Читать книгу One Thousand Ways to Make a Living; or, An Encyclopædia of Plans to Make Money онлайн

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How a man with original ideas established an “exchange mart”—something he had never heard of before—and built up a good business along a novel line, is told by himself as follows:

“Knowing the tendency of people to sell what they have and buy or trade for something they haven’t, it occurred to me that I could supply the wants of both classes, and make some money for myself at the same time.

“I rented a store room and bought two blank books, one of which I marked “buyers” and the other one “sellers,” and then inserted an ad. in the local paper, asking those who had anything they wanted to sell to come and see me. I ran another ad., to the effect that it would pay those who wanted to buy anything, no matter what, to call upon me.

“Before long I had on hand a large assortment of articles of every kind that were for sale—books, furniture, tools, musical instruments—almost everything—and each of these I carefully listed in my sellers’ book, with the name and address of the owner, and the very lowest price at which it could be sold. A number of people also called to ask for certain articles, and if I did not have them I made a note of what was wanted, in my buyers’ book, with the name, address and phone number of the person wishing it, together with the highest price he would pay. Then I advertised for those things to be brought in, and when they came I bought them as cheaply as possible. Next I notified the prospective buyer, who would generally respond promptly and pay the price he had named, or a little more if the article particularly pleased him, and the difference between the seller’s lowest price and the buyer’s highest price was my profit. And this profit amounted to over $2,000 at the end of the first year.”