Time Travel Game: how would you make money?

[ZeTurd]

I happen to be a guitar player, so my answer would have to be...

"Do you have the time, to listen to me whine..."

"And everybody hurts sometimes."

"Say it ain't soo-oeoeooooo"

"Spooooooonman"

"Black hole sun, won't you come and wash away the raain!"

Well, you get the point... [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Stagger_Lee]

I would have a go backing Australian Group 1 horse racing events. There are enough big races in the year that I could recall & the profits would be significant.

Combine the certainties here, with the sports certainties - although I would have less of these. I would also back election results - although this could be harder to get a bet on back then.

Opportunities to bet in 1992 were fairly open for me. Bookies and betting shops everywhere.

[Kaj]

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If I knew I was going to head back, I'd think that sports betting would be unmatched. You'd basically be printing money for the games you remembered the results of, assuming your time travel didn't affect the outcome. You could earn money much faster than stocks, since you could basically double your money every week or so, until you made so much that you couldn't bet it all before you maxed out the betting limits or you got banned from all the sportsbooks in Vegas.

This is, of course, I could study up some and memorize game results. If I'm whisked away as soon as I click the post button for this, I couldn't pull it off.

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yeah, let's say you get whisked away immediately and don't have time to study beforehand.

also, how would you go about sports betting? You can't do it online in 1992. Do you know a bookie back then? Are you in Vegas?

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No bookie, but I think I get a flight to Vegas for <$500. Without being allowed to study, though, I wouldn't be able to get a good turn around in enough time to make that the best plan right off the bat. I might do better just working a generic job for a bit to build up a roll before heading to Vegas.

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So then what...you're in Vegas in October, 1992 after making another grand...you spent $150 to get there and you have $1350.

Do you remember what happened in week five of the NFL that well to make a few bets? Maybe you remember how your favorite team did...put it all on that and do the same the next week - assuming you remember who won, of course...

I think it's harder than it seems...

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I wouldn't remember much of the weekly winners, but I'd remember most of the playoff series and eventual league champions as all the sports seasons went on. For example, one Pittsburgh and Atlanta are in the playoffs, you'd remember the great series and Blue Jays winning it all, etc. You'd remember the Suns having the best season in basketball 92-93 but losing the finals to the Bulls. A lot of that stuff.

[Dominic]

"write" a really popular song a month before it comes out, copywrite it, and sue the artist when it becomes a huge hit??

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Only thing I can think of that would work is slowly build up a sports betting roll. The first few months would be tough because you hav to live off the money you're making...but each bet you win will double your bankroll...so inside of a three months you'd be comfortable enough not to have to worry about eating and a place to sleep.

I chose August 1992 arbitrarily, but it's at the beginning of the internet, right? Do AOL and Amazon exist then? Maybe incest some money in the stock market once you've made a little sports betting...

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what about inventing something that hasn't been invented yet? The iPod...online poker...who knows? But can it return $1 million in a year? Doubtful.

[Kaj]

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what about inventing something that hasn't been invented yet? The iPod...online poker...who knows? But can it return $1 million in a year? Doubtful.

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How are you going to invent an iPod based on what you know right at this moment? I'm lucky if I can even get iTunes to work most days. Plu even if you invented it on $500, what are you going to do with it? How are you going to create demand for a product nobody knows exists and is incompatible with their current software?

[Stagger_Lee]

I think most horse punters who were betting in 1992 could pull this off. Even better that you picked August - the southern hemisphere spring carnival is just about to start and that is where most of the Group 1 action is. Memorable stuff.

The upsets/big odd winners stick in your mind even better than the champions - and the payoffs are much better than sports betting. I could even get some big quinellas/ trifectas up.

[Dominic]

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what about inventing something that hasn't been invented yet? The iPod...online poker...who knows? But can it return $1 million in a year? Doubtful.

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How are you going to invent an iPod based on what you know right at this moment? I'm lucky if I can even get iTunes to work most days. Plu even if you invented it on $500, what are you going to do with it? How are you going to create demand for a product nobody knows exists and is incompatible with their current software?

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lol....I know! that's my point! What COULD you "invent" or discover easily, though?

[Dominic]

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I think most horse punters who were betting in 1992 could pull this off. Even better that you picked August - the southern hemisphere spring carnival is just about to start and that is where most of the Group 1 action is. Memorable stuff.

The upsets/big odd winners stick in your mind even better than the champions - and the payoffs are much better than sports betting. I could even get some big quinellas/ trifectas up.

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Assuming you're in Australia or could get someone to book your action...not very likely in the Northern Hem.

[geormiet]

I would write the screenplay for the sixth sense, trying to recreate it as best i could, and try to somehow get a million dollars for it.

By the way i LOVE this question.

[Kaj]

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what about inventing something that hasn't been invented yet? The iPod...online poker...who knows? But can it return $1 million in a year? Doubtful.

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How are you going to invent an iPod based on what you know right at this moment? I'm lucky if I can even get iTunes to work most days. Plu even if you invented it on $500, what are you going to do with it? How are you going to create demand for a product nobody knows exists and is incompatible with their current software?

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lol....I know! that's my point! What COULD you "invent" or discover easily, though?

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To turn 500 into 1,000,000 you need your cumulative betting odds to total 2000:1 (neglect fees and expenses for simplicity). It all depends on how much you remember from '92-93 and what kind of bets are available to see if you can make those odds happen. I think there's a lot you can do to m ake that happen since all your bets are locks. The '92 election is an easy one. World Series, NBA Finals, Super Bowl, and associated playoff games are locks, too. Just 6 or 7 bets in the 1.5:1 to 2:1 range will get you near 100:1. Then you just need to find one good 20:1 bet or two 10:1 bets and you're done (or continue smaller bets if you can't find the action for that amount of money). There's lots of ways you might do this. Just living through 1992-3 again will bring back all kinds of memories of things that happened. I don't think this is nearly as hard as you think (assuming you were old enough to pay attention to the world in 1992).

Edit: An interesting variable would be if your presence in 1992 somehow created a series of events which changed the outcome of one of your bets and you lost it all at the end. Let's work together on a script -- this idea is awesome.