The HUstle will teach you how to survive even thrive at any period of time. it's a mind state you're always in, and when understood can help you in every part of your life.
this is a guide i wrote 5 years ago.
- Getting Mobile
- Preparing for the hunt
- Where to go and what to look for
- Storage
- How to sell
- Getting rid of extra
- Motivation
Why is it that every business book will motivate and give you clues but
won’t actually tell you how to make money. Well this short guide is a
bit different, i’m going to tell you how to do everything you need to know
about making money in the good the bad and ugliest times. After
learning some of the things I will tell you, you can be dropped off in the
middle of any economy in any country and make money. Let me warn
you it’s a bit unconventional and at times can be down right dirty. It’s
always a hunt and everyday is a new adventure. You can do it before
after or during your day job or just pick up some extra cash on the way
to the grocery store. Now I know it sounds too good to be true and
usually when I think that it is, but this works! Has helped me buy the
toys and trips that I want and gave me more then a little
spending money throughout my early and present days. So open your
mind and sit back, i’m going to take you on an adventure through the
basics and not so basics of making 95% profit.
BIO: Hello my name is Gary Misner, i’m 23 years old and about a year
and a half ago I quit my job as an Auto body painter in a family
business. I worked there for 7 years and one day realized its just not
what i want to do. Day in and day out the same ours and breaks. So I
decided to quit not knowing exactly what I was going to do i was sitting
around one afternoon with a friend of mine trying to come up with legal
ways to make some money. My bills were low and really at first i wanted
to make enough money to fulfill my dream of traveling.
We started reminiscing of childhood times skateboarding around parking
lots. There was a kid who used to jump in the dumpsters at this one
spot and we would always wonder exactly what he was doing I mean
jumping in the garbage? So one day my curiosity got the best of
me and I took a peak. I started pulling out hairdryers, make up candy
and what ever else was typical for a CVS dumpster. There was
something strange about it that always stood out in mind they were all in
the box or had returned receipts taped to them. After giving presents to
my sister and friends (from the garbage) I just stopped and my A.D.D. brought me somewhere
else.
So we both said well let’s go look lets see now that we have cars if
maybe we can grab some stuff and sell it on Craigslist. At this point we
didn’t have an Ebay account. The first day out we found a file cabinet in
the box with a dent in it at staples we hurried home and put it on
Craigslist. In 20 minutes someone came and gave us 75 bucks! We
were in business. In this short pdf I will show you exactly how I made it
possible to go to Italy for 6 months, Florida for 2, travel through Europe,
learn to speak another language and make wine.
Chapter 1: Getting Mobile
Okay first things first your not going to want to take your mercedes or
your moms mini van so first off we need wheels. You don’t necessarily
need money to first do this i had $800 for the truck when I started.
Before that I contemplated renting a car for a week just to save enough
for the truck and not dirty my car. Let’s assume you have $1000 dollars
to start. After asking everyone you know if they know someone that’s
selling an old beat up pick up or van hit Craigslist. It might take a few
weeks but for sure you will find a truck for a 1,000 dollars and under.
The truck needs to move, nothing else matters after all when the truck
breaks down eventually you junk it and get more then half of your
money back. Look for a 8 foot bed so you can have bigger loads, skip
the 4wd and a/c is always good in the summer of New York.
Vans are great as well because they give you coverage in the rain and
also act as a storage unit when things start getting crazy. The stuff you
will be picking up is not dirty, not at all but has been in a trash can so
keep this in mind when picking your wheels. Easy rubber mat floors
instead of carpet make it much simpler to hose out and clean. Always
change your oil and maintain your work truck, without you have no
business.
Chapter 2: Preparing for the hunt
Now you may think what do you have to do to prepare for dumpster
diving? Well actually there’s a lot of little things you should do and learn
from my mistakes. Like first, attire. You want to always keep your skin
covered, who knows what's in some these dumpsters, if it’s hot suck it
up and wear long sleeves and pants and sucks pulled up with a pair of
boots. I wear the mechanix gloves.
