Kirk Kerkorian: the Ultimate Chatteler?

Kirk Kerkorian is very rich. Forbes currently lists him as America's 20th richest person, with a fortune of $7 billion.

He's probably best known for his deals where he buys or sells billions of dollars worth of shares in large companies -- such as in MGM or Chrysler.

But did you know that Kirk Kerkorian essentially started by trading chattel? And that is -- in a sense -- what he is still doing now.

I thought it would be fun to point out how far you might be able to go if you took some of Gordon's advice on chattel to the limit....

He used to work cleaning engines for used car dealers, and then he started to do some chatteling on the side. He'd buy five used cars from the dealers for $100, then he'd repair them, and sell the refurbished cars for a profit of around $5 or $10 per car. (These are 1930s prices.) This is exactly the sort of thing Gordon talks about in the chattel report.

In World War II, Kirk Kerkorian became a civilian pilot for the British Royal Air Force, flying bombers from Canada to the UK. After the war was over, he used his savings to start buying and selling surplus military planes. Kerkorian discovered that the profits were much better in buying and selling surplus planes than with used cars. He could buy a surplus military plane for $7,000 to $10,000, and then sell it for as much as $60,000.

When you think about it, this is still just trading chattel -- but on a much larger scale.

He also started a plane charter service on the side, so he still had another way of making money if he couldn't sell the plane. The fact that his planes were being used in his charter service also gave people confidence that his planes were "airworthy" and made them easier to sell.

Kerkorian kept buying and selling, and building up his money -- just as Gordon teaches.

He made a real breakthrough in his profits when he bought the still-good parts of two Lockheed Constellation transport planes that had crashed, and used the parts to construct a working airplane. He sank $480,000 into buying the parts and the repair work, then he leased the plane for a couple years netting him $350,000. After that, he sold it for $600,000 -- for a total *profit* of $470,000. He almost doubled his money -- not a bad return on investment!

Eventually, Kirk Kerkorian grew his charter airline service into a fully-fledged regional airline -- TransInternational Airlines. While running an airline is not really chattel-related, remember that his airline business really started as a *spin-off* of his chattel trading in surplus airplanes. He took the company public in 1965, and sold all his shares a few years later, netting him $104 million.

Now, I'll skip ahead a few years. I'm going to skip over Kerkorian's role in building hotels in Las Vegas, and jump to Kerkorian's deals with companies -- and how, in reality, here he did the same thing that he did with chattel.

Kerkorian has bought and sold huge shares in companies over the years. Some he has held multiple times -- for example he has bought and sold huge stakes in MGM three times. But let's examine what he does more precisely.

When he's bought into a company, Kerkorian has bought a huge stake, enough so that he could have control. This is beyond the means of the vast majority of people -- but remember, his wealth all started with chattel.

Then, he treated the company, in a sense, just like he did his used cars or surplus airplanes. He would "fix" the company up. He's worked with -- and sometimes against -- the management in order to improve company profits. Once the company profits improved, the share price would go up. Then Kerkorian would sell his shares, and make a good profit on the deal.

He's done this many times over the past few decades -- and he's still doing it now. And when you think about it, it's precisely what he did with chattel. The principles of buying chattel, improving it, then selling it served Kerkorian well, all the way up to his current multi-billionaire status. What changed was what he bought and sold.

You could be a "small potatoes" type, and that's the beauty of chattel -- you can do it even if you only have a small amount of money. But as this story shows, you are not limited there.

As your cash reserves grow, you can still continue to buy and sell chattel for larger and larger things -- whether they are cars, airplanes, or large chunks of companies. And this is just what Gordon teaches, for those of you who have the Chattel Report.

You can start with small potatoes, and work your way up. :)

Best wishes,

Dien Rice

I'm updating the CHATTEL REPORT-THE SPRINT TO FREEDOM. I still won't be selling it, you'll have to get it from one of the resellers.

But, just as a tease, to get some of you started thinking...here are three shops...all in the same little strip plaza at the end of my street...less than a half mile.

I'll be showing you dozens of places, all of them within 15 minutes of my house, that deal with chattel...that is PERSONAL PROPERTY...

Almost of all these places accept CONSIGNMENTS, which is the easy way to build networks, and especially for women who don't want strangers coming to your house...it is bad enough you encounter them on the Internet.

Take a look, and I'll have a little discussion below.



This is CONNIES.



and



OK.

In the Chattel Report I advised people to build networks.

We're going to be discussing that in much more depth at the Chatteler's Forum, a password forum FREE for those that have the Chattel Report, or will be buying the updated edition.

NETWORKS are the key. One of them. Consignment is hot, and if any of you are considering a nice little part time retail thing, consider a consignment shop. Other people's stuff. You get some money.

But I don't like the headaches of retail, the overhead, employees and all. Why not just chattel and use these kinds of shops to profit from.

Jim Straw gave me an idea, I now think of myself as a FINDER. And I collect a FEE whenever I hook up a buyer and a seller.

Now that may seem simplistic, but it is a whole new way of looking at the chattel game. Mike Rodman shared the story (below I think) of a fellow who made several THOUSANDS of dollars and never left his office.

He acted as a TOLL position (thank you Harvey Brody) and simply hooked up a buyer with a seller.

It happens everyday.

Now chattel is the easiest money making deal in the world to start. Sell your TV. And once that is gone, you have no need for the VCR either, right?

See, with consignment shops, you can have a garage sale, yard sale, attic sale, porch sale, whatever, and NO ONE ever comes to your house.

You just take your junk...uh...valuable chattel to a consignment shop and let them sell it for you. You may not make as much money as if you did it yourself, but you have no worries either.

Now, I like dealing directly with people. It is part game, part dance, part business. And if done right everyone wins.

Michael Ross recently presented me with a challenge, one which I'll share with you later this week.

But MY answer to his challenge would be CHATTEL.

I'll give that next week, after you all have had some time to work on his puzzle.

Seeds of Wisdom Publishing will be publishing works concerning all parts of life, not just making money stuff, although we hope to bring you a fair amount of TRIED and TESTED and PROVEN money making ventures.

As I posted below, I wanted to do it two years ago, but have been sidetracked. NOW, we can bring you those unique and unusual ways to make money.

We will do all the legwork for you, and track down the little known, hidden money makers in the world.

So, we not be able to become as great a Chatteler as Kirk did, but we can use it as a FOUNDATION to build a nice FRAMEWORK that allows us all to pursue other paths of life too.

The SQUARE ONE WORKSHOPS are also going behind closed doors, FREE to anyone interested, but WE are trying to get sowpub properly FOCUSED, and initial feedback indicates that SQ1 has such a niche appeal, that is how we are going to treat it for now.

Again, it will be available for FREE, but on a separate and private forum...

Thanks for all your support and contributions, it is FUN to evolve...which reminds me of a book I've just finished...

EVEolution, The Eight Truths of Marketing to Women by FAITH POPCORN...I think it is a must read for anyone who has women or wants them as customers.

I admit, I didn't get it all...but then I'm a guy.

Case in point: my teenage daughter was telling me about some guys she works with...and everytime a cool CAR comes by, they stop in mid-sentence and say..."Wow, what a cool car..." then go back to their conversation...

As she was telling me this we walked past a shoe store and stopped in mid-sentence and said "Wow what a cool pair of shoes"...then came right back to our conversation.

After getting some stationery, we stopped in the shoe store, but alas, no size 5's in the cool shoes.

YEA, I thought and no really cool CARS in the size of my wallet either!

We'll be talking about the differences in the sexes as it relates to chattel too.

Some women can make a fortune in chattel...

Stay tuned.

Gordon (Chatteler) Alexander