# How to make money really quickly **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 5, 2004, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769 "2004-06-05T04:37:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2004, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/1 "2004-06-05T04:37:44Z")
Ok, so, there are a couple of concert tickets I really, _really_ want. What’s the fastest (not necessarily easiest, just fast) legal way that I can make $200? Open to just about any suggestions 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Clancy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Clancy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clancy)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2004, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/2 "2004-06-05T05:21:07Z")
Sell blood or your kidney. ---
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2004, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/3 "2004-06-05T05:23:45Z")
> [@Clancy](#): > > Sell blood or your kidney. Pff. Point me to where. 😃 I’m all up for some ideas for manual labor, too. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/4 "2004-06-05T05:26:04Z")
First, get a job at the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing… ---
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2004, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/5 "2004-06-05T05:29:05Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > First, get a job at the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing… _zing_ ---
**Author:** ![Sengkelat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Sengkelat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sengkelat)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2004, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/6 "2004-06-05T05:53:43Z")
[QUOTE=caphis] Pff. Point me to where. 😃 [QUOTE] In CA at least, it’s illegal for blood banks to pay for blood. And you’d probably need to be O- or AB- to make any cash off it. Here’s a quick way to make cash: Buy tickets to the concert on credit, getting the best seats you can. Then scalp them outside the concert for huge profits. Then cry because you have the money but it’s too late to get tickets. Of course, the legality of that is questionable anyway. If you’re good looking, you might be able to take a shift as a stripper. Probably helps to be female, though. Or you could invest heavily in some stock or another, and hope it goes up sufficiently to make $200. But if you need it fast, you’re better off hitting the blackjack tables. And there’s no guarantee, obviously. You might be able to sign up to be in some web porn, they can pay pretty well. Of course you’re more likely to make money if you’re cute and female, but if you’re sufficiently unique you might demand a premium for a pervy niche market. And of course willingness to do truly depraved things will likely get you cash even faster. That’s about all I can come up with. If there were easy ways to make $200 fast, everyone would be doing it, so it’s only stuff that’s difficult, unpleasant, or truly degrading that offers the opportunity you need. ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2004, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/7 "2004-06-05T06:22:44Z")
Sell off your stuff. Do you have a piece of furniture that originally cost, like, $400 or so? If so, you can sell it for $200 pretty easily. How about a bike? And I don’t mean a Target-style Huffy or something–I mean a bike shop-bought bike. You might be able to recoup $200 for that, too. Do you have something else that’s worth money? How about some jewelry, or your computer (assuming it’s something better than the piece of crud I use), or a set of ridiculously expensive textbooks that’ll still be required for students next year? You could also try holding a bake sale. Believe it or not, those can sometimes rake in some pretty good cash. Try setting up a table early in the morning, somewhere that has lots of pedestrians walking by. ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2004, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/8 "2004-06-05T06:29:33Z")
Sell off your stuff. Do you have a piece of furniture that originally cost, like, $400 or so? If so, you can sell it for $200 pretty easily. How about a bike? And I don’t mean a Target-style Huffy or something–I mean a bike shop-bought bike. You might be able to recoup $200 for that, too. Do you have something else that’s worth money? How about some jewelry, or your computer (assuming it’s something better than the piece of crud I use), or a set of ridiculously expensive textbooks that’ll still be required for students next year? You could also try holding a bake sale. Believe it or not, those can sometimes rake in some pretty good cash. Try setting up a table early in the morning, somewhere that has lots of pedestrians walking by. ---
**Author:** ![Tikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2004, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/9 "2004-06-05T07:56:12Z")
[Go here](http://seattle.craigslist.org/about/cities.html) You can find odd jobs on Craigslist that may range from a bit of yard work to helping someone as a personal assistant and all sorts of other things. Norfolk and Washington DC are the cities that are probably closest to you but you might find a few jobs in Richmond as well. Check it out. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2004, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/10 "2004-06-05T11:22:42Z")
My great-uncle used to make money in his basement, with a do-it-yourself Money Kit on rainy Sunday afternoons. We haven’t seen him lately… 😉😃 ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2004, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/11 "2004-06-05T21:07:24Z")
If you live in or near a large town, there should be a day-labor company there. I would think $100 a day would be about standard for manual labor, I’m not sure. Be prepared to do some dirty jobs though, these are jobs no one else wants. ---
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2004, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/12 "2004-06-06T02:37:41Z")
> [@ccwaterback](#): > > If you live in or near a large town, there should be a day-labor company there. I would think $100 a day would be about standard for manual labor, I’m not sure. Be prepared to do some dirty jobs though, these are jobs no one else wants. Hmm… dirty jobs?? Examples? ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2004, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/13 "2004-06-06T21:24:20Z")
Loading debris from a burned out building into a dump truck. Shoveling gravel or soil, all day. Loading/unloading heavy things from semi trucks. Spreading tar on a roof. Any roofing job, for that matter. Carrying concrete forms or lumber from one house to the next. I actually did this one summer, we were building houses, one right next to the other. Industrial cleaning. Use your imagination here: any food processing place, any hot and greasy place, etc. Etc. ---
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/14 "2004-06-07T01:19:33Z")
> [@ccwaterback](#): > > Loading debris from a burned out building into a dump truck. > > Shoveling gravel or soil, all day. > > Loading/unloading heavy things from semi trucks. > > Spreading tar on a roof. Any roofing job, for that matter. > > Carrying concrete forms or lumber from one house to the next. I actually did this one summer, we were building houses, one right next to the other. > > Industrial cleaning. Use your imagination here: any food processing place, any hot and greasy place, etc. > > Etc. boooo. ok, I’ll go look tomorrow. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/15 "2004-06-07T03:15:33Z")
Mow lawns, deliver news papers, sell plasma (not blood). Sell stuff on eBay. ---
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/16 "2004-06-07T03:16:33Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Mow lawns, deliver news papers, sell plasma (not blood). Sell stuff on eBay. Would totally sell the plasma if I knew how to find a place that would buy it. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/17 "2004-06-07T03:34:41Z")
> [@](#): > > Go here You can find odd jobs on Craigslist that may range from a bit of yard work to helping someone as a personal assistant and all sorts of other things. Norfolk and Washington DC are the cities that are probably closest to you but you might find a few jobs in Richmond as well. Check it out. I’d just like to tell everybody that in Charlotte somebody seems to be looking for a “Beautiful spokesmodel” who they’ll pay $175 a day. I wonder if I could get half that as a “Better than average spokesmodel”? Oh, and for those interested in making fast bucks as a stripper - be aware, generally speaking you pay to dance, and hopefully you make it up in tips. You also have to “tip out” to the bouncers and such. It’s a way to make good money fast if you’re good at it, but it’s by no means a gaurantee and there are some startup costs, so to speak. (You also have to have your own clothes, of course, and I’m sure those clear heels don’t come cheap.) ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/18 "2004-06-07T03:37:52Z")
Er… just to not give the wrong impression, I’ve never been a stripper. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. A friend of mine used to be a bouncer, though. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/19 "2004-06-07T11:39:22Z")
I’ve been trying to find out where you can sell plasma, too. I checked the phone book under 'plasma", but no go. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-make-money-really-quickly/248769/20 "2004-06-07T12:11:37Z")
Offer to clean up dog shit in your neighborhood. It’s a pretty nasty undertaking, but on a hot summer day, many people would be willing to hand the shovel over to someone for a few bucks.