Gmail Account Sellers on Ebay are Poor Business People - How to Make Unlimited $ Selling Gmail Accounts

Besides the fact that people that list invitations to gmail accounts on ebay are a bit greedy and opportunistic, they are also poor business people.

Take the WalMart Approach to Selling Them. Buy in Bulk. Sell Cheap. Undercut your competition. Sacrifice Profit Amounts (You can't say 'sacrifice profit margin' because the margin stays at Infinity because your costs are 0) Make up for it in Volume.

How do you do this?

Well, one gmail account actually provides someone with an unlimited amount of gmail accounts. "No", you say? "You only get to send two invitations!" Ah, my short-sighted friend.

You need a basic lesson in supply and demand. And an eye for a loophole. Supply is unlimited and access to that supply (once you get your first invite) is unrestricted.

Here's how you can have an unlimited number of accounts to sell or giveaway:

Step 1. Get Your Account. 1 Account provides 2 invitations.

Step 2. Find a willing buyer (People are paying $250 for one. Your cost is $0. Settle for $25 and people will flock to you. Set up a blog for free at blogger. Advertise on feedster where everyone is searching for them. Rate is $40 for 50k impressions.)

Step 3. Setup the gmail account for your buyer. All they need to tell you is the name of the email address that they want. They can change the rest later.

Step 4. Now You have 3 More Accounts that you Can Sell. Sell his accounts first. Then give your first buyer their password when you sell his two invitations.

Step 5. Keep doing this until demand dries up or Other people catch on and do the same and lower the price to where the profits aren't attractive to you anymore. I am sure people in India will do this for a lot less cash.

That is Your Lesson For the Day.

Next Lesson: "Don't Be Evil" by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Comments

[Jason Lau]

Can you invite me a gmail account?
if you need me to pay...i can...please

[Peter Caputa]

sorry dude. it'd be too much hassle for me to do this for the return on my time. I am sure there is someone that is a bit more desperate for money that will follow this scheme to generate an unlimited supply of gmail accounts and sell them. (DETAILED ABOVE).

Noone has taken the bait, though.

If someone has, please let me know and I'll send them customers. I get about 20 people a day asking me for one.

[Sri]

What's up w/ your comment on Indians??

And this blog entry suffers universality from one assumption. Not everyone that has a Gmail account gets the links to invite two others. Your Step 1 is valid in only some cases.

[Peter Caputa]

I was wating for the time I would offend someone. Finally, it has come. j/k

My comment regarding Indians, was only meant to infer that Indians (from India) have a lower cost of living, generally receive lower pay and would probably work for less money. (as in outsourcing or offshoring)

I should probably be more careful in the future about making generalizations and I should be more careful to clarify what I mean.

I am sure I will f-up again, though. Sorry if I offended you or anyone.

I could whip out the, "I have a friend that is black statement" here and tell you about all of the Indians I know and work with, but I will spare you. Hopefully, it is suffice to say that I meant nothing about the culture, beliefs or qualities of Indians or any individual person of Indian nationality by saying it.

I love all people! Even individuals I don't like that much. :)

(And I especially love Indian food.)

I assumed that everyone got two invites. Thanks for the correction.

[Gaurang]

"Indians (from India) have a lower cost of living, generally receive lower pay and would probably work for less money."

This is not a very precise statement, though generally believed.

India and US have a very skewed currency conversion factor. Though from purchasing power, US$1 is equivalent to around 8 rupees, the currency rate is US$1 to Rs.45. So Indians can sell their services to Americans at a very cheap rate, which will be cheap only to Americans, but actually Indians are having comparable standards of living (at least in big cities) because they can buy more with the same amount of money in India than Americans can in the US.

[Annu]

This is for people who feel India is cheap with cheaper cost of living... U should visit Bombay just for example and try to purchase a piece of Land. I will assure them.. The price they pay to buy House in US somewhere in Bay Area would hardly get them less square feet amount of space in an apartment complex.

[Peter Caputa]

ok people. b4 we turn this into a semantics race, I'd like to modify my statement to say this:

"Indians (from India), generally receive lower pay and would probably work for less money than their US counterparts."

I am sure a Mercedes SLK 500 costs the same or more over there too. Cost of living and standard of living are two very different things. I said "cost of living".

Anyways, this was pretty damn ancillary to my original point.

[Elliot Lee]

Sri is right. Your plan is seriously flawed. Gmail accounts do NOT get 2 invites; only first-level accounts do. For example, someone gets an account through blogger. This person can invite 2 others. However, the people they invite do NOT get invites (at this time) - unless Google decides to give invites to them. Take me for example. I have had a Gmail account for weeks and have never had any invites.

[yorkpete]

I think they're pretty good business people - they're taking advantage of short term supply problems to charge over inflated prices for something which is free. No, it's not a long term opportunity, but if you want to make a quick few bucks out of nothing...

[bill]

Dude..
It's probably too late..but do u still want to buy a gmail account?
bill

[James]

This has to be one of the most messed up things I've ever read. I originally came here baffled too see Gmail accounts being sold on ebay, and figured I'd read on. What do I find? Some guy makes a general comment about Indians, and all the bra-burning, LSD smokin, Save the trees, PETA Hypocrytes F*C*S Come out off the woodwork to point out how theres some city in India who sells expensive and whatnot. Who cares? Does that have anything to do with his gmail accertion? He used an analigy, to be ha ha funny. Get over your PC crap in live in the real world.....

And thats my 2 bits...months later :)

[James]

Just for clarification, I am not a racist, I hate everyone equally.....

[agumon433]

If anyone wants a gmail account then I am selling for $3 each, payments made through e-gold. Just email me and ask for one

[Andrew]

You sir, are retarded. $3 for Gmail accounts in July of 2005? Would you like to sell me some bottled air for $4.95 as well?

[remzy usman]

if any one wants gmail account for cheaper rate...please contact me...

[me]

I have a zillion Gmail accounts, and I will sell one to someone for $3. I'm a poor bastard who can't afford a meal, and if you don't pay me, I will shrivle up and die.
Just kidding. If anyone would like a Gmail account, give me an email.
Hell, I have a job. I don't need your's or anyone else's $2, $3, $5 or whatever.

I wouldn't mind an Orkut invite though ;)