How Much Money Can You Make

[Montana Jim]

Moderate on a MD forum. THAT'S where the money is.

I need to retire from my real job... Who do I send my resume to? 8)

 

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[MD Dog]

I've been MDing for about five years now, but only for something to do. I was injured a bout seven years ago and had to come to the realization that my active years of working had come to an end at the ripe old age of 40/ But I was already financially ready to retire. I know alot of people think that making alot of money in a relatively short amount of time isn't a reality for most people, I know this because that's what I thought as well. However I did and it really is possible.
I'm going to place a link here for anyone who wants to know how. But first off let me say the link is to another post I already have here at this forum, not to some other site. And secondly, No I'm not trying to sell anyone anything. This truly is how I've become free of alot of the worries that so many people face about their finances. I now own around six hundred acres and vacant farm land in my area sells for around $1000.00-$1500.00 an acre.

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,72250.msg527297.html#msg527297

 

[Gribnitz]

but unless you are pulling out toast with the virgin mary on it, or a ghost in a jar, not sure what you are finding in the dumpster worth selling.

LOL, that made me laugh out loud. But what she says is true. If you are finding that much jumping in a trash can, stick too it. You are NOT going to make a living metal detecting. If it were that easy, don't ya think everyone on this board would quit their day jobs ? The coins out there are for the most part common silver finds and those are few and far between. The ones worth a few bucks are the rare mint marks. Now, if you could time warp yourself back to 1960 or so, bring your modern machine with you, hit all the parks before anyone else, then you just might....and I mean might...be able to make a couple years living at it, but that would be at 1960's living wage. Don't give up your day job...especially if your making 80K a year....damn I have a masters degree and don't make that much. Think I need to take up lawn mowing.

 

[patpall22]

I forgot all about Dumpster diving. When I was about 10 or 11 years old, my moms boyfriend used to take my brother and I Dumpster diving. LOTS of good stuff to be found in dumpsters and probably more profitable than M ding. If your looking for a quick Profit you better have allot of time on your hands and lots of beach. you can recover many more finds on the beach b/c no digging. If you are just trying to turn a quick profit, try coin roll hunting. you can find lots of silver that way.

 

[halfdime]

Slowreaper-
I'd like to hear the story about that $8000 cache!

 

[Ricardo_NY1]

I don't think it's a realistic way to make money. I can see someone coming out with a few thousand dollars a year, maybe 3 or 4 at the most if they punded the crap out of parks, clad mines, and sold whatever silver/gold they found. A good gold or silver streak could bring that number up a notch, but that would be about as good as it gets. If anything, this hobby is more like saving a little at a time. After 10/15 years of detecting, you might have a nice hoard of silver coins and bucketfuls of clad that could buy some more silver or gold.

 

[jorge del norte]

PLC-------- metal detect as a hobby.

ebay can be a job.......i have 2 friends that have for years.....garage sales, super fleas, thrift stores, auctions........midcentury modern stuff goes for a pretty penny, designers will pay big bucks for the old stuff.

 

[PLC-Landscape]

Thanks everyone - I guess the concensus is that detecting is a hobby! - That's fine, it still looks like fun to try. and - txkickergirl - I had to laugh - I really did make that much. Example: The local drug store was remodeling and they threw away thousands of greeting cards, wrapping paper, stuffed animals, bows, ribbons, stationary and the displays they were in.....well guess who drove by with his dump truck and trailer? - I filled that sucker with boxes and boxes of stuff, brought it to my garage, sorted it and sold a lot of it in 'bundles'. That was a few thousand right there, and I actually had to throw away a lot of it myself (except I just put it next to the dumpster in my complex and someone usually takes it within a few hours. The displays sold for anywhere from $40.00-$200.00. and that was just ONE DAY of finding by accident! - When I go out and just drive from store to store, 90% of the time I find something, maybe only $40.00 worth, but always something. So when I hit it all day for 8 hours, I usually find good stuff to sell. - When a person returns something from one of these large corporate stores, what do you think they do with the merchandise, put it back on the shelf? No - they stick a damaged/returned label on it and throw it in the dumpster. Is it damaged? Sometimes, but not usually. I've found $80.00 irons, humidifiers, fans, coffee makers are a dime a dozen, knife sets that sold for $100.00, display bedding (6 new comforters - $160.00each)Anyway, there's other forums for diving....lol - this is for detecting...and I'm excited to get a detector and start having a go with it.
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[Blind.In.Texas]

