Well, I've had an interesting, and very expensive, year... Lathe problems at the beginning of the year, ultimately lead to the purchase of a Powermatic 3520C. Between that and rewiring my garage workshop with a bunch of new outlets (250V and 125V) and switches, that was thousands. My roof started leaking, and I ended up getting that replaced. A couple of upgrade options to include hail/impact resistant shingles and better wind resistance cost me several thousand more. During the summer, my deck collapsed due to rot, and I've ended up spending $20,000 on that! Been an expensive year....
A week ago, my car was stolen, maybe a grand or so of property was stolen out of it, and it ended up damaged enough that the insurance company totaled it out. Here is where things became interesting! The car was lost for about a week before the police found it, and I'd heard a lot of rumors about chop shops and people's engines and transmissions and such being removed, so even if the vehicles were found, they were usually a shell. So I started looking for a new car. Found another of the same make and model, an Acura MDX, a few years newer. The dealer had it in the shop to spruce it up before sale so it wasn't available for me to buy until today. In that time the insurance totaled out my car (insurance adjuster came by this morning), for a bit under $200 less than the base cost of the newer MDX! So in the long run, I was basically able to trade up to the newer vehicle without much cost (just fees and taxes, really).
The truly interesting thing, though, is the rep who was working with me on the sale noticed the pen I was using...a nice Ultra Cigar, gold and chrome, with sodalite trustone, and was quite interested in it. I handed it over to her to let her use if for a while, and she started asking how I made it, if I had more, all that. We talked about my turning for a while, and I asked if she wanted to see more. To a definite "Yes!" I had to leave my old Acura in the parking lot to drive the new one home, and had a family member drop me off this evening to pick it up, and I brought a bunch of my pens so she could take a look. The place was pretty much dead at that point, few customers, and most of the sales reps ended up clustering around the desk we were at!
It ended up being a bit of an impromptu pen show. I probably had 8-10 people hovering around the desk, and I was surprised at the amount of interest. I've only been turning pens for a bit over a year at this point, and feel I am nowhere near as skilled as many of you guys on these forums. So I have never been all that confident in my quality, or saleability. The wonderful thing was, as everyone explored the pens I had brought, they all loved the quality, the weight, and the way they wrote. A few people made impromptu buys, and I sold about $375 on the spot, and every single person who came by asked for business cards and showed interest in my (still yet to be opened) Etsy store. A couple mentioned just how much they have to write every single day, and said they would live higher quality pens that wrote as easily as the ones I was demonstrating. A few also mentioned that I'd probably sell out the entire set of pens I was sharing, if I just went up the "auto strip" we have here (Arapahoe Road in Colorado, has this car alley where there are probably half a dozen or so car dealerships). I suspect I probably have another 5-6 future customers just waiting to browse all the pens I have to offer online, maybe a few who had interest in buying a few for friends or family. There are two guys who were extremely interested in a couple of pens, and simply didn't have cash or PayPal (I wasn't even expecting to sell anything, and was glad I had PayPal. When everyone wanted to buy they were asking about Venmo (??) and a few other payment options I've never heard of! So I missed out on a couple customers or so, just because I didn't have a way to accept payment from them. I have a lot of research to do, it seems, when it comes to the ways younger generations pay for things!)
I was amazed! You never know what may happen!
I have never done a show, and with the kind of year I've had, I have had very little turning time since January. I've been wondering if I'd be able to actually get any online store opened to actually sell my pens, and the only pens I have been selling are occasional commissions from friends, or friends of friends (which hasn't been bad, and welcome business to be sure!) After all the hardships of the last 8 months or so, and the stressful car theft issue, today ended up being a rather amazing, and encouraging day! Life was really trying to get me down lately, but in the end, despite the car theft, in the end I would say I've ended up in positive territory, with a new car that seems to be in excellent condition (and some really nice anti-theft and theft-lockdown features!) with a whole slew of new and potential new customers for my pens. It has reinvigorated my will to get some kind of online store up and running as soon as I can here, and I have more hope that when I finally do, it'll be a bigger success than I previously imagined.
