Maintaining your secret identity

[Dannyalcatraz]

But is that a honest day’s work? By which I mean, you make that money because you have those gems and jewellery;

Yes. I’m selling something I own that I acquired by 100% legal means.

do you make a profit compared to where you bought them,

Yes. In my case, it’s classic buy low- then wait- then sell high.

According to a 1998 article in The Lapidary Journal, in the 1960s, DeBeers pitched the concept of the “investment” diamond: $1000 for a 1ct round, brilliant cut stone of the highest clarity & color that would almost certainly increase in value over time. By 1998, such a diamond cost $16,000.

In contrast, that same $1000 would have bought thousands of pounds of gems grade blue chalcedony. Over the same elapsed time period, that purchase would have been worth $2.5M.

and if so is it enough to get rich (whatever that means in this case)?

$50k in a day ain’t bad, but it’s not sustainable for me. So no, I can’t get rich this way.

But someone with more resources and connections at their disposal, potentially yes.

(The specter of the ethics of mining operations looms large, however.)

Your labour is, of course, finding and buying those pieces and then finding someone who will pay more for them - what’s that as an hourly rate?

No clue. But I made most of my gemstone purchases at trade shows that took me about 5-6 work days per year.

How much initial cash do you need to make a decent profit? And is it something that our Superman can do (or indeed do better because he’s Superman)?

I made my first purchases on a budget of $500…which I stretched to $1000. The most I ever spent at a single exhibition was $6000.

And I knowingly passed on deals that would have had ridiculous ROIs because I couldn’t afford to stretch my budget any more at that moment in time. I’ve handled stones that went from $3000 to $30,000 in 6 months.

Superman, with education & training, could easily make himself pretty rich as a miner using his powers. He could literally see where to mine. He could reach deposits without using unethical labor practices, heavy mining equipment or strip mining. Arguably, his suite of powers might make him a hell of a stonecutter, too.

But considering that the largest nuggets of gold (a bit over 100lbs) have been valued in the 10s of millions, he wouldn’t have to be.

 

[Morrus]

Not saving $10 on a baseball card, I mean saving $300 on shipping $100 collectibles, plus an undisclosed amount in taxes and tariffs. Shipping and taxes can be as high as 100-400% when shipping stuff from Europe to Latin America.

My experience is only books and games, but we sell into most countries in the world, shipping from warehouses in the UK, US, and Australia. Shipping does indeed vary from place to place, but it isn't that bad except for a handful of countries where we don't ship because parcels go missing more often than they don't. So yeah, I suppose you could offer cheap shipping services to those countries and become an alternate eBay courier, but I don't feel like that's gonna make you rich.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Keeping on a secret identity (especially in our age), have a regular job, and still find time to deal with crimes? That is really a hard ask. Unless I don't need much sleep with my superpowers.

Regarding weakness, though: I think if we assume the real world, but something like Kryptonite and Superman powers for me, I think the challenge is for anyone findining out the link and that it's a weakness. Even for myself. If I got them right now (instead of being dropped down in Kansas with my space baby stroller and kryptonite materials), I would have real trouble learning the connection, too, unless I am kinda hit by a mustrumite meteroite and that's when I get my powers.
I think it would be a similar challenge for anyone wanting to threaten me with it, and without the superhero unvierse super-tech abilities, their abilities to research and untilize it would be not as extreme.

But I am fairly certainly that once a superman figure appears, whether it's with a secret identity or without, intelligence services and miltiaries in the world would be required to find ways to deal with it. They might never do so, but from an intelligence perspective, it doesn't matter whether another nation or a superridcully would use his power against them or not, they need to plan for the possibility they do.

Wanting to be able to do something, being able to do, and doing something, are 3 seperate things, however.
They might fail to find something reliable, they might find something they think will work, but they will only use it if I become an actual, not just a potenital threat.

And they would certainly want to try to turn me into an asset. Maybe that would be done by helping me maintain a secret identity, though I am not sure what kind of stuff I'd have to for them? They can create false reports of superridcully or secret-mustrum appearances so that my secret identity and superridcully are in two (or even more) different spots at the same time.

Maybe part of my "secret" identity is that apparently superridcully happens to be basically a doppelganger, someone that looks very similar to me, but isn't me. They could probably use some casting agencies to find similar-enough looking doubles? That would still give a lot of unwanted popularity, I suppose, not sure I want that, but can it be helped if I feel compelled to do something?

Unfortunately, I don't think I'd be like superman in my actions. I feel if I had that power, I'd abuse it - with the best intentions, but I don't think I could stop myself from, say, kidnapping dictators and putting them in prisons or just in the middle of some deserts. Which is certainly going to make a lot of intelligence services bother and work very hard to find something like mustrimite, even if they are from nominally "benevolent" countries without dictators.

Average street level robbery and crime just doesn't happen enough in my vicinity that I would really need to care about it. Though I suppose there will be some, and I am not sure what it does to your psyche do be witness to such attempts, even if you can stop them. Of course, I I can hear stuff like that happen alll over the world, it's going to be very difficult. Or make me dull to it!

I like the idea of becoming a fireman or emergency service worker to be able to know what to do in emergencies, just with more power. But I am not sure I could do the learning with my secret identity? I might really want to ask some experts how I use my super-strength wisely, because grabbing a falling aircraft or skyscraper just at some random spot is probably not be enough to help stabilize it... Do I need to look at the construction plans for each aircraft model and buildings?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I like the idea of becoming a fireman or emergency service worker to be able to know what to do in emergencies, just with more power. But I am not sure I could do the learning with my secret identity? I might really want to ask some experts how I use my super-strength wisely, because grabbing a falling aircraft or skyscraper just at some random spot is probably not be enough to help stabilize it... Do I need to look at the construction plans for each aircraft model and buildings?

