Work-At-Home Schemes Continue To Hook The Hapless
Consumer Reports took a look at some popular work-at-home schemes, and found that you could actually make money with some of them ... sort of:
We paid $50 to Gone Fish'n for a starter kit that enabled us to make 24 flies. The company would pay us $12 for those, if they passed inspection, leaving us $38 in the hole. To continue, we'd have to keep buying materials: $40 for the makings of 144 flies. We'd have to spend $890 on materials, including the initial outlay, to produce 3,048 flies, for which we'd be paid $1,524. That nets $634 for about 190 hours of labor, or slightly less than $3.35 per hour, about half the federal minimum wage.
The president of Gone Fish'n admits that the company makes most of its money by hooking consumers with its kits. Gone Fish'n sells about 1,500 kits a year; about 20 customers have made a business out of selling flies back to the company (the company says that dissatisfied customers can get a full refund within 45 days of purchase).
Beware of work-at-home stings [Consumer Reports]
(Photo: kasperbs)
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Comments:
You aren't going to make a whole lot of money producing something other people produce as a hobby and/or to sell on ebay for 25 cents each.
Not that I'm about to abandon my job for the lucrative fly fishing supply business, but I wonder if you could purchase your own supplies elsewhere and make more money. A quick Google search indicates these flies are probably selling retail for well under $1.00, so paying $0.50 per fly isn't unreasonable. What is unreasonable is charging $40 for some hooks and thread.
I'd also like to point out from experience that tying good flies is HARD. Like really hard. I'd think that "passing inspection" would probably be a difficult proposition for the first couple months of your endeavor.
My first couple months of flies looked like some attempted to mate a caterpillar with the leg warmer from a day-glo barbie.
@m4ximusprim3: I'm assuming, in this case, that "passing inspection" means "making a fly someone else would pay money for".
@Coles_Law: You can make some decent money. My dad makes beautiful flies out of feathers, yarn, and other materials - they look just like the flies out of the reference book he uses. He sells them occasionally for a good profit. He also does taxidermy, which he taught himself by using books and manuals. He doesn't do it for money, but I can honestly say that his work is the most beautiful I have seen. The fish end up looking very natural, whereas other taxidermists tend to do weird things with paint and the fish end up looking all purple.
i was actually going to send this in as a tip ...
[make-money-authority.com]
what do you folks at the consumerist make of this site?
Forget the flies! Contact me and I can show you how to make BIG BUCKS raising worms for just a few dollars investment.
@themrdee: does it involve purchasing a firearm and luring hookers into plastic lined boxes of dirt? Cause I tried that and it didn't pan out. The smell was horrendous.
of course, maybe if you tried it outside...
@kman13: Even the looks of that site say quite loudly that there's nothing legitimate or authoritative about it. And wouldn't you know it, just a little poking around on the tubes got me a couple of fun facts:
Here's the "make money authority" (aka "Legitimate Business Reviews") About Us Page: [make-money-authority.com]
Supposedly run by that strapping fella to the right, "Scott Edward"
Now, here's another site "My E-Reviews" About Us:[www.myereviews.com]
Practically identical site, also claiming to have "tested" all these "opportunities." Also run by a "Scott Edward," who just happens to have exactly the same bio.
But looking at them, between LBR and MER, Scott has aged terribly, hasn't he? But don't worry! As Scott says "I am a real person!"
This looks a whole lot like the numerous identical Acai diet "blogs" run by suspiciously similar-looking women.
Most of the businesses recommended by "Scott" managed to find their way onto RipoffReport, so that should be a clue.
It's either a scam all by itself, or more likely, it makes money on click-throughs to businesses that are scams. Check out all that cheesy stock photography!
Stay away.
@FatLynn: Just like those signs you see nailed to telephone poles all over: "Make $500 a day working at home !!!" then at the bottom: "Don't believe it? Don't call !"
I thought the scam on these deals was that the company always says "sorry, these did not pass inspection" no matter how well made the products are, and that is how they avoid buying their products back? At least that is how I've seen it played in reports of other work-at-home schemes.
Kind of reminds me of a ponzi scheme.
3.35 a hour doesn't sound all that bad. You'd only get around double that schleping hot grease and wearing a dorky uniform. Not to mention you can probably press gang your kids into helping you after school. As long as the inspection process isn't fixed or bogus, it sounds like it could be a way to make a little on the side if you have lots of time and no other prospects.
At least the flies are Made in America. I picture this sort of work being done by 7-year-olds in a sweatshop somewhere in the Far East.
@m4ximusprim3: this is not a joke: beer through my NOSE. Thanks for the best comment-induced laugh all day. Strike that - best laugh all day, without qualification. Kudos!
God, you almost make enough to equal what you can make at home by carding jewelry.
And most veal is really pork???? Shocking!!!
My accounting 101 prof: "There ain't no free lunch!"
I'm going to file this under "D" for "Duh"
@EllaMcWho: I hope you hoovered it all back up. it would be a shame to waste good beer like that.
but thanks! Glad to know my witty anecdotes are appreciated.
@scoosdad: Who ARE those "Don't Believe? Don't Call!" guys?
Your local "entrepreneur" must a failure at the business... my local version promises "CEO Level Income From Home!"
@m4ximusprim3: You totally made my morning with this comment. The mental image is marvelous. Thank you. :-D
JR Hartley has a lot to answer for!!
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@Mike8813: When I moved to Vegas in 2000, a high school drop out could make $60K a year as a valet for a strip casino, not much less for off-strip too. We knew people pulling down that kind of cash in other similar jobs too.
Then after the dip in travel after 9/11, those jobs dried up for awhile and some people we knew were surprised and offended to have their easy fortunes go. The worst off were the ones who had gone crazy and racked up huge debt in the notion that the easy money would only increase.
Then the economy picked back up and it all happened again...until the latest crash and again, people are shocked that the job/money that seemed too good to be true was just that.
You've got to be the biggest fucking idiot known to man.... of all the places to spam, you choose the Consumerist?
I vote that Consumerist run a story on how much of a scam these guys are!
So... I can't make $60,000 my first year part-time? I won't be able to quit my day job? I can't proclaim that I now make $10,000 per month working from home, while you watch footage of me and my trophy wife riding bikes past palm trees?
Pfft. Count me out.