Television

Shipping Wars is an A&E show that introduced the world to what they call, "a new kind of gambler." These are independent haulers who bid on the right to ship the seemingly unshippable across North America for cash. They are the contract killers of the shipping world and all of it is made possible by a website called uShip.com.

This site is the eBay of shipping, where anyone can post a load they need to ship and independent shippers can bid on the right to do the job. "We are known for shipping the unshippable," says Matt Chasen, uShip's co-founder and CEO. "I take pride in the fact that our members ship the things a traditional shipping company wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. If they do, the fee would be absolutely astronomical. Instead, the shippers on our site will ship anything you want at a reasonable price."

With that in mind, our staff of internet lab rats watched all ten hours on the first season of Shipping Wars to find the craziest loads ever shipped. The best part is, the below only scratches the service of what can be shipped on uShip. For example, listen to this voicemail message left by a clown who wondered if he could ship some specially trained circus animals, including a very talented squirrel.


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Marc Springer used to sell Harley Davidson motorcycles, but then the economy took a dive and people didn't buy as many man toys as they used to. Springer's income was dwindling rapidly, so it was time for him to move on -- now what?

"I was a teamster truck driver back in my early 20s and I always had this burning desire to drive the big trucks. It was something I always wanted to do and it just never happened. So, when I began to strike out on my own I thought, 'Well, I've got zero income and zero working capital, how do I start a company?"

His wife reminded him that he had a leaf blower sitting in the garage and suggested he go clear the lawns in the neighbourhood. But Springer thinks big, so he began extrapolating how many employees he'd need to do all the surrounding neighbourhoods and quickly realized he'd need a trailer. But when he went on Craigslist looking for a trailer, he found a 1999 frieghtliner truck with a 20 foot flat-bed.

"They wanted $20,000 for the [trailer] and I thought, 'You know, I think I'm just going to buy a truck.'"

He booked a load the day he bought the truck and was just going to use his contacts in the scrap metal business to haul scrap metal in Seattle and the surrounding area, until he hit the internet and found a veritable trucker's Shangri-La.

"I was looking to fill the truck with scrap and I was doing pretty well at that, making decent money and one day, I was on the computer wondering, 'How do you find loads? There's got to be a better way to do this. How do these guys find the freight to get on their trucks?'"

That's when he stumbled onto uShip.com. It opened all the doors to all of the business opportunities he enjoys today, including becoming a reality TV star as the handlebar mustache sporting, big-rig driving, cast member of A&E's Shipping Wars.

Related Links:

• Free Shipping Day Comes to Canada
• Moving Day Scam - Busted!
• Gilt.com Now Ships to Canada

Pawn shops. They were once regarded as dingy, dark stores where you went if you were desperate for some quick cash. You took something of value with the hope that it would be worth something and with the chance that you'll be able to get it back.

Forget dingy dark holes, pawn shops are hot thanks to History Channel's Pawn Stars, now in its fifth season.

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz, The Motley Fool

First came the popular smartphone game, with players hurling a variety of birds at fortified pigs. Game sequels followed. Then plush toys. Last year, Angry Birds -- the board game -- was one of the holiday shopping season's biggest sellers.

Now, in Rovio's boldest bet yet, the app developer behind the franchise, will be putting out 52 episodes of an animated Angry Birds series.

When it came to the squared-circle "Heavy Metal" Ric Savage could never quite equal the heights achieved by that other Savage we all know and love. Sure, he wrestled for well-known promotions like ECW and WCW, but he admits it wasn't really his true passion. "I was big and I could talk well, so I was able to get some little pushes here and there, but I never really made it that far. I wasn't a superstar or anything."

Good thing too, because eventually the road took its toll and after various concussions, reconstructive knee surgery and three back surgeries, it was time to find something else to do. Enter Savage's true passion, American history. "My dream was to be a college history professor," says Savage. Instead, he began collecting relics and meeting people who metal detect and do the same.

"No matter how you slice it, it's treasure hunting," says Savage. "There's really nothing like getting your hands dirty, digging down and seeing what you've got. You get hooked, and once you get hooked on it, that's it."

