making millions off an iphone launch
Thought you guys should see this.
This is Com Mirza, he's worth well over half a billion, soon to be billionaire. He started off super poor in Canada decided at like age 7 to do something about cash, started hustling with lemonade stands. He's living in the Burj Khalifa in Dubai now super wealthy, teaches entrepreneurs how to step up. And I have the same mindset mentor as him ;)
Every year that a new iPhone releases he makes a couple million just for fun. This year he shared details on exactly what he does. Just goes to show that hustler mindset never disappears, small time, millionaire or billionaire status. I'd definitely recommend following him on facebook for some inspiration:
Geezez. Let's get a list of products like this that have limited releases.
Products:
- Movies
- Phones
- Software?? (probably needs a crack)
- turtles
Maybe products that are produced way cheaper in other countries and are worth more in the U.S.?
Products:
- Paintball guns
- sluts
- Furniture
- clothes
I go in and I'm crisp, clean and my vocals are fucking coming out like music. - Anonymous MW student
- Autismus Terminus Finis (Root Cause/Cure of Autism Epidemic)
- Called Off My Wedding & Other Turn Tail Signs Of The American Male
Crazy.
Unless I'm wrong, you could most likely sell them for more than $520 in net profit each, when you're not selling them in wholesale quantity right? You could probably sell them at 1000% plus on a small scale if you hustle a little more and cut out the middle (east) man
Maybe another way to do it is to buy a few off of derpasauruses who are trying to resell in the US market, instead of going through the hassle of hiring all these people?
Holy Shit. I am SUPER interested in this. Sounds fucking amazing- and VERY difficult but also VERY doable.
My main question//concern is whether these US phones actually will WORK in these other countries. And I woul have a similar question for other items that could potentially be arbitraged in a similar way
For example: http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/apple/why-you-shouldnt-buy-us-iphone-uk-3481491/
Thoughts?
Nice. Yeah it would be awesome to swing a deal with an independent phone store in one of those countries and sell all your phones to them, instead of the trouble of organizing buyers through Craigslist
Yo inifinity- I think the issue with that is the timing... having people wait in line is the fastest possible way to get them and ship them.
The logistics on all of this is absolutely INSANE btw.... I work in a very "lostically-centered" business right now..... and I can tell you that handling//managing the logistics of this, with the addition of the insaely small time window will make this a VERY VERY VERY difficult thing to pull off.
That being said- it sounds very doable with some practice, and if we hire the right people who know how to handle logistics at a high level.
Nice. Yeah it would be awesome to swing a deal with an independent phone store in one of those countries and sell all your phones to them, instead of the trouble of organizing buyers through Craigslist
I think the issue here is that it needs to be individuals, because unless that phone store has individual buyers, they aren't going to swing those phones around in time before the margins fall to nothing... meaning they won't be able to buy em from you for enought o make it work
Also- I am gathering that this is definitley not a legal enterprise...
THat being said- The other issue needing to be addressed is simply how to deal with the potentiality of customsjacking one or all of the shipments..
But maybe it is legal? heh, honestly idk I'm just trying to come up with all the objections I can think of
I wonder what customs would say if you tried bringing 100 with you on a plane. Doesn't sound illegal but I would imagine they would have something to say. You wouldn't have to claim it but timing is everything and a delay at the border would fuck you. Fly to Dubai or wherever your market is with a list of customers on pre sale that you generated from Craigslist. The reason I was thinking a local phone store is they would already have a pre sale list.
shit that would be a nice pay day for a weekends work
How would you secure clients like the rich ass sheik in the OP? A few hundred of each phone is great but lining up buyers at 5-50k a phone is actually insane
lol yeah this is definitley illegal. EDIT: It's NOT illlegal, based on what I've read so far.
