How I Made $500 Traveling to Buenos Aires (and You Can Too!)

What if I told you that without having to apply for a job, or magically grow a successful travel blog, you could make money traveling to pretty much anywhere?

You don’t need to have an Instagram following, or any sort of special skills or techniques (although I’m sure you have plenty!), all you need to have is a plane ticket, and an extra bag of luggage.

Intrigued? You should be, because this genius new global shopping and traveling platform called Grabr is about to be a huge game changer for travelers everywhere!

Here’s how it works:

You know how on international flights you usually get 1-2 free checked bags? You can use one of those bags to load up items that people from the destination you’re heading to ordered from the destination you’re in, and make money off of each item you deliver.

Think of it as how shipping companies work, except instead of workers handling the packages, putting them on planes, and delivering them to the people who ordered them, you do it and make the money instead of the big shipping companies. Feel free to even wear one of those cute brown UPS outfits if you want to, you can probably even order one off of Grabr! (JOKE)

Anyway, to give you an idea about how profitable Grabr can be, I tested it out on my recent trip to Buenos Aires. I went through the process of selecting items to take over, which I’ll outline below, and ended up with 30 items to deliver in a massive suitcase (I blame the giant Minion), which gave me a total profit in pocket of $552! That’s almost enough to cover my entire flight there!

Since I personally ordered the items myself online and had them shipped directly to me (or picked them up at a store), there was no sketchiness or suspicions about what I was bringing over. The process of delivering the items also wasn’t weird at all. In fact, it was kind of fun! I got to meet a bunch of locals who were all beyond excited to receive their items from the U.S., many of which were Christmas presents for their kids!

There’s many different ways Grabr can work, but to give you the clearest rundown on how any typical traveler can make money by using it, I’ll give you the step by step process of how I did it!

1. Sign Up on Grabr as a Traveler

There’s two sign up options on Grabr; Shoppers and Travelers. If you like to buy things internationally as well as travel internationally, feel free to sign up as both, but for the purpose of this tutorial, let’s stick to signing up as a Traveler.

So I entered in all of my information for my profile, easy peasy, because all you have to do is click ‘Sign Up with Facebook’ and the rulers of the universe enter everything for you. Be sure to give accurate information, because keep in mind that you’re going to be communicating with the Shoppers the entire time!

2. Select Your Travel Destination

Since I was already planning on traveling to Buenos Aires, I entered that into the search bar for where I was going, along with my intended dates. Before I clicked Search, I did notice underneath it that Grabr lists the cities with the most orders, which kind of made me think that the next time I could choose a destination based on how many items, and thus how much money I could make going there!

Anyway, staying on track… After clicking the Search button, a list of items appeared with photos and descriptions that people in Buenos Aires were requesting to purchase and be delivered from the U.S.

3. Select Items to Bid on for a Delivery Fee

The items were mostly baby clothes, children’s toys, or tech gadgets like iPhones and cameras, although there was the occasional peculiar item, like an issue of Men’s Vogue. All of the items had the cost of the actual item, as well as the suggested “Traveler Reward” for the delivery fee.

You and the Shopper message and negotiate directly on each item, so there’s no chance of you getting stuck bringing an item you don’t think is worth it. Grabr suggests bidding around 15% of the item price, plus whatever taxes, transportation costs, etc. you might incur by getting it. (ie choosing stuff on Amazon Prime is the easiest way to go)

Obviously the more expensive the item, the higher the delivery fee is, and let’s be serious, everyone’s going to go for those.

You can make like $150 for bringing one iPhone – which takes up zero suitcase space at all!  

Oh but, by the way! The Shoppers must also accept your bid request!

Since Grabr is still relatively new (spoiler alert, it won’t be after I post this!), I was able to get most of the items I bid on to deliver for the price I offered to deliver them for, but if a traveler were also going to Buenos Aires at the same time as me, and offered a lower price, they could have potentially taken the bounty! The more Grabs you do, the better your rating is though, because there’s a two-way rating system for each transaction!

Speaking of transactions, you get an automatic $100 Travelers credit after you complete your first 10 Grabs! Woohoo! More free money!

4. Communicate With Your Shoppers

Once the shoppers accepted my delivery fee bid and the time frame of my travel dates, I then was able to message them regarding the status of their order. While I was still in the U.S. I mostly used the Grabr website, but during the actual delivery process I found it super easy to just use the Grabr app.

The way the ordering of products worked was the Shopper listed the amount of the item plus all shipping, transportation, and other related costs, and I then I went online and ordered it myself using that budget amount. This ensured that I knew where the product was coming from, and was the only person who handled it, plus it eliminated any potential problems with customs since I technically owned the products. Once I delivered the items, the Shopper’s listed price plus Traveler’s Reward was then transferred to my account.

Of course, it’s not always easy getting things shipped to you on time, which is where the majority of communication came into play with the Shoppers. Some items were able to be delivered on time, others weren’t, so it was up to them if they wanted me to just bring the few that were, or to wait for the next Traveler to bring the full order. All of my Shoppers were perfectly happy to go through with ordering the items I found available though.

5. Have the Items Shipped to You and Pack Your Bag!

Once I had confirmation from all of my Shoppers on the items I could order for them that would arrive in time for my trip to Buenos Aires, I ordered them and had them shipped to my apartment in South Florida. As they arrived, I inspected all of them to make sure they were all legit, and opened any boxes and packaging to do an extra inspection.

The next step was figuring out how to play Tetris with the items so that they all fit inside the luggage I had to bring them over in. Like I hinted at before, there was a giant Minion involved in one of my orders who took up one third of the suitcase, but since that was valuable shipping space, I definitely decided to charge more for his delivery!

