|
Free, fast, easy..Another brilliant idea from yours truly about making money in NYC. I was living up in Spanish Harlem and after awhile I realized that every thursday the streets would be lousy with chairs and tables and dressers and all manner of furniture. I found I could carry some of the smaller pieces, and eventually began furnishing my rented room (which was formerly the sitting room of a grand apartment) with these pieces.
As time progressed and I'd cut through the low income housing projects to get to my building on West 103rd, I kept finding more and more furniture.
My temp job wasn't paying the millions you might think, and I thought, "I wonder if there is a way for me to turn a profit on this junk?"
Well, as many of you know, I believe it's "desperation is the mother of invention?" Or something like that. Well, I would take the pieces, say a magazine holder for instance. And maybe sand down the edges and give it a nice wash in green or shoe polish or whatever was available.
I found a few more items, small card tables that needed a little elmers in the leg joint and then some polish, or a crystal lamp that needed a lamp shade easily picked up on another night or at the five and dime...
It went on and on and on in the span of about a month. I'd found I had a store house of furniture.
Free furniture. Okay, so maybe my labor cost something...time and effort, and of course I had to carry the darned things up four flights of stairs. But here I was with a tidy little collection.
One Saturday I was wandering around the village and happened upon a "flea market." I wandered around and looked at the furniture and odds and ends. I couldn't believe the prices of things. After awhile I had a chat with one of the hippier looking dudes who was selling overpriced book cases and the like and I asked him if he'd let me share some of his "space" if I gave him a percentage of the profit. He gave me a groovy smile and said he did this every summer, coming out from the coast, and earned enough in the summers to live the rest of the year on the west coast. He aparrently slept in his van while he was in New York during the summer. Cool guy.
I went up to my apartment (via the number one subway which is always lovely in the summer) and stuffed an abandoned shopping cart (the supermarket kind) with a great deal of things and brought it down to the flea market (which was on Seventh Avenue South). That day I earned a couple hundred dollars and things I found! Free money. Okay so there was labor involved. But here my friends is just another one of my tasty morsels of information on how you can make a good buck for free.
It's amazing what people throw away, and what well meaning yuppies will purchase - call it shabby chic, but..listen my friends, one man's garbage is another man's rent check...if you get my drift.
I'm sure you can do this in any town. I tried this the following summer - and just on the weekend, because I'd never give up my low paying menial labor job. I earned enough to pay for the space I rented and in addition to buy some sand paper and paint for more of my wonderful finds. And I couldn't get over the astronomical prices I could charge, because these folks (especially the European visitors) will pay sky rocketing prices for that dainty whatever..they don't know that the pellegrine isn't natural..and who's to tell them..they just know that it will look fabulous on their terrace of their million dollar condo..and if they ask what I do, I tell them that I'm a writer working on my novel..and let me tell you folks, never underestimate the power of telling people you're in the arts, because people love to think they are helping an artist out..benefactors of the arts and all such rot. Of course in my case it's true. Free, fast and easy ways to make money, that's what I'm here for. I hope this morsel helps you out. And I will, from time to time, give you more incredible tips...so keep looking, oh..and one other thing, Have a great day and happy hunting!
check out my site: www.richardsmiraldi.tv
|