I wonder what customs would say if you tried bringing 100 with you on a plane. Doesn't sound illegal but I would imagine they would have something to say. You wouldn't have to claim it but timing is everything and a delay at the border would fuck you. Fly to Dubai or wherever your market is with a list of customers on pre sale that you generated from Craigslist. The reason I was thinking a local phone store is they would already have a pre sale list.shit that would be a nice pay day for a weekends work
Yeah, I see what you're saying about an actual store or something- that's actually a really legit idea. I like it. Don't think this is illegal- been reading up on a few places.
Basically, what we're talking about here is the "import//export" business... there are all sorts of arbitrage opportunities available for different products, and that's exactly what import//export looks to take advantage of. Really really cool opportunity though
Hold on. This thread needs a mindset shift real quick.
This is not illegal. As you aren't running a business from another country as an Apple reseller. Once you purchase the iPhone in the US, it's legally your property. Movies on the other hand are copyright protected.
If you can get the product to another country with high demand, and as long as there are no laws in that country which bar you from doing so, or you are complying with all tax laws etc, this is fine.
This is where the hustler mindset comes into play - if you're shipping to Brazil or another Latin American country, you may have to make some connections within the customs office or a higher up gov employee - basically pay them off, which is common place and in some cases "legal" there. Or in Hong Kong there's an open port meaning no customs no checks, if you have a person to receive the shipment you just walk right in.
There are a lot of different ways to do this, at the end of the day all that matters is making sure the cash is in your pocket.
As for the 'hard work' and 'difficult' part - this is definitely the wrong mindset to have in any business operation. Lots of work sure, but this is all fun, work in my mind is seen as fun. To organize and make everything run smoothly is the payoff. That's the part that is actually the most fun. So definitely not hard work and not difficult. That kind of mindset is what kills all entrepreneurs.
This stuff should be easy and effortless, otherwise why do it at all?
If your mindset is focused on all the reasons why this will be hard, difficult and illegal, guess what? Your subconscious will find for you all the reason this is hard, difficult and illegal.
This is hustler mentality. This is putting everything together in the easiest way possible, all the moving parts and organization of the entire process - to make sure that at the end of the day everyone is happy and you have that money in your pocket.
This is anything but hard work and difficult. This kind of stuff actually gives me a hard on. If it's gray area you're worried about, well it's not illegal yet, so play on, but be careful ;)
Had posted somethin longer but I'm not trying to be argumentative here... I'm actually posting a craigslist ad as we speak lol- gonna make this happen (prob on a smaller scale first, due to lack of cash)
But I see where you're coming from- with having the mindset that it's going to be easy etc. That's pretty cool.
Kinda interested to see how this goes.
It's also importnat to be sure to get the version that doesn't come with a carrier (Just called the apple store and they won't be selling unlocked versions, so your buyer is going to need to do that themselves).
For any business opportunity you're looking into, you should always do your Due Diligence - make sure all your bases are covered and conceive every step along the way.
As for the steps themselves, I expect each one to work out for the best for me, and I expect them to be easy. As if I doubt it will be easy, or think it won't work - that seeds failure into my plan. If there's a doubt anywhere in your plan, you've got to add more information until you can conceive it happening - Know it will happen.
Always do your Due Diligence and never rush into anything. If you can't see it happening without difficulty or problems, mitigate those risks as much as possible until it feels right.
I never rush, I stop when I notice I'm rushing and slow down until I'm calm and Know that things will work out fine. I move quick, but I don't rush.
For any business opportunity you're looking into, you should always do your Due Diligence - make sure all your bases are covered and conceive every step along the way.As for the steps themselves, I expect each one to work out for the best for me, and I expect them to be easy. As if I doubt it will be easy, or think it won't work - that seeds failure into my plan. If there's a doubt anywhere in your plan, you've got to add more information until you can conceive it happening - Know it will happen.
Always do your Due Diligence and never rush into anything. If you can't see it happening without difficulty or problems, mitigate those risks as much as possible until it feels right.
I never rush, I stop when I notice I'm rushing and slow down until I'm calm and Know that things will work out fine. I move quick, but I don't rush.