Just thought I would share... Sometimes life throws you curve ball after curve ball, and you think they won't stop. Then something happens that reignites the spark of hope.
A week ago, my car was stolen, maybe a grand or so of property was stolen out of it, and it ended up damaged enough that the insurance company totaled it out. Here is where things became interesting! The car was lost for about a week before the police found it, and I'd heard a lot of rumors about chop shops and people's engines and transmissions and such being removed, so even if the vehicles were found, they were usually a shell. So I started looking for a new car. Found another of the same make and model, an Acura MDX, a few years newer. The dealer had it in the shop to spruce it up before sale so it wasn't available for me to buy until today. In that time the insurance totaled out my car (insurance adjuster came by this morning), for a bit under $200 less than the base cost of the newer MDX! So in the long run, I was basically able to trade up to the newer vehicle without much cost (just fees and taxes, really).
The truly interesting thing, though, is the rep who was working with me on the sale noticed the pen I was using...a nice Ultra Cigar, gold and chrome, with sodalite trustone, and was quite interested in it. I handed it over to her to let her use if for a while, and she started asking how I made it, if I had more, all that. We talked about my turning for a while, and I asked if she wanted to see more. To a definite "Yes!" I had to leave my old Acura in the parking lot to drive the new one home, and had a family member drop me off this evening to pick it up, and I brought a bunch of my pens so she could take a look. The place was pretty much dead at that point, few customers, and most of the sales reps ended up clustering around the desk we were at!
It ended up being a bit of an impromptu pen show. I probably had 8-10 people hovering around the desk, and I was surprised at the amount of interest. I've only been turning pens for a bit over a year at this point, and feel I am nowhere near as skilled as many of you guys on these forums. So I have never been all that confident in my quality, or saleability. The wonderful thing was, as everyone explored the pens I had brought, they all loved the quality, the weight, and the way they wrote. A few people made impromptu buys, and I sold about $375 on the spot, and every single person who came by asked for business cards and showed interest in my (still yet to be opened) Etsy store. A couple mentioned just how much they have to write every single day, and said they would live higher quality pens that wrote as easily as the ones I was demonstrating. A few also mentioned that I'd probably sell out the entire set of pens I was sharing, if I just went up the "auto strip" we have here (Arapahoe Road in Colorado, has this car alley where there are probably half a dozen or so car dealerships). I suspect I probably have another 5-6 future customers just waiting to browse all the pens I have to offer online, maybe a few who had interest in buying a few for friends or family. There are two guys who were extremely interested in a couple of pens, and simply didn't have cash or PayPal (I wasn't even expecting to sell anything, and was glad I had PayPal. When everyone wanted to buy they were asking about Venmo (??) and a few other payment options I've never heard of! So I missed out on a couple customers or so, just because I didn't have a way to accept payment from them. I have a lot of research to do, it seems, when it comes to the ways younger generations pay for things!)
I was amazed! You never know what may happen!
I have never done a show, and with the kind of year I've had, I have had very little turning time since January. I've been wondering if I'd be able to actually get any online store opened to actually sell my pens, and the only pens I have been selling are occasional commissions from friends, or friends of friends (which hasn't been bad, and welcome business to be sure!) After all the hardships of the last 8 months or so, and the stressful car theft issue, today ended up being a rather amazing, and encouraging day! Life was really trying to get me down lately, but in the end, despite the car theft, in the end I would say I've ended up in positive territory, with a new car that seems to be in excellent condition (and some really nice anti-theft and theft-lockdown features!) with a whole slew of new and potential new customers for my pens. It has reinvigorated my will to get some kind of online store up and running as soon as I can here, and I have more hope that when I finally do, it'll be a bigger success than I previously imagined.
Just thought I would share... Sometimes life throws you curve ball after curve ball, and you think they won't stop. Then something happens that reignites the spark of hope.