The levels of Manufactured Spend information

Did you enjoy the kitten photo?  I think that’s how I’m going to start every post from now on to allure more subscribers!  Who hates kittens?  NO ONE!  Even if you were allergic to cats, you’d still have to go “Awwwwww” to that photo.  I don’t even like cats that much.  It’s not that I don’t like cats; it’s that I like my clothes/house fur-free more than I like cats.  My college roommate found a cat once, which we kept for a couple of weeks.  I still remember that gray cat; how every morning, when I went into the kitchen to grab cereal, she’d stalk me around the corner and then all of a sudden, run at me and basically dropkick my leg, and then run right back to the living room.  Due to all her running around, the people downstairs complained, and the apartment complex then made us pay a pet free.  That’s when we decided to part ways with the cat.  I still miss her dropkicks to this day.  Oh wait, what was the topic here?

I went to the Seattle meetup last week, and maybe it was just the random table I sat at, but it seemed the people around me were “newer” to the Hobby than I had expected (if you’re reading this, don’t be offended.)  Then again, if you’ve been in this Hobby for a long time and MS-ing over $100K a month (not me,) then you’d probably find little value in the meetup.  That probably explains why most people there were sorta “new” to the Hobby.  At the meeting, I was explaining to them about how there are levels in this Hobby.  Let’s talk about those levels here (in order of classic NES/SNES game difficulty):

Level 1 – Flyertalk and blogs

This is where everyone starts out right to learn about the Hobby?  This is where you read about credit card churning, app-o-rama’s, how to get the most use of your miles, etc.

 

Level 2 – Moving off of Flyertalk into the “private” forums like Travelcodex and Saverocity

Eventually, you’ll get tired of people’s snarkiness on FT or you start to hate bloggers because they ruin deals or you start to get tired of other n00bs asking the same questions over and over again like, “What cards can I use to load Serve at Walmart?”  READ THE WIKI!  That’s when you move to the Travelcodex or Saverocity forums where at least the people are a bit nicer.

 

Level 3 – Moving into the “secret” or private forums on TC or Saverocity

You know, I never beat Ghouls and Ghosts.  I don’t think I could even get past the 2nd stage.  What a difficult game!  You know what else is difficult?  Trying to get 100 likes so you can get access to the secret forums.  Another way to get in there is to also network with a lot of people.  I have to admit, it took me almost 2 years before I obtained this level.  It was almost random luck to be honest.  I had posted something on FT in the local area thread (I think I was talking about Rite Aids in the area), and someone (who I won’t name, but he’s a reader of my blog now.  Thanks buddy) private messaged me and invited me into an offshoot of FT and things snowballed.

When you join these so called private or secret forums, a lot more information is shared that you won’t read about on FT.  It’s because everyone knows that once it hits FT, it’s game over.  It’s in everyone’s best interest to keep things off FT and blogs.  There are still secrets in there that haven’t hit FT or the blogs (or maybe some bloggers know and won’t blog about it.)  I think this localized networking is key these days.  It’s hard to be a ‘lone wolf’ in this game. Wouldn’t it be nice to know if a certain cashier at a Walmart in your area is no longer allowing prepaid debit cards?  It saves you time and frustration of finding another MS source.  Sometimes people will post about national deals that can handle the weight of <100 people, but not THOUSANDS of people.

 

Level 4 – Real time chats or private email exchanges

If you recognize that game, GO TREAT YO SELF!   That game is probably easier than Ghouls, but to be honest, both are equally difficult.  I know I got to a couple of levels before dying unlike Ghouls.  Feel free to argue in the comments.

Because I just came back from a safari, follow me with this analogy.  Imagine you are in a pack of say 4 female lions.  You do all the hunting and even raising the curbs.  When you make a kill, the male lions then come and eat on the food you just killed.  Eventually, you get tired of them doing that.  (Quick aside – that Cecil the lion story made me sad.)  Now this won’t happen in a real pride of lions, but if you and the other 3 female lions joined together and could form your own private chat or email exchange w/o letting the male lions come and eat your food, then you would do that right?  What I’m trying to get at is that eventually, in any given group, there will be free-loaders or people who tackle in flag football, right?  You don’t want to play with them any longer.  So you start your own team.  You want everyone on the team to try new methods and everyone equally helps with the information sharing.  If there’s even one person not pulling their own weight, then you vote them off the island “Survivor” style.  Is this like a “Gossip Girl” clique in high school?  PROBABLY!  Look at it this way – some deals can handle 100 people who average $100K MS a month, but there will be some deals that can’t handle that stress (see that poor CU that Leff wrote about.)  And so that’s why there needs to be smaller groups.  Even reselling opportunities fall into this category.  If I find an item that can bring me +20% margin, I wouldn’t even tell a handful of people.  I’ll leave you with one final analogy – it’s like playing tennis.  You want to play against someone close to your level right?  If one person is putting mad topspin on the ball, and the other is lobbing it back, then it’s no fun for either of them.  This is why I can’t play with my wife btw.  Good thing she doesn’t read my blog.

 

Conclusion

With that said, I want to invite the Seattle based people (experienced and non-experienced) to a private Google Groups.  If you live in the Seattle area and want to talk about the status of the Lynnwood Kate, Target’s new POS rollout, airline routes out of Seatac, send me the email address you want the inviation sent to at vinh@milesperday.com and I’ll add you to the group.  This is your chance to level up!  Why am I not making this national?  Because I want to keep this group small and not have to answer, “How do I not break Kate?” a hundred times.

This is dead.