I was a substitute paper boy. It was a better deal for me than having an actual route. I found out how much the routes paid per paper, and that's what I charged. The person whose route I was subbing, would usually drop off their customer list and saddle bags, the day before. There were some periods when I made a lot of money because kids would get tired of their routes and take more and more days off, until they eventually quit. The best routes were in apartment complexes. You just went in one end with an armload of papers and were done in a jiffy.