Travis Salisbury was an Industrial Designer who worked for various government agencies before his retirement in 1977. In the late 1950's, Salisbury received an honorary degree in Design from the Montana Institute, and later took a job as director of design for the Montana State Legislature. This was an honorary position i.e. he didn't get paid. His main goal as a designer was to "help people get along and have fun while doing it." He organized a huge number of "supper days" events where opposing politicians would cook each others favorite meal and then eat them together. This helped Montana greatly. In 1961 he designed Chair #406 (named after Helena's area code). This chair looked completely normal except for one small feature -- a V-shape under one of the legs.
The reason for this "V" was to allow a game to be played with multiple chairs. People would play by hitting a ball through the "V" with some sort of mallet. Salisbury wanted people to be able to blow off steam in-between sessions. The "V" was large enough to let a croquet ball pass. All of the #406 chairs have since been sold off or scrapped -- people got too caught up in the game and it became a distraction.
After multiple years of writing proposals to the U.S. mint, Salisbury finally hit the big time in 1965 with his Average Citizen Quarter Program (or ACQP). The idea was simple: put an average citizen on a quarter. For a year, applications were scoured over until Randy Young, a steelworker from Pittsburgh, was selected. The coins were minted in 1967. Less than two months after the coins were minted, Randy Young was arrested for armed robbery -- the coins became known as "Jailbird Quarters." The Mint immediately stopped production of the coins, and the ones that existed were given an acid treatment to hide their features and to shame both Salisbury and Young.
After the public disgrace of the Jailbird Quarters, Salisbury moved to New Jersey and began to write textbooks for elementary school students. The only one of his books that made it very far was Learn to Control Your Machine. The art on the cover was a drawing that Salisbury's uncle drew of Travis at age ten.
The text of the book was simply "Learn to control your machine" over and over again, much like in the movie The Shining. At least five times per page there was a spelling error, 500 errors in the book. Students were graded on the amount of errors that they could find. Salisbury made sure that there were at least 100 variations of the book so that the students couldn't cheat. Some students were actually helped by the book, others were scarred for much of their lives.
After finally making money with his book, Salisbury went back out west to Montana, and got his honorary Design Director position back. This was 1973. After noticing that many of the politicians were making embarrassing and even incriminating doodles in their notebooks, Salisbury made them a custom notebook that would solve the problem. They would have the usual-sized ruled paper, but there would be a bigger column left near the binding when they tore off pages. This notebook had an area for doodles and a doodle book that the politicians could keep for later once all of the pages had been ripped off. A doodle book from the Montana State Legislature recently sold on eBay for $1000.
Salisbury worked four more years in Montana and retired in 1977. Some say that he was a pioneer and others say that he severely hurt the chances of other designers with dreams of working in government. Salisbury still lives in Montana where he's working on a new book about how the Jailbird Quarter fiasco was planned called Randy Young is Innocent.
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Design Fancy is a series of short stories about fictional designers who make fictional things. The stories (and the objects) are by Matt Brown. Special thanks to Greg Burkett.
This is actually a good piece, but a wee bit preachy. But still good.
Anyone complaining about eBay and PayPal fees, please just be quiet. If you are running a home business where you sell things that don't take up too much space or is a hassle, then the fees are trivial compared to the profit in many cases. You think that when you pay $10 for something at a store, 100% of that $10 go to the owner? After rent, salary and even credit card fees real world business often deal with HIGHER fees than someone dealing with PayPal.
But I do agree 100% with his buy something and sell it just to even break even to experiment. That is the BEST way to learn how to sell something and is very little risk.
I got into eBay selling the usual way by selling off things I knew were valuable and could turn a profit. After a while I started to sell off stuff I had but didn't want anymore on eBay; I consider it an endless yard sale. Many times I made back my initial investment or lost money, but after 10+ years of doing this on eBay I started to understand what sold and what I was good at selling.
Then I started to sell Mac upgrades for folks who were tweaking their machines back in the early 2000. For those who don't know, Apple placed an "Apple tax" on many off-the-shelf PC components that either just had an Apple sticker or need a ROM flashing. So I would buy boxes of components, flash them or simply write an eBay explanation as to the item being tested on a Mac and soon enough I was making $20 to $80 profit for a good year or so until Apple basically obsolete the G4 machines. In the case of items that simply cost more as Apple branded I wrote a description that explains what the item was, how it was tested and how my feedback and tech expertise assures that the item will work. Anyone had the choice of buying the pure PC component, but they bought from me for a modest markup to save the hassle. I even had a few people give me PayPal "tips" for advice I provided. It was then I realized I set up a small tech store with loss leaders and consulting! I could not quit my day job on that money, but it helped me through some rough times.
Now I mainly sell old collectible toys from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. I got into it when I started to sell off some of my old childhood toys, realized there was a profit in my childhood investment so I translated my passion and knowledge into buying collectible toys in bulk in the U.S. and Japan, cleaning up and assessing them and then selling them on eBay. Buy a huge lot of toys from a seller who doesn't want to deal with the headache, break it up, ID the parts and assess it, and then I am selling items that cost me about $2 a piece for around $10 a piece. Again, not enough to live on, but a very nice source of extra income.
Also, if you sell online, be prepared to ship. Some sellers never think of packing until after the sale. BAD MOVE! You might end up paying more in packing materials or delaying shipment while you hunt for boxes and screw up your sales transaction. I only sell items online I am 100% positive I can ship. And with that in mind, I have moved over to buying small collectible items in bulk I know I can stick in a padded envelope and ship. The weight assures first class shipping which is less than Priority Mail, but gets there as quickly in many cases. And the light weight makes it easier to carry.
Also, if you know you will ship items—like books and CDs—in bulk, buy a box of mailers from an online seller. It will end up costing you 25 cents per envelope which you might penny-pinch over, but it is a lot less than buying individual envelopes from the Post Office or drug store. And you have them on hand so it saves time.
I would also recommend investing in a small scale and even a nice label printer. The scale will help you give your customers a better estimate of cost and the printed labels will assure that the address is clear/legible on the package so it goes through the system correctly. Labels can be bought in bulk for thermal printers for tons less than local stores, and are just as good.
Oh, as far as shipping goes, my eBay shipping & handling rates are incredibly reasonable and always less than others but guess what? Buyers ALWAYS complain or have second thoughts on shipping & handling charges. ALWAYS! I charged someone $2 for shipping and they complained that shipping was $1.95. Don't worry about shipping other than the tips I give above, because ultimately nobody wants to pay for shipping and everyone complains. You'll never make them happy so don't sweat it.
Also Craigslist... Oy vey... I mainly sell items on there that weight too much or are too bulky to ship. And it works well somewhat. But folks on Craigslist want bargains and are lazy when picking up. Not worth the effort.
Phew! I just wrote that.
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