Thinking out of the box for fun and profit.

[Beverly]

Here is a simple, inexpensive penny sorter you can build, and an explanation of why you need one if you are going to buy bags of pennies and hope to profit from them. Sorting 100 USD worth of pennies manually by looking at the dates on each one is not fun.


http://www.silysavg.com/tutorials/copper_penny_sorter.html


It gets all of the copper ones out for you, then you can look for wheat and Indian heads among those, and just check the zinc ones for flaws. All copper pennies are worth a bit more than a penny, depending on the current price of copper, wheat or Indian pennies are worth collecting and, flawed zincs are worth something. The rest are just pennies and can be return to the bank for paper.

 

[Epicurean Pariah]

Here is a simple, inexpensive penny sorter you can build, and an explanation of why you need one if you are going to buy bags of pennies and hope to profit from them. Sorting 100 USD worth of pennies manually by looking at the dates on each one is not fun.


http://www.silysavg.com/tutorials/copper_penny_sorter.html


It gets all of the copper ones out for you, then you can look for wheat and Indian heads among those, and just check the zinc ones for flaws. All copper pennies are worth a bit more than a penny, depending on the current price of copper, wheat or Indian pennies are worth collecting and, flawed zincs are worth something. The rest are just pennies and can be return to the bank for paper.

Beverly, that is correct. I have always been amazed how much free easy money is out there, I don't think that one can get rich doing as we are suggesting.
One could do this like a job, make wages, pay the bills and eat once the process starts rolling.

Another thing that made good money as well as exercise, depending where you live, is metal detecting.
When I lived in Fla. I would go out at night and detect a few nights a week. I'd hit the beaches, parks and playgrounds. I averaged $300- 500 a week in jewelry and paid for the batteries and snacks with found change.
Think about this. Folks slather themselves with oil and wear rings and chains, play volleyball and such. An oily diamond ring flys off and sails 20-30 feet and hits the sand. The sand sticks to the oily ring and becomes invisible. Just waiting for me to find it. As I do this I pick up trash as a community service, ingratiating myself to hotels, cops and concerned citizens. My perspective is, I don't need the trash to clutter my search area the next time.
A purely selfish motive on my part is seen as a public service on their part. Works for me.
Think out of the box!

 

[Beverly]

Yes and, another good place for finding lost valuables is at the end of a fair or carnival. Go an hour or so before closing on the last day, go to the carnival office trailer and, ask to work helping with Slowe (say sl -ow as in ouch) night. That usually pays 100-200 USD if you help take rides down, and that is what you want to do because those rides sling jewelry, glasses and wallets off people like crazy. it's finder's keepers that night but, you can be a good citizen and mail wallets - minus any cash, back to their owners.

I've done that when freelance work was slow, make about 600 USD total with pay, ground score (what found money is called) and, selling the other valuables I find.

it's hard work and late night but you don't need any qualifications, no interview and, nothing but an official ID card and Social security number to get the job and, for four to six hours manual labor, it's good pay. After a fair or carnival on a dirt lot is also a good time and place to use a metal detector and the owners of the lot love you if you pick up the trash while you're at it.

 

[Epicurean Pariah]

Yes and, another good place for finding lost valuables is at the end of a fair or carnival. Go an hour or so before closing on the last day, go to the carnival office trailer and, ask to work helping with Slowe (say sl -ow as in ouch) night. That usually pays 100-200 USD if you help take rides down, and that is what you want to do because those rides sling jewelry, glasses and wallets off people like crazy. it's finder's keepers that night but, you can be a good citizen and mail wallets - minus any cash, back to their owners.

I've done that when freelance work was slow, make about 600 USD total with pay, ground score (what found money is called) and, selling the other valuables I find.

it's hard work and late night but you don't need any qualifications, no interview and, nothing but an official ID card and Social security number to get the job and, for four to six hours manual labor, it's good pay. After a fair or carnival on a dirt lot is also a good time and place to use a metal detector and the owners of the lot love you if you pick up the trash while you're at it.

Beverly, right, and flea markets, drive in movies, under sports bleachers and construction sites in old towns, houses and farms.

Always secure permission from owners if privately owned.

 

[Aspergirl4hire]

Yes and, another good place for finding lost valuables is at the end of a fair or carnival. Go an hour or so before closing on the last day, go to the carnival office trailer and, ask to work helping with Slowe (say sl -ow as in ouch) night. That usually pays 100-200 USD if you help take rides down, and that is what you want to do because those rides sling jewelry, glasses and wallets off people like crazy. it's finder's keepers that night but, you can be a good citizen and mail wallets - minus any cash, back to their owners.

I've done that when freelance work was slow, make about 600 USD total with pay, ground score (what found money is called) and, selling the other valuables I find.

it's hard work and late night but you don't need any qualifications, no interview and, nothing but an official ID card and Social security number to get the job and, for four to six hours manual labor, it's good pay. After a fair or carnival on a dirt lot is also a good time and place to use a metal detector and the owners of the lot love you if you pick up the trash while you're at it.

Um. So you're advocating stealing what people lost having a good time? No Lost-and-Found?

I don't agree at all. I have made friends of people who decided returning my goods to me was what they were about, because it meant they appreciated not only a nice thing, but the person who owned it--proving we had something in common.

 

[Beverly]

There is no lost and found on slowe night, the show is over and, if you don't take it, one of the other workers will. You can't mail cash so, yes given the options and, since I wouldn't be doing when I wasn't basically broke and needed the money to pay my bills, I had no problem taking my share of the ground score and other finds.

There is no way to know who lost loose change, jewelry, cameras etc... and, there is no lost and found because the carnival will be gone for another year as soon as all of the rides and games are loaded onto truck and ready to move. What was I going to leave it hanging on the fairgrounds fence and hope the owner and not someone else takes it? Whatever it was would not survive five minutes, someone else working the slowe would take it.

 

[Epicurean Pariah]

Um. So you're advocating stealing what people lost having a good time? No Lost-and-Found?

I don't agree at all. I have made friends of people who decided returning my goods to me was what they were about, because it meant they appreciated not only a nice thing, but the person who owned it--proving we had something in common.

Aspergirl4hire, well I think that it it is a matter of what and who lost something.
For example, when I was working at Disneyworld I found a wallet in the employee s caffateria, $600 cash and almost $2000 in checks, and ID. I turned it all over to a cashier there. I suspect she may have profited by my trust in her , but perhaps not. When I worked go the Gooding Bros. Multi Million Dollar Fairway, I operated a ride called the Rock and Roll , it was a circular cage that people at strapped into and tumbled around in. At the end of the night I found a wallet with $30 in and an ID. I remembered the old Afro American grandpa and the kid, tracked him down, called and returned the wallet. Oh, by the way if you don't think that most rides at a carnival are designed to toss your wallet, strip your rings off with high G forces and drop your loose chains from your neck when you are upside down, you are wrong.
I know for a fact that some people that work for some "charitable organizations", have side businesses selling donated cameras or whatever. That is stealing!
Not going through the time and effort to maybe return what a stupid, thoughtless and careless individual obviously did nay care for is not exactly stealing, any more than writing a post accusing someone for promoting "stealing" is exactly "libel".
Finding is serendipity, stealing is treachery.