Here's what you do. Keep cutting grass in the day time. Sell your junk at night time. And forget a metal detector. Too many treasure shows on TV. The best caches that are found aren't public.....The ones that are public haven't been found yet. Keep selling thsoe 1960 solid state FM radios, bud......They are worth a lot more than the common wheat penny. GL....$80,000 + $16,000 - $96,000....got cash?

 

[tinpan]

You work only 8 months of the year mowing lawns and make $80,000 and make even more money bin jumping during the winter.Sounds like you got it made.That a pretty good income and you rent 

                                        tinpan "landscapers [self-employed] would be lucky to make $40,000 US a year in Australia and they work 7 days a week and all year round."

 

[slowreaper]

Slowreaper-
I'd like to hear the story about that $8000 cache!

Sure no problem, My TH partner and I spent about two years, researching an old silver robbery, surveying the land, trying to pinpoint locations and references. Spent hours and hours pouring over arial photos and maps. Weeks walking the desert, making notes and comparing everything.
Then the lucky day came, just before noon, we stopped to have lunch at an old site, not much left but a couple falling down walls. I was sitting on a rock and kicked a piece of sheet metal out of the way. Attached to the underside of it was an envolope with cash in it. Nothing newer then 78. Never did find the silver.

It was just a lucky find, dumb luck even.

Brad

 

[txkickergirl]

Sorry if my post sounded rude, I was more just baffled , the more I thought about it the more I see where you could make some good money. In fact I was at the bank yesterday and across the street a guy was going through the best buy dumpster pulling out all kinds of computer stuff, a desk, and other items. I made really good money selling handbags and a few other things on ebay for awhile but it is a full time job. My brother would hit garage sales and pick up plates or cups and resale on ebay and he would pay like .10 and sell it for $10. I still think you should kick the book idea around. Best of luck

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Does anyone know if its against the law to dumpster drive in any state?

 

[raptor]

Oh Gypsy that had to hurt lol

 

[DFX-SE Gregg]

Warning dive feet first to find your millions!

 

[spez401]

Gypsy... I'm not sure about everywhere, but very often "Dumpster Diving" is technically illegal. Let me clarify though... There is a difference between going into someone's trash at curbside, and going to a store like best buy (which was used as an example).

The Legal theory behind garbage on the street is abandonment. Once a homeowner puts their trash on the street, it is deemed abandoned. That is why police can go through a suspect's trash without any 4th amendment violations.

Going into a dumpster is based on an interference of contract theory. Technically, placing your trash in a private dumpster is not abandonment. You have contracted with a company to collect your garbage and dispose of it. The trash company has contracted to pick up your garbage and dispose of it. If a 3rd party takes trash out, you are actually interfering with the 1. owners personal and contractual rights, 2. the garbage collector's rights.

The practical matter is that rarely will either person know about, or even care if somebody takes something out of the trash... but it does happen. I have actually represented both sides of the issue in the past. The first was representing the trash company. Someone was taking metal (for scrap) and wood out of the dumpster @ a construction site. Since the trash company was getting paid by weight, they were losing money. They didn't prosecute, but ended up getting a small judgment against the "thief", becasue he was doing it without permission.

