Guy Uses Craigslist to Trade Phone Up to Porsche

[Guest]

Wow! He got a porsche for a phone!? The article says he spent 5-6 hours per day for two years to make this happen. So, if my math is right, at the legal minimum wage, and with him working 50 weeks at a minimum of 25 hours per week, he put in about 2500 hours of work. Had he received min wage, he would have made over $17,000 (guaranteed, and maybe got a raise). He could have been the only kid in school to have a Porsche and year of public college paid for (or maybe some bling)!! Dumbass. He worked for about $3.50/hr.

Unfortunately, many people will see this as "get rich at home" when actually it's "stay poor at home".

It's also like the amount of productive time wasted on Facebook in a day. If you add up all the hours this country spends on Facebook doing, basically, nothing, then how can we possibly say we're poor?? If people donated just 10% of that collective time to something productive or charitable, imagine where we could be (public service, habitat for humanity, whatever). Facebook is the devil!

 

[tacoslave]

i cant believe nobody has said anything about how this guy looks at least 37 and not 17.

 

[improviz]

Eh. Maybe it's like that series of Corvettes they made, where a tuneup was over $1000 because literally, to get at the 4 rear sparkplugs to change them, you had to drop the engine. It's all in the labor. And true enough, he sure wasted a lot of time on CL, when he could have been earning a buck. Maybe he should start a CL consulting business, helping people get the most for their "item", LOL. And yeah, FB (and posting comments to online stories like this on) is a huge time-sink. Agreed. The US probably loses several Billion $$ a month to FB goofing off.

 

[scrumworks]

Cadillac is not a car. It's piece of junk. I'd rather get the phone which he started with.

 

[scrumworks]

[citation][nom]tacoslave[/nom]i cant believe nobody has said anything about how this guy looks at least 37 and not 17.[/citation]

I was going to, but then I found about his dream about Cadillac.

 

[rooket]

Ewww an escalade. It's like a large rectangle on 4 wheels *barf* that porsche at least people behind it can see around it in traffic.

 

[Spike53]

[citation][nom]zampolit[/nom]Agree, the 2000 Boxster S is worthless. I would of sold the Bronco but I think 9k is really high. No real "porsche" guy will ever call a boxster a porsche so they have absolute value other than laughing at the guy who bought it.(which is another story...a guy?! Didn't they even have a full Two and a Half Men episode making fun of guys driving boxsters?) lol[/citation]
True, Boxsters are weak but at 17, thats some kick-ass car to have.Especially when you go from a cell phone to a Boxster in 2 years. How many people in your High School has Porsches?

 

[theLaminator]

Man at 17 I'd have wanted the Bronco, hell I still want a Bronco. The Bronco is just a lot more practical a vehicle for me...aside from the shoddy mpg

 

[cletus_slackjawd]

HAHA, this reminds me of an episode in Star Trek Deep Space Nine where the Ferengi boy Nog and Siskos son Jake are trading and loaning things out to buy his dad a 1951 willie maze baseball card. Same concept, find someone who has something of value to someone else and make a profit in it by being the middleman.

 

[geofry]

I say good on this kid. What does your typical teenager do to get money? Beg mom and dad for it most likely. If they have a job most are not disciplined enough not to piss it away on stupid shit.

It may be a Boxter, but then again how nice is the Porche you drive?....oh wait that's right you don't have one, not even a sports car? (A Honda Civic with stickers and a fat exhaust pipe is not a sports car.)

I'm sure he'll be laughing all the way to the bank in a brand new Porche by his mid-twenties while the rest of you dopes are still living at home with mom and dad.

 

[Camikazi]

[citation][nom]zampolit[/nom]Agree, the 2000 Boxster S is worthless. I would of sold the Bronco but I think 9k is really high. No real "porsche" guy will ever call a boxster a porsche so they have absolute value other than laughing at the guy who bought it.(which is another story...a guy?! Didn't they even have a full Two and a Half Men episode making fun of guys driving boxsters?) lol[/citation]
He's a high schooler and has a Porsche, it doesn't matter which kind it is, that car will bring in the girls, which is what all high school boys want anyway.

 

[idisarmu]

Only $15000? How is that expensive? Why don't I see 10000s of Boxters driving around then?

 

[r0x0r]

Everyone is saying "He could've got a job and done it", but that isn't the point. The point is he didn't need a job to do what he did. It's also increased his financial intelligence, something which he would not have done with a job.

Good on him I say.

 

[Guest]

I think this is a hoaxs! Check out a similar story of a guy trading a paper clip and 14 trades later ending up with a two story house. http://www.tomsguide.com/us/steven-ortiz-porsche-trade-craigslist,news-7544.html

 

[cobra5000]

What a complete load of crap!

 

[starringu]

yeah right
if he got a porche for a cell phone he did way more than "trade"
No one gets anything for free. No ONE

 

[f-14]

jellico 07/22/2010 3:50 PM Hide -2+

welshmousepk :

wonder how long before the government try to tax him on his 'earnings'. good on him though, the kid obviously has very good business sense.




"Technically, he hasn't realized a gain yet, so his "earnings" are not taxable. It's not until he actually sells one of these items that the earnings become realized, and hence, taxable. And for those interesting, it would be his realized gain (sale price less his basis, which is the cost of the original phone) times the capital gains tax rate which, in 2010, was 15%, but for 2011 and beyond will be based on your highest marginal tax rate.

This is the same thing that happens with guys like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Most of their net worth is in the stock that they hold. However, until they actually sell it, it isn't taxed."

I don't know where your from pal, but uncle sam here in the states taxes everything 3 times and esp. anything bartered (goods/services rendered) try asking your local tax agent, i'm pretty sure they do this in every country to keep alot of people from avoiding paying taxes.

 

[fishyfish]

haters will always hate..

 

[techguy378]

Good lord! Why in the world would an oil change cost $150 on any car? You can get an oil change at Oil Can Henry's with Castrol Edge full synthetic oil for under $100. In most cars the oil will last for 5,000 miles in city driving and 8,000 to 10,000 miles (maybe more) if you do mostly highway driving. On more common lower end cars that aren't high end sports cars this is true even with conventional oil.

 

[lalandev]

Now he's looking for something a bit more economical – a Cadillac Escalade
.

Wow, what an economical car... (sigh) Will people understand one day that, if you're not obese or have 4 children, you don't need a SUV.

We are a normal family with 2 kids fitting confortably in our Lexus IS 250 AWD...