13 ms·

Get rich quick ads from 1909

96 points by pelle 16y ago

neovive 16y ago
Check out the article on p. 476 ("Wireless of the Future"). There are some great quotes and very accurate given that they are from 1909. "It will soon be possible to transmit wireless messages all over the world ..."
JacobAldridge 16y ago
Why, if I'd made $10,000 yearly in real estate since 1909, I'd be a millionaire!
- geekfactor 16y ago
  And over 100!
pelle 16y ago
Discovered even better ones further on in the magazine. "Make $3,380 a year with 100 Kirk Machines" (Peanut vending machines) http://books.google.com/books?id=nN8DAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA476&vq=tesla&pg=RA1-PA152#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=nN8DAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA476&...
seanalltogether 16y ago
Seeing these ads, I'm genuinely curious, did we manage in the course of a hundred years to go from "we sell the product to you" into "you come to us to buy the product"?
51Cards 16y ago
Cut / paste those into spam emails today and nothing has changed other than the dollar figures and the method of delivery. Sadly someone will always prey on the gullible and that in itself is a timeless method of getting rich.
- dennisgorelik 16y ago
  It's very hard to get rich by scamming other people. You can make some quick money that way, but long term end result is usually pathetic.
jacquesm 16y ago
So, that's the source of all those spam emails. I was wondering where they got their inspiration, it also explains some of the more peculiar turns of phrase that keep popping up ('honorable sir' and 'compliments of the season'). If you wanted to train a spam filter you could do a lot worse than to use these as your corpus.
Aaronontheweb 16y ago
I can see a Cash 4 Gold ad fitting right in there with the carpet bagger ads for buying up land in the South :p
akgerber 16y ago
MAKE MILLIONS OR BILLIONS in less than three years in business utilizing new technologies! We provide capital. Biggest money-maker out there! Receive assistance from established men. Write P. Graham, Y-Combinator Inc., Mountain-View Station Southern Pacific Railway, Santa Clara County Calif.
- Swizec 16y ago
  Small difference, with a startup there are no promises, just very strong hinting and wagging eyebrows in a general direction of something almost not vague.
weego 16y ago
"Make rice crisp" Pfft, what an idiot, that clearly never worked!
aothman 16y ago
http://catandgirl.com/?p=1163 http://catandgirl.com/?p=1163 "Every once in a while a window appears - and you realize the past is just the present with different technology and funny clothes"
JoeAltmaier 16y ago
Love the section "Male Help".
- eru 16y ago
  I searched, but I couldn't find "Female Help".
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
sever 16y ago
the more things change, the more they stay the same
a5seo 16y ago
"Money in it" - that's so Twitter. No doubt because newspaper ads were priced by the word if not letter. Hmm maybe that's what Twitter should do... 0-100 characters are free. $0.005 per character above 100.
pan69 16y ago
I actually enjoyed this one: http://books.google.com/books?id=nN8DAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA476&vq=tesla&pg=PA18#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=nN8DAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA476&... It seems that "Learning C++ in 30 days" is not a new concept.
- rubashov 16y ago
  To be fair, shorthand is a lot simpler than C++.
fleitz 16y ago
It's all there, free initial offer for lead gen (ebook), money back guarantee, obnoxious copy, the only thing missing is the call to action "Yes!, I want to earn $100 per week, please send me your $150 ebook for just $25"
Gibbon 16y ago
"SEND FOR FREE BOOK telling why so many patents are worthless as protection!" Now that one is poignant.

96 points by pelle 16y ago

Check out the article on p. 476 ("Wireless of the Future"). There are some great quotes and very accurate given that they are from 1909. "It will soon be possible to transmit wireless messages all over the world ..."

JacobAldridge 16y ago

Why, if I'd made $10,000 yearly in real estate since 1909, I'd be a millionaire!

geekfactor 16y ago
And over 100!

pelle 16y ago

Discovered even better ones further on in the magazine. "Make $3,380 a year with 100 Kirk Machines" (Peanut vending machines) http://books.google.com/books?id=nN8DAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA476&vq=tesla&pg=RA1-PA152#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=nN8DAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA476&...

seanalltogether 16y ago

Seeing these ads, I'm genuinely curious, did we manage in the course of a hundred years to go from "we sell the product to you" into "you come to us to buy the product"?

51Cards 16y ago

Cut / paste those into spam emails today and nothing has changed other than the dollar figures and the method of delivery. Sadly someone will always prey on the gullible and that in itself is a timeless method of getting rich.

dennisgorelik 16y ago
It's very hard to get rich by scamming other people. You can make some quick money that way, but long term end result is usually pathetic.

jacquesm 16y ago

So, that's the source of all those spam emails. I was wondering where they got their inspiration, it also explains some of the more peculiar turns of phrase that keep popping up ('honorable sir' and 'compliments of the season'). If you wanted to train a spam filter you could do a lot worse than to use these as your corpus.

Aaronontheweb 16y ago

I can see a Cash 4 Gold ad fitting right in there with the carpet bagger ads for buying up land in the South :p

akgerber 16y ago

MAKE MILLIONS OR BILLIONS in less than three years in business utilizing new technologies! We provide capital. Biggest money-maker out there! Receive assistance from established men. Write P. Graham, Y-Combinator Inc., Mountain-View Station Southern Pacific Railway, Santa Clara County Calif.

Swizec 16y ago
Small difference, with a startup there are no promises, just very strong hinting and wagging eyebrows in a general direction of something almost not vague.

weego 16y ago

"Make rice crisp" Pfft, what an idiot, that clearly never worked!

aothman 16y ago

http://catandgirl.com/?p=1163 http://catandgirl.com/?p=1163 "Every once in a while a window appears - and you realize the past is just the present with different technology and funny clothes"

JoeAltmaier 16y ago

Love the section "Male Help".

eru 16y ago
I searched, but I couldn't find "Female Help".

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

sever 16y ago

the more things change, the more they stay the same

a5seo 16y ago

"Money in it" - that's so Twitter. No doubt because newspaper ads were priced by the word if not letter. Hmm maybe that's what Twitter should do... 0-100 characters are free. $0.005 per character above 100.

pan69 16y ago

I actually enjoyed this one: http://books.google.com/books?id=nN8DAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA476&vq=tesla&pg=PA18#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=nN8DAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA476&... It seems that "Learning C++ in 30 days" is not a new concept.

rubashov 16y ago
To be fair, shorthand is a lot simpler than C++.

fleitz 16y ago

It's all there, free initial offer for lead gen (ebook), money back guarantee, obnoxious copy, the only thing missing is the call to action "Yes!, I want to earn $100 per week, please send me your $150 ebook for just $25"

Gibbon 16y ago

"SEND FOR FREE BOOK telling why so many patents are worthless as protection!" Now that one is poignant.