Jason Statham used to make 2,000 pounds a day selling "hokey" jewellery
The `Transporter` actor admits he had a very profitable trade selling phoney accessories on the streets of London before embarking on his showbiz career .
He said: "Man, we was doing ?1,000, ?2,000! In pound notes, mind you. Selling s**t you`d buy for maybe 60 pence? See, that`s bunce, pure profit.
"Sold some real hokey watches in my day. I used to work four chains, a two-foot rope, 18-inch rope, a bracelet, a Figaro chain, a horn of plenty, and a lady`s or gent`s ring. Take them out of the set, wrap `em each in tissue. If they`d say, `Can`t we have a box?` You`d say, `We all get a box one day, want one or not. And there`ll be flowers in the room, but you won`t be able to smell `em neither. `"
Jason learned how to sell the products from his father, who used to train him by staging "mock auctions" in their home.
He recalled to Details magazine: "We`d set up shop, mock auctions, the run-out, ram shop. These are all words and names describing the way people get ripped off."
However, the `Crank` star - who is in a relationship with model-turned-actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley - insists he didn`t deliberately "rip off" people, but their own greed led to them buying more of his wares because of their desire to pick up a bargain.
He added: "It`s people`s own greed that allows them to get ripped off. If your intuition served you at all, you`d never be in that shop or that corner. And we never said, `That`s gold, that`s Cartier.` We just never let them ask.
"Forget ?100, forget ?50, forget ?40, forget ?30. Should I keep going, Miss? Yes? That`s what she said last night. Never mind a tenner, never no fiver ... See, it`s that necessity for a bargain, that relentless thirst for a discount, that lets me create the illusion. That`s what we played on, and, you know, that`s all I ever really knew."
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