Determination and Story Telling

Professor Wortmann, if you're reading this, I'm owning up to falling short of the determination portion of the class with the bartering assignment.  I'm still sitting on the Beer Pong set and have only made three trades so far.  With a big final project due for my other class, unless I go on a mad tear, I'm not likely to do all 10 trades.

Am I giving up completely?  No!  My last-ditch effort is to see what kind of crazy story I can write up and see if I can dump the beer pong set on eBay for huge return and maybe use the cash to make a few quick last-minute trades.

Here's the story, off the top of my head.
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This Beer Pong set changed my friend's life, and now it can be yours!

Todd was always up for a game of Beer Pong, and all of his friends knew it.  When a weekend getaway to a cabin in northern Michigan was planned, Todd was assigned to bring the cups and ping pong balls.  In a rush to leave after work, Todd forgot to grab the grocery bag he had set aside, which contained his contribution to the food pantry in the cabin and (of course), the essentials for Beer Pong.

Exhausted after driving 6 hours from Chicago to the cabin, Todd was rightfully shamed by his friends when they all realized that due to Todd's botched exit, they were out both the Doritos and Beer Pong.  After much jibing, Todd was pressured to make the situation right, so he was sent back out on the road on a mission for chips, cups, and balls.  As fate would have it, there was only one local party store open.  Moping into the store, Todd grabbed a few bags of cheesey-powdery goodness, and set out looking for cups and ping-pong balls.  No luck.  Partially defeated, Todd got in line behind a young lady.  Todd noticed two things about her.  First, she was incredibly beautiful, with long dark hair, bright eyes, and a captivating smile.  Second, she was carrying this very Beer Pong set.

While waiting in line, Todd found out that her name was Meghan.  To is partial dismay, he also found out that Meghan carried in her hands the very last Beer Pong set in the store.  Ever the charmer, Todd gleaned that Meghan was also in town from Chicago, meeting some friends for the weekend at the same campsite he was stationed.  Now, I'm not sure if he had any ulterior motives other than the Beer Pong set, but he convinced Meghan to ask her friends if they wanted to merge groups at the campsite to kick the weekend off right.

The weekend resulted in proper amounts of debauchery for the combined group of 20-somethings, and while Meghan thought Todd was a nice enough guy, she brushed off his (numerous) attempts throughout the weekend to get to know her better.  Undeterred, Todd challenged Meghan to a one-on-one game of Beer Pong on the Sunday before packing up and heading home.  If he won, she had to go out with him back in Chicago.  If she won, she got his phone number but not visa versa.  Any courtship would be done on her terms.

Meghan beat Todd handily, and she stayed true to her word.  She got his phone number but not the other way around.  Todd didn't stay disappointed for too long, however.  3 hours into the drive back to Chicago, he got a call from an unknown number.  He talked to Meghan the remaining 3 hours back to the city and arranged for their first of many dates the following weekend.  This was three years ago.

Todd bequeathed me the Beer Pong set at his and Meghan's wedding earlier this summer, saying I needed some practice.  As a believer of fate (and already being married myself), I am now passing this set and its story onto a person needing its history and influence.
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Ebay listing here.

Trade Three - Care for a game of Beer Pong? Please? Pretty please?

What: Anchorman DVD (new - $5) for a Beer Pong game (used - $10)
When: Wednesday, 7/30 @ 10:30pm
Where: Via Facebook Messenger

With the help of a co-worker and Facebook, I was introduced to Marty, who was willing to trade me for the DVD.   Marty offered my choice of: DJ Hero for the Wii, a Frisbee  or a Beer Pong game.  I initially was going to go with DJ Hero, but apparently it's not a hotly traded game.  I thought about trading it in at Gamestop, but they stopped accepting it for trade ins.

I gladly accepted the used Beer Pong game (~$10) for the trade of the DVD ($5).  I may be at a bit of a disadvantage, as my younger cousins will be quick to tell me that the best way to get a beer pong game going is to just pick up a sleeve of Solo Cups and a container of ping-pong balls.  Grocery stores usually sell them together in the same aisle.

The next trade may be more challenging than the pen.  Someone in class said that the begging method has worked well.  I may have to resort to that.  I have 7 trades to make in the next 3 weeks... Way behind.

Craigslist Fail

So, I'm woefully behind on the bartering assignment.  The brew kit swap never materialized, and my (mostly) passive approach on Craigslist has basically equated el suck-o.

I'm determined to get all 10 trades, so I'm taking a more direct approach.  Here's my current plan:

1. Ask my friends to introduce me to friends of theirs whom I have never met before who would be willing to trade.
2. A co-worker introduced me to the Garage Sale section of Craigslist.  If the friend-of-a-friend route doesn't work, then I'll directly target items from various online garage sales around Chicago.

My goal is to get mostly caught up this weekend, so I need 4 trades.  5 or 6 would be ideal.  Will post an update on Monday.

Trade Three - Great Odin's Raven!

Now we're rolling...  I was able to secure a trade for the Anchorman DVD for a home beer brewing kit.  I'm going out of town starting tomorrow through Thursday, and I wasn't able to meet up with my confirmed trading partner in time for my trip, but I will conduct the swap next week when I return.  Based on a quick Google search, I'm looking at a value for the brew kit for anywhere between $20 and $60.  Not bad for a $5 DVD!

I am going to be under the gun to perform Trade Four next weekend so I can stay caught up with the class, but I have a feeling it's going to be a bit easier from here on out.

