Page 297 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

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ERE is my recipe for making $1,000,” said Chester Ryan. “Get some ‘Gold
Diggers.’ This novelty machine which looks like a small traveling crane or
excavator, operates for a penny or a nickel. Five or six dollars’ worth of
novelty merchandise, together with a quantity of candy, is placed in it and the
little excavator picks out the candy or a novelty, depending upon your luck.
The novelties include cameras, fancy cigarette lighters, wrist watches,
fountain pens, celluloid dice and similar items. These novelties may be
redeemed by the store owner or retained by the lucky player as desired. I buy
good-looking cameras for three dollars a dozen, cigarette lighters for three-
sixty a dozen, and fountain pens for twenty-nine cents. I can get cheaper
articles but they do not have the looks. This is an important factor in your
success, for the secret of getting people to ‘go for’ your cameras, lighters,
watches, etc., is the appearance of quality in these items. They must look
good and they must look easy for the ‘digger’ to pick up.

“While the retail selling price of any article in the case may be only a dollar
or two, the fun of taking a chance seems to be sufficient to get most players
to take a few chances. The machine needs little servicing and always works.
When I started using them, however, I made the mistake of thinking I could
get by with shoddy merchandise. I didn’t know much about picking the best
locations either.

“Realizing that one good location is worth ten poor ones, I studied ways of
selecting choice spots. I learned quickly that the fellow who wants to make
big money has to study locations as scientifically as the chain stores. He must
check the number of persons entering a drug store, barber shop, cigar store,
candy store or delicatessen. He should know just about when the big crowd
comes in and if there ever is a big crowd. He will find that if a crowd hangs
around a place for an hour and then moves on with practically no more
patronage coming in that night, there is no chance of success with this
machine. At best, a machine in such a place will take in only about ten dollars