Silk Road forums

Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: chil on April 18, 2013, 06:02 pm

Title: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: chil on April 18, 2013, 06:02 pm
Say, a weed vendor with 16 harvests (4x4) in a year and a few other items....

is 100'000 unrealistic ?  :P

What do you think guys ?
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: hotcrossbuns on April 18, 2013, 06:29 pm
Nothing seems unrealistic to me anymore!
Not after coming here..

I reckon its possible if you bust your balls,
sell smalls and dont smoke to much,
I know I would fail at the last one.

What I don't get is how do you keep the money
on the hush hush, you gunna need to sell those Btcs
how do most venders explain so many bank transfers,
or do they have fake accounts?






Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: leavesbrown on April 18, 2013, 06:37 pm
That's totally possible, my advice is not to sell ANYWHERE except SR if you are growing.

Cashing out is easy, just do it slowly and maybe use some of your friend's/family's bank accounts every now and then. Or just hold you BTC for a few years.
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: chil on April 18, 2013, 09:05 pm
Cashing out is easy, just do it slowly and maybe use some of your friend's/family's bank accounts every now and then. Or just hold you BTC for a few years.

yeah that would be the main problem when you make a lot in a year and you don't have a business to launder your coins. I need to think more .... :-\
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: someoneelse87 on April 19, 2013, 01:52 am
Worry about cashing out later. Get started with your grow & get selling, If you end up with too much BTC to cash out it's not exactly the worst problem to be faced with. Just cash out safe/slowly  & buy lots of stuff online while your growing to cover costs & your pay. Do it for a few years, clean up shop and move to phase2... Bitcoin mining & cashout.

You can buy mining hardware with bitcoins and have it run in your home after taking down your grow setup. Then you have a great explanation for how you obtained the coins & why your power usage has been sky high for the past years - "I've been mining these since they were worth $2.20 a piece officer, that's why my power usage has been so high all these years and why I now have too much BTC to cash out"

Cashing out shouldn't be a problem if you diversify your methods. Use the above + buying stuff online + cashout to various cards + coin exchange etc. If you want to get serious start an online business that accepts bitcoin. Buy 1000 phone cases at 50c each & list them on your new business for $99 each. By all 1000 off yourself through various accounts over tor over a year. Keep half legit books for the business so you can pass any future audit... Pay your taxes ;)
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: mollyexpress on April 19, 2013, 02:06 am
subbed :)
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: UK Stealth on April 19, 2013, 03:09 am
I made 18.50

It's not that lucrative.  Too many sellers

You say a statement like that after a few days as vendor and 2 sales.

I Will add this i got my vendor account 8 months ago but only got it started in december due to shite at home ect, but since then i coined in well over 300+ btc 

and im just getting started !. 
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: chil on April 19, 2013, 08:15 am
Worry about cashing out later. Get started with your grow & get selling, If you end up with too much BTC to cash out it's not exactly the worst problem to be faced with. Just cash out safe/slowly  & buy lots of stuff online while your growing to cover costs & your pay. Do it for a few years, clean up shop and move to phase2... Bitcoin mining & cashout.

You can buy mining hardware with bitcoins and have it run in your home after taking down your grow setup. Then you have a great explanation for how you obtained the coins & why your power usage has been sky high for the past years - "I've been mining these since they were worth $2.20 a piece officer, that's why my power usage has been so high all these years and why I now have too much BTC to cash out"

Cashing out shouldn't be a problem if you diversify your methods. Use the above + buying stuff online + cashout to various cards + coin exchange etc. If you want to get serious start an online business that accepts bitcoin. Buy 1000 phone cases at 50c each & list them on your new business for $99 each. By all 1000 off yourself through various accounts over tor over a year. Keep half legit books for the business so you can pass any future audit... Pay your taxes ;)

I'm not sure this is the best advice ever but it pretty much looks like it  ;) thanks Somoenoelese87, + 1

Also: what do you mean with "buying stuff online" ? What's the purpose ? Do you mean having an Ebay business ?
 
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: chil on April 19, 2013, 08:21 am
Too many sellers

Too many sellers that have the same tactics  :)
I can make a difference.
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: chil on April 19, 2013, 12:52 pm
or buy anonymous credit cards on sr. > trade your btc's > load card > withdraw from an atm.
Important in case they tracked the funds to that card. Cover your face.

I'm not interested in that method, I want clean money. But thanks anyway.  :)
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: SouthSquareBiz on April 23, 2013, 01:59 pm
Nothing seems unrealistic to me anymore!
Not after coming here..

I reckon its possible if you bust your balls,
sell smalls and dont smoke to much,
I know I would fail at the last one.

