I've been getting bit by the Deal Bug lately. I understand we live in America, the Land of the Iron Curtain with no one on the other side of the # sign and if they are they're pulling an all nighter in India for less than minimum wage because we refuse to pay more for the value of customer service. I know it can be really exciting to actually get a non automated response from a real person on the other end of an E-Mail. I got to admit sometimes I look for deals too.
Where do we get off thinking we get something for nothing? When did a deal become a one sided phenomenon? What I'm really looking for is a little reciprocal value. I bend old spoons everyday. Why are the old spoons you've got better than the ones I've got? Simple. You're spoons have story. I don't care if you outbid me by $1 on Ebay yesterday for the spoon you've got. A good storyteller is hard to come by, make something up.
I will pay for a good story. If it's a real story I may just know that you're willing to pay regular price Like maybe you've got a spoon of your mother's who was a trapeze artist and caught this spoon out of mid air every show for 30 years until the one day she missed the spoon and lost her grip. And now you want this spoon turned into a wedding band because you intend to ask the contortionist to marry you. If you're crying recalling the event's it's going to cost you a cool $50 plus the overnight shipping you need because you plan to ask her in about 72 hours, but you've got the coolest wedding band and potential wife in the entire universe.
My suggestion would be to not let me know if the story is real or not and just keep me guessing. Something like: I need this 4 inch spoon turned into a size 10 ring because this spoon belonged to my great grandfather Hefferschnetzel who survived Auschwitz. He kept this spoon hidden in his butt for the entire duration of his experience and willed it to me in his last breath on this beautiful earth. Then you tell me about how your lead a simple life tending your 4 sheep in the mountains and want to "carry on" the beautiful story of the spoon except externally.
First of all I might wonder how much easier it would have been to store if it was a ring when great grandfather Hefferschnetzel had it. Then I'd probably be good and ready to work towards a healthy discount. Hell, I'd take raw goat milk with story like that.
I guess the point I'm getting at here is that I need a little value if I'm going to give a discount. It seems we've got lost in commercials and fake sales of overpriced items and think we're really getting a deal when we're just soaking up perceived value and fighting for the short end of the stick. I'm a human being. Years ago it seemed there were more human beings. Years ago there was no "something for nothing", and there still isn't in the real world today. What I'm really bending spoons for is because I'm passionate about the human experience. If I didn't care about you, (or me for that matter) I'd still be slaving away at the factory peeping through the little rectangular wire grid windows on the door to see if the sun was still shining. In the long run a greasy buck is a greasy buck and it spends quietly just like the rest of them. A good story will add something to the lives of us all and enrich our often dull mechanical exchange of money. It will make us stop and notice that what we are doing may actually have a purpose to others, and that we are all just one big human family.
Not many of you know that one of the things I do when I'm not bending spoons is keep honeybees on my wife's vegetable farm. I miss it in the winter, but spring is coming! Can't wait to crack open my hives again!
