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Peddling the ‘Secrets’ to Getting Rich on Amazon

theatlantic.com

61–70 of 94 posts

Re: Peddling the ‘Secrets’ to Getting Rich on Amazon

#61
post #29

Similar to the Reply All #117 episode [1] on the "free watch" and the drop shipping business, and what they discovered about all the courses people were selling on how to do it. [1] https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/117-the-worlds-most-ex...

I've seen those free watch offers and always been intrigued - I assumed it was some kind of data-gathering exercise that would open the spam floodgates for the customer. Thanks for the link, I'll give this a listen as it seems there might be more to it than I'd first assumed.

It's a ploy to get you to to simply buy the watch. Its cheap Chinese junk, the watch cost ~$1 to manufacture and ~$1 to ship and you pay $7 for "shipping."

Re: Peddling the ‘Secrets’ to Getting Rich on Amazon

#62
post #33
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two economists walking down a street. One spots a $100 bill and says "Look, a $100 bill!" The other says, "Probably fake. If it was real, someone would have grabbed it already..."

Don't substitute a meme for thinking. The real story is as follows: Two economists are sitting at home. One says "Lets go out and look for $100 bills in the street." The other says "There are better ways to make money."

The other meme is about efficient markets.

What is yours about?

Re: Peddling the ‘Secrets’ to Getting Rich on Amazon

#63

There's a reason those guys were selling classes for 4 grand instead of quietly becoming rich following the advice they're selling people.

Reminds me of a lot of hedge fund guys and VCs. If you already have billions why not invest your own money instead of dealing with other investors?

Re: Peddling the ‘Secrets’ to Getting Rich on Amazon

#64
post #63

There's a reason those guys were selling classes for 4 grand instead of quietly becoming rich following the advice they're selling people.

Reminds me of a lot of hedge fund guys and VCs. If you already have billions why not invest your own money instead of dealing with other investors?

Downside protection.

Plus if you control enough $$$ you can start controlling the market.

Re: Peddling the ‘Secrets’ to Getting Rich on Amazon

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the real "secret" that people seem to totally miss/willfully ignore. 4K is quite a lot for what is essentially pretty obvious stuff that I am sure a weekend of searching around could get you. Caveat emptor

Finding information is easy, filtering is the hard part.

The problem is that even paying $4000 for a seminar doesn't ensure that you're getting the right information. Even if the speaker at the seminar tells you exactly what he did did, that doesn't mean that his method is still the best or that it will work for you.

So yeah, filtering for your situation is the hard part, but you can't rely on someone else to do that filtering unless you're paying him to do it specifically for your situation.

Re: Peddling the ‘Secrets’ to Getting Rich on Amazon

#66
post #64
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of a lot of hedge fund guys and VCs. If you already have billions why not invest your own money instead of dealing with other investors?

Downside protection. Plus if you control enough $$$ you can start controlling the market.

I thought it's easier to find openings if you have less money to deploy.

Re: Peddling the ‘Secrets’ to Getting Rich on Amazon

#67

> They’re frustrated with Amazon, which they say is making money off the failures of people like them. Wait what... I can't even. It's not Amazon's fault you bought something no one wanted then tried to sell it. You wanted easy money and it doesn't exist. You CHOSE to ship directly to Amazon so you didn't have to handle shipping, you CHOSE a quality item that kept breaking, they CHOSE to use Amazon, any they CHOSE to…

It’s a re-hash of the “start an Internet business and make millions of dollars from home” scam [1]. [1] https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/10/03/654124255/epis...

Pretty much. The WFH crews all went to doing amazon instead of affiliate marketing as it has a brand attached to it and makes it easier for them to sell the courses.

Re: Peddling the ‘Secrets’ to Getting Rich on Amazon

#68

In this day and age it is surprising that people still fall for "Get Rich Schemes". Anyone selling Investment Advice, Business Advice, Products, etc that promise success, wealth, etc are charlatans. These two took advantage of desperate people. There is little to no money to be made on AMZN today. No one is getting rich anymore.

Just look at crypto. I bet more than 90% who are buying crypto currency have no idea what this really is other making them rich quickly.

Re: Peddling the ‘Secrets’ to Getting Rich on Amazon

#69

People forget that history repeats itself -- the ones that got richest during the California Gold Rush were the ones selling tools, unless you were lucky enough to hit a motherlode. So if someone is selling you an expensive tool that will help make you rich, ask yourself why they aren't using that same tool themselves. (and if the answer is "I have all the money I need, I just want to help other people... then ask wh…

+1 but to be honest, I wouldn’t consider Levi Strauss jeans to be a luxury good.

Re: Peddling the ‘Secrets’ to Getting Rich on Amazon

#70

> They’re frustrated with Amazon, which they say is making money off the failures of people like them. Wait what... I can't even. It's not Amazon's fault you bought something no one wanted then tried to sell it. You wanted easy money and it doesn't exist. You CHOSE to ship directly to Amazon so you didn't have to handle shipping, you CHOSE a quality item that kept breaking, they CHOSE to use Amazon, any they CHOSE to…

I think the source is zero sum thinking and shallowness of thought. Amazon is profitable while they are not therefore it is Amazon stealing from them. There is a logic there that could be circumstantially correct but is loaded with fallacies and self-serving thinking. Naive economic intuition has proven shockingly bad - especially historically. It is one thing not to grok rate of returns or market direction or make p…

If goods have the same value everywhere, it would be impossible to make money transporting it because transportation costs would make the product cost more than it was worth to the manufacturer and seller.
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