A couple of others I can think of:
- Crypto-boom of 2016ish: GPUs/mining rigs
- LLM/AI hype nowish: User generated data
- 90’s dotcom bubble: Server space
LLM/AI: also GPUs.
I was thinking that, but figured I’d go for input data instead for the sake of variation.
Can’t sell something they can easily steal and get away with it.
Whenever I played Roller Coaster Tycoon I would jack up the price of umbrellas right before it rained.
Free soda stands. Pay toilets. No exit.
Ah the Hotel Crapifornia
And here I was focusing on making money from the rides like some plebian smoothbrain. Also giving away the maps for free, because my guests always complained about getting lost in my labyrinth of a park with as many rides as I could fit, to the point of basically having four floors/levels in the park.
When there’s an umbrella-rush, sell rain.
My friend failed at becoming an actor in LA so he started doing prospective actors’ photo shoots
That’s actually pretty clever. Especially considering that he tried that avenue for himself and therefore knows what any hopefuls would need. Any idea how he’s doing? Is it portraits only, or does he offer additional stuff such as sample tapes?
I believe he expanded beyond headshots and photo shoots and at one point he was even doing sound production for a rapper’s video. Basically wherever he has opportunity to have his career be providing what those still trying to make it big needed
During a pandemic, sell sanitizer and toilet paper?
But most those guys were pretty much seen as assholes, so I don’t know if this good advice or not.
Yeah, over here we have this former rich guy (he lost his fortune thinking he was better at picking stocks than he actually was.) He got lucky and made his fortune as an early investor in a cell phone company in 2000s, and after that he’s basically become a serial grifter. His covid enterprise was to buy face masks in bulk, repackage them, and resell.
Well, he got hit with a huge fine: The face masks were only approved as long as they remained in their original packaging. Once he repackaged them, they were no longer considered sterile, and as such no longer approved for medical use => false advertising
What a collosal moron
The toilet paper thing was mostly a result of mass hysteria, not an actual issue of supply and demand. There were some supply issues in Australia IIRC, but most countries would absolutely not have had any toilet paper shortages if people hadn’t all panic-bought far more than they needed
I wonder if all of the ones hoarding toilet paper have managed to use up their stash yet.
Nope. Still good for a few years.
But that’s because I always buy toilet paper and paper towels at Costco, and buy more when I’m down to two cases.
Two is one, one is none.
I don’t know about that, but I do know I grabbed basically a lifetime supply of hand sanitizer a year or so ago because the grocery store was so overstocked they were giving them away for free, LOL.
Yup! One in my town was passing out free wipes for over a year.
No, hand made masks. Especially when it surprises the officials who should have known it was possible and beefed up supplies of the real thing. The first few months of Covid were a wild ride on knowing what would be the best choices of DIY protection, and Etsy and other sites were crazy.
I 3D printed a few dozen of these visor things for my local hospital that took 3 ring binder dividers as face shields/sneeze guards. Several ended up multi-colored because I used the ends of several spools of filament for that.
I’ve still got about 100 or so of them. I was mass printing them as part of a coordinated project. We basically managed to saturate the local area with them. Once demand suddenly stopped, I was left with the next batch ready to go. I’ve still to find a good use for them.
Why assholes? Because the toilet paper?
Assholes are only that if they price gauge during people’s time of need.
When investors are pouring money into tech startups with dubious models, start a bank that connects startups with investors.
Ie Mercury Bank making money hand over fist
When a housing crash is imminent, it’s the self storage businesses that thrive.
And it’s probably worth noting that self storage businesses have been thriving for the past two years.
When in Vegas sell light bulbs.
Also during the crypto craze: Set up an exchange and charge a small commission on transactions
This is identical for online brokers in the stock market. They win based on the number of trades, thus they make as much money in bust as in boom years with people exiting positions.
Just make sure it’s tamper proof and that you actually can run it competently. Mtgox started as a place to trade MTG cards, and while I’m sure the platform was fine for that, the stakes were substantially higher when they pivoted to crypto. I’m sure you know the rest of the story.
Delivery services and rideshares. People using them make meager wages, but the companies hosting them get all the benefit of people desperate for work or convenience.
Edit: in a similar vein, OnlyFans
That’s just old fashioned exploitation.
So is everything else OP mentioned.
No, it’s not. You clearly have never heard of this phrase.
All of these are things where you capitalize on other people’s attempts to get rich by selling them the tools to do so
Yeah but that’s not what selling shovels means.
A gold rush is a bunch of fools chasing the latest hype. Like AI or the dot com boom or NFTs.
Selling shovels is when you don’t buy into the hype, but you make money off of the fools who buy into hype.
You’re just talking about standard economics.
When COVID hit, there was an explosion in demand for delivery services.
Yeah. That’s just supply and demand. Not a fool’s gold type hype.
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During/after natural disaster, buy cheap land. Probably works during an economic crash too.
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Protests & Riots happening? Invest in glass companies
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Cloudy & rainy every day? Sell coffee (looking at you PNW)
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War happening? Just sell bombs! (see USA) This one is particular good cause you can always start another war. It’s just smart business!
That’s all just regular supply and demand. Doesn’t fit the saying.
Gold Rush = high demand = invest in (aka buy) shovels
Same thing, no?
No.
Gold rush = a bunch of fools getting hyped up on the latest thing thinking they’ll get rich, but almost none of them will.
Selling shovels = not chasing the latest hype, but making money off the fools who chase the latest hype.
I’m not offering an opinion or interpretation of the phrase btw, that’s the actual definition.
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It’s always GPUs. Crypto boom? GPUs. AI boom? GPUs. PC gaming boom? GPUs. GPUs are so difficult to program effectively that we still probably haven’t discovered things they’re capable of doing yet. The next major breakthrough in tech, whatever it is, will cause a massive explosion in GPU demand.
dont see ice cream trucks in the dead of winter
The running gag I’ve been pushing for about 15 years is that the ice cream trucks will switch over to mini-doughnuts in the winter.
That’s when they should switch to being hot chocolate trucks.
In the stock market, there are groups called market makers, that actually buy and sell the stock. They are required to buy and sell, but they maintain price neutral positions and collect a margin on each sale.
Definitely all those Udemy / Coursera / Whatever paid courses for “Data Science”, “AI” and whatever else is popular recently.
There was a company started recently to leverage AI and its trends prediction to stage what people need where they need it. Floods? Gyprock. Weather coming into California? Tents and bottled water near the school fields.
It predicts conflict by recommending first aid supplies staged near a border.
Absolutely mercenary, it opens its sales windows only when ‘surge’ pricing is allowable. You’re gonna be paying 3, 4 times the regular drywall cost.
