A Business Lesson

Sunday June 8th, 2008 - Milwaukee, WI/Kenosha, WI

I found a new philosophy of life today. Kipper McGee from WLS sent me an email and it had THE best quote I’ve seen in years. It said ‘There are many undiscovered geniuses in the world but not many undiscovered marketers.’ That one hit me right between the eyes.

I have no idea where it came from but I will absolutely find out when I see Kipper next. Maybe it was Kipper himself because he’s a razor sharp guy and it sounds like something he would say. Whoever said it has my full attention and I got the message loud and clear.

It doesn’t matter how talented I or anyone else is for that matter. I totally agree that it’s mostly marketing for any product and I am focusing on that like never before. Today I got my beak wet by setting up at the Gonzaga sports card show up in West Allis, WI. I had an opportunity to fill in for my friend Dennis who was still at the big show down in Chicago.

He asked me if I’d take his table up at Gonzaga Hall and I said yes. I have enough stock to set up even though I wasn’t really ready with organization quite yet. But that’s the nice thing about the Gonzaga show - it isn’t necessary. A lot of the guys are part timers there.

I took a random sampling of some single cards and a couple of sets and I set up next to my other friend Richard Caan who I went to Chicago with on Friday. He’s a great guy for studying because he’s doing this full time and I was able to watch him deal with the usual crop of local Milwaukee chiselers. That city has a cheapness like few others and it’s deep.

If someone can pry a buck out of a Milwaukee wallet it would probably fetch twenty or higher anywhere else. I hadn’t experienced the alligator arm syndrome of the cheese head brigade in a while but today I got a face full of it. It was an education and I need to get it.

I need to brush up on prices of what the current market is baring. I have mostly old stuff and I used to know the prices better than I do now but I will get caught back up. I learned the business from my friend Ray Gunderson who had a shop in West Allis for years. He’s my mentor and he taught me to always buy low and flip as quickly as possible. I listened.

Most of my stuff is not pristine and I knew that going in. I bought pretty low so I can let it go at a fair price and not have to gouge anyone. I like to keep the flow of money in both directions so I will move something if there is a halfway fair offer. Ray always did well so there’s no reason I can’t too. People took advantage of Ray though and today I got it too.

Some weasel came by my table and cherry picked a few of the better cards and then had a sob story of how he was low on cash and could only pay a pathetic price and when I had had enough of his whining I agreed just to get him away from my table and make a sale.

Then he did me one worse and said he was ‘a couple of bucks short’ on the agreed upon price when he went to his wallet. What to do then? Stupidly I still took the deal. That was a big mistake because I had only set up five minutes before and he was my first customer.

I officially learned my first painful marketing lesson of my new business venture. I had probably broken about even with what I had paid for those cards he bought so it was a not for profit deal. Yes I made my money back but those were clean cards and I let them go at cost without letting anyone else even see them. I pulled the trigger way too early on this.

But after he left the deal got worse because he was bragging to some other dealers about how he stuck it to me because I didn’t know the value of what I had. He had told me what the cards supposedly were listed in the price guide at and I took his word for it. He totally lied and they were listed at about three times more than what he told me. I fell for his BS.

I got stung at my own table and it was my own fault. I should have been more prepared but I wasn’t. I should have had my price guides with me but I didn’t. I should have had all of the cards sorted and priced but I hadn’t. I went by feel and it was a HUGE mistake. I’m glad it happened on the first day so I can regroup and come way more prepared next time.

I’m not looking to rip anyone off but that guy totally was. Richard said he’d done a few deals with that same guy and he would always have to watch himself for the same reason. It becomes a poker game in these situations and I just got sharked by a player. He is now able to put those cards on Ebay or sell them to a dealer at a profit that I should have had.

These are the little things I need to learn and it won’t be easy. It wasn’t easy to learn all the tricks of being a comedian but I hung in there and took my lumps. This is a new game entirely and I am not complaining about how this went down. I totally learned my lesson.

Will there be others? Absolutely. If there aren’t I’m totally screwed because who wants to sit around giving away good cards I could use to make more money? He got me on this deal but I won’t ever forget it or him and if he comes back he won’t do it again. No way.

I already signed up to come back next month and I will have a MUCH better display for that show and try some new ideas. Today was an unexpected scramble but I’m still glad I did it because it forced me to jump in the water and learn by doing. That’s very important.

The main reason I’m doing this is not to sell baseball cards but to grow my business and marketing skills to help me sell Uranus Factory Outlet in the future. Cards are a hobby for relaxing and having fun. I think I can make a few bucks doing it and I will continue to get better at it and watch how the other dealers work and learn from as many of them as I can.

I did get a few good deals in the auction and this is the place to buy. Milwaukee doesn’t have a lot of buyers who will pay over $5-10 for anything and I picked up some nice stuff I bet I can sell for a lot more. One item was a Rose Bowl pennant in sharp condition from when the Wisconsin Badgers went in 1963. I got it for $10 but I bet it’s worth a lot more.

I’m learning the ropes now for the future when it will come in handy. Getting bent on a $40 deal today will hopefully help educate me to avoid getting bent on a $40 million deal in the future. I’ll keep reading and learning and next month I’ll come back and try again.