Showing posts with label National Geographic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Geographic. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Why I Sell on eBay--Of Haunting Green Eyes and a Young Man Down Under

 Afghan Girl with the Haunted--and Haunting--Green Eyes
June, 1985 National Geographic
(Hawaiian Odysseus Photo of Cover)

PROLOGUE

I'm one for seeing the glass half full. 

So while a good deal of the world may be focused on the Mayan calendar ending in December of this year, it's life as usual for me.

Add to that the fact that I'm looking at 60 imaginary candles on the invisible cake this July, well...let's just say that I am a full-fledged member of a universal club that is very appreciative of the life God's given them.

In 2000, I formally opened up a part-time business selling fishing flies I'd tied as well as fly tying materials on eBay.

In the latter part of last year, bone-weary from a bagel baking job in Redmond, Washington, and simply exasperated with the schizophrenic economy, I made the significant decision to abort the rat race I was quickly losing. 

Returning home to Walla Walla County, 250 miles southeast of my sojourn in the Emerald City of Seattle, I kicked my online business into full gear. 

Admittedly, it was a scary decision, but after much soul-searching, hours of heart-wrenching discussions with my wife, and a total overhaul of my theretofore makeshift business plan, I took the plunge.

And God's favor has incessantly rained upon me ever since.

Not that I'm rolling in the dough, mind  you, because I'm not...not yet, anyway. 

My blessings have come by way of the people I've encountered in my global entrepreneurship.

And in the end, the golden contact we make with our fellow men is more important than any earthly treasure.

That said, I've been struggling in the last couple of months, desperately trying to understand this minority segment on eBay that purchases items knowing full well that they are not going to pay for them.

When I ask eBay for help, I am told that the global venue is a buyer's market and that sellers are expected to uphold the highest standards of professional conduct regardless of how some buyers abuse the process.

The eBay reps continue: "You know, sir, this is a reflection of our economy."

What? That people can get away with doing wrong to other people?

What? Aren't sellers part of that economy, too? Don't we lose big time when you reinforce the bad behavior of non-paying buyers by lacking consequences with bite?

In short, I come away from those phone calls with eBay customer support feeling, well, entrepreneurially impotent. 

Okay...

So then there's the subsequent fallout. I start feeling angry...I have to stuff that anger...with no adequate venting, I get to a point where I'm feeling sorry for myself.

And that's not a good place for anyone, let alone a businessman, to be.

THE BEHIND THE SCENES STORY

God is like this wonderful and timely GPS. When He sees us going down a wrong path, He doesn't treat us as mere marionettes and--with ethereal puppeteer strings--control our movements or force our decisions or rob us of our freedom of choice.

He simply provides more opportunities.

In the early part of April, 2012 (exactly 16 days prior to this writing), I discovered in my eBay inbox that I'd just made a sale of the magazine below to a woman in Australia.

Afghan Girl, Found, 17 Years Later
April, 2002 National Geographic
(Hawaiian Odysseus Photo of  Cover)

I was elated! Promptly, I processed, packaged, and mailed the item off to the buyer. 

Less than two weeks later, I received the following positive feedback--

thanks arrived today my son has included her in many art essays for school

Now, I'd known briefly about the 1985 Afghan Girl cover story (see top photo) while researching for my description of the 2002 National Geographic issue, but as events would have it, I actually obtained the latter issue first. I don't remember where...could have been at an estate sale, church bazaar, or thrift store.

So that's why I made the sale of the 2002 issue first. 

Soon after, however, I got my hands on not just one, but two of the 1985 issues. My interest, like a single lit match in a dry forest, burned brightly and ran rampantly with new possibilities.

I remember gazing obsessively--as have millions of people all over the world--at the image of the Afghan girl with haunted--and, yes, haunting!--green eyes.

On impulse rather than analytical forethought, not worrying in the least about crossing unspoken professional marketing boundaries, I emailed the Australian woman a courtesy thank you for her nice feedback and then...yes, I dared it!...asked her if she could provide me with some background information about her feedback comment. I explained that I occasionally blogged about some of my eBay experiences.

When I awoke this morning to the light Walla Walla rain and checked my eBay status, I found an email from, I thought, the Australian customer. It was a well thought out response to my request. I was about to send an appreciative email when I noticed that there was a second message in my inbox.

