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Price Update: $93.00 plus tax $7.00 = $100.00
Vintage & Rare:
1929 Pepsi Cola Pocket Knife
Hello all, Jamie G here…
My stepdad (Richard "Rick"Russell) was an avid Pepsi-Cola Collector going back as FAR as I can rememberto at least the early 1970's. He would take my mom, my younger sister and I to swap meet or flea market every Saturday and Sunday when we lived in LosAngeles. I remember all the Pepsi stuff we would obtain week-after-week as thatwas our focus. But, but, but... I totally forgot about all the other “stuff” that Rick and my mom collected. Rick passed-away going-on eight years ago and my momstayed rather status quo, but then on day about three years ago, she called metotally out-of-the-blue and said, "Come and get this Pepsi Collection andother stuff or I am going to throw it all in dumpster somewhere!" I wasliterally driving up from ATL to Detroit the next weekend to start to curate,photograph and relocate all their “stuff" from Detroit to Atlanta, whichis where my family and I reside.
Let me be honest and upfront, it was noteasy to empty a house of several decades of collected items, especially whenyou are a novice. I literally wince when I consider all the items that Ithought were trash, that now (looking back) were ANYTHING BUT TRASH! This was alesson I learned rather late in my life, and the lesson is "You never knowwhat is of value to someone else!" Thankfully, I did secure thelions-share of everything and over the last few years I have gone back andforth and back and forth and back and forth in a rented truck. I did not likeit much then; it was a ton of work. BUT truth be told, I was rather surprisedat how much I enjoyed going through ALL the Pepsi Cola Collectibles, takingcopious photographs, collating, curating and then time-to-time stopping andpensively reflecting and remembering when and where we found an item.
Rick would pay my sister and I afinder’s fee for anything we found Pepsi Cola branded with a double dot betweenthe two words PEPSI and COLA (Pepsi : Cola),as that meant it was from 1953 or earlier!) What we were paid the most to findwere items that featured "Pepsi & Pete," which were two cartoonkeystone cops that Pepsi Cola used in their advertising-starting in the late1930s. These unique items brought us triple our finder’s fee AND a huge smileto Rick’s face!
As I went through the Pepsi ColaCollection, what I totally forgot was the literal treasure-trove of otherantique & vintage collectibles they amassed, it should have been obviousthat Rick and my mom collected much more than just Pepsi Cola items. In theirwords, they collected items that Rick thought were “Trick!" But my mom ismore old-school Californian, and she would have said, “Bitchin,” but I digress.They both loved collecting older items from 1900s - 1950's.
I have uncovered a lot of automobileitems; emblems, badges, lights, hood ornaments as well as: Old Comic books, WWIIrecruitment posters, vintage baseball cards, vintage magazines; Life,Collier’s, Saturday Evening Post, vintage ash trays, Blue Cornflower &Other Corning ware, old marbles, early; mason/ball canning jars, eye-glasses,razors, matchbooks, advertising ephemera, metal signs and trays, US &foreign currencies and on and on… and even Original Ty Beanie Baby’s circa1992-1998, so lots to post!
It took me a few years to curate andphotograph the Pepsi Cola Collection, and I have now moved on to the otherstuff, so be patient with me as I am a rather novice Seller on and this isnot my actual job or profession. That all just means that it takes me awhile toget items posted and as my wife likes to tell me (near daily), she tells thatme I am WAY too verbose.
But whatever, as Popeye said, "I am what I am... Agg, Agg,Agg!"
A couple quick items aboutwhat kind of Seller I am:
(1) I will always accept a return from abuyer who is not delighted with their purchase. My stepfather was kind of ana-hole when it came to selling or trading to/with other people on what hecollected. It was one of the few times that I (as a kid) thought my stepfatherto be incredibly cruel. He relished the power he had over people who wantedsomething that he had. To be honest, I hated this about him and as such, I justdo not do that. Furthermore, I will always negotiate the PRICE, as I do notwant the price to be the determiner that kills a deal. I will always do my bestto not allow you to walk away unhappy just because I want to gouge you for afew more dollars on an item. Truth is, I know how much fun and what a huge partof Rick’s life was spent Collecting, so I have decided to honor his memory byfinding homes for his unique items with other collectors that are as passionateas he was about his collection(s). That said, I will obviously take your itemback from you and provide a refund, IF YOU ARE NOT 100% satisfied &delighted with your purchase. I believe this is the way that professionalsconduct themselves, I am from the school of “Treat Others as You Want to beTreated!” So don't fret, I only ask that you ship it back to me unscathed, justas you received it from me!