What I don't get is how do you keep the money
on the hush hush, you gunna need to sell those Btcs
how do most venders explain so many bank transfers,
or do they have fake accounts?

Mate, the concern you have is/should be the least of your worries.

Drug dealing and money laundering are not new phenomena.

Look, the hard part is getting a vendor account paid for, running, and successful.

Cashing out is simply the cost of doing business, a formality.

First of all, if you just had to deal with a bank, create an account at more than one and run your btc under the withdrawal minimums that way.

That leaves too much of a trail for me, so I would convert into money orders, pre-paid cards, and anonymous cards, or pay the premium on The Road to convert that btc to cash.

I'm not even scratching the surface.

For the advanced people on the board, you should already have a business or a business name surrounded by a cash heavy business so when it is time to pick up and drop off money bags, you don't look suspicious.

I will never forget a book I read about people claiming they are scared to take the next step or scared to make money because of taxes.

Word?!?!?! It is the same line of thinking when how will you convert btc. Making large sums of money this way has a tight window, usually. Worry about making and protecting the money first before you think about cashing out. You are killing yourself before you even get started, mentally.
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: kittenfluff on April 23, 2013, 03:31 pm
How much can you make? Depends on how much demand there, how good your shit is, how reasonably it's priced, and how hard you can work.

How to make the money legit? Hard to know how much to post on here as this kind of thing should be kept secret. I plan on doing something a bit like this:

- set up an website with some merch that you sell for BTC, or that you accept BTC donations to. Doesn't need to be great, just plausable. The higher-value you can make the merch appear the better.

- set up some fake sales.

- set up a few throw-away BTC wallets

- transfer funds to the BTC wallets, then transfer from them to your legit website wallet over time (in fact, probably as you go along making sales).

- sell the BTC openly on the BTC markets

- to be clean you'll probably have to declare the money made from BTC sales and pay taxes on it. I have no idea in what way you'd need to do this, but probably the same as setting yourself up as 'self employed' or some shit - talk to an accountant.


The hardest thing about this by far will be making a website that's plausable. I'd make it some lunatic conspiricy site, or some christian thing, maybe even survivalist or some such - something that would attract donations... There's loads of site that sell bullshit for money, check out the SubGenius website; it's funny as fuck, but their shop is basically selling easy-to-print certificates for money. Look at Scientology or NewAge bullshit - sell a brain-tuning machine or EM healing device. Look around for bullshit that stupid people pay money for...
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: chil on April 23, 2013, 06:47 pm
. Worry about making and protecting the money first before you think about cashing out. You are killing yourself before you even get started, mentally.

But mate, I believe that if you don't have every single detail of your SR business planned out, you run the risk of running into obstacles you may not be able to solve. And even more importantly, the BTC fluctuation makes it unsafe to keep tons of BTCs in some wallet without cashing out. Remember the 35 to 2 dollars drop ?
For as long as I've been thinking about my SR business, the laundering part is what has been taking me the most time. I mean, you REALY do not want to get caught.
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: chil on April 23, 2013, 06:50 pm
- set up an website with some merch that you sell for BTC, or that you accept BTC donations to. Doesn't need to be great, just plausable. The higher-value you can make the merch appear the better.

I just wouldn't do that either. To be linked with the use of BTCs when you are suspected of dealing on SR  is just some kind of hint I wouldn't want to give to LE.
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: itsthecops on April 23, 2013, 07:16 pm
Please don't encourage people to become vendors. . delete this thread....

another flood of half assed vendors who will eventually give up/start scamming, cutting corners at the expense of buyers.  Poorly packed, skipped steps, putting buyers at risk are the final steps of vendor before they start asking for FE and start their bail out plan.

I'm just being an ass .  I know. . But there over 20,000 vendors here.  Only a few really have what it takes.  The rest are just experimenting and making mistakes. .. . . with other people's freedom. .. .

I got two orders in resolutions because of half assed business practices...  so I'm cranky.  Just let me rant... I'm ADD.. and having a meltdown. .  .

I get the feeling I'm buying from teenagers sometimes.   (Dude, Hey Man, wassup? - these aren't words I want to hear from a dealer I have to trust won't bring the cops my my door with the package.)  I know its buyer beware, but shit its hard to tell until the vendor opens his mouth.

So how much can a vendor make?  I ask, which kind of vendor do you mean?

-The kind who are here for 8 months - 1 year, make their wad and split and invest it on something legit.

-The kind who are here for the long haul 1-2 years now, assembly line operation, multiple houses doing packing, staff, tight setup, going until the bitter end. . .)

