V O L U M E 3 0 I S S U E 4 P A G E 3
In today ' s brew-torial we ' ll cover one of the best bargains in beerdom: the hometown Shopper classified ad. For an example- the rolled up paper they drop on my front step is called the East Side review. Its a great bathroom reader and I ' ve been running a ten word ad in there for a few years now. For the price of a fast food burger each week, I have a constant presence throughout St. Paul and a few suburbs. Sure, many people throw this away without unwrapping it. But think of the old folks that sit down for a cup of coffee and read it cover to cover.
Back in the late 90 ' s, I used to wonder how guys found all this old beer stuff they had for sale on their show tables! Where was it coming from? It sure wasn ' t in the antique shops I went to. Hmmm, what if I could gain entry to thousands of people ' s houses for pennies, and TELL them what I wanted? You ' ll be hard pressed to find a better boost for your collection than a classified ad. I think I first heard of the success it brings when Stevan Miner told me of a friend that put an ad in the " Yankee Peddler " for him years ago. Sure, he had to answer calls about common stuff, but you ' ll kiss 9 toads to find that prince. He was amazed at the cool stuff he flushed out of neighboring towns. Heck-he found a very tough lighted sign 2 miles from his shop.
Still not convinced? How about the guy that called me asking about Hamms cans? We ran down the list of possible cans till I got to one that had a picture of how to open the can on the back. Yep, that was the one HE had.... four of! He was dumbfounded when I gave him 75.00 for those 4 he found. He asked if I wanted morethere was a crawlspace that had whiskey bottles, food cans and a whole lot more of these same cans he came across when putting in a furnace. The next day, he had Ma, Pa and his girlfriend there to witness his 400 payday. All from a 4.00 ad( which paid for the next decade of running it that day)
Cast your net wide( my ad says Hamms, Schmidt and Yoergs wanted, which eliminates a lot of newer calls), and be consistent in running it. You ' ll be surprised how many folks clip it out and call you months later. Barry
Wanted! A Chapter Member to host the next Chapter meeting of the Schell’ s Border Batch in February or March Contact Tom Terwilliger # 28855 515 341 3347