The shoes you wear should never ever come into your house. Now this
has never happened to me but one garbage man told me that he
stepped on a cock roach and the eggs went on his sole and brought
them in his house! Now, this is rare but I wouldn’t take the chance. Next
you need a good light, although I would go in the morning most will go
at night. Purchase a light for the head or a new little mag light you can
bite down on while in the garbage.
Hand sanitizer, make sure your truck is well equipped with a sufficient
amount of hand sanitizer. I use it every five minutes but im a bit of a
germ freak. If you want you can dress in all black at night, even though
garbage is public property something about dressing in all black and
sneaking around makes the whole thing a little more fun. Also I
would suggest having a partner even though you must split the profits,
when that big expensive item is there and you can’t lift it yourself half is
better then nothing, and it also makes the whole thing a lot more fun.
Last but not least an Ipod full of music and good cup of coffee.
On me and my partners second run we found 5 brand new waste management
shirts with someones name on it. I guess they quit before they got started.
We took this as a sign and put our own names on them.
Chapter 3: Where to go?
This is something you can really benefit from I've searched every
corporate chain known to man. Many wasted hours has narrowed me
down to a few good ones that I would always look for. First off you don’t
want to search anything with food unless your looking to be a dumpster
diver to eat, which I’ve tried in Amsterdam and it’s not so bad but really,
if we stuck to the good stuff we would half enough money to buy food
and everything else we wanted. So my recommendation is to stay away.
Small strip malls are usually a waste of time, you might find a few good
things but the gas in your gas gussler is not worth the trip. Big corporate
buildings and chains, Toys R Us , Bed Bath and Beyond, Staples, vitamin
stores, Borders, Barnes and Noble, Michael's, Target, Wal-Mart. The
first week you go out bring a notepad and mark down which dumpsters
were empty full or compactors, then you can make a schedule where
eventually you will be going out max 3 nights a week. Now some of the
chains will be big enough were they have trash compactors. Do not try
and get in these they are not worth dying and there are plenty of more
places to go. My favorite out of all the stores is the book stores because
I like to read and bed bath and beyond. One night we pulled 5k out of
bed bath and beyond in halo vacuums. Bed bath and beyond has the
best return policy they mark it with a print out of exactly whats wrong
with it if any.
You must realize anything that’s returned goes in the garbage. So the
guy who bought and cant afford and brings it back but the box is torn
most likely it will end up in your hands. This creates huge consumer
waste and we are here to reap the benefits. Now if you have limited
space for storage your not going to want to take garbage I mean you
need to discard it after if its destroyed and then becomes illegal to re
dump it somewhere. So take your time and you will quickly see how fast
the good stuff ad's up after furnishing your whole apartment first. If you
google bed bath and beyond in your area you will surely find a bunch I
don’t care where you live. Also a big tip to make some serious bucks is
auto body shops. Now I learned at an early age working at the body
shop that when an insurance company wants to switch a head light
because of a scratch we would throw out the scratched one.
Now with little skill you can wet sand and buff out scratches in plastic
and glass and then proceed to sell them on Ebay or Craigslist. Auto
body shops are not willing to let you dig through their stuff, so what I did
was go around to all the body shops in my area with a sticker set and
my number and said if you keep the damaged lights for me and write
the model and year on it I will give x amount of dollars for each light.
The junk ones would get paid for by the $1200 Mercedes light that you
will find.
List of places best to worst:
Bed Bath and Beyond
Buy Buy Baby
Barnes and Noble
Borders
Office Max
Staples
Michael’s
Golfsmith
DSW
West Marine
Burlington Coat Factory
Petco
Models
Vitamin Shoppe
Marshalls
TJ Max
Pier 1
Sports Authority
Baby’s R us
K Mart
Chapter 4:Storage
Before you know it your car,truck,room,and shed will be full of inventory.