-The kind looking for a quick buck any way possible.  Scams, cons, FE, digital goods, lotteries, selling anything under the sun.  They pop up whenever coin prices are high and lure people out of the forums.

-The kind who are experimenting with running a web biz and get bored easily after a few months, (How do I sell this vendor account? Its not working out) They provide great service and product, but can't maintain it and make a profit.  They undercut themselves out of a profit trying to impress customers and always going the extra mile for no benefit.   Sooner or later, they get tired and the money isn't enough.

The first two are great vendors.  The last two are hit and miss.
So, . . . what kind of vendor are you/will you become?
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: chil on April 23, 2013, 07:26 pm
Please don't encourage people to become vendors. . delete this thread....

another flood of half assed vendors who will eventually give up/start scamming, cutting corners at the expense of buyers.  Poorly packed, skipped steps, putting buyers at risk are the final steps of vendor before they start asking for FE and start their bail out plan.

I'm just being an ass .  I know. . But there over 20,000 vendors here.  Only a few really have what it takes.  The rest are just experimenting and making mistakes. .. . . with other people's freedom. .. .

I got two orders in resolutions because of half assed business practices...  so I'm cranky.  Just let me rant... I'm ADD.. and having a meltdown. .  .

I get the feeling I'm buying from teenagers sometimes.   (Dude, Hey Man, wassup? - these aren't words I want to hear from a dealer I have to trust won't bring the cops my my door with the package.)  I know its buyer beware, but shit its hard to tell until the vendor opens his mouth.

So how much can a vendor make?  I ask, which kind of vendor do you mean?

-The kind who are here for 8 months - 1 year, make their wad and split and invest it on something legit.

-The kind who are here for the long haul 1-2 years now, assembly line operation, multiple houses doing packing, staff, tight setup, going until the bitter end. . .)

-The kind looking for a quick buck any way possible.  Scams, cons, FE, digital goods, lotteries, selling anything under the sun.  They pop up whenever coin prices are high and lure people out of the forums.

-The kind who are experimenting with running a web biz and get bored easily after a few months, (How do I sell this vendor account? Its not working out) They provide great service and product, but can't maintain it and make a profit.  They undercut themselves out of a profit trying to impress customers and always going the extra mile for no benefit.   Sooner or later, they get tired and the money isn't enough.

The first two are great vendors.  The last two are hit and miss.
So, . . . what kind of vendor are you/will you become?

I mostly agree with what you're saying but it's like what happened with the democratization of music, mainly electronic music and all this wave of hiphop/laptop musicians. It overwhelmed the market and the internet with crap, yet it allowed some talented people to emerge. Same goes with the SR phenomenon, the democratization of drug dealing brought lots of incompetent people, yet it allows talented drug dealers to emerge.

If I had to choose between keeping drug dealing within an "elite" and making drug dealing possible for anyone, I still would go with the latter. Why ? Mainly because it makes room for competition, and thus, price lowering and the need for a better product.

See, without disclosing too much of somebody's future plans, I believe the Sr community is seriously gonna benefit from the presence of a new vendor  ;)
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: 77Tjm on April 23, 2013, 07:44 pm

yeah that would be the main problem when you make a lot in a year and you don't have a business to launder your coins. I need to think more .... :-\

How about getting some used PCs from Craigs List, a bunch of beefy looking but old/cheap graphics cards from ebay, some neon case lighting- and setting up a semi-fake bitcoin mining server farm.

That takes care of a few issues:

1) reason for high power usage (just make sure case fans and neon case lights are on when grow lights are on, if anyone busts in, just show them your BTC farming closet/room. Have only a few machines set up as actual miners, so that you have legit paperwork and payouts for mining, the rest are just decoys to explain power usage)

2) reason for having bitcoins to cash out.

Heck- you could even buy and resell computer parts on ebay or some place, then that gives you a reason to have high volume of mail going out.

Having a reason for everything is how to stay under the radar. Hope this helps!
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: canuckboy on April 23, 2013, 08:02 pm
Chil,

You are brilliant.  I like what you said.  It's a democracy.  And democracy is designed to weed out the weak and put the fitest forward first.   

I wish I could get rich mining coins
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: Jack N Hoff on April 23, 2013, 08:20 pm

yeah that would be the main problem when you make a lot in a year and you don't have a business to launder your coins. I need to think more .... :-\

How about getting some used PCs from Craigs List, a bunch of beefy looking but old/cheap graphics cards from ebay, some neon case lighting- and setting up a semi-fake bitcoin mining server farm.

That takes care of a few issues:

1) reason for high power usage (just make sure case fans and neon case lights are on when grow lights are on, if anyone busts in, just show them your BTC farming closet/room. Have only a few machines set up as actual miners, so that you have legit paperwork and payouts for mining, the rest are just decoys to explain power usage)

2) reason for having bitcoins to cash out.