Upon reading the second email, I learned that the response had actually been written by her son, a high school student.

Here is what the intelligent and eloquent young man wrote--

Afghan Girl Article

The following is in regards to your request to hearing about my, well, obsession is the best phrase. Firstly, I'd very much like to say thanks for my purchase. I received both issues & they're exactly what I wanted!

Now, you say you wish to hear a human interest story to put on your blog. Well, my obsession with the Afghan girl is nothing compared to her story, a single individual whose beautiful eyes captivated the hearts of everyone who saw them, eyes that reflected the plight of all refugees of war. That's remarkable, a true testament to the nature of humanity and the power of a well-told story, and an amazing piece of art, things of which I've always loved.

I don't quite remember the first time I saw the photograph by renowned photojournalist Steve McCurry, but since then I have been a passionate fan. He is now one of my photographic idols. What I remember, however, is being caught up in the beauty of the image like everybody else. I'd been taking photos for a while at this point, and when I saw this, I was blown away. Not only was the subject amazing, but I was swept away with the lighting, the composition, the focus, the simple beauty. I rushed off and read up on the story. Since then, it's been one of my favorite images.

I've since used it as an example in as many projects for school as I possibly could, from English (in a theme of journey and belonging) to Visual Arts. As recently as three weeks ago, I've used her story as an example in one of my first assessments for university (subject on the future of Afghan women). The Afghan girl isn't just simply an amazing piece of photojournalism and a beautiful photograph. It also captures the human spirit.

Today, I'm in possession of both issues of  National Geographic--the Afghan girl's complete story. I am in possession of not only collector's items, but a piece of history as well, and I thank you for that with all my heart.

This has been something I have desired for many years now, and I'm sure it will continue to inspire me.

Sincerely,

Alexander Johnson

EPILOGUE

Just as I was moved by the awesome and memorable Afghan Girl cover, I was absolutely blown away by the thoughtful and equally inspirational response from the young Australian man.

Alexander, you're a credit to not just your parents, siblings, relatives, friends, and acquaintances. You're an embodiment of all that is hopeful and cause for thanksgiving in our world. May the good Lord bless your every endeavor--in your budding university life and in your future occupation, relationships, and global ambassadorship.

Thank you for blessing me with one more beautiful remembrance of why I do the work I do on eBay.

Aloha and mahalo,

Hawaiian Odysseus

Finding the Afghan Girl
National Geographic Video on YouTube

I also invite all who are interested to read a related post that can be found with the following link:

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

THE TIMELESS APPEAL OF NOSTALGIA ON EBAY

Coca-Cola Ad
From a 1950 National Geographic Back Cover
(Hawaiian Odysseus Photo)

An estate sale I recently attended in Walla Walla yielded me a cache of old magazines.  I ended up going back to this home a second time with my wife at the invitation of the owner's sister. She made me a deal I couldn't refuse.
  
When the dust of dickering had settled, I ended up shelling out $107 for a total of 230 magazines.  At about 46 and a half cents per magazine, with the potential of either selling most of the magazines for about $10 a pop and carefully removing ads from the rest that I could list at $8-10 each, I saw this as a great deal.

There are always challenges.  The first big one was to convince my wife weeks ago that my vision of generating a viable income from this pursuit could become a reality.  I think I've met that challenge quite well, and my wife has found good reason to help me with this latest of Hawaiian Odysseus projects.

Secondly, there's the issue of storage space.  An upstairs bedroom has become my office/den. The primary occupants of this space for several hours each day...and sometimes, late into the evening...are our cat, Kona (star of several blog posts), and me.  I do my best to keep the room tidy, but I always look over my shoulder in case the producers of A & E's Hoarders happen to be nearby. There are several boxes and plastic shelves full of either magazines or ad clippings. Whenever I exclaim, "Thank You, God!" upon discovering that I've made a sale, I'm simultaneously cheering the fact that either a magazine or one more piece of paper is being paroled from my den of ephemera.

