, for example, and a friend of mine once had a job painting “Brake Release” on those little handles all day. Then there are the strange businesses you can start, but that’s another story.

Steve Gillman has had an interest in all the many ways to make money since childhood. You can read about more strange businesses and jobs at his website: http://www.UnusualWaysToMakeMoney.com

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Selling Second-hand Books On EBay

September 5, 2008 at 5:01 pm · Filed under make moneys

To be able to make a part time income on eBay you need a steady supply of products that are constantly in demand.

There is a serious problem with obtaining products from wholesalers or drop shippers. Basically, anyone else can also obtain the same products and undercut you pricing on eBay.

It’s very hard to regularly make a part time income on eBay with products that can be obtained by virtually anyone. You need a product that is unique to you, a product that would be difficult for anyone to copy.

But you may not have the skills or knowledge to create your own product. So what do you do?

I think that I may have the answer for you. There is a huge market on eBay for second-hand books. Over four thousand are sold each week. That’s a big market and you should be able to create a part-time income for yourself.

The great thing about second hand books is that they are readily available but not from wholesalers and drop shippers. So this eliminates the problem of people undercutting your price.

The potential profit on a book can be quite large. For example you may buy a book for $20 and resell it for $40 to $50. That is a big profit margin and I doubt if you can find many other products that match that profitability.

To be able to successfully sell second hand books you will need to get a list of which types of books are in demand. For example is a James Bond book more treasured than an Enid Blyton.book?

You will also need to learn how to identify and describe the condition of each book that you sell. This is vital for creating an advert on eBay that will attract potential buyers. You will need to be able to asses and describe the condition of the spine, hinges, cover, pages, dust jacket and many other aspects of the book.

You’ll be amazed at the sort of places where you can buy second-hand books for resell, such as junk shops, thrift shops, charity shops, garage sales, estate sales, car boot sales. You can often buy a book for a very low price at these places and resell for a huge profit.

So, you can see that there is a lot to learn about buying and selling second hand books, but the profit margin makes it all worth while.

Visit the following website if you would like a free report about how to make money from finding and reselling second hand books. http://www.books2profit.com

You can republish this article in its entirety providing that you do not change it and that you include the authors’ biography.

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Five More Unusual Ways To Make Money

September 4, 2008 at 5:19 pm · Filed under make moneys

There are a lot of ways to make money if you have money. You don’t have to turn to complicated businesses or ordinary ways like bank C.D.’s. And you don’t even have to use your money. If you have credit cards, for example, you can get cash advances, and make money with the cash. These are ways that aren’t quite a business because you can do them once or only when you feel like it.

Invest In Other’s Expertise

My friend John had to show me several car magazines before I understood why an old fiberglass car was a good deal at $2,300, because I know nothing about cars. When he eventually convinced me to put up the money, it needed a new transmission for $900. Fortunately, he sold the corvette for $4,300, netting us about $1,000. I took half the profit ($500) for putting up the money for the two weeks.

I used to do this quite a bit years ago, and only once lost $50 or so on a car. I knew nothing about cars, so I did it with friends that know cars but don’t have cash. By the way, if I had paid 18% interest and a $50 cash advance fee to raise the money with a credit card, my profit would still have been over $400, and John did all the work. I love playing with money. Do you have any friends who know everything about boats?

Buy And Sell Mobile Homes

Pay cash and you get better prices on almost anything, including mobile homes. Sell with easy terms, and you get the highest price, because you are making it possible for someone to buy a home. More than one investor out there is buying and selling mobile homes.

I read one investors story about a recent deal he did. He bought a mobile for $4,000. The seller was asking $6,500, but was tired of waiting and paying the lot rent. The investor cleaned it up and sold it for $10,000, with $1000 down, payments of $250, and 10% interest on the balance. Did the buyer overpay? Hard to say, since his alternative may have been renting and having nothing to show for it in a few years, instead of having a home with some residual value.

Be A Loan Shark

People occasionally need money for a short while. A friend of mine for example, got a good paying construction job because I loaned him $300 to get drywall stilts. I used to do this often many years ago, and I never charged less than a $5/week as a loan fee (don’t call it interest). I made one or two thousand dollars extra some years doing this. If you have any qualms about it, check the laws in your area and put it all in writing. Also, if you want total security, take collateral.

Buy And Sell Estates

We recently met a couple who buy out estates, sell some of the things at flea markets, then run the rest through auctions. They’ve made a living doing this for years. They load up a trailer after negotiating to buy a whole house full of stuff. Then, if they don’t want to do the flea market thing, they just auction everything on Sunday afternoon for a nice profit.
If you are a good judge of value and have a regular auction nearby, you could do the same with rummage sales. Just offer $100 for everything and then auction it off piece-by-piece. The auction near us lets anyone sell their stuff, with no fee to enter. They just take a 25% commission.

Playing With The Casino’s Money

I worked at a casino for years and I saw a lot of people foolishly writing down the numbers that came up on the roulette wheel. Foolishly, I say, because their their theories were nonsense. Casinos will always welcome these players and even hand them the pen and paper.

One player, however, was actually scientific about it. By finding a bias in the wheel, after “charting” it for 5,000 spins, he made thousands betting on just one or two numbers. When a number comes up, it pays 35 to 1, but one of the numbers, because of manufacturing imperfections or whatever reason, was coming up 1 in 27 spins, instead of the average 1 in 38 spins.

So all he had to do was bet $10 a spin, and he profited $80 for every 27 spins of the wheel in the long run. That’s about $100 per hour. The ups and downs are dramatic though, so this is not for the faint-hearted. In this case, I saw him lose as much as $700 in a night. Also, not all wheels have biases (they eventually replaced that wheel). So have you ever tried “card counting” in blackjack…? There are endless ways to make money.

Steve Gillman has been studying money for thirty years (and sometimes making a little). For interesting and useful information, visit his website, Unusual Ways To Make Money: http://www.UnusualWaysToMakeMoney.com

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