this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
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A couple of others I can think of:

  • Crypto-boom of 2016ish: GPUs/mining rigs
  • LLM/AI hype nowish: User generated data
  • 90's dotcom bubble: Server space
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[–] [email protected] 68 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I was thinking that, but figured I'd go for input data instead for the sake of variation.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Can't sell something they can easily steal and get away with it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I can't wait for the bubble to burst, so we can finally get affordable GPU's again

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Affordable GPUs is a thing of the past I'm afraid. Bubble or not I'm afraid they will never come down.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

They wont come down. Prices are upwardly sticky. Nvidia and the rest have seen that people will pay those inflated prices, so they have no incentive to lower them

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

It's been what, 10 years? It wasn't AI that jumped up the prices, before it was crypto, After this it will be something else.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Whenever I played Roller Coaster Tycoon I would jack up the price of umbrellas right before it rained.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Free soda stands. Pay toilets. No exit.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago

Ah the Hotel Crapifornia

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

And here I was focusing on making money from the rides like some plebian smoothbrain. Also giving away the maps for free, because my guests always complained about getting lost in my labyrinth of a park with as many rides as I could fit, to the point of basically having four floors/levels in the park.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

When there's an umbrella-rush, sell rain.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

My friend failed at becoming an actor in LA so he started doing prospective actors’ photo shoots

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's actually pretty clever. Especially considering that he tried that avenue for himself and therefore knows what any hopefuls would need. Any idea how he's doing? Is it portraits only, or does he offer additional stuff such as sample tapes?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I believe he expanded beyond headshots and photo shoots and at one point he was even doing sound production for a rapper’s video. Basically wherever he has opportunity to have his career be providing what those still trying to make it big needed

[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 months ago (4 children)

During a pandemic, sell sanitizer and toilet paper?

But most those guys were pretty much seen as assholes, so I don't know if this good advice or not.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, over here we have this former rich guy (he lost his fortune thinking he was better at picking stocks than he actually was.) He got lucky and made his fortune as an early investor in a cell phone company in 2000s, and after that he's basically become a serial grifter. His covid enterprise was to buy face masks in bulk, repackage them, and resell.

Well, he got hit with a huge fine: The face masks were only approved as long as they remained in their original packaging. Once he repackaged them, they were no longer considered sterile, and as such no longer approved for medical use => false advertising

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

What a collosal moron

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The toilet paper thing was mostly a result of mass hysteria, not an actual issue of supply and demand. There were some supply issues in Australia IIRC, but most countries would absolutely not have had any toilet paper shortages if people hadn't all panic-bought far more than they needed

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I wonder if all of the ones hoarding toilet paper have managed to use up their stash yet.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Nope. Still good for a few years.

But that's because I always buy toilet paper and paper towels at Costco, and buy more when I'm down to two cases.

Two is one, one is none.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don't know about that, but I do know I grabbed basically a lifetime supply of hand sanitizer a year or so ago because the grocery store was so overstocked they were giving them away for free, LOL.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Yup! One in my town was passing out free wipes for over a year.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No, hand made masks. Especially when it surprises the officials who should have known it was possible and beefed up supplies of the real thing. The first few months of Covid were a wild ride on knowing what would be the best choices of DIY protection, and Etsy and other sites were crazy.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I 3D printed a few dozen of these visor things for my local hospital that took 3 ring binder dividers as face shields/sneeze guards. Several ended up multi-colored because I used the ends of several spools of filament for that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I've still got about 100 or so of them. I was mass printing them as part of a coordinated project. We basically managed to saturate the local area with them. Once demand suddenly stopped, I was left with the next batch ready to go. I've still to find a good use for them.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago

When investors are pouring money into tech startups with dubious models, start a bank that connects startups with investors.

Ie Mercury Bank making money hand over fist

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago (1 children)

When a housing crash is imminent, it's the self storage businesses that thrive.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

When in Vegas sell light bulbs.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Also during the crypto craze: Set up an exchange and charge a small commission on transactions

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

This is identical for online brokers in the stock market. They win based on the number of trades, thus they make as much money in bust as in boom years with people exiting positions.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Just make sure it's tamper proof and that you actually can run it competently. Mtgox started as a place to trade MTG cards, and while I'm sure the platform was fine for that, the stakes were substantially higher when they pivoted to crypto. I'm sure you know the rest of the story.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Delivery services and rideshares. People using them make meager wages, but the companies hosting them get all the benefit of people desperate for work or convenience.

Edit: in a similar vein, OnlyFans

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (6 children)

That's just old fashioned exploitation.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It's always GPUs. Crypto boom? GPUs. AI boom? GPUs. PC gaming boom? GPUs. GPUs are so difficult to program effectively that we still probably haven't discovered things they're capable of doing yet. The next major breakthrough in tech, whatever it is, will cause a massive explosion in GPU demand.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

dont see ice cream trucks in the dead of winter

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

The running gag I've been pushing for about 15 years is that the ice cream trucks will switch over to mini-doughnuts in the winter.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Definitely all those Udemy / Coursera / Whatever paid courses for "Data Science", "AI" and whatever else is popular recently.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

In the stock market, there are groups called market makers, that actually buy and sell the stock. They are required to buy and sell, but they maintain price neutral positions and collect a margin on each sale.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)
  • During/after natural disaster, buy cheap land. Probably works during an economic crash too.

  • Protests & Riots happening? Invest in glass companies

  • Cloudy & rainy every day? Sell coffee (looking at you PNW)

  • War happening? Just sell bombs! (see USA) This one is particular good cause you can always start another war. It's just smart business!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

That's all just regular supply and demand. Doesn't fit the saying.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

There was a company started recently to leverage AI and its trends prediction to stage what people need where they need it. Floods? Gyprock. Weather coming into California? Tents and bottled water near the school fields.

It predicts conflict by recommending first aid supplies staged near a border.

Absolutely mercenary, it opens its sales windows only when 'surge' pricing is allowable. You're gonna be paying 3, 4 times the regular drywall cost.

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