As I come across more fodder for my business in yard, garage, and estate sales, however, it's increasingly apparent that I'm fighting a losing battle.  Compounding this is the fact that my wife's olefactory sense is keener than mine...and her tolerance for the musty smell of vintage paper is proportionately lower.  She's taken to buying these gizmos with scented oil that you can plug in to electrical outlets.  They double as night lights.  Personally, I can't stand them.  

But, sigh!  Marriage is a give and take institution, and I'd rather live with marital compromise than be without.  Know what I mean, jelly bean?

So, anyway, third challenge...and one that I welcome the most because it's all about keeping Alzheimer's at bay...is writing up good descriptions for my listings.

One of my pet peeves about eBay is coming across auction or store listings that consist of no more than one or two sentences.  For example:  Good magazine.  No pages missing.

Boring!  And the mark of sheer laziness.

My goal, then, is to imagine that I'm the buyer.  I am therefore not shy about using my unique voice in my listings.  It's my attempt to be right there in that buyer's personal bubble, letting him or her know as best I can that he or she is about to buy a quality product from me.  Significantly, if anything about that item has a flaw, that buyer will hear about it from me long before they see the actual item.

So what might take another seller seconds to put together, especially with a bulk listing program, takes me much more time as I craft a template.  Once I create the template, things get easier.  

While I'm recycling the products that others have created, I'm actually utilizing my creativity in each eBay listing.  

One other challenge involves the time and effort needed for carefully removing the staples and remnants of spinal glue and clipping the frayed edges.  Here's where I could use some help, but my adult son's well established in his professional career in another state, and my daughter is employed full time in her collegiate studies at the local university.  

And Kona's no help...except when it comes to chewing on oatmeal cookies from the Dollar Tree.

So I do my best, and before I know it, it's time to retire for the night.

Okay, so now with all that introductory prose out of the way, I've come to the  meatier aspects of this post.

See that photo above?  Coca-Cola ads do very well on eBay, so much so that Coke ads are a sub-niche of their own.  At first glance, eBay is flooded with Coca-Cola products.  But that's part of the reason why I promote good, solid, and appealing descriptions in my listings.

Anyway, I was ecstatic that the above ad, a back cover I had removed from one of the National Geographic magazines I'd purchased from the woman at the aforementioned estate sale, sold this past week.  

It sold for $4.95, and the shipping was free to the woman from Michigan.  After the eBay final value fee, PayPal fee, and shipping charge, I made a humble profit.  

A lot of work for peanuts, you might say.  But to me, it's a valuable experience as I utilize trial and error to find my potential customers' trigger points.   Plus, being a newbie to this ad-selling niche, I realize I have to forge a good, solid, and reputable foundation in order to establish a golden customer base.  Repeat customers and/or the feedback I receive are vital components of a successful eBay venture.  So I don't mind paying my dues, so to speak.

Here's another one that also sold this week.  It went for $8.99 to a gentleman in Texas.

Life Savers Ad
From a 1953 LIFE Magazine
(Hawaiian Odysseus Photo)

My son in Hawaii, a former popular island deejay and well acquainted with radio advertising, asked me just the other night why these vintage ads appealed to people.  A great question, indeed!  

My response was, "When I say, 'Crackerjacks,' what do you think of?"

"The toy inside,"  he replied.

"And also the sailor on the box?"  

"Yeah."

"What about Morton Salt?  Think about the girl with the umbrella?"  I asked.

"Yeah,"  he said.

I went on to establish my point.  "See?  People associate certain words or icons with memories from their past.  Seeing or hearing about these items takes them back to a warm and fuzzy time in their lives.  So having these ads to matte and frame and put up in their office as a conversation piece or add to their living room decor preserves a very special memory for them."

The Lifesavers ad elicited a collection of feelings for me.  It's a simple yet brilliant idea that was brought to fruition by the particular ad agency.  I instantly remembered both the candy and warm memories of pulling at a chicken or turkey wishbone with my mom or siblings five decades ago.  I was also attracted to the great illustration.  Regretfully, I could not see any artist's signature.  It certainly looks like a Norman Rockwell work, but I didn't want to second guess who the actual artist was.  

That's another thing.  Sometimes the ability to identify the artist in illustrated ads helps to make the sale.  This actually happened not too long ago, but that will be the subject of another post.  Maybe even the next one.

I gotta hustle and get out of this favorite Walla Walla Starbucks and catch a couple of buses to get back home.  

