Ask HN: What’s the most clever business model you’ve heard about?

1. blood donation, Goodwill, etc. (You asked for "clever", right? I would say that convincing people to "donate" something, for free, and then selling it for a profit, is a pretty clever business model.)

2. Google/Facebook data collection in exchange for "free" services. Very clever.

EDIT: I'm not meaning to sound cynical, but rather I thought about the question, & these are the first things that came to mind.

I admire many of the profiles from the Blue Collar Millionaires show. One couple stands out, they turned a simple auto tow service in cash making machine, brilliant > http://jacksonville.com/business/2017-01-09/jacksonville-cou...

Gambling and drugs have great working models.