#FLASHBACKFRIDAY: My 1996 Flyer & Dedication To The Hustlers Out There!
The year was 1996.
With no internet to speak of (I had neither any access nor clue, tbh), I had gone analog to promote my wares, and made flyers such as THIS, to be xeroxed and passed out to my subscribers and folks at my Sunday Flea Market stall in The Substation (Image of my table reposted below). I had my pager and fax number listed, ever ready to take in orders.
Y'all know what a "pager" is, right? A "fax machine"? Oh boy...
Everything was desktop published, utilising whatever shapes and designs I could muster with whatever little my self-taught skills could achieve, along with enhanced doodling and text, not to mention the "hype" in the editorial, which eventually led me to the path of blogger, when I started the blog in 2005.
This was the complement to my self-published catalog/mailer of similar trading cards, toys and manner of geekery for sales, back in the day. These were the essential stepping stones which led me down the path to the TOYSREVIL-blog.
As much as I enjoyed doing these "entrepreneurial" kind of moves, I was up against bigger and more established shops and vendors, whom had more variety and selection, and better price points to offer, of course. I am just not smart enough to have weathered the constant competition and comparisons, even over two decades later! Still going at it alone, still a one-man-army, holding down the fort, and I somehow still love it. Somehow still a "hobby" :p
(*My Sunday Flea Market table at The Substation)
Regardless, I am dedicating this post to all the folks out there / cherished readers who are out hustling day-in-day-out, who tries each and every way necessary to get the word out, to have their art be seen, to have their wares be noticed, chosen and purchased - all amidst a virtual unending sea of artists and shops, and even resellers - which I do not knock, because I essentially WAS a "reseller", innit? And in many ways STILL AM ... In a small way, I understood how you felt ... or maybe moreso the anyone realizes?
Cheers
Andy TOYSREVIL
P/S: Subsequent flyers (which I am still trying to find in my hoard) had been upsized into a A3 paper xeroxed and folded "2-pager", with even more doodling on my part, but never did upgrade to "colour", as the returns just could not justify the expense ... or maybe that's why I never did go "big", and ended up "going home"?