My wife and I, you see, have a date this afternoon at a certain College Place thrift store.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

HOW I'M CARVING OUT A NEW NICHE ON EBAY

National Geographic Ad
May 1928
(These and subsequent images are Hawaiian Odysseus photos.)

PRELUDE

I'll be honest.  I am definitely not one of these eBay gurus making a million dollars or more each year on eBay.  I'm thankful for what I still consider to be the world's greatest auction site, but, frankly, I struggle to make a living.

If I might allude to my blog site's namesake, there is a scene in the Homeric epic where our protagonist encounters the challenge of maneuvering between two sea monsters--Scylla and Charybdis.  To avoid one meant encountering the other.  


Later Greek tradition cited these metaphorical sea hazards as treacherous realities existing on opposite sides of the Strait of Messina between Sicily and the Italian mainland.  Scylla--Homer's six-headed monster--was the personification of a rock shoal on the Italian side of the strait.  Charybdis was actually a whirlpool off the coast of Sicily.  These sea hazards were located close enough to each other that they posed an inescapable threat to passing sailors.

In colloquial terms, Homer found himself between a rock and a hard place.  

That's me...and that's where I'm at.  My proverbial dilemma--I'm unemployed because I left my job as a baker in Redmond, Washington, to return home to my loved ones in Walla Walla County.  


To be employed would mean grueling midnight shift hours that ravage my body, not to mention the psychological strain of being separated from my family and working for an unappreciative boss.


No, in the 60th year of my life, I want to be employed by someone who truly appreciates, respects, and holds me in high regard--ME!


There's no better high than the freedom of working for oneself.


And so it behooves me to continually stretch my creative, resourceful, and entrepreneurial reach. 

For the past eleven years, I've supplemented my income by running a fly tying store on eBay...nothing elaborate, but a help in meeting some of the financial obligations.  Just as valuable as the humble income earned on this global venue was the 100% positive feedback rating that I happily received from over 5,000 unique customers.


One's reputation is golden...a lesson I had forsaken as a youth growing up in Hawaii but one I hold dear to my heart today.  So the eBay feedback, by proxy, gives me a unique opportunity to be an outstanding global citizen.  At my age, that counts for a lot. 


Today, I am at a point in my life---and my eBay sojourn--where I need to amp things up a bit.  


My goal is to expand my eBay business.  That expansion requires the notion of sailing out into new, completely unrelated to fly tying and fly fishing, and heretofore uncharted eBay waters, as it were.






MISSION STATEMENT


A new venture can be daunting and fraught with unexpected stressors, so in order to keep it lighthearted and easy on the blood pressure, I am going to have some fun by sharing my experiences with you.  Success or failure, it doesn't matter.  I'll learn valuable lessons either way. What truly counts is that I try my very best to  create new streams of income in this Walla Walla desert.


Being unemployed, in the traditional sense, affords me the freedom to try new things.  And it's the bold, raw, and scary energy of risk-taking that propels me out of bed each morning.





THE MEAT OF THE MATTER


Okay, so let's get started.  


A few days ago, I caught the Valley Transit bus to the east side of Walla Walla and browsed through the renovated and greatly improved Country Store.  


The current owners have reorganized the store into a flea market emporium.  Aspiring entrepreneurs rent out small sections in the store.  When something sells, the store receives a small commission.  For those sellers who don't carry enough inventory to warrant a full space, the store has a special room where individual items are neatly arranged for potential customers to view.


My personal mission was to find old magazines.  Not long ago, I  had received in my email an affiliate marketer's ad that promoted the concept of a lucrative eBay income from cutting up and selling pages from old magazines and newspapers.  While I didn't buy the product, the idea forged a path deep into my subconscious, nestling into the recesses of my gray matter, liberally hatching all of its little baby ideas while I slept.   


On several occasions, I would wake up in the wee hours of the morning and run--okay, slowly shuffle--to my laptop.  For the next two or three hours, I would do a lot of research on how other sellers were promoting old magazine ads on eBay.


Research is key.  I can't stress that enough.  Long before I make my first listing, I want to know average prices, best forms of listing (fixed price or auction), how to promote the product, what shipping details make the best sense, overhead costs, where to find the items to sell, and how the general market is behaving.


