Great Ventures

[Harlan Huckleby]

I was chuckling when Mad described Retail Guy as his "partner" somewhere. It reminded me of my first partnership. When I was about 11, I sold seeds door-to-door for the American Seed Company for a summer. (Back in the day, parents didn't give a shit about the safety of their kids, there were more kids where that one came from. If you got a razor blade in your trick-or-treat candy, they just said "eat around it.") All correspondance from the seed company refered to me as their business partner, and I appreciated my status.

My dream was to sell enough flower and vegetable seeds to earn credit for a baseball pitch-back machine. It looked in the picture like a trampoline turned on its side. After a summer of hounding neighbors, I got my pitch-back: it was a rinky-dink bit of junk that would crumble if the baseball hit it hard, spray the ball in random directions on a slow pitch.

It was heartbreaking, but not a total loss. I gained valuable sales experience. Similarly, I'm guessing RG has "Senior Management Consultant for emerging internet dotcom" butressing his resume now.

What are the dubious businesses and schemes that you have been involved with?

[SkinBasket]

Social Security.

[mraynrand]

My brother and I delivered newspapers ever since I was in the second grade - all the way through high school. Paid two years' tuition with that money. We had this lawn and shoveling company that drew from our route customers; most of it was pretty routine: Cutting down trees, pouring a foundation, painting a house, shagging golf balls. We almost incorporated the business - had a warehouse site picked out - but my brother graduated before me and wasted his time getting some high falutin' engineering degree instead. The best misadventure was writing a Star Trek novel together. We didn't get past a few chapters, but it was a hell of a lot of fun, because it just turned into this constant ridicule of Star Trek and all it's stupid characters. You can't write when you're laughing and your eyes are filled with tears.


We also spent money on that pitch-back trampoline - that thing sucked.

[Scott Campbell]

Back in the day, parents didn't give a shit about the safety of their kids, there were more kids where that one came from.

Did your mom tell you to go play in traffic?

[woodbuck27]

I was chuckling when Mad described Retail Guy as his "partner" somewhere. It reminded me of my first partnership. When I was about 11, I sold seeds door-to-door for the American Seed Company for a summer. (Back in the day, parents didn't give a shit about the safety of their kids, there were more kids where that one came from. If you got a razor blade in your trick-or-treat candy, they just said "eat around it.") All correspondance from the seed company refered to me as their business partner, and I appreciated my status.

My dream was to sell enough flower and vegetable seeds to earn credit for a baseball pitch-back machine. It looked in the picture like a trampoline turned on its side. After a summer of hounding neighbors, I got my pitch-back: it was a rinky-dink bit of junk that would crumble if the baseball hit it hard, spray the ball in random directions on a slow pitch.

It was heartbreaking, but not a total loss. I gained valuable sales experience. Similarly, I'm guessing RG has "Senior Management Consultant for emerging internet dotcom" butressing his resume now.

What are the dubious businesses and schemes that you have been involved with?

I got my pitch-back: it was a rinky-dink bit of junk that would crumble if the baseball hit it hard, spray the ball in random directions on a slow pitch.

So I take it from this that you must have been a better knuckle ball hitter than the rest of us. Damn you should have been scouted and brought up to the Majors to specifically face a knuckle ball pitcher....Ohh I forgot that would only be the case in Fantasy baseball.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Madtown, tell the folks about the car stereo recycling service you operated as a teenager.

Somebody in this forum sold Amway products, somewhere, sometime. Come out of the shadows.

[sooner6600]

Does Shakley Vitamens count?

[Upnorth]

The govenrment in Canada forces people who work into a ponzi scheme call CPP (Canadian Pension Plan) it is so underfunded that it takes between 1/2 and 1/3 of current contributions to pay for previous pensions. And the Boomers haven't started claiming yet.
Also my wife used to sell some cleansing system. Boy do you loose weight with it, of course you don't eat...

[mraynrand]

Also my wife used to sell some cleansing system. Boy do you loose weight with it, of course you don't eat...

A cleansing system for weight loss? Sounds like a do-it-yourself enema.

[Upnorth]

Nothing went in the out hole, however the liquid we drank smelled like sh*t.

[Iron Mike]

Fortunately for me, I was lazy enough that any money-making scheme of mine usually consisted of begging the neighbors to let me have their empty pop bottles to return to the store. In which case I would immediately piss away the profit on penny candy.

I say fortunately, because if I got enough schwag together, I was always a sucker for some crap like this:

[Iron Mike]

Who knew that the $1.00 remote-control life-sized ghost that I bought to scare my Sister into cardiac arrest, so that I could be an only child would turn out to be a balloon, a white plastic garbage can liner and a length of fishing line??

FO, Johnson Smith Company!!!

[Upnorth]

Ah the joy of innocence lost. Even though I know its a scam I WANT THAT SUB!!!

[MJZiggy]

Ah the joy of innocence lost. Even though I know its a scam I WANT THAT SUB!!!

$7??? Do you think I'm MADE of money???

[Iron Mike]

Ah the joy of innocence lost. Even though I know its a scam I WANT THAT SUB!!!

I know how you can make $ to get that sub.....