Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#631

Post by MrFoof » Mon, Apr 22, 2019, 4:23 PM UTC

quicklyfrozen wrote: post #420

MrFoof wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Mostly Craigslist, with a bit of AutoTrader. The reality is AutoTrader is swamped with dealer listings and sponsor listings that I don't feel I'm receiving any additional value for their listing fees. 2. Repairs and preventative maintenance. We average ~4 feet of snow a year, so tie rod ends, wheel bearings, control arms, bushes, flex pipes, exhaust hangers, etc. suffer since no one really maintains a steel car pr…

Those Bendpak Quick Jacks look pretty nice -- seems like you'd have good access to everything. Any drawbacks?

For most people the only drawback will be cost, and storage space when it’s disassembled.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#632

Post by phaedrus » Mon, Apr 22, 2019, 4:24 PM UTC

MattBearman wrote: post #584

My wife and I have a YouTube channel on which we are fixing up an old Toyota MR2 [0], we’ve no desire to be full time “YouTubers”, but we enjoy making the videos and get about $70 / from patreon/ads 0 - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe1gNnS8EDytTYqSG0IEbXw

I follow your YouTube channel! Really enjoy it. I've wanted an MR2 Spyder since I saw one in my university's parking lot, but it's always been metaphorically like a couple who would be great together but were always with someone else when the other was on the market.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#633

Post by MrFoof » Mon, Apr 22, 2019, 4:27 PM UTC

busterarm wrote: post #403

MrFoof wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Mostly Craigslist, with a bit of AutoTrader. The reality is AutoTrader is swamped with dealer listings and sponsor listings that I don't feel I'm receiving any additional value for their listing fees. 2. Repairs and preventative maintenance. We average ~4 feet of snow a year, so tie rod ends, wheel bearings, control arms, bushes, flex pipes, exhaust hangers, etc. suffer since no one really maintains a steel car pr…

Regarding point 4, do you even consider small patch work? Perhaps where you would need to apply a body patch, filler, sand & paint? I imagine with the cars you're working with rust isn't an issue, but could be needed for minor damage. Are you passing on those cars completely or leaving those as is?

I can repaint entire panels, and blend it well enough to be indistinguishable — though ultimately I’ll end up leveling the clearcoat on the entire vehicle, which is a ton of work to do right. The problem is to hit my standard of quality it’s far too much time for the effort required. The time is better spent finding something that doesn’t need major paint repair.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#634

Post by MrFoof » Mon, Apr 22, 2019, 4:30 PM UTC

wycy wrote: post #303

MrFoof wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bread and butter is the Lexus RX, Acura MDX, Honda CR-V and Toyota Highlander. There is zero issue putting them out the door, because the demand is insane. I've also started with Toyota Priuses because there's high-demand, most mechanics are allergic to batteries, and people dump them for cheap over any battery pack issue. Though I've worked on a ton of stuff, the above is where there's A) enough people owning the ab…

If you were to start selling BMWs/Audis/Mercs, you might also find your reputation suffering if/when things go wrong shortly after purchase. You're probably better off sticking to reselling the more reliable brands.

I’ve sold them. The main issue is when you look at the extra profit, the extra labor doesn’t really put you ahead.

You also get a very different kind of buyer (skews faaaar younger) that honestly, is just insufferable to deal with. There’s more profit per unit, but not more profit an hour, and too much dealing with awful personalities.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#635

Post by iheartpotatoes » Mon, Apr 22, 2019, 4:34 PM UTC

acangiano wrote: post #340

iheartpotatoes wrote: post #112

I build boats.

What kind of boats? Do you have a site?

No site, but I also misread the title of the post: I make no money doing it. It is just a hobby. I make kayaks and canoes. Been doing it for almost a decade, I make about one a year.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#636

Post by arisAlexis » Mon, Apr 22, 2019, 4:35 PM UTC

grecy wrote: post #94

I've written a couple of books that sell on Amazon and Apple iBooks - it takes zero minutes per month work for me, but brings a nice little side income. I won't get rich, but it's nice to have the money come in for doing nothing after I hit the "publish" button. Even the printed books cost nothing. I'm about to hit publish on a photo coffee-table book from my three years around Africa, and I'll write an Africa guide…

any chance to define a bit more the side income you make?

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#637

Post by zwendkos » Mon, Apr 22, 2019, 4:56 PM UTC

memset wrote: post #7

I make and sell staff paper notebooks for musicians: https://www.themusiciansnotebook.com/ I'm an avid saxophone player and am taking evening classes in theory, so I made this to solve a problem that I myself had. Nothing else like it on the market! Every part of this notebook is automatically generated with a bunch of python scripts: the cover design, the interior, the line placement, the margins. The program basica…

Very cool! I'm the CXO of TrueFire (leading music education software company with the largest library of online guitar lessons in the world) and would love to find a way to work together to get your notebooks in the hands of our 1+ million students :-) Let's jam on some ideas!

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#638

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Apr 22, 2019, 5:03 PM UTC

pmorici wrote: post #41

I taught myself circuit board design and found a niche market that I designed a few products for that sold like gangbusters with zero marketing for a few years until the market cooled off and low cost knock offs started entering the market. I also found that you could use the same CAD program that I learned to design PCB's to draw outlines to cut out on the laser CNC machine at the local maker space. I ended up findi…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#639

Post by ComputerGuru » Mon, Apr 22, 2019, 5:03 PM UTC

MrFoof wrote: post #84

I buy cars, repair them and recondition them to my level of satisfaction, and send them back out the door, typically targeting 55-65 year olds. I focus mostly on entry level luxury crossovers around 7 to 10 years old, though starting to also do hybrids since there’s more profit in it since everyone is seemingly allergic to batteries and pack replacement/rebuilds. Parts are cheap, I listen to music or a podcast, I do…

There's definitely a benefit to working on the same model/series more than once. Three fourths of my amateur mechanic hours are split between asking "now why won't this darn thing come loose?" and "Oh! So I didnt't need to take all this apart to get to this piece!"

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#640

Post by camhenlin » Mon, Apr 22, 2019, 5:09 PM UTC

tenpaiyomi wrote: post #569

frosted-flakes wrote: post #517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does floating the title mean? Is it never registering it in your own name and just letting the next guy do it?

Correct. Many states have laws where if you sell over a certain number of vehicles a year, you're considered a used car salesman and must register and get licenced. In addition, if you register the title in your name, you have to pay taxes in most states, just to turn around and sell it to somebody else who also has to pay the same taxes.

Some states also take into account intent. Meaning that you need a dealers license and insurance just to purchase and sell a single vehicle, if the original intent of purchasing the vehicle was to sell it.

In my state, Oregon, for example, the DMV has agents watching craigslist, facebook, autotrader, etc. who go test drive private party cars under cover and ask the question, "So, why are you selling?" where answering that question incorrectly (along the lines of, "oh I bought it to fix up and make a few bucks") will net you a several thousand dollar fine.