Tuesday, September 09, 2003
WHY THE RICH GET RICHER (ON A SMALL SCALE)
Example One: Hubby and I sold our 'King Kong's Banana' last summer -- a top-of-the-line Sea Lion kayak, which including miscellanea once retailed at $1200 dollars. And may I just say as an aside that we set the trend on the whole kayaking thing. Hubby is what is known in marketing as an 'early adopter' and so he was the first bright-yellow elongated fiberglass kayak to make its way past the gawks of the sailors rigging their boats for a sail. Today where I live, kayaks are as common as seagulls; they've even set up a kayaking school for the singles looking for a kayaking mate, and/or the already-happy-paddle-synchronized kayak duos.
Needless to say, hubby tired of the sport after a few seasons although to his defense it was in part due to the fact that a broken leg while playing an over-40-something soccer game put him on the sidelines for quite some time. He mostly stopped because he couldn't get the wife to share his enthusiasim, and he soon got rather lonely paddling with the waves all by himself (I decided that kayaking with the current was a lot more fun than paddeling against the current).
So hubby decided to sell it while he could still get top dollar because the market wasn't yet flooded with yuppies who had themselves grown tired of their latest toy (anyone wonder what happened to all of those bread machines so popular a few years back?). Since we live on a main street it was easy. I hauled it out to the corner, secured it to a telephone pole, and put out a big sign that read FOR SALE along with our telephone number. We got many calls over the next few weeks. Blah blah blah voices of desire. Then they asked the price. "Let me think about it," and would hang up. There was one young woman who was very interested in our kayak -- a student with no money who stopped by often to look at the boat. Later she brought by her dad in the hopes that he would be as enamored as she was and buy it for her. But I guess dad didn't buy into it because I never heard from her. Then out of the blue pulled up a I-don't-remember-what-brand S.U.V., with a late thirty-something well-dressed man accompanied by his fabulously gorgeous, skinny Asian girlfriend (how unusual for these parts I thought -- he must be divorced). "How much?" he asked. "$800 for the boat and $100 for the extras," I answered. By this time the novelty of tying up the boat each weekend to the telephone pole had worn off along with the thrill of playing hard-nosed on the price. "How about $700 cash for the whole lot? I'll go to the bank and get you cash." "Deal." The young girl who had been so interested in the boat called me about a week-and-a-half later. "If the boat is still available I was wondering if you would accept an offer of $800 for the boat and gear? "Sorry," I said. "It's gone."
Example Two Staples just had a sale on 24-bottle flats of bottled water -- two for ten dollars. I bought twelve flats at once without batting the eyelash someone on a budget would have to, even so it would be such a good deal if they could afford it...
Example One: Hubby and I sold our 'King Kong's Banana' last summer -- a top-of-the-line Sea Lion kayak, which including miscellanea once retailed at $1200 dollars. And may I just say as an aside that we set the trend on the whole kayaking thing. Hubby is what is known in marketing as an 'early adopter' and so he was the first bright-yellow elongated fiberglass kayak to make its way past the gawks of the sailors rigging their boats for a sail. Today where I live, kayaks are as common as seagulls; they've even set up a kayaking school for the singles looking for a kayaking mate, and/or the already-happy-paddle-synchronized kayak duos.
Needless to say, hubby tired of the sport after a few seasons although to his defense it was in part due to the fact that a broken leg while playing an over-40-something soccer game put him on the sidelines for quite some time. He mostly stopped because he couldn't get the wife to share his enthusiasim, and he soon got rather lonely paddling with the waves all by himself (I decided that kayaking with the current was a lot more fun than paddeling against the current).
So hubby decided to sell it while he could still get top dollar because the market wasn't yet flooded with yuppies who had themselves grown tired of their latest toy (anyone wonder what happened to all of those bread machines so popular a few years back?). Since we live on a main street it was easy. I hauled it out to the corner, secured it to a telephone pole, and put out a big sign that read FOR SALE along with our telephone number. We got many calls over the next few weeks. Blah blah blah voices of desire. Then they asked the price. "Let me think about it," and would hang up. There was one young woman who was very interested in our kayak -- a student with no money who stopped by often to look at the boat. Later she brought by her dad in the hopes that he would be as enamored as she was and buy it for her. But I guess dad didn't buy into it because I never heard from her. Then out of the blue pulled up a I-don't-remember-what-brand S.U.V., with a late thirty-something well-dressed man accompanied by his fabulously gorgeous, skinny Asian girlfriend (how unusual for these parts I thought -- he must be divorced). "How much?" he asked. "$800 for the boat and $100 for the extras," I answered. By this time the novelty of tying up the boat each weekend to the telephone pole had worn off along with the thrill of playing hard-nosed on the price. "How about $700 cash for the whole lot? I'll go to the bank and get you cash." "Deal." The young girl who had been so interested in the boat called me about a week-and-a-half later. "If the boat is still available I was wondering if you would accept an offer of $800 for the boat and gear? "Sorry," I said. "It's gone."
Example Two Staples just had a sale on 24-bottle flats of bottled water -- two for ten dollars. I bought twelve flats at once without batting the eyelash someone on a budget would have to, even so it would be such a good deal if they could afford it...
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