Talk about a sneaky hidden market!

As a Canadian, if I was paid for a deal in US cash, I would find it to be somewhat exciting. Not just because of the fact that the US dollar is worth about 125% of our dollar, but because it's a real change of pace - and I happen to love it down in the US and it reminds me of there. Also, we work on a basis of dollars that are of comparable value - so the currencies are somewhat interchangable.

What about other forms of currency?

Some forms that we have no idea as to the value of, such as the Malaysian Ringgit, the Japanese Yen, the Ghananian Cedi, or the Guyanese Dollar, would be completely foreign to us - and although they might carry value that can be converted into Canadian dollars - you have to watch out. That 100 on a Japanese note you see is about $1.08 US - so it should not be thought to be anything like a dollar.

So, where am I going with this?

Having bought a small set of Mongolian currency from a flea market a few years back for $5.00 - I thought I'd look up what the total value of the notes inside was.

There was a 10, 20, 50, and 100, totalling 180 units.

Compare that to Canadian Dollars - 180 Mongolian Tugriks = $0.154593 Canadian Dollars

At the $5.00 that I paid for it - this guy made $4.85 off of me - multiplied his investment 32.3 times!

At only five of our dollars, it's an amount one would not really think twice about. But if this guy sold 50 of them in a day - he'd have himself close to $250.00 in profit.

This is a very doable business, too. Nothing is that difficult about ordering foreign currency from the bank, having it arrive a few days later, and you packaging it up, and selling it at a flea market, on eBay, or wherever.

Think aobut the possibilities for customers - there could be the little kid who wants to get started in currency collecting, and his mom sees a $1,000.00 bill from Guyana (which is only about $6.00 Canadian - and less than $5.00 US), and a couple of cents' worth of other notes, in a package for $15.00 - just imagine the look on her son's face once he gets a $1,000.00 bill!

There could also be the upcoming birthday. Someone is looking around in the mall for a birthday gift for his brother. His brother loves to travel the world. Why not grab him some foreign currency? Gives him the foreign experience from home. You spent $2.00 on the notes - and charge him $10.00 - and you made $8.00.

On small amounts like these, where it's the idea of having the foreign currency, as opposed to the amount being in question, people will buy on impulse. They won't go on Google to check the value/exchange rate.

It's perfectly legal - and it exploits something very subtle that people might not pay attention to.

Even if you get exposed for it - for small amounts of money, it's not worth someone's while to have to go to the bank, order currency, wait for it, and pay them a premium anyway. I guess you, as the business operator, save them that hassle.

That's my two Canadian cents' worth.