Oh, and I also definitely carried a brand new iPhone 7 and GoPro Hero 5 in my purse on the plane for some people too! If these people were trusting me with their awesome cool new gadgets, there was no way I was going to risk disappointing them with even the slighted scratch from my checked luggage.

INTERMISSION: Why Don’t Shopper’s Just Use Regular Shipping or Go to a Shopping Mall?

Glad you asked, because I did too. My first question was of course, “Why do they want these specific items from here?” The answer, since my items were coming from the U.S., was that all of the products were significantly cheaper to buy in the U.S., than they were in Buenos Aires. Like…40% cheaper. Crazy, right?

I’m not just talking about iPhones and other gadgets that are all crazy expensive anyway. I’m talking about U.S. manufactured brands and products like Legos, Play-doh, anything that has to do with Frozen, Nike, Mac makeup, etc. It’s that much cheaper that people are willing and grateful to have a rambunctious little traveler like myself bring it to them across the planet.

But not all Shoppers request items from the U.S.! In fact, it can be the other way around! Let’s say somebody really loved the sarees I was wearing in India, and wanted a beautiful, authentic one for themselves. You can’t buy that in America!!! #NOPE. You can only get them from the street markets of Rajasthan, which you may be able to if you happen to connect with a traveler already in India who is coming to the United States.

Anyway, back to my Grabr process…

6. Coordinate Delivery Pick-up Windows

I had never been to Buenos Aires before, so it was likely that I would have gotten lost trying to pretend to be a UPS worker. Instead, I coordinated with all of my Shoppers to meet me at a certain place at a certain timeframe.

I ended up just using my hotel lobby, which, I was a little skeptical about at first since I know better than to invite strangers to my hotel. But since I had already communicated with everyone through Grabr, and knew what they ordered, it really didn’t seem like a problem.

Since I was also trying to enjoy my time in Buenos Aires, I also coordinated a delivery window so that I wasn’t running around working the entire time. I gave well-advanced notice to everyone that they could meet in the lobby of my hotel between 10am and 1pm, and asked that they let me know when they planned on coming.

7. Enjoy the Smiling Faces of Happy Customers!

I’ll admit, I was extremely shy when I went to meet my first Shopper, and even felt a little awkward carrying a huge bag of toys and stuff through the lobby. But all of that vanished when the first person immediately greeted me with a kiss on both cheeks, and an elated, excited expression that immediately communicated how happy they were just to receive their items.

The delivery process continued the same way for the rest of the Shoppers; all super excited and super grateful, each greeting and saluting me with the double cheek-kiss. Some were wary about not speaking English well, but I assured them it was fine since my Spanish isn’t exactly up to par. I had all of the items listed on my Grabr app anyway, so all I needed to know was their name and I could see what they had ordered!

8. Mark Delivered on Both Ends

Since it was my first time delivering items through Grabr, and also most of the Shoppers’ first times as well, we both pulled up the app and simultaneously tapped ‘Delivered’ to confirm the transaction. That’s pretty much all there is to it, I don’t think I need to go into how to open an app or tap a smartphone screen. Right?

9. Get PAID!

As each transaction was marked as completed, the delivery fee was automatically routed into my bank account for a nice little total sum of $552!

The money I made alone by using Grabr covered the cost of my hotel room for three nights, transportation to and from the airport, Tango classes, and a couple of delicious meals with Malbec wine in Buenos Aires. Just saying.

10. Multi-Destination Deliveries

I forgot to mention that I was also heading to Rio de Janeiro after Buenos Aires to attend Grabr’s #grabawish gifting event! As a holiday project, Grabr donated one toy per item ordered in the marketplace from November 15-30, right around when all the Black Friday madness in the US was happening, and gifted them to Ação Comunitária Sal da Terra in Rio de Janeiro. Why Rio? Brazil represents almost 50% of Grabr orders!

Their initial goal was to donate 500 gifts, and it went so well that they ended up with 733 gifts, plus sent me to deliver them!

Ação Comunitária Sal da Terra is a local Church-based organization in rural Rio de Janeiro that aids impoverished children and orphans, especially during their favorite holiday, Christmas! I had the privilege of attending their neighborhood Christmas celebration which began with a musical theater presentation of the birth of Baby Jesus, which all of the adorable little kids took part in.

After all the little kids finished their Emmy-award-worthy performance, there was a phenom after party that ended with each child individually getting to go up on stage to sit on Santa’s lap. Each kid walked off of that stage with one gift from the church, and one donated by Grabr.

The idea of using an extra-checked bag to deliver donated items is something I tried myself once when volunteering in South Africa, and something I’ll be looking into more through my charitable organization Heartsleeves.org, hopefully with the help of Grabr. If anyone is interested in getting involved feel free to shoot me an email!

Aside from the amazing charity event, I had also offered to make a few small Grabr deliveries in Rio; the GoPro Hero 5, a Samsung watch, and some vitamins. AKA extra funding for my entrance fees and transportation to my 7th World Wonder, Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado Mountain!

I even got to chatting with the guy who ordered the GoPro, as an avid GoPro user myself, and he gave me tons of local insider tips for the best photo spots in Rio!

Overall I’d say that my experience using Grabr was an excellent one, and I have the utmost confidence in their platform. I’m even going to be integrating and teaching how to use it in my next Wanderlust Workers travel savings and makings program, so if you’re interested in learning more, be sure to sign up!

Have any questions about how to use Grabr, or my experience using it? Please comment below and I’ll be happy to answer!

This post was produced in partnership with Grabr, but all opinions and firsthand experiences as a Grabr Traveler are my own.