(2) Should my listed price be too high,just take a moment and let me know and please feel free to make a counteroffer.I know the value of many of these items, but again, price is only one part ofmy selling process. In the past, I offered my items via sales on , butthose just seemed to drag on and on and on and on and on and on. Then I learnedabout Buy it Now and that seemed a much better and faster way for me toget items to people who wanted them without having to wait XX days foran sale to end etc.
Again, I obviously want to make a fewdollars selling all this cool stuff, but it is truly not my biggest objective.It seems very strange to say that in a post where I am selling an item, butit's true. I want these items to find a home similar to where I grew up, we hadso many rooms filled with antiques and vintage advertising, it was justcommonplace for me, but when new friends came over to my house for the firsttime, they were floored with the Pepsi Parlor (I will include a few old pictures,so you understand).
(3) I forgot to express my abject hatredof other sellers who attempt to make up for their low listing price, byobviously gouging on shipping cost. This is the main reason that I almostalways offer my items to include Free Shipping. This way you can calculate andknow proof-positive exactly the REAL COST of what you are buying. I think it isthe fair and reasonable way to conduct business.
·As an example, I many times list as such; Blah-Blah item for $18.75with free shipping to continental USA, (The stupid 'sales tax' is now chargedupfront on every item), so I point this out as I want to ensure nothing is leftas a surprise! So for that Blah-Blahitem I listed it at $18.75, knowing and telling you that you willpay $1.31 in sales tax, then in the description portion, I will net-net it allout for you and say, "This item will only cost you a TOTAL of $20.00 tobuy and receive the Blah-Blahitem delivered to your door." I attempt to make it as easy as possible for you and others to do business with me!
Therefore, today's exampleworks out like this:
Vintage & Rare:
1929 Logoed Pepsi Cola Pocket Knife
The Listed price is only: $142.50+ $8.92 sales tax ( charges this sales tax upfront now forall purchases, nada I can do), so you will walk-away with thisgorgeous vintage piece of Americana for a total price just Over $150.00=Delivered to your door as I pay the entire shipping costs!
(4) Please know that I will review anyoffer that you make regarding any item I am currently selling. Please tell me YOUR story! Tell me why you want an item and let's work together to get you theitem or items you want and need! Life is just too short and if I can make yourday brighter or maybe bring a smile to your face by getting you an item for aprice that is a bit better for you, well, I do that quite often as evidenced bymy very happy buyers. Please go check out my response that has been provided!
The fact is I want us both to walk awayfrom the deal being happy., You know that feeling you have where you justcannot wait to go and tell someone what you just bought, and you want to sharethe great price you paid?! It’s that feeling of “WOW!” Well, that is what Iwant for you because I get the same type of feeling when I sell an item that Imay or may not have helped collect as a child or teen. Why? That's a two-foldanswer:
1. Imake $ that then goes directly into my two teenage boy’s college fund or mywife’s “I need a new kitchen” fund! and
2. Ienjoy knowing that I facilitated someone’s JOY and Happiness knowing that they obtaineda fair and reasonable price.
Weird I know, but that's me, andprobably why I ended up in Training, Learning & Employee Development as myprofessional career. I enjoy watching others’ happiness.
My passion has always been people andthose who buy my items usually enjoy the buying process as well. In fact, Ionly know this because of the response I read from them that say, they enjoybuying from me. They claim, “…that I am different kind of Seller.” Now I am notso sure about all that, but I know this, there is no "Caveat Emptor"here (Latin-to-English = Let the Buyer Beware) - and “Yes, I learned that Latinphrase from watching Brady Bunch on tv as a kid!
I am not going to get rich selling itemson . I could go on about all that has changed in the last 5-10 years, butsuffice to say there are now a shit-ton of new and different fees we Sellers’face; insertion fee, selling fee, listing fee, listing upgrade percentage(fee), store subscription fee and let us not forget the nearly alwayssubjective and baffling final evaluation fee, but that would be like explainingto you the difference between the USA currently having high inflation versusbeing in a true recession, it’s semantics, it still hurts, it's really boringand it doesn't truly matter because at the end of the day
- It is, What it IS.
...But hopefully my verbose explanationabove will help you provide you sense of why I do what I do and how I sell andwhy I sell.
Plus, this is truly my side-hustle, Ienjoy it, it's fun for me, and it makes a little extra money for my boy’scollege fund, so I thank you for looking and if you like what you see - make mean offer you as you never know what mood I am in and what I will accept!
Thank you for looking!
Jamie G