People have pointed out the physics of certain rescues depicted in comics (and movies) would likely be as harmful as letting things take their course.

Some illustrators & filmmakers have taken those observations into account, but not all.

 

[MarkB]

People have pointed out the physics of certain rescues depicted in comics (and movies) would likely be as harmful as letting things take their course.

Some illustrators & filmmakers have taken those observations into account, but not all.

Something that's inconsistently considered one of Superman's powers is a form of touch-telekinesis whereby he effectively imbues the object he's touching with his own power of flight. That seems to be at least implicitly in place in the 70s Christopher Reeve movies, particularly his flight with Lois - so long as he's touching her she's not just hanging off his arm like a deadweight, she's flying straight and horizontal beside him, but the moment her fingers slip out of his, she drops like a stone.

Still, it's never actually confirmed onscreen, so it's basically just a bit of headcanon.

 

[Morrus]

Something that's inconsistently considered one of Superman's powers is a form of touch-telekinesis whereby he effectively imbues the object he's touching with his own power of flight. That seems to be at least implicitly in place in the 70s Christopher Reeve movies, particularly his flight with Lois - so long as he's touching her she's not just hanging off his arm like a deadweight, she's flying straight and horizontal beside him, but the moment her fingers slip out of his, she drops like a stone.

Still, it's never actually confirmed onscreen, so it's basically just a bit of headcanon.

In Superman Returns he accidentally rips the wing off the plane he's trying to catch. So they definitely address it... sometimes.

 

[jian]

Yes. I’m selling something I own that I acquired by 100% legal means.

Yes. In my case, it’s classic buy low- then wait- then sell high.

According to a 1998 article in The Lapidary Journal, in the 1960s, DeBeers pitched the concept of the “investment” diamond: $1000 for a 1ct round, brilliant cut stone of the highest clarity & color that would almost certainly increase in value over time. By 1998, such a diamond cost $16,000.

In contrast, that same $1000 would have bought thousands of pounds of gems grade blue chalcedony. Over the same elapsed time period, that purchase would have been worth $2.5M.


$50k in a day ain’t bad, but it’s not sustainable for me. So no, I can’t get rich this way.

But someone with more resources and connections at their disposal, potentially yes.

(The specter of the ethics of mining operations looms large, however.)


No clue. But I made most of my gemstone purchases at trade shows that took me about 5-6 work days per year.

I made my first purchases on a budget of $500…which I stretched to $1000. The most I ever spent at a single exhibition was $6000.

And I knowingly passed on deals that would have had ridiculous ROIs because I couldn’t afford to stretch my budget any more at that moment in time. I’ve handled stones that went from $3000 to $30,000 in 6 months.

Superman, with education & training, could easily make himself pretty rich as a miner using his powers. He could literally see where to mine. He could reach deposits without using unethical labor practices, heavy mining equipment or strip mining. Arguably, his suite of powers might make him a hell of a stonecutter, too.

But considering that the largest nuggets of gold (a bit over 100lbs) have been valued in the 10s of millions, he wouldn’t have to be.

Thanks for all the answers, they’re really helpful and informative.

All the gems you have presumably have provenance, even if it’s just a dated box from a QVC ad? Which Superman wouldn’t be able to get for gems he dug out of the ground personally (never mind shaping and polishing them, and indeed convincing anyone that they’re actual emeralds rather than pebbles). Same with gold nuggets, basically.

I asked around for a game a few years ago and the general view was that nobody in the UK would touch gold nuggets or raw gems, they certainly wouldn’t give you money for them. Even gold - relatively easy to test whether it’s actual gold or not - would require quite a lot of paperwork and they would really want to know where you got it. Nobody wants to handle potential conflict gems or be involved in money laundering unless you’ve faked the paperwork first.

 

[jian]

I suspect it would be really hard to make money from being Superman unless you had a wealthy and well-connected confederate who knew your secret and was willing to make money from your talents that they could then pass on to you. For instance, if Bruce got a contract to mine gems or dispose of waste and got Clark to do it in return for 50% of the profits. Even then, Bruce would be wise to spend quite a lot of the money on fake paper trails, actual mining equipment that never got used, and so on.

Of course, this is all as dodgy as hell and exactly the sort of thing that a competent investigative journalist could uncover. Thankfully, those are an endangered species these days.

 

[MoonSong]

Thanks for all the answers, they’re really helpful and informative.

All the gems you have presumably have provenance, even if it’s just a dated box from a QVC ad? Which Superman wouldn’t be able to get for gems he dug out of the ground personally (never mind shaping and polishing them, and indeed convincing anyone that they’re actual emeralds rather than pebbles). Same with gold nuggets, basically.

I asked around for a game a few years ago and the general view was that nobody in the UK would touch gold nuggets or raw gems, they certainly wouldn’t give you money for them. Even gold - relatively easy to test whether it’s actual gold or not - would require quite a lot of paperwork and they would really want to know where you got it. Nobody wants to handle potential conflict gems or be involved in money laundering unless you’ve faked the paperwork first.

Last year I saw a documentary on the largest gold heist in modern history. They claimed most of it will never be recovered because being an element, gold is notoriously impossible to trace. And lots of stolen gold circulates through official channels multiple times over.

 

[Morrus]

because being an element, gold is notoriously impossible to trace.

Everything is an element!