i wonder if anyone has tried this, to save $5

Yoda_Daenerys thought this was worth mentioning said Sat, Oct 28th 2023 at 1:18am ET

or is it $6 now?

so, just asking for a friend, let’s say someone has free shipping for a month, on some internet retail site. and to take it a step further, they are willing to ship to several different addresses.

now let’s just suppose those addresses belong to other people.

now those other folks don’t need to pay $5 a month for ‘free’ shipping, and they don’t need to pay shipping for their orders, because someone else is ordering on their behalf.

but maybe the other buyer just donates, say $1 per order.

my friend is considering quitting their day job, to rake in the big bucks, one shipment at a time.

any VC’s present that are interested in investing in this venture?

 ______________________________
< i did not read the t's & c's >
 ------------------------------
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

7 comments, 19 replies
Comment

sammydog01 said Sat, Oct 28th 2023 at 1:40am ET:

Sounds like a lot of work for a dollar.

15
- Reply
- Whisper
- @sammydog01 you’re not wrong
  
  Yoda_Daenerys said Sat, Oct 28th 2023 at 8:39am ET
  - 2
  - Reply
  - Whisper
- @lisagd @sammydog01 now i feel better, or scummier?
  
  Yoda_Daenerys said Sat, Oct 28th 2023 at 12:39pm ET
  - 1
  - Reply
  - Whisper
- @lisagd @sammydog01 i mean, my friend does
  
  Yoda_Daenerys said Sat, Oct 28th 2023 at 12:49pm ET
  - 6
  - Reply
  - Whisper
IndifferentDude said Sat, Oct 28th 2023 at 2:57am ET:

Rake in Big

4
- Reply
- Whisper
KNmeh7 said Sat, Oct 28th 2023 at 7:33am ET:

I like how you are thinking, but I think it is a hard no simply from the financial security standpoint. (And this is assuming no site / fed ex / etc. had a problem with it, which they would.) It would require a very robust interface to handle the customer’s purchasing cards, their address, etc. That is ripe for hacking and abuse. Either way, keep trying to stick it to the man my friend.

3
- Reply
- Whisper
- @KNmeh7 eggs-actly
  
  /giphy stick it to the man
```
 ________________________
< so much trust required >
 ------------------------
        \   ^__^
         \  (**)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
             U  ||----w |
                ||     ||
```
  Yoda_Daenerys said Sat, Oct 28th 2023 at 8:40am ET
  - 3
  - Reply
  - Whisper
narfcake said Sat, Oct 28th 2023 at 1:10pm ET:
There were (small) eBay sellers that did that with items shipped by Amazon. They were basically fulfilling them off their own Prime account. That didn’t last; I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon caught on. Even if they didn’t, having made a few lose money probably didn’t help.
- Amazon had a brake rotor I needed at a stupid cheap price, but only one remaining. We’re talking under $15 when it went for $70 elsewhere.
- More than one eBay seller had listings for same rotor, one available. Pics and description were straight off Amazon’s listing. Prices were in the low $20s.
- I proceeded to buy the one from Amazon. And then from three different sellers.
- Sure enough, in the subsequent days, all three had to refund me. $0 from the sale, but they lost out on the listing and final value fees. And gained helpful negative feedback out of it.
11
- Reply
- Whisper
- @narfcake They were doing the same thing with walmart.
  
  lisaviolet said Sat, Oct 28th 2023 at 4:06pm ET
  - 5
  - Reply
  - Whisper
- @lisaviolet @narfcake That sounds alarmingly like that one multi-million dollar book on fruit flies…
  
  It’s been talked about a few times, but this is what I found quickest:
  
  xobzoo said Sun, Oct 29th 2023 at 1:52am ET
  - 3
  - Reply
  - Whisper
pakopako said Sat, Oct 28th 2023 at 1:43pm ET:

What. This … math does not add up.

You friend… let’s call them “Werehouse”… pays for goods all to be shipped to their house… even at a regular monthly rate… and then ships them out to multiple people at no cost? Who pays for the shipping to multiple people? Why wouldn’t they pay the monthly flat rate? Or even the cheaper one-time rate because Meh… I mean Woot… I mean… well, Werehouse has a shipping deal coming IN, but can’t possibly ship things OUT at that same sweet deal.

