Working for free, and mostly vacuuming, I asked "Stevette" (yes, I am sure, somewhere in the world, someone DOES have this name--which, believe me, is amazing!) to prepare some special offers and recap the ones already in place, because, during the month of APRIL, cash flow sucks. That means using credit cards, which is already bad enough. I am trying to figure out WHERE this economy is improving! Does anyone know?
In the meantime, a few days ago I sent out a hefty 10 page PDF to those on my email lists and it contained, in essence, the Thinkers' Press, inc. catalog--full of pictures, and words. We call this, "attempting to jump start the orders."
DID ANYTHING HAPPEN?
Nothing much happened, so Stevette added a front page today and took away another page. So, it is still 10 pages, but hopefully the front page will get your heart palpitating and your hand reaching for your wallet. When I was in the "magic" business (mostly closeup) in the 80s, we demoed and we sold. We hated having people waste their time coming in to see, NOTHING! So we were always buying and selling. We had regulars and irregulars.
Well, it is like that to some degree in the chess business too, but demoing a book isn't so easy. Maybe a position from a book, but that's about it!
So Stevette, who is clammoring for a job at Thinkers' Press, inc., put together some highlights and sweetened the pot to get the Blog Readers anxious enough to READ further and find out that I have been working on a Sales List of Previously Owned Merchandise, or collectibles, used stuff... or as they called it in the old days, "Second Hand." That doesn't mean it is shoddy though, does it?
A new list, new shelving arrangements, completer descriptions, and little extras. Someone asked me about the value of some non-chess stuff the other day. The books were bound in leather, first editions, in a series, and OLD... like in the 1880s. $10 a volume!!! Crap value wise--old does not mean valuable. Chess books are pretty much like that too for used copies.
Someone tried to sell me some of his collection the other day and while there were a couple "nice" items in it, most of it was junk which could be bought off the 'net' for two bits (if you know the right people). Stuff like Informants, ECOs, and things like that are $5 or LESS! If you need some to fill holes, keep searching because anything more than that is fraud. There are thousands of these items out there--and they aren't moving. Hence, what I am purveying on these lists is the kind of jazz you seldom see on eBay, Amazon, Abe, etc. Foreign stuff which to order from Germany is a big pain in the rear in many cases. (Exchange rate, shipping, customs, language).
SO WHAT IS STEVETTE DOING NOW?
She tied this new list to purchasing items from the TPi catalog which is going out right now. That is, if you buy from this new catalog, anything amounting to $35 or more (that's not hard to do these days), you will get the LIST first. Then a week later, after the "vultures," (er... collectors) have gone through it, the lists will be released to others.
To get you all kinds of interested, and wondering where your matches are, I am putting up a picture of Stevette, the babette, on the post for today. She is vacuuming. When business picks up, she can put that "Hoover" away, come over and sit on my lap, and sort the mail.
Contact: bob@thinkerspressinc.com
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