#flashbackfriday: My 1996 Catalog
"Geekdom" ruled my world in the 1990s (not to mentioned "now", as it has complete dominion over my Universe LOL). In my 'then' job designing for television, and fresh from my Interior Design ("Junior", thanks) tenure, I spent my Sundays down at the Substation at the Sunday Flea Market (and subsequently at Clarke Quay), hawking comicbooks, trading cards, and toys - no doubt to the dismay and disappointment of my (ex) girlfriends, who no doubt wonder why I wanted to spend my free time doing this, then spend time with them … not that I am "proud" of that fact, I insist …
Be that as it may, I was not just fanatical about "buying" and collecting stuff, I was always quite keen on the notion of "selling" them! Before I could afford credit card(s) and discovered Ebay, subsequently fall head-down to financial ruin - I made self-published "catalogs" too - which I had snail-mailed to folks, whose address I can collected and asked for at my flea market stalls!
Those where fun days. Posted here are snaps of my mailer catalog from 1996, which I managed to dig out of storage (and more posted HERE on my FB album), featuring simple desktop layout and designs, zeroed and hand-stapled, and a hell-heckload of archiving and cataloging!
Well, there was less "distractions" then other than embracing the hobby you loved :)
Nearly two decades on, they are still crisp (not "creasy") and had been kept relatively snugged in their manila envelopes packed eons ago!
That is not to mean I had been a wildly successful salesman though! But the reality is, if you do not promote yourself and your works, how can people get assess to it?
In the late 90s, internet was not as prevalent is it is rampant now. Newspapers and print ads in publications was where the information was at. I remembered beyond all this direct-to-person mailers, I had spent some money and time running ads in the (weekend) newspapers, for once-a-month sales events at the flea market, and they worked! Which in tangible terms. meant I turned a decent profit, even after deducting the cost of advertising LOL
These days, with the information highway a deluge of eye-candy and text-flood of How MANY? How MUCH? WHEN? - it has become a constant fight to get your works out there, even as a blog, much less an artist whose works needing to be seen by the masses, niche or otherwise.
Cheers
Andy TOYSREVIL
Be that as it may, I was not just fanatical about "buying" and collecting stuff, I was always quite keen on the notion of "selling" them! Before I could afford credit card(s) and discovered Ebay, subsequently fall head-down to financial ruin - I made self-published "catalogs" too - which I had snail-mailed to folks, whose address I can collected and asked for at my flea market stalls!
Those where fun days. Posted here are snaps of my mailer catalog from 1996, which I managed to dig out of storage (and more posted HERE on my FB album), featuring simple desktop layout and designs, zeroed and hand-stapled, and a hell-heckload of archiving and cataloging!
Well, there was less "distractions" then other than embracing the hobby you loved :)
Nearly two decades on, they are still crisp (not "creasy") and had been kept relatively snugged in their manila envelopes packed eons ago!
That is not to mean I had been a wildly successful salesman though! But the reality is, if you do not promote yourself and your works, how can people get assess to it?
In the late 90s, internet was not as prevalent is it is rampant now. Newspapers and print ads in publications was where the information was at. I remembered beyond all this direct-to-person mailers, I had spent some money and time running ads in the (weekend) newspapers, for once-a-month sales events at the flea market, and they worked! Which in tangible terms. meant I turned a decent profit, even after deducting the cost of advertising LOL
These days, with the information highway a deluge of eye-candy and text-flood of How MANY? How MUCH? WHEN? - it has become a constant fight to get your works out there, even as a blog, much less an artist whose works needing to be seen by the masses, niche or otherwise.
Cheers
Andy TOYSREVIL
