Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Law of the Sure Thing, continued;

Last entry, people try to sell it to you at any price.

Followed by:

Late adopters, who apparently don't read, have no friends and or computer, and don't have two brain cells to rub together for a spark, buy 'hot' item at a thrift store, and try to sell to you, and get angry when you refuse to take it from them. They need money to 'buy milk for the baby.' They want to leave it on the counter for you to throw away, but you make them take it away.

All the people who ever bought the 'hot' product, deny that they ever really liked; Cabbage Patch Doll, Beanie Babies, Pogs, Pokemon, Sports Cards, etc. etc. etc.

Die hards, independently minded, and just plain deluded buy an occasional item from the little nook in the store at a discount.

All the people who ever bought the 'hot' product actively ridicule said product. You always know when they've reached the little nook by the exclaimations of disgust.

10 - 20 years go by, and suddenly, a warm, fuzzy nostalgia takes hold. The fans are old enough not to worry about whether it's cool. They spend 5 to 10 minutes telling you how much they love......'Transformers, G.I. Joe, Sports Cards, Beanie Babies, etc. Your eyes glaze over. Then they ask, "Are you buying, I have a closet full of them. They must be worth a lot."

They leave, and you take the 'hot' item and throw it in dumpster, otherwise you will spend at least part of every day listening to empty, boring reminisces.

I have yet to see a single hot item ever come back, after 27 years. And even if anything were to come back now, that would've been way too long for anyone to keep the faith. I am no longer a believer in collectibles, Antiques Roadshow notwithstanding.

2 comments:

Jen said...

I disagree about the statement that things never come back... ;)

But I have also personally witnessed people scrounging the thrift stores for things to try to resell on eBay, etc. Disgusting. :(

Duncan McGeary said...

I am speaking from the viewpoint of a retailer. Trends do come back, but rarely to the extent that I'm tempted to get back into selling them.