Now, he runs the top artifact recovery company in the country -- American Savage -- leading a team that includes recovery expert Rue Shumate, battlefield historian Bob Buttafuso, Savage's wife Rita (who manages the business and sources leads for digging) and their 25-year-old son Giuseppe (who is their resident tech expert and acts as the muscle for the operation). They tour neighbourhoods known to be built on former battlefields or towns of the old west and go door-to-door asking residents permission to dig on their private property in hopes of finding valuable relics that they can sell and then split the proceeds with the landowner.

Related Links:

• Picking the Brains of the 'American Pickers'
• 'Auction Hunters' Roll the Dice on Storage Units for a Big Payday
• Flipping Foreclosed Homes for Fast Cash on Spike TV's 'Flip Men'

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Are you a highly successful middle aged man? You too can date sexy college co-eds at the University of Toronto, as long as you've a steady stream of cash.

The global economic climate combined with massive student loan debt have forced some girls on the UofT campus to find a creative solution when it comes to making money. It seems a lot of them turn to Seeking Arrangement -- a website that matches perspective sugar babies with the sugar daddies willing to pay them for their time (However it happens to be filled).

According to statistics recently released by the site, UofT has the second highest number of college girls, with 471 users taking advantage of the site's matchmaking capabilities. The number is second only to New York University with 498 users. In general, women out number men on the site five to one and while most of the girls leave their fee negotiable, the average seems to be between $1,000 and $5,000 per month for those that do list it on their profiles. Inevitably, there are some women who over value themselves, posting requested amounts between $10,000 and $20,000 per month without the Perfect 10 looks to back it up.

Related Links:

• Risque Business: Ads that Use Sex to Sell
• More Sex, More Income?
• In Dating, When Should You Reveal You Have a Large Debt?

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All us deal hunters and freebie hounds have heard the stories: There are people out there who can walk into a grocery store and walk out with hundreds of dollars worth of food using nothing but coupons and their own penchant for organization. The rest of us are left to wallow in resentment, since we know deep down we don't have the discipline for those rewards. Then that resentment is followed by a certain brand of consummerist backlash. "These people are going too far. Do they really need two hundred deoderants?"

Shows like TLC's Extreme Couponing seem to do nothing but fan those flames among us average shoppers. Yet, when you see stay at home mom Joanie Demer of McKinleyville, CA buy $638.64 worth of groceries for $2.64, there's a skeptiscm that doesn't really believe that this 98% savings is possible. Still, we all want a piece of that don't we? We all would be extreme couponers if it didn't take such dedication.

Still, is it really possible to pull it off? The show only answers that question in the affirmative for the American audience, but you hardly ever hear of extreme couponers hauling wheelbarrels full of product out of a Safeway or a Loblaws. Walletpop wanted to find out why that was and what we discovered is that there are still tricks to saving with coupons in this country, but not to a degree that's going to allow the neighbours to shop out of your garage.

Please give, this is a worthy cause. You can help humanity by donating to ... well, it is true that charity is an important part of our social fabric and that, on more occasions than many would even think of imagining, charitable organizations exceed whatever a government can provide by a country mile.

Many would assert that this is how it should be, and this is not the forum to debate this.

This is the forum to establish whether you can find out in advance, before parting with your hard-earned dollars, whether the organization that does the asking is really performing the help it says it is performing.

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Redemption Inc. is a CBC reality show that sees ten ex-cons vie for an opportunity that has been "Kevin sent" -- as in, Kevin O'Leary.

The chairman of O'Leary Funds, best known as the most acerbic venture capitalist on Dragon's Den and Shark Tank will be showing his softer side in 2012 by investing $100,000 of his own money into the business of a reformed criminal, giving them a second chance at a productive and fulfilling life, when no one else will employ them.

If you ask him though, he's the same money loving free-market philosopher he's always been. He's simply responding to an entrepreneurial spirit that has always been there among these people and redirecting it to the right side of the law.

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We've been inundated with advertising telling us this or that communications company offers an application (app for short) to download so we can this or that professional sports event live, and in all of its beauty.

Some went so far as to suggest you can get this or that event only from them.

Shortsighted, as the Bell Corporation found out. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) slapped Bell's wrists with a vengeance.

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