I have two anecdotes. One is the more successful story: Amazon Japan proxies are paid to get stuff from Amazon Japan stores that won’t ship overseas at all to ship to them; the buyer then pays a small fee ($2~5 US per order) atop what they would have paid to ship from Japan to USA. The other less successful story: turn Werehouse’s living space into a warehouse and sell candy at their leisure to the nearby schools (just have nowhere to sleep).

2
- Reply
- Whisper
- @pakopako
  “werehouse” would have to allow shipment (directly) to a different address than the ~~mehmber~~ er account-holder…
  
  chienfou said Sat, Oct 28th 2023 at 2:01pm ET
  - 2
  - Reply
  - Whisper
- @chienfou What if they were dividing orders? It’s one thing to do ship to a different address on Amazon (as a gift order), it’s another to say “I want to split 100 packs of hummus I just paid for six ways”.
  
  pakopako said Sat, Oct 28th 2023 at 2:48pm ET
  - 2
  - Reply
  - Whisper
- @pakopako Sell candy? My husband did that in elementary school.
  
  lisaviolet said Sat, Oct 28th 2023 at 4:08pm ET
  - 3
  - Reply
  - Whisper
- @pakopako only one shipment, in the scenario i am proposing.
  
  Yoda_Daenerys said Sun, Oct 29th 2023 at 1:37am ET
  - 1
  - Reply
  - Whisper
- @chienfou @pakopako
```
 _________________
< eet's a bingo!? >
 -----------------
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||
```
  Yoda_Daenerys said Sun, Oct 29th 2023 at 1:38am ET
  - 1
  - Reply
  - Whisper
- @chienfou @pakopako I think it wouldn’t work very well for a site like Meh, where mehmbers are only allowed a single order (I think…?) per day, with an additional limit on how many items they can get.
  
  But imagine a slightly different model… like maybe a place that buys overstock or expiring food for really cheap, but instead of having a single deal per day (like Meh), maybe they always list all their inventory (like a regular store). So their customers can just go shopping like they’re used to, without having to wait up every night hoping for an awesome deal. That’s pretty sly, ain’t it?
  
  Anyway, let’s call this new website “SlyDeals” and let’s say they have an optional membership fee that waives the shipping cost. Your “Werehouse” friend could effectively become a drop-shipping tycoon. It’s a bit tedious changing their shipping address with every order, but hey, they make a buck, right?
  
  It might violate some terms of service or something.
  I am not a lawyer (nor a businessman), so don’t take advice from me on this subject.
  
  xobzoo said Sun, Oct 29th 2023 at 2:36am ET
  - 2
  - Reply
  - Whisper
- POPSOCKETS! ROAD ROCKETS! SONNY CROCKETT! AWESOME!
  
  mediocrebot said Sun, Oct 29th 2023 at 2:36am ET
  - 2
  - Reply
  - Whisper
Yoda_Daenerys said Sat, Nov 11th 2023 at 10:02pm ET:

did i just find this thread on the front page today? why? how?

1
- Reply
- Whisper
- @Yoda_Daenerys Al Gorithm Strikes Again. You just can’t trust Al. (or else someone added some stars, and it figured that you wanted to know, and…)
  
  werehatrack said Sat, Nov 11th 2023 at 10:27pm ET
  - 2
  - Reply
  - Whisper
- /giphy random number generator
  
  Yoda_Daenerys said Sat, Nov 11th 2023 at 10:43pm ET
  - 1
  - Reply
  - Whisper
- @werehatrack @Yoda_Daenerys
  Not stars. Probably spam (that got zapped by a mod.)
  
  Kyeh said Sun, Nov 12th 2023 at 12:11am ET
  - 4
  - Reply
  - Whisper
- @Kyeh @werehatrack
  
  /youtube spamalot
  
  Yoda_Daenerys said Sun, Nov 12th 2023 at 8:56am ET
  - 1
  - Reply
  - Whisper
- @Yoda_Daenerys Huh. There’s stuff I don’t recall in that Spamalot montage. (There’s stuff I know I saw, too.)
  
  werehatrack said Sun, Nov 12th 2023 at 9:29am ET
  - 1
  - Reply
  - Whisper
f00l said Sat, Nov 11th 2023 at 11:33pm ET:

I only do this with specific irems.

Such as:

POPSOCKETS!
ROAD ROCKETS!
SONNY CROCKETT!

/image sonny Crockett

1
- Reply
- Whisper
- @f00l You need a different vice.
  
  pakopako said Sun, Nov 12th 2023 at 5:26pm ET
  - 2
  - Reply
  - Whisper