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Comment by pavel_lishin | Hacker News Reader

> For bringing a Citizen watch to Vu in Ho Chi Minh City, you can make $5. Franz in Munich is apparently unsatisfied with the quality of coffee there, and will pay you $15 to bring him a box of San Francisco’s Blue Bottle beans. Ahmed in Cairo has seemingly spotted a good deal for an Apple Macbook Pro in Dubai, and is willing to part with $100 to have someone bring one to him.

The trouble of even downloading the app and signing up for an account isn't worth $5 to me.

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Me neither, but we're part of a disappearing slice of the world where we cant be bothered. Much of the the labor force will do anything to make more than minimum wage.

Does that really apply to people flying from San Francisco to Munich?

> Much of the the labor force will do anything to make more than minimum wage.

But the subset of the labor force that takes international flights?

Those people aren't flying internationally. If you spend hundreds on an airline ticket then you wont care abbot $5

Tell that to hostel-ers around the world.

I spent several months backpacking around Europe, through Russia, and then China, and a friend of mine is pretty much a professional backpacker well into his 30's. It can be tough, and you take odd jobs when you can get them. But realistically $5 is not going to buy you a nights sleep in a dorm, it might buy you lunch, it will just buy you a coffee in some airports.

Not worth the risk for the money on offer. Knowingly being a drug mule, on the other hand, pays better.

Knowingly being a drug mule, on the other hand, pays better.

Just be careful you don't wind up in a Turkish prison. Then, what you need to do to escape is to kill the chief guard and walk out the front door wearing his uniform: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Express_(film)

No thanks. Not the life for me.

You can get hostel beds for $15-$20 in Hong Kong, even if it doesn't get you all the way, it's a significant chunk, so little bits from various places will add up.

You can get a hostel for $25 in most places, seasoned travelers are not going to be taking unknown packages around. The people that do that sort of stuff are the people going on their first trip overseas.

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