Tokyo Grift
The hijacking of rare Japanese KitKats
101–110 of 180 posts
Re: The hijacking of rare Japanese KitKats
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Caramel Pudding (which you bake!) Oh my god I have some of these I should have looked at the back of the package more closely!
I'm a cooking nerd so I have a torch which I find works better than the oven and toasting them does actually make them better!!
I just tried it with my last four and I REALLY wish I had found out sooner.
Re: The hijacking of rare Japanese KitKats
#103In a past life of criminality I used to pay the truck driver who picked up all the pallets of Beanie Babies coming off the ship from China to have one pallet a month go missing. It was roulette what Beanie Babies I would get, but even if they were the most worthless ones I was still getting them below wholesale price, causing much confusion from my competitors as to how I was selling them below retail.
In another comment you mentioned you were in prison when ChatGPT came out. Was this the offense that got you incarcerated? If not, how'd you go from Beanie Babies to hard time?
Re: The hijacking of rare Japanese KitKats
#104This reads like there is an opportunity for a YC company to create an authenticated freight dispatching service. Sort of "uber for freight" where you sign up owner/operators and connect them with freight loads that need to move from one place to another. If the company does the vetting and works with an insurance company to cover liabilities both ways (o/o is at fault, shipper is at fault) it seems they could capture…
> "uber for freight"
A few years ago I needed an M1 machine to finalize arm64 support for the product I was working on. I asked our office manager if I could expense one, and the answer was "yes". So I went to the Apple store and ordered one with same-day delivery. It turns out that Apple's same day delivery provider is ... Uber Eats. After the order was picked up from Apple, you could see the Uber Eats tracking page. It was in transit for about 5 minutes, and then marked as "delivered", and the tracking page became unavailable for use. I emailed Apple and they gave me a refund, then I went to the store myself and acted as my own courier. That time I got a laptop.
What I'm saying is, "uber for X" is exactly what already exists. Someone picks up your stuff for a small fee, and if it's good, they just keep it for themselves and re-join the platform with a new name.
Incidentally, Apple no longer offers same-day delivery, at least to me.
Re: The hijacking of rare Japanese KitKats
#105This was fascinating, but also terrible!
I'm no expert, but this struck me as suspicious: In possibly the strangest twist on the KitKat trail, Bokksu announced in September that it had acquired Japan Crate. But NYTimes discovered that the acquisition had actually been completed back in June. So Bokksu, through a wholly owned subsidiary, had in effect overseen the loading of its own KitKats onto the original two fraudulent trucks.
My suspicion is that Danny Tiang may have orchestrated the loss of his valuable Japanese KitKats in order to try to recoup an insurance payment. This may have been simply in response to him doubting an ability to sell the product, or due to a temperature excursion he was notified of en route that made them unsalable, but which he concealed to facilitate their loss and subsequent, admittedly failed, insurance fraud. Is that plausible?
I'm not saying it happened and I feel terrible for the guy to not get his KitKats, but the acquisiton casts a bit of doubt on his story I feel.
Re: The hijacking of rare Japanese KitKats
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Costco doesn’t sell caseloads of Cocacola shipped all the way from Mexico to the north east because it’s “hipster bullshit.” I’m in Europe right now and Coke tastes way better, and doesn’t leave a mild bad feeling after drinking it like it does in the US. There is a significant chemical difference between sugar and HFCS. For one, the molecules in sugar are disaccharides while in HFCS they are free. High Fructose CS a…
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Re: The hijacking of rare Japanese KitKats
#107In a past life of criminality I used to pay the truck driver who picked up all the pallets of Beanie Babies coming off the ship from China to have one pallet a month go missing. It was roulette what Beanie Babies I would get, but even if they were the most worthless ones I was still getting them below wholesale price, causing much confusion from my competitors as to how I was selling them below retail.
In another comment you mentioned you were in prison when ChatGPT came out. Was this the offense that got you incarcerated? If not, how'd you go from Beanie Babies to hard time?
No, the Beanie Babies was back in 1997.
The thing I was in prison for.. is different. I might be able to talk more soon. Prosecutor called my lawyer today and I have to be in court on Monday morning for all the charges to be dismissed. Thanks for 10 years in jail!
Re: The hijacking of rare Japanese KitKats
#108In a past life of criminality I used to pay the truck driver who picked up all the pallets of Beanie Babies coming off the ship from China to have one pallet a month go missing. It was roulette what Beanie Babies I would get, but even if they were the most worthless ones I was still getting them below wholesale price, causing much confusion from my competitors as to how I was selling them below retail.
Sounds like an interesting story! How big was a pallet? How does one come to know the specific truck driver?
This was back in 1997, so my memory is a little hazy, but I remember it being about 6ft x 6ft x 6ft. It was a bunch of cardboard shipping boxes with clear wrap around them. I think I was paying £10,000 per pallet. He told me he would just skip scanning a pallet at the docks as they were loaded into his trailer, and then his mate would meet him at a roadside services on the motorway with a van and they would somehow move the pallet off the semi into the van.
Sometimes I would hit the jackpot and get dozens of the really expensive bears. I sold 800 bears once for $250,000 in cash to a guy who flew into the UK from Chicago.
The truck driver found me. He must have seen one of my adverts in the press or maybe someone he knew came to one of my Beanie Baby fairs, or heard one of my adverts on the radio. He lived in this crazy council town near me in Bristol where every house appeared to be of government construction, even the church. I remember sitting in his living room one day and there was a literally constant stream of little kids coming through his front door emptying bags of shoplifted merch onto his floor, and he would pick through and buy a couple of things and then they would go to the next house.
Re: The hijacking of rare Japanese KitKats
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I was awarded MVP by Microsoft in like, 2004, they sent me a really nice watch by DHL. I went to DHL warehouse and picked up the shipping box. I opened the box as I walked to my car. Inside was the watch box. I opened the watch box. Inside was no watch. Inside was a folded piece of DHL-headed yellow paper which had the following hand-written on it: SORRY I STOLE YOUR WATCH
I need a follow up...what happened? Did they send you another?
Yes, Microsoft, bless them, sent me another out right away. I don't think anyone followed up with DHL. I went back in the DHL office after I found the piece of paper and showed them and we all had a good laugh, but I think they told me to just call Microsoft to sort it out.
Re: The hijacking of rare Japanese KitKats
#110I know this is an unimportant thing, but why tf doesn’t kit kat just sell desirable flavors here themselves? What is the deal with the boner these companies have about withholding certain flavors in certain markets?
KitKat in the USA is run by Hershey. KitKat globally is run by Nestle. That's one reason why. The second is that in Japan Kit Kat sounds like "good luck" which is why they became popular, and two, why we see such regional variation. (I have 4 Japanese flavors in my NYC fridge right now -- Sweet Potato, Adult Sweetness, Wheat, and Caramel Pudding (which you bake!)
Getting KitKat away at all cost from the Hershy eatable plastic company would one of my first moves as Emperor of the US&A