The biggest surprise for me was discovering how well some of these vintage ad entrepreneurs were doing.  It blew me away to learn that in  several cases, eBay store owners were selling ONE ad (that's one magazine page, folks!) for FIVE to TEN DOLLARS or more!


Needless to say, I was excited!  I definitely wanted IN on this action!


But where do I start?






Well, one of the sole proprietor shops at the Country Store had these two boxes of old National Geographic issues from the 1920s and 1950s.  When I attempted to purchase just one of the magazines, the female clerk graciously informed me that I would have to buy the entire 2-box set.


The original price tag read $65.00, and I simply couldn't afford to invest that much on a whim.  The clerk proceeded to tell me, however, that the owner of that specific booth was closing shop at the end of the month, and so everything in that section was discounted 50%.  


If my brain could salivate, my head would've been soaking wet!


With Walla Walla's 8.6% tax, I'd be paying a little over $35 for the two boxes of vintage magazines. Instantly assessing what I could resourcefully do with several dozen old periodicals, I was confident that I could come up with a good return on my investment.


Still, caution reared its pretty head.  Caution is like this bittersweet cousin to Impulsivity.  Each is a pain in the rump to the other, but you need to consider both in order to be a successful entrepreneur.


I needed time to let these cousins wrestle it out.  Somewhat reluctantly, I left the Country Store and headed on back home.


That night, I had a good discussion with my wife.  She is Caution personified whereas I am Impulsivity on wheels.  Trust me, it makes for a great marriage.  I once told someone--it might've been a judge, come to think of it (LOL!)--that my success in life was directly proportional to how much I listened to my wife.


Anyway, I got the green light from my better half.  With our lovely daughter entering her freshman year in college, my wife and I see eye-to-eye when it comes to the family scholarship fund.


So I went back to the Country Store and gave the surprised clerk a check.  I mean, those boxes must have sat around for months.


That night, I was like a schoolkid during recess.  I quickly and carefully removed the staples from one of the 1927 NG issues, separated the ads from the prints and narrative pages, trimmed away the rough, staple-torn margins as best I could, and took photos of each ad.


Next, I began grouping each ad with two magazine pages.  In my auctions, I provide the customer with a bonus of 2 pages from the same issue.  These extras are lesser ads, prints, articles, or a combination thereof.  As a newbie in this interesting eBay niche, I believe that having a special touch goes a long way.  With several formidable competitors, this new kid on the vintage ad block needed to have a special gimmick.


Later in the week, I found a specialty shop on eBay that sold acid-free plastic sleeves and backing boards (cardboard mounts).  These items are important shipping and preservation supplies that maintain the integrity of the vintage ads.


And then I started listing.  


In drafting the actual wording, I imagine that I am a buyer.  I ask myself, What questions would I have when shopping for vintage ads?  I write with the same voice that I use in writing this blog.  It's the real life voice I would use if you were sitting across from me this very moment, enjoying a nice cup of brew at the Starbucks on Main Street in Walla Walla.  It's a good voice because I feel comfortable being who I am and secure in doing what I do.






STAY TUNED, FOLKS!


So, you're on the ground floor of this new entrepreneurial venture.  You're going to receive updates via this blog as to how things pan out.  


Right now, I am experimenting with both auction style and fixed price listings.  At this stage, everything is trial and error.  I have to be extremely patient, carefully studying the demographic patterns in the market, and tweaking whenever necessary in order to optimize my listings.


Peppered throughout this particular blog post are photographs I took of six different automobile ads from the May, 1928 issue of National Geographic.  This is one of my strategies--to build a thematic set of ads and list it in an auction starting at 99 cents.  It may or may not sell, but that's the fun and adventure of doing this.  It's like being a parent of a newborn baby and watching with a mixed bag of emotions--joy, amazement, frustration, extreme fatigue, exhilaration, amusement--as it grows.  (I mean, I'm hoping it grows!)


Oh, the 99 cents factor?  It's a twofold strategy.  It keeps things cheap as I engage in trial and error mode, and it's hopefully a great way to attract potential buyers.  I keep in mind that I am a newbie, and I need to tread lightly and deliberately as I trek through what is for me a brand new and unfamiliar niche. 


