Future of MS
#16
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: S Cal
Programs: AA Lifetime Plat, United Silver, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat
Posts: 1,142
The future of MS is right here on FlyerTalk. By that I mean carefully reading the threads that pique your interest, trying to learn what others are doing and sharing your own ideas, and then figuring out how you can apply the things you learn here to your own situation.
#17
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: New Jersey
Programs: Delta P, SPG G, Marriott S, Hertz PC
Posts: 1,007
The future of MS is right here on FlyerTalk. By that I mean carefully reading the threads that pique your interest, trying to learn what others are doing and sharing your own ideas, and then figuring out how you can apply the things you learn here to your own situation.
By the time a new ground breaking method is discovered, a few folks were already using it for quite a while.
Now, FT is a great place to develop the method, however once it is here, and then disseminated through all the blogs and other forums, it is typically too late.
Add in the fact that this forum has turned extremely hostile over the past few months, and significantly worse since CVS, I see more methods being kept private, or on private forums.
Obviously there are some methods that will be extremely difficult to kill, no matter how many people MS... that would be something like buying gift cards and cashing them in for money orders.
For that to die, you would need to stop the ability to buy gift cards with cc, and there are currently so many places you can do that, and then change the law to not allow debit use.
When talking specific methods that hinge on a niche item, be it amazon payments, reloadits, and what we have seen with Serve reloads... all it takes is that one hole to be fixed and the game is over.
IE... You can only reload Serve with CC in one place... CVS. Bam, done.
You can pretty much buy VR with CC only in CVS.... bam, done.
Mint.... done.
Reload it Cards... not many chains carry them, typically home depot and a grocery store chain. HD is already hard coded, grocery chains have mostly put out memos that it is cash only, and even still... highly dependent on cashier.
Now on the flip side... if you had unlimited credit, and say 24 hours... how many thousands of dollars of visa gift cards would you be able to buy?
For me... well lets see. A conservative $3k per store, 14 hours, from 8am to 10 pm, lets take out 2 for breaks... with 20 mins between stores. So that is a conservative $9k per hour, for 12 hours, that is $108,000 in Visa Gift cards in a working day.
In reality, I am sure you can up to $5k per store, with say 15 mins between stores, you just more than doubled to $240k a day.
Fact is... you cannot find any other methods where you can buy so many "MS loading tools" anywhere else. Grocery stores, gas stations, drug stores, convenience stores, all have them and have no issues selling them. A certain chain has a store policy of no limit to how many in gift cards one can buy. Heard from a cashier someone came in to buy 40 cards in one shot. $20k.
With a team... say 5 people, you can with work, clear $100k a day in MS.
(I do realize if you live in a rural community it may be an issue, however if you are on the coasts or a major metropolitan area, PLENTY of opportunity.)
I know of a few people who publically claimed they made this full time. Based on what I do in 1 or 2 hours a day average, and what I was able to do on a full weekend day... I have zero doubts about anyone who claims they do $500k or more a month. They may be lying about personal results, however that is totally doable... even without VR, etc.
As Vol stated, VR was an EASY loading and unloading tool. It got shut down, who cares, move on. Think of this as a business, adapt or die.
With a few current promos going on, I have personally put myself in gear, and well past pace towards goals I set for April, and I think I will hit it in 2/3 the time I originally planned. This is with just me and wife helping out every so often, only a few k a week. If I bring anyone else into it... can easily make it a lot more.
I actually think the real big hitters are not on FT but rather other forums and mostly stay quiet. Just know... it is all well doable. Just learn the game from top down and new methods will come to you.
Sorry for the rant, but I hope it helps others as much as it helped me to type my thoughts out.
#18
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2006
Location: DTW, but drive to/from YYZ/ORD
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Posts: 31,743
#19
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Land of the parrots and parrotheads
Programs: Several dozen
Posts: 4,820
Correction - the big hitters are on FT, but more active in other (private) forums and mostly stay quiet on FT. Effective techniques are no longer being publically disclosed for fear of the tragedy of the town common effect.
#20
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: New Jersey
Programs: Delta P, SPG G, Marriott S, Hertz PC
Posts: 1,007
All you have to do is read for examples.
Some folks cannot go to Wally every day for mo. However when you have 2 people, you can do the same thing but now be every other day. With 5.... You are there once a week... Yet still maintain the output.
It does make it easier in terms of you can break down who does what for the day.... Buy, sell or record keep or day off.
If you don't see the benefits yet, simply put you are not doing enough volume.
Lastly, not everyone on the team needs to have the same split, depending on what each brings to the table.
#21
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 217
Some of the big hitters are out with a hernea....from carrying grocery bags full of discarded GCs to the local recycling center.
#22
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 1,051
What other (private) forums are we referring to? PM thanks.
#24
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: The great Midwest
Programs: None
Posts: 67
Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to go back to hogging Kate...
#25
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Land of the parrots and parrotheads
Programs: Several dozen
Posts: 4,820
#28
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Land of the parrots and parrotheads
Programs: Several dozen
Posts: 4,820
#29
Join Date: May 2009
Location: MSP
Programs: AA, DL, AS
Posts: 183
Bottom line, MS is a nice side gig that works out really well when the rewards of MS are in line with your personal goals. But like most jobs, a few are amazingly good at it, and most are somewhere between mediocre and awful.
#30
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: San Francisco, CA
Programs: Jose Cuervo Gold, Bud Light Platinum, Schwab 401K, VW Bug 2MM
Posts: 1,096
Less than 2%. 90% settle for making minimum spend to get their signup bonuses. Of the rest, most can't or won't commit to what it takes to make 2+ million points a year in MS: putting a daily average of about $4K to $5K on their credit cards, and converting that merchandise to sufficient bank deposits in time to pay off their credit cards before the statements close.
Bottom line, MS is a nice side gig that works out really well when the rewards of MS are in line with your personal goals. But like most jobs, a few are amazingly good at it, and most are somewhere between mediocre and awful.
Bottom line, MS is a nice side gig that works out really well when the rewards of MS are in line with your personal goals. But like most jobs, a few are amazingly good at it, and most are somewhere between mediocre and awful.
The low hanging fruit is so easy I'm not sure why everyone doesn't do it to some degree really. Just using basic techniques listed in this forum you can MS $2500/month with a few clicks of a mouse every month with NO FEES. A couple more clicks and $12.50 a month nets you another $2500 which nicely balances the first $2500. After that, you start having to venture out of your house, depending on how much you can evolve.. anyways, I digress.