Yeah, that's solid. Really well said man.
Any ideas for shipping, btw? Major ones like fedex seem to have a lot of customs restrictions, unless I just don't declare it and say fuckit, which is probably doable
Depending how big you're looking to go. If it's small packages / batches I'm sure stating what it is won't be an issue, or just list it as a gift. Those guys get so many products, business transactions everyday it's normal. I used to ship internationally digital cameras, laptops, computer hardware constantly. If you're shipping huge amounts, go with freight - or you'll probably need to outsource to someone with experience in that country and let them handle it, or find someone to show you the ropes.
Yeah, we'll see... I'm gonna need to get buyers in escrow and then basically get a quick turnaround loan from someone by using that money in escrow as colatoral
Gonna go small, prob not more than 5-10, so I'll just use fedex and do individual packages
Just gotta hustle to get these postings up..
How would you go about getting an escrow deposit from a customer across the sea? I wonder if there is a simple platform online to do that. I was already planning on doing this with a phone or two locally but now gears are turning. I paid for my first vacation by doing this at the 360 and ps3 launch way back when
How would you go about getting an escrow deposit from a customer across the sea? I wonder if there is a simple platform online to do that. I was already planning on doing this with a phone or two locally but now gears are turning. I paid for my first vacation by doing this at the 360 and ps3 launch way back when
I assume you can just use something like escrow.com
Anyone have any ideas on how to get a mobile number based in the UAE?
I think there are some online services, but I just need a way to confirm the number when dubizzle texts it- they don't allow posts from outside the UAE, and they use your mobile number as a way to confirm this
I hired someone in india to do the postings for me, once I created the copy- but he isn't allowed to use mobile phones, so I can't have him do it, unfortuantely. Also- it is crazy how cheap these guys are. 4/hour for 20 hours of work = $80 loll
You can try UppTalk which is an app on iPhone and Android - or try Google Voice if they allow an international number. There's also a website which will receive voicemails for you: k7.net
If those fail, you can easily pay someone at bestblackhatforum.com 5 bucks to do this, and probably open a few different accounts.
Someone at bestblackhat will be able to respond to sms texts with a UAE number? Sorry just want to make sure I'm understanding that properly
It's gotta be SMS text.... skype and google voice unfortunately are blocked in UAE
I'm shooting to do my best for the iphone release, but more importantly, this is awesome practice for when the apple watch comes out. This actually isn't that hard. There's just a lot of things that have to be worked out through experience.
Like trial and error to the max lol.... I don't thikn I've ever done something where I've gotten as many notifications that my activities are not legal loll or violate some sort of terms of service- so it's a lot of just finding workarounds for all this shit
I'm sure you can find kids there to open accounts for you. They all use proxies and different tricks to do stuff like this. Just get on there and search, start PMing the guys who sell sevices for opening google accounts, facebook, craigslist, dating sites, etc. They all use the same kind of verification, either SMS or voicemail, so if you get in contact they would do this easily.. plus offer support if your accounts get blocked. You can find anything on that forum, those kids know how to actually make cash.
how much do you think your going to sell them for? Im waiting back on two people to see if I can make a decent size shipment straight to a distributer in china, if not I'll have to go through the classifieds. Which even locally there is quite a bit of demand going for 1000-1200. That cuts big time into profit after paying someone to wait in line, or even waiting in line yourself.
