Took me four months to realize that Instagram Reel was completely staged

I saw this Reel where a guy 'accidentally' finds a vintage lamp at a thrift store and flips it for $500. It had 2 million views and everyone in the comments was losing their minds. Turns out he planted the lamp there with a buddy who worked at the store. I wasted four months trying to replicate that same hustle before a friend in the resale business spilled the beans. Anyone else spend way too long chasing a viral trend that was fake the whole time?

2 comments

2 Comments

grant_allen8522d ago

Spent six months following a guy on TikTok who claimed he made $10k a month flipping beanie babies of all things. Bought like 40 of them from eBay and local garage sales. Ended up with a closet full of unsold plush toys and my wife giving me the look. The guy was just a dropshipper selling a course the whole time.

parkera2222d ago

Well, "flipping beanie babies" really made me do a double take. I remember when those things were big in the 90s and even then the market crashed hard. I cannot believe someone actually built a whole fake persona around that of all things. It's one thing to stage a thrift store find but to rope people into buying a closet full of stuffed animals just to sell a course is a whole different level of low. That's just plain rotten and I feel for you having to explain that to your wife.