Heck- you could even buy and resell computer parts on ebay or some place, then that gives you a reason to have high volume of mail going out.

Having a reason for everything is how to stay under the radar. Hope this helps!
Except that you can look at the history of coins and see when they were mined.  You can also see what miner mined what blocks using sophisticated analysis techniques.

Check this out https://bitslog.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/the-well-deserved-fortune-of-satoshi-nakamoto/

One of the original miners from the genesis block has over one million coins and never moved any of them.  He is still mining coins.

You would claim to be mining blocks with old shitty graphics cards when everyone else on the network is running ASICs?
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: BlueSkiesRedEyes on April 23, 2013, 09:47 pm
Say, a weed vendor with 16 harvests (4x4) in a year and a few other items....

is 100'000 unrealistic ?  :P

What do you think guys ?

How big are the harvests?
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: 77Tjm on April 23, 2013, 11:41 pm


You would claim to be mining blocks with old shitty graphics cards when everyone else on the network is running ASICs?

Nah, but it should be enough reasonable doubt for a decent criminal defense attorney to run with :)
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: masterblaster on April 24, 2013, 04:24 am
lol $100k? are you fucking kidding me?

DO THE MATH MORON, HOW MANY $50 ORDERS DO YOU HAVE TO MAIL ALL OVER FUCKING TOWN TO MAKE $100K?
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: Jack N Hoff on April 24, 2013, 04:40 am
lol $100k? are you fucking kidding me?

DO THE MATH MORON, HOW MANY $50 ORDERS DO YOU HAVE TO MAIL ALL OVER FUCKING TOWN TO MAKE $100K?
After accounting for fees and costs of turning bitcoins into fiat it would be something like two thousand one hundred $50 orders.
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: masterblaster on April 24, 2013, 05:16 am
lol $100k? are you fucking kidding me?

DO THE MATH MORON, HOW MANY $50 ORDERS DO YOU HAVE TO MAIL ALL OVER FUCKING TOWN TO MAKE $100K?
After accounting for fees and costs of turning bitcoins into fiat it would be something like two thousand one hundred $50 orders.

Uh no, read the fucking topic, hes asking how much can u make, not how much sales volume can you do. $100k PROFIT, if your doing 100% markup, is $200k in sales, which equates to 4000 packages per year, thats 17 packages A DAY if you are working 5 days a week. Thats SEALING< PACKING< LABELING< DROPPING 17 fucking packages a day to make enough to afford a reasonable lifestyle. Thats day after day of dealing with stupid fucking customers and SR's shitty site, all the while freaking out because the price of coin jumped 200% 6 times in the last hour. Thats moving $200k in funds through the system without getting caught, and giving the middlemen a good 9% of it.

You'd be lucky to walk away from this whole fucking operation making as much as a phonejockey at a midsize company. Look at it this way, for all the risk and effort, your garbage man is making more than you.
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: T5 on April 24, 2013, 06:37 am
Cashing out is easy, just do it slowly and maybe use some of your friend's/family's bank accounts every now and then. Or just hold you BTC for a few years.

yeah that would be the main problem when you make a lot in a year and you don't have a business to launder your coins. I need to think more .... :-\

There are ways to cash out very easily. Laundering bitcoins is even easier than cashing out actually. Being an investor myself, I am having so much fun holding bitcoins, litecoins, laundering them, then buying gold, silver...

For me, personally, the fun isn't just on selling on SilkRoad, but having actual money, being able to help long-time friends, starting projects. Making money just to make money isn't fun anymore, what's cool is to get creative and enjoy the ride.

If you are careful about your business, this could be one of the best experience of your life.

Though be careful not to get addicted to some kind of drugs. I had troubles with amphetamines and occasional MDMA tripping some weeks ago but I'm glad I had a partner who was there to make me realize I was slowly going rogue :P They say don't consume your own product, I can testify to that ;)
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: T5 on April 24, 2013, 06:53 am

yeah that would be the main problem when you make a lot in a year and you don't have a business to launder your coins. I need to think more .... :-\

How about getting some used PCs from Craigs List, a bunch of beefy looking but old/cheap graphics cards from ebay, some neon case lighting- and setting up a semi-fake bitcoin mining server farm.

That takes care of a few issues:

1) reason for high power usage (just make sure case fans and neon case lights are on when grow lights are on, if anyone busts in, just show them your BTC farming closet/room. Have only a few machines set up as actual miners, so that you have legit paperwork and payouts for mining, the rest are just decoys to explain power usage)

2) reason for having bitcoins to cash out.

