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| Born A Hustler |
Goblin Through And Through
While talking with a peer over Skype the other day, I realized something spectacular. I have been a goblin for much longer than I have been playing World of Warcraft. I've pretty much practised the art of goblinism most of my life, including both adulthood and adolescence. I learned some of the strategies for haggling, marketing, barking, sales, and pricing way back early on in my childhood. I have always been one to look for chances to profit by providing desired goods or services when I see a demand arise. Let's take a look back through some of my past real life goblinism ideas and strategies.
2nd Grade Playground Hustler
One of my earliest grade school memories, brings me back to the early adolescent years. In 2nd grade (at age 6), I got my first sense of running my own business as my mother set me up to hawk her homemade crochet items and pencil toppers to other children at school. She would craft up a batch of little fuzzy animals, flowers, or cartoon characters and I would take them in my book bag and try to sell them to the other kids on the playground. We then expanded to selling crocheted book marks and crosses as well. This lasted for a few months, until the school principal confiscated my goods one day, called my mom into the school, and I was banned from "soliciting items for sale on school grounds". Well, it wasn't like we were even turning a profit on these sales. I think my mother was just coming up with an interesting way for me to be interactive with the other kids at school.
This playground hustling did give me some early exposure to the wheeling and dealing of crafted items for real world coins.
The Candy Man
In 5th and 6th grades, I remember a great money making project that I underwent. One day while with my father at the local automotive parts supplier, I noticed a box of candy bars on the front counter. The sign said these Heath Bars were on sale 5 for $1 and my 9 year old brain immediately thought of how much profit I could make selling these candy bars at school. The candy bars in the vending machine were 60 cents each and I could get these for only 20 cents each. Cha-ching! So I convinced my dad to buy me $5 worth of these Heath bars. I then took them to school and sold them out of my backpack for 50 cents apiece. Netting me almost 30 cents per sale, for a 20 cent investment. Once the first batch sold, I went back to the store and re-invested all of my profits into buying more candy bars. This worked well until everyone got sick of eating the same Heath bars, as they longed for variety. So more lessons in goblinism were learned.
You can over saturate your market and lower the demand for your product. Diversification is also a must because when the demand dries up in your market, you need another market to fall back on.
Sales Competition Dominater
All throughout my years of schooling, I have been damn near unstoppable when it came to school sale contests. I always had a nature for completing the sales and I owe it all to my ability to come up with creative and persuasive ways to sell the fund raising products.
This was the earliest forms of learning the art of barking that is so prevalent in my MFC sales in WoW. I had worked up a system that had strangers wanting to help me complete the sale. How? It's all in the wording.
While other kids were selling "candy bars for $1 to raise funds for the school", I was doing much better than that lame sales pitch. My sales pitch was this:
"Would you like to buy a candy bar to help the school band?" It's harder to say no to "helping the band" than it is to "wanna buy a candy bar". Then when they would say, "Sure, how much?" I would respond, "Two for two dollars!" Guess how many I would sell? Yup, 2 or more per customer. Genius right? Well, my pitch was so good, even diabetics and people who hated candy would hand me cash donations or buy the candy bar and then give it to me to eat.
While other kids were wasting their time walking door to door trying to sell their candy, I had a better set-up. I camped out on the sidewalk in front of the US Post Office. I had far more potential customers cross my path in front of the Post Office, than when I foolishly was going door to door.
So make sure to position yourself for the most potential for exposure to buyers.
The School Supply Fence
In Junior High School (6-8th), I set up my own business operating as a fence. Other students would come to me with orders for items they wanted or needed and I would procure them through a network of thieves, then sell them to the other students at a cheaper than retail price. So when someone needed a scientific calculator, a protractor, or compass, etc they would put their order in and I would fill it the next morning. This was fine and dandy until I got caught shoplifting from the local grocery store. Well, that idea was bad to begin with, but growing up poor will stretch your moral limits. I did learn a lesson though.
You can't break the rules or you will get caught no matter how crafty you think you are.
The Car Trunk Pack Dealer
Continuing on with hustling ideas while in college, I came up with another great idea. I was a huge Magic the Gathering player in high school, college, and graduate school. I was even ranked as high as 17th in the World in Type 1 (called Legendary now). To support my gaming purchases, I would buy cases of unopened Magic cards at the discounted case rate. I would then sell the individual sealed packs to all of my friends (and even strangers too) for cheaper than the cost of buying the packs for retail price. Was a nice was to support my own gaming addiction within elements of the game itself. Eventually I built up enough stock that I had various booster packs and starter packs filling the trunk of my car. I would approach shoppers I saw in stores and invite them out to my trunk store to take a look for cheaper prices and tax free buying! Win-win for everyone. Another important lesson learned too.
Why not remove a member of the supply chain to make more profit yourself?
I've also been a
black market item hustler from within the Diablo 2 scene on eBay and a bulk vinyl buyer who broke lots into singles for
massive profit gains when I was into spinning records and DJing myself. I've talked about both of those previously, so I won't go over them again here. I've learned a lot from real life hustling that I have been able to apply my WoW gold making tactics and I've also learned a lot of
ways to apply my gold making skills to real life.
Have you learned anything in 1 world that you've applied in the other? (virtual vs real worlds)
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