what does it cost to start a chain letter?

Have you ever opened your mail to find a three-page letter that began with a hard-luck story about a man that had his car repoed and had scores of creditors making his life miserable until he participated in a ‘capital accumulation program’ that raised over $800,000 in cash in only 90 days? Well, more than one of these letters has hit my mailbox over the years, and in the past, I had always filed them in the ’round file’. Last week I got another one. I actually read the entire letter all the way through this time. I thought, why not give it a try? ************************************************************************************* Let me make this perfectly clear, I do NOT expect to make any money from this scheme… I have searched the web and have yet to find a story of anyone making a lot of money from a letter like this that sounds credible. But instead of just throwing rocks at it and declaring that this is a scam, why not invest a relatively small amount of money in this experiment and report what happens on the world wide web to all that are interested? I will be THRILLED to get my original investment back. I admit that I have bought lottery tickets before, so have tens of millions of others. Who knows, maybe I will make tens of dollars in this ‘capital appreciation program’ ************************************************************************************* The letter makes some pretty incredible claims. The man that starts off in the letter (the aforementioned hard-luck story) says his name is Dick Hollman. He followed the instructions of this letter exactly, and in less than 90 days, he claims to have received over $800,000 in cash in his mailbox. You may read the letter in the next post… ************************************************************************************* I did a little math and figured that it would cost $328.00 and a little bit of time to conduct this experiment… I decided to give it a try. This blog is intended to be a journal of sorts following what happens when following this ‘capital accumulation program’. ************************************************************************************* Here are my expenses so far: $7.00-1 dollar to each of the 7 names on list $90.00 – Postage $65.00 – Copies $12.00 – Envelopes $50.00 – Mailing List (data line) http://www.datalineone.com/ ************************************************************************************* TOTAL: $229.00 So, a mere $229.00 investment and a couple of hours stuffing envelopes. And I can expect $800,000 in about 90 days? I always heard that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is… This definitely fits in that category. I will show the letter in my next post so you may read it for yourself. I decided that $328.00 is a small enough sum to go ahead and try this experiment. Even if our friend Dick Hollman exaggerated by a magnitude of 100 times, I would consider $8,000 an excellent return on a $229.00 investment. ************************************************************************************* "How does it work? When you send out 200 letters, it is estimated that at least 15 people will respond and send you $1.00 (15 people x $1 = $15). Those 15 people mail 200 letters each and 225 people (15people x 15 responses each = 225) will send you $1.00 ($225). Those 225 people mail 200 letters and get 15 responses, meaning 3,375 people send you $1.00 ($3,375). Those 3375 people mail 200 letters and get 15 responses, and 50,675 people send you $1.00 each ($50,675). Those 50,675 people mail out 200 letters each and get 15 responses, meaning 759,385 people send you $1.00 each. At this point your name drops off the list, but you've got $813,615." ************************************************************************************* Sure, you may not always get 15 people each time, you could get more or less, but it varies per each mailing. The people you are mailing out to are individuals who have requested money-making opportunities within the last 30-60 days, so it's the right demographic, not just some random person from across the street. Even if you only got 2 responses out of 200 at one point, their particular mailings could snag 30, and shake up the mix but you'd still end up with a fair bit of change, if it was done right (yeah yeah "IF" it was done right -- but that's part of any risk, ever. IF the ropes are strong enough, IF the parachute was folded properly, IF there's enough gas in the tank, etc.) But, if it turns out profitable for that person, they may mail the same letter out again to a new list, which pretty much doubles your chances of branching off the tree in a new direction and getting even more, such as if it worked so well that the 3rd person mailed the same letter again to 500 people this time. Your name would still be on the same row, and you'd get the same amount of dollars as the mailer did responses from that particular segment. ************************************************************************************* I mailed 200 of the letters in today’s mail. I will come back to post each time there is something of interest to report. It should be interesting… FINGERS CROSSED!