Heck- you could even buy and resell computer parts on ebay or some place, then that gives you a reason to have high volume of mail going out.

Having a reason for everything is how to stay under the radar. Hope this helps!
Except that you can look at the history of coins and see when they were mined.  You can also see what miner mined what blocks using sophisticated analysis techniques.

Check this out https://bitslog.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/the-well-deserved-fortune-of-satoshi-nakamoto/

One of the original miners from the genesis block has over one million coins and never moved any of them.  He is still mining coins.

You would claim to be mining blocks with old shitty graphics cards when everyone else on the network is running ASICs?

You can claim to be an early investor that has traded a lot since. What I like to do is to trade btc for ltc back to btc and they are 100% laundered. Then you can use services like bitspend to buy whatever you want to buy. Use creativity. It's easier than it seems.
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: Dcompany on April 24, 2013, 06:10 pm
IMO these are roughly current profit margins which are getting squeezed everyday
also it depends on how direct your access is to drugs and wholesale prices you can get

top 1%---500k
top 5%---150k
top 10%--100k
top 25%--50k
top 50%--25k
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: chil on April 24, 2013, 07:15 pm
Say, a weed vendor with 16 harvests (4x4) in a year and a few other items....

is 100'000 unrealistic ?  :P

What do you think guys ?

How big are the harvests?

If some strains can yield up to 150g, then I'm planning on 600g per harvest. After doing the math, it seems I wont be doing much more than 50k on weed alone. Anyway, I'm planning to sell other products with massive added value, so 100k seems feasible. God I'd be so happy with that kind of money  :)
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: chil on April 24, 2013, 07:24 pm
IMO these are roughly current profit margins which are getting squeezed everyday
also it depends on how direct your access is to drugs and wholesale prices you can get

top 1%---500k
top 5%---150k
top 10%--100k
top 25%--50k
top 50%--25k

Are these numbers projections of yours ?

This thread was initially intended for vendors to chime in and give some ideas of the profit they make..I reckon this is quite naive since most vendors wouldn't disclose their sales revenue...
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: BlueSkiesRedEyes on April 24, 2013, 08:36 pm
Say, a weed vendor with 16 harvests (4x4) in a year and a few other items....

is 100'000 unrealistic ?  :P

What do you think guys ?

How big are the harvests?

If some strains can yield up to 150g, then I'm planning on 600g per harvest. After doing the math, it seems I wont be doing much more than 50k on weed alone. Anyway, I'm planning to sell other products with massive added value, so 100k seems feasible. God I'd be so happy with that kind of money  :)

***Disclaimer: hand-wavey, conservative calculations ahead***

At 600g/harvest (single 1000W per harvest I'm assuming?) you're looking at a bit over 21lbs/year if you're doing 16 harvests.  If you don't have gear, bare bones startup gear plus accessories and nutes will probably be around $1k.  Double that, at least, if you are going for all four lights right off the bat (I wouldn't recommend it without prior experience).  Electricity per 1000W light, depending on where you are and what cycle you're on, runs $100-150/month.

Now, you're just starting out, so $2.5-3k/lb would probably be good for SR vending, selling quantity of a couple ounces at most and maybe the occassional QP.  Going with the $2.5k mark, that's $52,500/year.  Factor in all the washing and fees and middle men and whatnot and bam... like you said, about $50k/year -- once everything is up and running smoothly.  That is going to take time, at least a year even if you have a green thumb.  And that's $50k cash money, which is the take-home equivalent of about a $75k salary.

Hopefully that helps because no... I'm not posting shit about my revenue or margins  ;D
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: nyancats on April 24, 2013, 08:39 pm
You can find me on Atlantis, I'll be selling exact same inventory there:

[CENSORED: scam link]rky4es5q.onion/account/view/nyancats
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: chil on April 24, 2013, 08:55 pm
At 600g/harvest (single 1000W per harvest I'm assuming?)

erm...single 150W or 250W in a 80X80cm (31"x31")  space.
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: BlueSkiesRedEyes on April 24, 2013, 10:16 pm
You're going to need a bit of black magic to pull 600g out of 250W.  Well, more than a bit.
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: chil on April 25, 2013, 07:14 am
You're going to need a bit of black magic to pull 600g out of 250W.  Well, more than a bit.

Yep, I've been overestimating things, definitely. I need more thinking....Thanks for your input.
Title: Re: How much can a retail vendor make in a year ?
Post by: BlueSkiesRedEyes on April 25, 2013, 06:51 pm
Keep in mind that for high grade weed, even the best growers need the stars to align in order to hit 1g/watt.