My office represented the other side of the issue, when a company's competitor started going through their trash in a dumpster to try and get confidential information. This was before everyone had a shredder. The competitor used the argument that it was trash and abandoned and therefore they could go through the trash. The judge thought otherwise.

steve

 

[CaptainMorgan]

A friend recently was giving me some crap about my new found hobby and asked if I was going to sell my motorcycle and buy a pack mule, sell my satillite dish and get some gold pans, blah,blah,etc.,etc. you get the idea. I told him I have no grand illusions about doing anything more than finding a pull tab collection and a few wheats. Low expectation keep the pressure off.
I'm sure you all agree that you have to have the curious, inquisitive, seeker personality type to be in MDing correct and not for any personal $$$$ growth. Thou I hoping, if I am real good, pray to the treasure gods regularly, that I'll hit enough clad to at least pay for the detector someday.

 

[konnon6]

Its a hobby not a job thow some people do make a living off it.
I think of what Mel Fisher said( now that we found the gold the legal
battles begin) Its the challange to find the treasure and bring it home
alive and safe.

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

=konnon6 link=Its a hobby not a job thow some people do make a living off it.
I think of what Mel Fisher said( now that we found the gold the legal
battles begin)
**********
Unfortunately all too true. I have found this out to my --snifff.

About making a living out of detecting, it is possible but not in the US. Remember you will be lucky if you consistently find a good one every few years, or so. Split that up for the years involved and the expenses of just living and it isn't the best way financially to go. There will be loong periods with all out and nothing in, but the bills will still arrive regularly, how do you intend to handle them? Especially if you have a family.

I personally know about this since I became a pro treasure and lost mine hunter years ago. There were long periods when I couldn't even buy a Pepsi / Coke without thinking of the expense. Yes, I did hit good ones occasionally, but when you split them up among the years involved, I was not even making a min salary.

I also turned to looking for lost Jesuit mies, I found various, they are just now beginning to pay off. The general consensus is "Geeze, how lucky can one be, this guy is going to be rolling in money? Let's go looking for lost Jesuit mines. Sorry, but there aren't that many, and eveyone that I have found reduces the so called lost mine pool just that much. Besides I will not mention the time involved, sigh, years.

For every $1,000,000 possibly to be earned, divide that by 50 years and you arrive at a very small average for the years expended.

Basically I would say that the odds "against" finding one of them - treasure, coin, or mine -good enough to make a good living increases each time one is found by either you or others. A sort of diminshing possibilities.

NO, I would never reccomend going treasure and lost mine hunting full time today. Remember there is a tremendous amount of competition out there. Ideally manage to get a job that allows you a few months free every year to hunt, then go go for it.

Would I do it over again? Yes, but under the conditions that I started with, not today. The laws and conditions are too restrictive now.

The major plus factor is not monetary, but in the adventures that I have had. The thrill of being the first in centuries to see or touch a lost mining town, mine, an archaeological zone, and especially a treasure. In many ways one can relate to the original Spaniard and his discoveries. The search has led me from China, the Pacific basin, to the southen Mexican jungles and to the northern Barranca complex, most of which were unknown then. For one such as myself, the adventures "were" the thing, the financial rewards were left to themselves.

This led to the culmination of a boyhood dream, I was elected into the Elite Explorers Club. However,I was not nominated for any Fortune 500 status, nor will you be as a full time treasure hunter.

As I once mentioned, I have a full bank book of irreplaceable memories which can never be duplicated since the world's conditions have changed so much. Areas that once took me a week to reach by Mule now are accessable by truck in a few hours.

.
Tropical Tramp

 

[Ryan1979]

There is money to be made doing the dumpster diving. I work at a large metro hospital in the security department. People here are not after lamps and household-like things like that. Here, people back their pickups up to our commercial size refuse dumpsters and take the scrap metal from renovation/remodeling projects. It became such a big liability with people 'wading' in sharp objects that we had to install steel mesh blankets over the dumpsters at the end of the day to prevent people from injuring themselves. Too bad because the people that were doing it were making HUGE money with only a little time and work. I believe copper is over $3.00 per pound right now. One staff member at the hospital made over $20,000 last year from scrap metals just by checking the dumpsters after his shift, picking out what he wanted, and selling it at the junk yard. Thought that might interest everyone. It definately pays to get to know the people in charge of the facilities department. They can usually give permission to pick up the scrap, usually in return for some kind of favor like dinner, etc.