Yeah, it depends on the country - There are people where I'm at who will wait overnight for 80 and the 16gb is like 740+tax (so call it 800) so that's 880 for the phone and labor. I put shipping on the buyer so even at 1100 that's still a 200+ profit on the phone
If you can get some buyers in Argentina- they're paying out the ass for the iphone 6. I've been just looking at the cost for all sorts of different countries and coming up with a list of the best places to try and sell. I'm also working full-time though, so if I'm not able to make this happen by Friday, It's at least got the wheels turnin in my head... trying to sorta just figure things out
Also- I think if you can get on some of the more localized sites you'll be able to get better margins (or at least better bites).. But I have no idea what I'm doing, so can't really give much advise lol
Yeah if I land a few clients I can play hooky on friday. Or can even probably not even have to skip the day. We'll see, what I am seeing a standard price of 1200 and as high as 1800. Im leaning towards prices and demand will jump pretty sharply on release day so you might even see higher that
Got a guy wanting one for $1700 but he only wants to use paypal
Where are you posting ads
yesterday I just jizzed out a couple. craigslist in a few major hubs outside the release, googled for hong kong classifieds, and one locally. you payed your guy to do 20 hours of posting?! Thats a shit ton of posts lol where are you posting too? Or is handling everything for you.. cause that is not a bad idea either, someone to handle posting, emails and even sales
Shit got real over here.
No reason to worry over doing it through paypal right? The buyer is taking the scam-risk and I get my money before launch. I was hoping on using escrow.com
If I were to use paypal, I would just make sure that the money is fuly deposited in my account before I do anything
Basically the idea is that you don't want there to be any risk of the buyer pulling out in any way- so he needs to def. be paying in cash (whether it's paypal or an escrow account) and the money has to be deposited (FULLY) in some way shape or form, prior to sending the phone
Yeah- I just hired the dude today, but the site I used to hire him deemed his activities as spamming or wtvr so he got cut off.
The majority of my craigslist ads in the US were flagged, and a lot of my ones overseas were flagged as well.
Hmm I didn't have any problems although I didnt post that many so maybe I just slipped under the radar?
And yeah obviously, payment would need to be in hand first, just making sure
But yeah I've never done anything like this before. Even just getting one is solid. I haven't even done that yet. Derp
"Your desire to improve and progress must be stronger than the challenges that lay ahead of you. Unless your will is strong enough, your mindset determined enough, most challenges will cause you to resort back to the easy comfortable and petty work ethic. Those who's work ethic is above the normal, are the ones who are determined to overcome any and all challenges that lay ahead. I've met thousands of entrepreneurs and the ones who are highly successful have never been the type to give excuses or bitch and moan! They just do the work and if they don't know how they learn it from someone who does and apply it harder than they're teachers.
If your chasing dreams and wondering why you haven't built that multi million dollar company or built a passive investment portfolio yet you need to ask yourself how bad you really frickin want it!
I say this often but I'll keep saying it forever! You can't meet a dream half way it's all or nothing! If your not giving your all every single day then no one is to blame but you!"
-Com Mirza
This is 100% illegal and you could face a suit if it's traced back to you. I would recommend taking this off the website.
Aequitas, can you cite anything? You were studying law, if I remember correctly...
Not to be a Negative Nancy or anything, but there's a thing called being prudent and covering your bases
Aquitas talking out of his vagina again
I go in and I'm crisp, clean and my vocals are fucking coming out like music. - Anonymous MW student
- Autismus Terminus Finis (Root Cause/Cure of Autism Epidemic)
- Called Off My Wedding & Other Turn Tail Signs Of The American Male
Wrong. I'm also not going to bury too much time into this. Long story short, there is transferred intent + foreseeability into his actions that would hold him liable for damages in lost profit for Apple. So unless you're trying to get railed in the ass I suggest you remove this post. That is assuming OP is the one carrying the act out and he is an American citizen. Apple will probably have trouble serving distributor in Middle East as he can easily just avoid being served.
The issue hinges on the fact that the act of selling merchandise such as this to someone in the middle east isn't in and of itself illegal, it is the fact that OP can reasonably foresee and has knowledge of how these phones will be distributed. This is how the intent is transferred and why OP is liable. This is painfully obvious that it is illegal. Sorry to burst your guys bubble, but OP isn't some genius who found some legal loophole fast track to the 1% life - he/she is simply capitalizing on a particular niche black market where it's a high risk high reward scenario.
