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"I don't think we appreciate how big of a change [low fertility] is. I'm going to make a crazy forecast. Let's suppose Thailand keeps its current fertility rate of 0.8 ... for 200 years. Thailand right now has 63 million people. At the end of 200 years, it will be around two million people." "I'm sorry. Two million?" "Two million. How do you wind down a society of 63 million people into two million?" youtu.be/5F7_qa-XLBg?si…

You can walk into any Apple Store in America, buy $50,000 in MacBooks and iPhones on 0% business credit cards, and resell every single item for 85 to 95% of retail on eBay, Swappa, and Facebook Marketplace the same day. Cash in your bank account by Friday This is how people convert 0% credit limits into liquid cash without Plastiq, without Melio, and without paying a 2.85% processing fee The Apple Store accepts credit cards for purchases up to $50,000. No questions. No ID beyond what's needed for Apple Pay. You walk in, buy 8 MacBook Pros at $2,499 each, and walk out with $19,992 on your Chase Ink Business Unlimited at 0% APR List them on eBay as "Brand New Sealed" at $2,199 each. They sell in 24 to 48 hours because sealed Apple products have the highest resale velocity of any consumer electronics on earth. People buy them because they're getting a $300 discount on a product that never goes on sale $2,199 x 8 = $17,592 in eBay revenue eBay + PayPal fees (13%): -$2,287 Your net cash received: $15,305 You spent $19,992 on a credit card. You got $15,305 in cash. You "lost" $4,687 "That's a terrible deal" No. You converted $19,992 in credit into $15,305 in LIQUID CASH at a cost of $4,687. That's a 23.5% conversion fee Plastiq charges 2.85% but has a $100K annual limit and many payees are restricted. Melio charges 2.85% but some payments take 5 to 7 days and large amounts trigger manual review The Apple resale method has: No annual limit (buy as much as they'll sell you) No payment restrictions (it's a retail purchase) No manual review (it's a credit card transaction at a store) Cash in your bank within 3 to 5 days (eBay payouts are fast) And you can improve the conversion rate dramatically: iPhones resell at 92 to 96% of retail (better than MacBooks). A $1,199 iPhone 16 Pro Max sells for $1,050 to $1,100 on Swappa within 48 hours. That's only a 5 to 8% loss after fees iPads resell at 88 to 93% of retail AirPods Max resell at 85 to 90% Apple Watches resell at 82 to 88% The optimal mix for maximum cash extraction: $30,000 in iPhone 16 Pro Max units (25 phones at $1,199): resell at $1,080 avg = $27,000 - 13% fees = $23,490 net. Loss: $6,510 (21.7%) $20,000 in iPad Pro units (10 iPads at $1,999): resell at $1,799 avg = $17,990 - 13% fees = $15,651 net. Loss: $4,349 (21.7%) Total credit card spend: $50,000 Total cash received: $39,141 Conversion rate: 78.3% Effective "fee": 21.7% "21.7% is way worse than Plastiq's 2.85%" Yes. If Plastiq works for your use case, use Plastiq. The Apple method is for when you need: More than $100K liquidated (Plastiq has limits) Cash in 3 days not 7 No paper trail linking credit cards to bank deposits through a payment processor (the cash appears as eBay/PayPal revenue, not as a Plastiq transfer) Amounts above $25K per transaction (Melio flags large single payments) The people doing this at scale aren't converting $50K. They're converting $200K to $500K across multiple Apple Stores, Best Buys, Costcos, and authorized resellers. At that volume they have eBay stores with Top Rated Seller status, which reduces fees to 10.5% and pushes the conversion rate to 82 to 85% There's also the Amazon Retail Arbitrage version: buy Apple products at retail, sell on Amazon as a third-party seller, Amazon pays out every 2 weeks. The conversion rate is similar but Amazon's customer base is willing to pay closer to retail for the Prime badge and the Amazon return policy A guy in our network converts $80K to $100K per month from credit cards to cash using this exact method across Apple, Costco, and Best Buy. His blended conversion rate after eBay fees and marketplace fees: 81%. He converts $100K in credit into $81K in cash every month $81K in cash from $100K in 0% credit. His "cost" of $19K per cycle is his equivalent of a processing fee. He treats it as a cost of capital. $19K to access $81K in free cash for 15 months = effective annualized cost of 18.6% "18.6% is expensive" Compared to what? An MCA (merchant cash advance) charges 40 to 150% effective APR A hard money loan charges 12 to 18% + 2 to 3 points A personal loan at 680 score charges 15 to 24% APR A credit card balance at standard APR: 24.99% 18.6% annualized for UNSECURED CASH with NO APPLICATION PROCESS, NO UNDERWRITING, and NO REPAYMENT SCHEDULE beyond minimums at 0% for 15 months is cheaper than almost every alternative source of liquid capital for someone without assets to collateralize And the credit card rewards on $100K in Apple Store purchases: roughly $2,000 to $3,000 in points. That drops the effective cost to 15.6 to 16.6% btw the IRS doesn't track retail purchases on credit cards. The purchase shows up as "APPLE STORE #R123" on your credit card statement. The eBay revenue shows up as income from your eBay seller account. If your LLC is the eBay seller, the purchase is a "business inventory expense" and the revenue is "product sales." The accounting is clean this is the emergency version of the liquidation play. when you need cash in 72 hours, can't wait for Plastiq, and need more than $25K. you walk into Apple, buy everything they'll sell you, walk out, list it on eBay, and have cash in your bank by Friday. the most liquid asset in America isn't gold or bitcoin. it's a sealed iPhone lmfaooo (we get 700+ score business owners $100K-$250K in 0% business funding. how you liquidate is your business. we build the capital stack. link in bio)

“Homer made Achilles the best man of those who went to Troy, Nestor the wisest, and Odysseus the most shifty.” φημὶ γὰρ Ὅμηρον πεποιηκέναι ἄριστον μὲν ἄνδρα Ἀχιλλέα τῶν εἰς Τροίαν ἀφικομένων, σοφώτατον δὲ Νέστορα, πολυτροπώτατον δὲ Ὀδυσσέα. #Plato