Is Craigslist a cop out?  I don't think so... You still need to find a way to articulate value for the product you're trying to sell.  I used pity to offload the DVD, but I'll need to be more creative next time.  Before the end of the assignment, I would like to be able to perform the trade without actually sharing that I'm doing it for a class.  Hopefully my sales "skills" will have elevated by that point.

Trade Three - Craigslist to the Rescue?

Let's see if this works...

http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/wan/4561611766.html

Just posted.  No takers, yet.  Some of the responses should be interesting...  I fully expect it to be like Christmas morning with my email inbox.  Probably like "Bad Santa" Christmas, but Christmas nonetheless.

Update:
Craigslist disabled my add, but I may have gotten a taker (and a good one!) before they shut me down.  Not sure why they did.  Fairly PG posting.

Update 2:
Dave M offered me a slightly used jogging stroller, but it would have been quite a hike to get it.  I re-posted the add under the appropriate section, so we'll see if I get any takers closer to the city.  Sorry, Dave!  Thanks for the offer.

Trade Two - Working for It

So, I had had this KitKat in my bag for about a week.  Every so often, I would unzip the compartment in my backpack to see if it had melted.  During the couple really warm days we had, I left it at home on my desk.

I procrastinated during the week because I had targeted (what I thought was) the perfect opportunity to trade up from my KitKat.  The wife, kid and I were planning to attend a friend's party on July 4.  While I did know the people throwing the party, there were a lot of people there whom I didn't know.  A lot of family members and neighbors of the hosts were there, none of which I had ever met before.  Surely they would be sympathetic and enthusiastic to assist in my plight, right?  Piece of cake, right?  Yeah... not so much.  Honestly, I was relieved to leave the house with anything.

Trade 2

When: Friday. July 4, between about 4:00pm and 9:30pm
Where: Friend's Independence Day party
Who: Eventually... the host's neighbor Rob
What: $1 KitKat for $5 Anchorman DVD

My wife, son, and I got to the party at about 3pm.  There were already a handful of people hanging out on the patio.  The wife and I each grabbed some food/drink and we sat the muchkin in the kiddie pool while we made introductions and joined the conversation.  In a normal social setting like this, I would totally be carefree, but in my head I'm crafting the bartering pitch, stressing out that I'm going to freak out my friend's family and neighbors.

I waited until more people arrived and a few more beers were imbibed.  During a break in the conversation, I actually stood up from out of my chair and told everyone the whole story.  I told them about the ES course, the assignment, and how I made my first trade.  I then offered my KitKat to anyone interested in bartering with me.

I think waiting for more beers to be consumed was probably not the best idea.  Either that or I didn't do a great job explaining the point of the assignment.  Or people were just screwing with me.  The following are the items that I turned down (sometimes more than once) from people at the party over the course of a few hours.  I continued to take more and more grief as the evening went on.

1. A 4th of July pinwheel (from one of the neighbor kids)
2. A can of pinto beans (from the host's brother)
3. A cold bottle of Leinenkugel Summer Shandy (from the host's mom)
4. A small rolling pin-like back massager (from the host's father)

After turning down these items over the course of the evening, someone mentioned a hat that was purchased the night before at Ravinia during the Earth, Wind, and Fire concert.  Unfortunately, the host of the party (my friend) was the one who purchased it.  She wanted to give it to me, but I had to decline due to the rules.  Too bad... it was a cool sequined hat.

It was nearing the end of the evening, and I hadn't yet successfully bartered the KitKat.  Honestly, I didn't really push the issue much after turning down the back massager three times, as I didn't want to be killjoy.  I was fairly certain that I would be heading home without a trade when luck struck.  After spending about 4 hours in the kiddie pool, my son had run out of diapers and... was in desperate need of some new drawers.  Our friend's neighbor was kind enough to head over to their house and grab a spare diaper for us.  When he came back, he surprised me by tossing a DVD of Anchorman in my lap (unopened!  $5!)  Relieved, gladly exchanged my (slightly mushy) $1 KitKat for the DVD.

What I learned here is that saying 'no' can be difficult.  In an open forum, it can also be discouraging to the rest of the people within earshot, even if it is a friendly crowd.  I did nearly swap for the beer and the back massager just to actually make a trade and not continue to potentially hurt feelings, but I felt like I would be much worse off that if I just held on to the KitKat.  Also, never take a situation for granted.  Be prepared with a story, even if you think an interaction is going to be easy.  Who knows if a better story would have changed the outcome of the initial offers for me, but I consider myself lucky.  Until next week.  Stay classy, Chicago.

Cold Calling - Part Two

Rather than venture into Mordor, I stayed in Australia and contacted camera shops in Melbourne and Brisbane.  Last night, I had a success rate of about 24%.  Tonight, my success rate was 30%, largely because I took a look at the individual web pages of the camera shops and cherry picked the places that I had a better shot of connecting with the store owner/buyer.

CAUTION TO THE REAL ENTREPRENEURS!  I do think that you can easily shoot yourself in the foot by doing too much research when it comes to cold calling.  In my case, I felt justified in skipping a shop or two because they we big box stores.  If I were doing this as a real entrepreneur (and not just someone trying to find a store owner to answer my questions), I would not discriminate a single call.  You never know who you might get connected to, even at a big box store.  In fact, last night I was able to get a separate list of supplier contacts from calling a store that I likely would have skipped tonight.  In the real world, it's probably better to put the blinders on, stick to the script, and think quickly on your feet if someone drops something in your lap.

38 calls and I have my 10 completed surveys.  Phew!  Only took me 3 hours, 15 minutes last night and about 45 minutes tonight.

Now, onto making all of this fit into a nice Word doc...