In order to bring a civil suit Apple would have to 1) Prove that damages occurred 2) That it was in violation of a statute and 3) Redressability. This forum thread isn't incriminating either, because it's extremely difficult, if not nearly impossible, to admit "electronic correspondence" into evidence.
I think it's fine
1) Damages have occurred. Profits have been misplaced from Apple to distributors and OP. Apple has contracts of when they're to become available at every country. 2) This has more to do with common law, in other words PRECEDENT, but yes statutes from the UCC would help address the measure of damages that would be used to identify what standard would be used to figure out how much OP is liable for. If you're curious of the potential damages it'd be 2-708, 2-710, or 2-718. Redressability isn't even relevant here bro. Just because you can't pay doesn't mean Apple won't sue the fuck out of you for trying to cut a piece of THEIR pie out lmao. There's legit policies at play here. E.g. Deter kids.
Edit:
Actually yea thinking about it, OP probably wouldn't be traced back via internet. Personally, I wouldn't risk it.
I have an iPhone 5s I bought a few months ago, is that illegal for me to sell too? What about the car I bought a couple years ago is that illegal too? My buyer just happens to be in a different country.
I never signed any contracts with Apple, these are unlocked straight from the company iPhones which I purchased legally with my own money. What I do with them after that is my business. If someone wants to make selling second hands goods illegal, good luck lobbying to the government a law for that. This is 100% legal. I would recommend you do some homework and let these guys hustle and make some cash.
The ONLY way this is illegal is if I'm a reseller for Apple in another country with a contract that makes doing so illegal.
Looks like I have a buyer lined up for 10 unlocked slate grey iPhone 6 Plus 128gb in Singapore motha fuckas. Have 5 people ready to wait outside my local Apple store to be paid $100 each. I'm calling Apple tomorrow to figure out exact price after tax and putting funds on prepaid visas.
Also met a an Asian girlie in Canada awhile back with a big ass family in China who are willing to pay over double on Apple products. The only reason they pay over is due to cost of travel, plane tickets, visas, etc. and don't want to wait 3 months for the Asia release.
HUSTLE UP BITCHES - Time to get paid!
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/11/business/international/release-of-ipho...
100% illegal in China right now. Why don't you do your homework before you run your mouth like an idiot
TL;DR: China hasn't received gov't approval for the iphone 6 thus making it in fact, I-L-L-E-G-A-L.
Yeah, Apple isn't losing any profits here. The property is bought at their asking price. They made their profit. In fact I would go so far as to say that Apple may be doing this on purpose as a marketing tactic, in order to sell more phones. Without guys like Jabronovich lining up 5000 college kids, they otherwise wouldn't have sold those phones right then.
Oh please dude. There NOTHING in that article which says this is illegal.
This is Apple trying to sell in the Chinese market, and China is delaying. There is no way to enforce or stop people from selling personal property to one another.
This is a 100% legal venture. I buy no contract, no company, straight unlocked iPhone and decide I want to sell. 1 day or 1 year later what's the difference?
Quit hatin hater go back to your job and bitch and moan about something else
Jon since when did you get haters on this forum WTF?
I'll do some homework tomorrow and repost when I'm sober tomorrow. Fuckin haters
Damn aquitas you went for it
If it makes you feel any better - I didn't believe Manwhore when he said you had a vagina..
But not paying tariffs//taxes on this shit is prob the only illegal CHOICE you could make in this whole process
Lol I was just being a funny dick. No guy likes hearing they've got a talking vagina
I go in and I'm crisp, clean and my vocals are fucking coming out like music. - Anonymous MW student
- Autismus Terminus Finis (Root Cause/Cure of Autism Epidemic)
- Called Off My Wedding & Other Turn Tail Signs Of The American Male
hahaa straight up though that's real talk
Like you come at a dude with the talking vagina card and you better be prepared to go
Jabro watch out brother. Don't fall into the dark side of unconscious choice.