Now it’s time to expand, this is where the over head starts coming in.
There are plenty of storage units popping up all over the country and
you can take advantage of this. For 120 dollars a month you now have
a warehouse.
This is great for many things no hassle from the landlord or parents,
some even offer WiFi where you can take pictures right in the unit and
list them while your there. Now you eliminate moving your inventory
back and forth to the house or office. You also have 24 hour password
access, and if you eventually want to get out of the business you let
them know that you are leaving and they will auction your storage unit
off with everything in so you don’t need to dispose of it. What i would do
is bring a majority of the stuff to my storage area and keep the stuff I
was going to sell that night in the truck and when I go back i just pick up
more. A storage unit can also act as a shipping station. Go online to
usps.com and order all of the boxes and stickers and tape it’s free! now
you made your shipping station. Reminder we are only in now 120 a
month plus gas in the truck. When one cappuccino machine can go for
$120 that’s not to shabby.
Chapter 5: Sales!
Okay so now the best part how to really monetize from the whole thing.
The first file cabinet we sold I had sold on Craigslist. What you didn’t
know is we sold it on Craigslist because we needed money in
the Paypal account to cover returns and shipping. Ebay is probably
going to be your best bet at first they take a pretty huge percentage but
if you get your shipping costs right which is a huge deal, you will make
up for it. Check usps.com to calculate shipping costs, this is a must.
Now if you are not familiar with Ebay like i wasn’t, they take you through
a whole tutorial and by the end you will be a wiz, so no worry for the
computer challenged. If you start to get a lot of inventory it would be a
good idea to make an Ebay store which is only 15 dollars a month, and
allows you to post all of your good for up to 30 days which is awesome
instead of re-posting everything every 7 days! The store is easy to build,
again they take you through it. Do not lie in the listing you post if it’s
used make sure you say used, if it’s damaged make sure also you state
that, open box, you got it jot that down. When pricing your product even
though it’s a hundred percent profit do not low ball everybody. You will
be shi%ting were you sleep. Keep the prices lower than your
competitors but reasonable and competitive.
Make sure your feedback stays strong and I always liked to have
surprise priority 3 day mail if I could afford it. For an extra few dollars
you will have a repeat customer searching through you store. Flat rate
shipping is also a great way to save money so again go to usps.com to
see the regulations of that.
Okay so you listed something for 30 days and it didn’t sell. Time to go
to Craigslist if it’s suitable for a few days then after 35 days i always
liked to have a huge tag sale. I would have on the sign something like
everything 5 dollars ----seriously. People would come and clean me out
before 12 o’clock!. The rest you should be able to discard through you
normal municipal service at the house or find a home for the good stuff.
Out with the old in with the new always before getting suffocated with
inventory. There will always be more!
Final Chapter: Inspiration
Now I started doing this in April without all of this information , and by
June 22 nd i had saved enough money to go to Europe for 3 months! If
your like me and want more money the why spend the money you make
doing this. Why not invest it? I dabbled in day trading which i lost a bit of
money and then i started researching silver bullion. Instead of taking our
money out of the Paypal account we would just buy stuff that was on
Ebay silver bullion. Now this opportunity still stands and i’m stilling
buying it to this day. In the time when I started dumpster diving like a
pro and now i had made a hundred percent profit and doubled my
money after that as well.
I love the idea of investing the money you make from garbage because
it’s an opportunity to play with money and not be so worried about losing
it. You see how easy it is to make the money so you are more willing to
take a risk and try to make more. Over all if you do it right and don’t
break any laws it will be a great full ,part time way to have fun make
money and learn a lot of things about investing and commonsense
metrics and business.
I know what your thinking everyone must be doing this so I missed out
on all of the good things well guess again 95% of the people are saying
the same thing as you and nothing is getting done. So get out there wit
a friend a coffee and some good music and go for the treasure hunt, it
will enlighten you forever.
“Some Will Laugh Many Will Follow”