Who Needs Email When You Can Send a Message by Potato?

It’s so rare to get personal letters by snail mail these days that it’s especially exciting when they do arrive. So imagine opening your mailbox – the one on your house, not on your phone – and finding a personal message … on a potato.

That’s right. Sending a message on a potato is a thing now, and it’s proved to be a lucrative business for a young entrepreneur in Texas.

Alex Craig, a 24-year-old University of North Texas alum, came up with the idea while eating dinner with his girlfriend, WFAA reports.

“She said, ‘You will not sell a single potato. This is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard,'” Craig said. “On our second day that we were live, and we started promoting it on Reddit, and we got $2,000 in orders, and I just knew this was it.”

PotatoParcel.com allows users to send an anonymous personalized message on a potato for $8 to $10, depending on the size of the spud.

Sure, the idea sounds ridiculously simple – and a little dumb – but it’s making Craig some big bucks. He said he’s averaging $10,000 per month in revenue since the site launched in May. Considering his business costs include primarily potatoes (reportedly bought at Wal-Mart), manila envelopes and postage, Craig is raking in the dough.

“We’ve sent thousands of potatoes to people across the United States, and so, in some sort of weird way, we’ve had an impact on somebody’s life — even for a split second,” Craig said.

If you want to send a personalized spud through snail mail, check out PotatoParcel.com.

The business is listed for sale by live auction on Flippa. The current bid is $10,000, although the site says the reserve bid has not yet been met.

According to the Flippa site, Craig said he’s selling the business because “I’ve had my fun with it and I’m ready to step aside and watch someone come in and take it to the next level.”

Would you spend $10 to send a friend a custom message on a potato? Sound off below or on our Facebook page.