Not that unusual, but I responded to an ad of an older dude looking for someone who’d go shopping for him. He couldn’t get down the stairs easily anymore. But really, he just wanted someone to talk to. So I’d go to his place, grab the shopping list and money, walk across the street to the nearest supermarket and be back in 20 minutes. And then he’d often cook for me and tell me about his life, travels, the music he composed on his very old computer, stuff like that. I’d get paid for 3-4 hours of which 90% was just talking to this guy about electronic music.
Was any of the music good?
Well, I didn’t like it but I think he had some skills. He was into this minimalistic music, I forgot what it was called. I found it boring, but I could also tell he must have known a thing or two about music theory.
I was snoopy at a fair.
The job description said “must be 160 cm or shorter”. I am 161 cm. This one cm was felt for all the 6 hours.
I was also insanely hot and blind so at one point I started and kept dancing macarena to not pass out and stay awake. I kept getting phone calls for three years afterwards because they wanted me to work for them again. No way.
I was messaging a guy on Grindr, and he asked if he could buy my socks — ie the socks that I had been wearing all day. I obliged. I made (iirc) 30$ 😎
Stacking firewood, the summer I was 13 years old. The guy said he’d pay me five bucks a cord, meaning that for every 8 foot section I stacked to four foot high, I got paid five dollars.
Had to bike about seven klicks down a back road every day, to get to a metal warehouse with a yard out back. They kept a log splitter and a conveyor belt set at an angle back there. Strange place, with an old cargo van converted into a flat bed rusting in the tall grass to the side. Their dog didn’t like me.
Hard, hot, heavy work. Firewood sections still slippery and dense from sapweight, and a pile that was liable to collapse if and when you pulled at the wrong piece. I was slow to start and did not improve over time. I believe I averaged about four or five cord a day, which is not bad for a thirteen year old if you ask me.
After a few days of stacking, I had a few rows finished and the pile was getting low. They started running the splitter and belt again, while I was picking firewood from the pile. Once they started that, I couldn’t keep up. This was partially due to the fact that I now had to approach the pile with one eye on the conveyor belt, to time things so that I didn’t get hit with falling pieces. They brought in some other guy one day, who lasted a few hours before getting hit in the hand by a falling piece of wood. I didn’t see him again.
First time I went to ask for my pay, the man counted out 25 five dollar bills and handed them over. He wasn’t lying - it was genuinely five bucks a cord. I was baffled at the time as to why the man would have that many low denomination bills - I learned much later on that he was basically laundering money from illicit sources through this operation, which explained a lot.
I stayed there for about a month and a half, ending my summer with about 500 dollars - enough to buy myself a snowboard with some help from my parents. Strange times.
The Timber Launderer
Having my pets pose for chewy pics
Technically I didn’t make money, I just got some money back. On multiple occasions, a few years after moving homes, the student housing company would suddenly pay back money that I apparently overpaid for gas and electricity. I’d get another email in which they’d apologize (again) and yeet another pile of money my way. It was usually something like 80-200 euros if I remember correctly. Truth is, I never really felt like I was paying much anyway. Compared to what I’m paying now it was absolutely nothing. But hey, I’ll never say no to “free money” I guess…
I used to get paid to roast people online, like Wendy’s.
We got pretty famous locally, but never nationwide. And sales did increase from recognition, so that was nice.
Back then, people would cheer you on as you called a troll a moron.
But now, you call someone a moron, and they would review bomb you. Or worse, shoot up the place. The latter being a real thing, and fortunately, our place was empty. Apparently I struck a nerve.
Of course, the big brands are still immune to review bombs. But roast someone unhinged and them able to walk up to your storefront? Yeah…
Back when I lived with my parents, I had an extended family member who worked in hospitality in Atlantic City. Normally her hotel doesn’t allow pets, but I guess this one guy was rich enough to be an exception to the rule, as he wanted to stay and gamble but had a new puppy that couldn’t be left alone. She made a social media post asking if anyone would be available to dog-sit for him last-minute. I was the first to reply.
I made several hundred dollars by sitting in a random hotel room and playing games on my computer while a sweet puppy slept on my lap. The man expected to be out late, but he came back early and still paid me for the full time.
It was awesome. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Housesitter/pet sitter for disabled pets - giving twice daily insulin injections to a diabetic dog was very stressful.
I also spent a good amount of time scrapping old electronics for circuit boards, aluminium, copper, and wire. Very large printers, laptops, servers, appliances, whatever I could savemge from the side of the road, from junk auctions, and businesses. I made pretty good money doing this on my spare time. I made several tools that hastened the scrapping process, and built a cable stripper that would strip off the PVC from power cords so I could get the raw copper wire. I probably only made like $20 an hour, but it was after work and I had nothing better to do. Once a month or so I’d fill up my van and take it to the scrapyard for $200-$500
Man, I’ve dreamt of doing scrapping in the past but didn’t have a vehicle that would really workout for bigger items. But even then, I wish I would have done it with a friend or something. My focus would have been scrapping old electronics, printers, laptops, etc. How long ago did you do this scrapping stuff?
I’ve been doing it on and off since I was a teenager. My first ‘job’ was collecting cans and squashing them for the aluminium at about 11. Then I would also ride my bike to building sites and get the copper wire offcuts from the bins.
In 2020 I lost my job and started a business in a tech field, so I filled my spare time with collecting roadside stuff, and also did a bit of paid disposal - in some neighbourhoods it’s really hard to get rid of a broken appliance, so I’d pick up dead washing machines and very large plasma TVs and they would pay me $5 or $10 to take them away. I got a ton of old servers from friends of friends, and would sell some parts from them, the power supplies were popular. I also sold some appliance spare parts, and also just fixed a few of them and sold them as working appliances.
I still do a bit of scrapping, but it’s mostly old power cords. I have a lead on a company that sells imported equipment where each bit comes with a Euro cable and a US cable that they don’t need, so I end up with boxes and boxes of cords, and the market for scrap copper is high enough that I don’t even have to strip the PVC off, just chop the ends off and sell them a hundred kilos at a time.
I still get appliances and fix them sometimes, or if a friend or family member wants to get rid of something, I’ll do the hard work of carting it off, figuring out if its fixable or not, and selling or scrapping it out.
Trading/selling music gear
Used to do the Amazon empty box scam, and sell the shipped replacements on eBay.
More recently I’d go through the bins in the barrio, find the clothes that had been left, wash them and sell them on Vinted.
Any electronics were tested and then cleaned and put on Wallapop.
Imported/smuggled and sold packs of Lucky Strike cigarettes at my US high school. I should have charged more, in hindsight.
A bug in namecheap got me ownership of a registered domain. Basically they stole their domain and gave it to me. Been hoarding it since
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I designed a board game as a personal challenge and posted my notes online along the way. As the game got close to being finished a publisher messaged wanting to help finish and sell the game. Royalties were enough for a couple small family vacations. That experience really helped cement board gaming (and designing) as one of my core hobbies.
That’s super cool how many more games have you made for your family since?
I now have 2 more published games, several expansions to that first game and a few more ready to publish.
Would you like it to be your main source of income and, if so, how far away is that from becoming a reality?
No, that’s not realistic; I would probably transition to video game development if I wanted to make a career out of game design. I’m happy to keep this a hobby.
Ah that’s cool, hope you keep enjoying it. Happy cake day.
