Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Buy payphones and retire

computer.rip

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 365 posts

Re: Buy payphones and retire

#41

Post by monero-xmr »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #19
Scoundreller wrote: post #4

> And what income is more passive than vending machine coin revenue? Automated vending has had a bit of a renaissance, with social media influencers buying old machines and turning them into a business. Iunno, where I grew up, vending machines were controlled by the mob. Up to mob hits in the HQ’s parking lot. Makes me wonder if pay phones are the same after the telco offloaded them.

I have also heard that vending machine locations are highly contested. You can buy the machine, but you are not going to have the pull to deploy it at the airport. Those contracts were signed long ago.

Or you put it out and a week later someone has bashed it to pieces with a baseball bat

Re: Buy payphones and retire

#42

Post by btilly »

Ah. Passive income. It can indeed work out for you, but it is the fact that it can work out that makes it so tempting for scammers.

Warren Buffett claims that the best business that he was ever in was installing pinball machines in barber shops, then splitting the revenue with the barbers. See https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/19/warren-buffett-bought-a-25-p... for verification.

Re: Buy payphones and retire

#44

Post by cryptozeus »

Slight off topic self rant: I tried this (dropshipping etc), went against all the good wisdom and rules of creating honest and passionate business. Failed miserably. Funny how brain works, I knew in 3 months that this is not honest, it feels spammy but then orders were coming in so I convinced myself that half the amazon products are doing the same thing. There is market for it then why should I not do this. This nagging voice in my head never went away and I paid for this later on. This matters when you have to work through night to get the marketing campaign out or you have double down the investment for certain product during holiday sale. Dealing with daily email of customers or tracking lost orders. I eventually lost energy and any sort of desire to grow my business. I was not making the kind of money I was promised by the field of dropshipping without adding way more money in spamy marketing and I had not passion to sell the product I Was selling. Certain folks who seems to be making 1m rev per year are also pivoting through spammy products every month and just dumping 100s and 1000s of dollars in facebook ads. It is more of a spammy marketing game then implementing any sort of creative or intellectual skillset. If anyone is thinking of doing this then I would encourage or first figure out how attached you are to money and the work you are doing. I was pulled into this because I thought I am smarter than rest and I can crack this because of my skills in technology and design so I dont to pay anyone to setup website, taxes, marketing etc however I missed out on how much soulless you have to be to run such a business. I dont mean soulless as a bad thing here, if you are robot or a you can setup a bot to do this then by all means try it but I just could not. This had a double impact on my life. Not only I failed to make money, wasted time but I also hate myself of even getting stuck into this. Lost my confidence and self respect which probably was unfounded anyway. Only thing I can tell myself is that hopefully this lifted some sort of delusion I had about myself and I learn and become better at life through this.

Re: Buy payphones and retire

#45

Post by warner25 »

jbaczuk wrote: post #36

I had a viceral "oh no, did I just install a virus" feeling when I visited that website, haha. I guess those memories die hard.

I wanted to share one of his pieces with a friend, so I sent the URL in a text message, and my friend (a network technician) responded with "Uh, is that link safe?" The title of the piece was "Free Public WiFi" which makes it look even more suspicious, haha... https://computer.rip/2023-07-29-Free-Public-WiFi.html

Re: Buy payphones and retire

#46

Post by vel0city »

hyperhopper wrote: post #38
0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have also heard that vending machine locations are highly contested. You can buy the machine, but you are not going to have the pull to deploy it at the airport. Those contracts were signed long ago.

Then why are there so few? And containing such a small variety of goods? In Japan anywhere from a busy subway to a remote park, there will be rows of vending machines everywhere, with more varieties of sodas, coffees, soups, ice creams, candies, hell even clothes or meat! And those are just the common types. You're never far from what you want in an automated fashion. Why are we so behind in America when there seemin…

I'd love it if the local city park near me had some neat vending machines near the bathroom pavilions. How relaxing it would be to get hot ramen and a tea from the vending machine while watching the swans and ducks migrate through. Instead I just have to make sure I tote all the family's snacks and refreshments when we go to the playground.

Re: Buy payphones and retire

#48

Post by Almondsetat »

hyperhopper wrote: post #38
0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have also heard that vending machine locations are highly contested. You can buy the machine, but you are not going to have the pull to deploy it at the airport. Those contracts were signed long ago.

Then why are there so few? And containing such a small variety of goods? In Japan anywhere from a busy subway to a remote park, there will be rows of vending machines everywhere, with more varieties of sodas, coffees, soups, ice creams, candies, hell even clothes or meat! And those are just the common types. You're never far from what you want in an automated fashion. Why are we so behind in America when there seemin…

>Then why are there so few? And containing such a small variety of goods?

Because if there are only a few with only few options you can charge the brands a lot more for the privilege of being available in your machine

Re: Buy payphones and retire

#50

Post by eastbound »

cryptozeus wrote: post #44

Slight off topic self rant: I tried this (dropshipping etc), went against all the good wisdom and rules of creating honest and passionate business. Failed miserably. Funny how brain works, I knew in 3 months that this is not honest, it feels spammy but then orders were coming in so I convinced myself that half the amazon products are doing the same thing. There is market for it then why should I not do this. This nag…

Sorry for you losing your confidence over this. To be frank, the idea itself of creating a company is spammy.

I created my company, but I knew the market from inside (it wasn’t a public company so it wasn’t insider trading, but clearly I had unfair advantage at start). I’ve witnessed many people on the same market as I was, trying to find something to sell, and failing at it. Everyone here is told that they can do it and the good idea will arrive as they work, well, that is spam. Truth is there are enough businesses in the world.

It’s not exactly just luck. It’s also accurately knowing when you have a chance. I’ve also witnessed a dozen startups succeed in my area, to the point of about $50m revenue, so I could also have succeeded better.

But really, it wasn’t your skills or your confidence. It’s that you didn’t have a good edge at start, maybe your only flaw is not judging against your initial idea, early enough, and waiting for the next opportunity in your professional life. But your implementation skills are visibly excellent, so if you don’t feel like restarting on your own, go help someone and help him scale. You’ll be excellent at it.

Post reply on HN