Just call her Ponzi
About a month ago, M got a letter inviting her to join a “Sticker Club”. Basically, stickers club is nothing but a glorified chain letter. M was asked to send a Sticker Club invitation to six of her friends and to send one pack of stickers to the first person on the enclosed list of two names. Then, M was supposed to add her name to the list. When her six friends sent Sticker Club invitations to six friends, M would theoretically receive 36 packs of stickers in the mail.
When I saw the Sticker Club invitatation, I groaned. But M loves, loves, LOVES mail, so I dutifully helped her copy the letter and send it to six friends (Whose parents were, I imagine, as unthrilled as I was to be invited.) Before we sent out our six letters, I warned M that she was unlikely to receive 36 packs of stickers because the whole thing was such a hassle.
So far, M has received one pack of stickers.
While it might sound like that is a disappointing return on our efforts, M was thrilled. The day she got them, she spend the day carrying them around, making plans about where exactly she would stick them and protecting them from L’s greedy little hands.
That evening, she was examining her stickers when she said: “Hey Mama! We should start a money club!”
I didn’t get what she was talking about, so I asked her to explain.
“You know, we send letters and ask people to send us DOLLARS instead of STICKERS! It would be amazing! I would be rich!”
I had to explain to her that someone already thought of Money Club and it is illegal.
But good for her for taking some initiative to hustle for the dough.
Maybe next week, she will re-invent Amway.
June 25th, 2008 at 2:48 am
Heh. This totally reminds me of when I was in first grade and took my first spelling test. I had the *brilliant* idea of writing down all my spelling words on a piece of paper to reference during the test. I couldn’t figure out why the teacher and the other students were making such a big deal about studying - I had my list! And when test time came, I was promptly caught. My mom (a teacher) had explain to me what cheating was. It was all very embarrassing, because I just thought I was being smart.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:10 am
wait a sec, didn’t you send my kid stickers when she lost her precious collection? (btw she FOUND IT - over a year later! - in her SISTER’S CLOSET).
Email me with your address and I would be thrilled to return the favor for M.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:12 am
Well, well, well! Now I know who to go to for financial advice when I’m near retirement!
June 25th, 2008 at 3:54 am
M cracks me up.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:25 am
That’s a classic, I like the way M thinks! Ha ha ha! : ) And congratulations on M getting her pack of stickers. It really is the little things like that, that can really make kids so happy and stoked all day! I think that’s awesome! : )
June 25th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
you must be so proud! I guess you could start eplaining junk bonds next…
June 25th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
This story is priceless! M is too funny. What a clever girl.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Too funny… but what a bright girl to think up pyramid schemes on her own!
I have my old sticker collection too, if you’d like I can send some to M.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Although I guess that would be a bad idea. Don’t want her thinking that these scams actually work….