The great Kamakiri $10 experiment
 

I'm doing something that I've always wanted to do, and I decided to start with a $10 bill, just because that's what it cost me to play "the game" ;)

Have you ever wondered if, by flipping and some creativity, to see how many times you can multiply your money, in a similar fashion to the way that guy on Craigslist ended up getting a house for a paperclip?

Found the opportunity, so here goes the story.....

Was out at an estate auction, and bought a tent for $10. Looked pretty large, and the poles were there. Turns out that it's a pretty desirable tent. Here's a pic.....

The tent sold for just shy of $140 on eBay! Decided to reinvest the money and try to parlay it into other stuff. Got two running Bolens tube frame tractors (a G10 and a 1000) and 8 chain saws. This is gonna be interesting :)

The chain saws are mighty cool. The large one is a Remington Super 754, a couple Remington Yardmasters, a couple Remington Mighty Mite 500's, the McCulloughs are Super Pro 40, 130, and two Mini MAC 35's. Plus, an ANCIENT small Sears saw.

Pretty good deal, huh? :D

Looks like theres a Buick Roadmaster buried under there!:D
Nice to see real portholes where they belong,instead of the fake stick on variety slapped on Hondas and SUVs.

You're right,there is still treasure out there you can make money off,it's even better if the stuff you find isnt something you personally want and become attached too.

One guy found a Patek Philippe watch in a box full of used watches at a swap meet and made $140k on it!

In these tough times there are many more people out look though.

In this case, I responded to a Craigslist ad for lawn tractors for sale. He had about a dozen of them in running shape that he got about $150 each for, by the time I got there, he had 4 left that ran, and I picked the best and cheapest of those. The guy is cleaning out his dad's property, and the place looks like and episode of Hoarders. It goes back about 3/4 of a mile into the woods, where the old man parked TONS of stuff, including a '59 Thunderbird buried up to its axles, a ford COE tow truck, industrial lathes, snowblowers, an International W4 (badly rusted), and more there than I can ever describe. Motorcycles in piles, a bunch of '40s Fords, and everything back there was moved there under its own power.

I told him to call me when he has the rest of the lawn tractors dug out, the rest are really rough at a glance, but there were so many skeeters back there I couldn't stay long. Hoping to cherry pick a few once these sell :)

Outboard engines, old wooden boats, everything and anything you can think of mechanical. My God, it was a weird kind of paradise! HAHAHAHA

If I lived near by I'd try to get one of the 40's fords cheap. Not to flip, but because I'm broke and would like my first car to be a 1940s model that I can brag about restoring myself!

Tom C.

These would be way beyond the feasibility of a normal restoration. The '59 Thunderbird was driven to its resting place over 30 years ago, these have been there longer.

I did get a peek at the one ford, looked like a '52 model, 4 door. Paint was rusted off it, and while the car was complete, the drivers window was halfway down. I'd love to go way in the back to see the others, but judging by this one it's probably parts only, or scrap metal. I do remember spotting a '73 Ranchero with a cap, and an old Dodge A series van that was used to store firewood.

I don't think the Amazon has that many mosquitoes. Seriously. There was something that peaked my interest back in the weeds, it was a snowblower attachment for a tractor that looked like two jet engine turbines with a front impeller. It was painted the original dark red, so I'm guessing Toro or Wheel Horse. I bet that thing can really wing some snow!

Very interesting. I have done stuff like that. It is fun. But I never had big success or anything.

Its always a shame when a nice vintage car that could have been restored was driven and parked in the elements and allowed to become a future parts car.

I knew a guy like that,he would buy all kinds of old cars from the 40's 50's and 60's and put them out in the field behind house and there they would sit for the next 30 years!

People used to stop by (myself included) asking if he'd be interested in selling a particular car only to be told they werent for sale.

He had a really nice 1957 Custom Royal Lancer that was allowed to sink into the ground and have its windows shot out with a BB gun.

Eventually he lost the property and the city came and hauled all the junk away.

How bad off was the T-Bird?

I've thought of experiments like that myself from time to time. I've had a number of things that I made out like a bandit on-stuff I got for free and sold on ebay. I think the best such deal was a pickup load of tapes that a local radio station was giving away for free (bunch of carts with top 40 pop music, and oodles of big open reels of easy listening). The latter, especially, sold very well...that free load eventually netted me over a thousand dollars.

What I've considered: could a person just start out walking, and sustain themselves on what they could find/what oddjobs they could do? Could you pick up enough spare change to buy a bargain in a thrift store, then resell it for a tidy profit? Ideas...

I tried something like this back in December, I made nearly 400 bucks that month, mainly because I had picked up two 1970s Marantz stereo receivers for around $20 each that only needed minor repairs, and made about $100 per unit selling them on ebay.

I tried the same in January, but didn't do so hot. I got a good deal on this 1941 Zenith 8S563 console radio with the thought of restoring and selling it, but after I got it going I decided to keep it:D

There's a book somewhere here about a guy doing something similar in the early 80's - going out to "find" America, living off what he traded labor for - he was fine until he got into the Southwest, and the sparseness led him to abandon his attempt. I'm gonna find it and post the title.

Another thought: What if you found (curb crawling, dumpster diving, etc) something, sold it, and worked it up from there? I'll admit a period of my youth was just that - found some 300 dress patterns, sold those, bought a bike, then a lawn mower, and finally a rake, all from dumpster diving proceeds. With the 3 in hand, fall arrived....:pity:

I sold the mower to a guy after I started working for my Dad. I made more money in one hour (plus fringe bennies) with Dad than I could have made in a day mowing lawns. I learned a lot more too...

Cheers,

Here are some things written by a fellow a met a couple times, both before and after his "big" walk. An interesting guy. Before the walk I really wondered what he was out to prove; when it was over he gave a very good sermon and was more upbeat than I expected. (Don basically set out to walk to every Church of the Brethren in the US)
http://www.newcommunityproject.org/p...m_pavement.pdf

I once bought a RCA radio phono table set for 1$ at the donation auction of a meet. It was dismantled, but the only things missing were the chassis bolts and 1 knob. I got those, and replaced the lytics and one or two papers, and cleaned it. It looked good the radio worked, and I sold it for 40$(I liked it so much I almost couldent sell it, and sort of regret doing so). This may be the only radio that I've sold for a good profit.

Tom C.

Basically the above scenario is what's become of the guy's property....the town is on them bigtime to get everything cleaned up within a certain timeframe.

From the outside, the T-Bird didn't look bad. In fact, the man told me that the car was driven back to its resting place over 30 years ago....he remembered how driving it to the back put a crack in the top of the septic tank as he drove it. It had sunk up to the rockers in the ground, so I'm guessing that since the place was so wet and muddy even in June, that anything underneath would be rusted to the point where you'd have to use torches to free anything up.

But here's an update on my venture :)

I got one of the chain saws, a Remington Mighty Mite 500, running flawlessly. Starts on the first pull. I did have to use parts from 3 of them to get it going, and I think I can still put one together with the remains of the other two.

The tractors didn't sell on ebay, even at the price I had them listed, so I decided to assemble the best components into one machine and begin there. Figured the old Bolens deserved a new paint job too, so I began that yesterday. Kinda fun. And it looks a lot happier :D

Kinda reminds me of "Dizzy" from Bob the Builder :)

Scratch that, I didn't notice that the rusty 1000 DID in fact sell on eBay for $100.

That said, I'm at $100 plus this Bolens, a working chain saw, and 6 other saws all for a $15 investment. Not bad.