I invite you to click on the link below to see the Vintage Ads category of my eBay store, Lords of the Fly.  (It's right below the final picture.) 


If and while you do drop in--and I sincerely hope you do!--please check out my other eBay listings.  Feel free to drop me a line via either eBay or this blog.  For those of you who have done or are doing something similar, I would surely appreciate your advice and even mentoring.  For those who are inclined, like me, to dabble in the freedom of working for yourself, I definitely invite you to contact me and tap my brain.  Not much there to tap--but I'll definitely help you as much as I possibly can.


In closing this post, it's my earnest prayer that the good Lord bless my new project.  My odyssey continues to be an interesting and challenging journey.  Now that I'm home, I've set my mariner charts on shoring up a scholarship fund. 


Focusing on helping my daughter, you see, puts blinders on me as I strategize my way through the treacherous passage of Scylla and Charybdis.





Tuesday, September 20, 2011

CAUSE CELEBRE AT WALLA WALLA'S COFFEE CONNECTION--SUCCESS WITH A NEW EBAY NICHE

Browsing eBay at the Coffee Connection Cafe
Main Street, Walla Walla
(Hawaiian Odysseus photo)

I am stoked!

True, the bottomless cup of Joe and the delicious mid-morning edibles are fantastic at the Coffee Connection Cafe in downtown Walla Walla.  The A-1 service I'm receiving from the waiter and waitress is superior to anything I've experienced thus far in southeast Washington.  And-oh!--the homemade biscuits are as big as bagels with a taste to absolutely die for!

What's amping up my excitement this very moment is that I sold something on eBay.  Something I paid a dime for and turned it around on the world's greatest online auction site for a 2,820% profit.  
(Bringing that staggering differential down to earth, in terms of dollars and cents, I made $2.82 for the magazine sale.)

Here's the breakdown.  

I found the magazine at St. Vincent de Paul, a noteworthy thrift store about a block west of the Valley Transit Center on Main Street.  It cost me a measly 10 cents, an absolute steal considering the near mint quality of the National Geographic issue.  

The Buy it Now fixed price listing fee on eBay was 20 cents.

After the issue sold, the final value fee was $1.29.

When the buyer made his payment, I was charged a PayPal fee of 59 cents.

Utilizing free USPS priority mail padded envelopes helps keep my shipping costs down.  Still, the service costs $4.95 per parcel.

Labor?  I work hard on my eBay business, but let's just say it's all a labor of love as I diligently attempt to make a living that is far more meaningful to me than slaving away on a graveyard shift baking 10,000 bagels a night for a boss who was just plain constipated about giving out well-deserved kudos, never mind a decent wage compensatory for the effort.  

But I digress.  Whew!  Did I have all that in me?

So, labor aside, my total overhead was $7.13.  

I charged my customer $9.95.

My profit, then, was $2.82, or--just as I mentioned earlier--a 2,820% net increase!

Do you think I'll keep looking for National Geographic (and other) magazines to sell?  

You bet I will!

You see, the thrill of it all was proving to myself that I could actually step out of my comfort zone and develop a new niche for my eBay business.  

For eleven years now, I've been selling fly tying materials and supplies.  With the cost of hooks rising, it was getting difficult to sustain a profit margin that made sense after all the numbers were crunched.  So, especially in the last three months when I moved back home to College Place from my sojourn in the Seattle area, I have been diligently trying to find new and maybe even multiple streams of income in an overall dry creek bed of an economy.

So every seemingly little move forward is, in my deeply appreciative soul, a HUGE accomplishment.

Any progress has been slow and clumsy.  In the spirit of open disclosure, as embarrassing as it is to me, I'd like to share with you the eBay item number so you can look it up and see for yourself just how clumsy.

Here, I'll make it easy for you.  Click on this link:


In the second paragraph, I completely forgot to include other articles that the magazine contained.

Ah, the foibles of an eBay entrepreneur!  But, you know, I'm thankful for the mistakes because I learn more from them than anything a hundred online mentors could ever teach me.

Today was a good day.  Today, I reaped the rewards of thinking outside the box.

And I am totally stoked!

Excellent Decor at the Coffee Connection Cafe
(Hawaiian Odysseus photo)