Antiques Are Coming Back

 Antiques Are Coming Back 

    JACK OVERHAUSS drove a truck for a Chicago retail furniture dealer. One day he was instructed to take the truck over to a railway warehouse and pick up a spinning wheel, said to be an expensive antique the dealer had difficulty acquiring. Later when he unpacked the spinning wheel, Overhauss recalled having played with a similar spinning wheel, when a boy, in the attic of his mother’s home at Jackson, Minnesota. He mentioned this to his employer. “If you know where there’s another spinning wheel like this and can get it for me,” the dealer told him, “I’ll pay you fifty dollars.” Overhauss promptly replied he knew where there were at least a dozen near Jackson, and was told to get them. Overhauss went up to Jackson, inquired among his mother’s neighbors about their spinning wheels, and in less than a week obtained seven at an average cost of four dollars each. Before returning to Chicago he secured a total of thirty-nine spinning wheels from residents of Jackson and surrounding territory, who were glad to dispose of them at the price Overhauss offered just to get them out of the way. During his stay in Jackson, Overhauss kept on the alert for other items. While seeking spinning wheels, he noticed a number of articles in the attics and barns of the homes and farms he visited, such as flint lock pistols, flint lock muskets, bowie knives, bows and arrows used in Indian warfare, spears, hatchets, unique caskets, and other objects which had been kept by the families for many years but which no longer possessed sentimental value for their owners. Overhauss listed these articles and sent copies of the list to several furniture and antique dealers. Within a few days he received an order from one dealer for the entire lot and realized a profit of over $300. Very little capital is required to make money from antiques. You can start this fascinating business right in your home community. In every town there are ten homes or more whose attics contain furniture and various articles collected over a period of years. Before buying any of these, make a list of every article you find that is worth while and send copies of this list to furniture manufacturers, furniture dealers, antique shops, and collectors in larger cities. When replying, the dealers will mention the amount they will pay for each article. Those who have prospects for the articles listed will gladly pay good prices. While the demand for antiques fell off during the depression, it is coming back with the return of better times and the revival in building. During the period of prosperity we are now entering, thousands of homes are going to be remodeled and refurnished. Many of these home-owners will refurnish in the early American style, because of its charm and distinctiveness. This will bring back with a bang the demand for all kinds of antiques and those who tie in with this movement are bound to reap profits. It’s an interesting business, too, and may lead to your becoming an interior decorator with a shop and factory of your own. 

Sullivan’s Collection System Portfolio 

   IN SEATTLE , Washington, H. J. Sullivan made $1,080 in fifty-three days. He did it by selling a collection system to local business men during the worst months of the depression. “My commission runs about twothirds of the selling price,” Sullivan said. “On a $7.50 unit I make a profit of $5.00, and on the higher-priced units the commission is relatively higher. My biggest advantage was my list of acquaintances. I knew most of the first 200 business men I interviewed, and had enough selling experience to understand how to handle prospective users of the system whom I didn’t know personally. To clinch the sale after I had a man interested, I used a portfolio of letters of endorsement supplied by my firm. This portfolio was a gold mine. It contained hundreds of letters from business firms in every line of business, from a small grocery store or market to a big public utility corporation. These companies were located in every state in the Union. “I was broke when I started out with this system, but it wasn’t long before I was making real money. My first call was on a small factory where the owner knew me from the old days when I sold him merchandise. I said: ‘I’ve got something here which I’m sure you’ll agree is a mighty wonderful collection stunt. There are a number of concerns which owe you money you think you will never get. Well—look at this.” I opened up this mammoth portfolio of reference letters and picked out the names of several leaders in his line of business. He read the letters—every word of them. There isn’t a business man in the country who doesn’t perk up with real interest when he sees what his competitors are doing. ‘What’s the system you are selling?’ he asked. I explained it to him, pointing to my samples and letting him examine the entire method. ‘If you collect only one old account with this method,’ I said, ‘the system will have paid for itself.’ He agreed with me on this, and gave me his order. The commission on this sale was the easiest money I had ever made. “My next six days were devoted principally to thinking up answers to objections. Then I saw that it wasn’t an answer that was needed. These objections became selling points when properly analyzed. I hadn’t been inquiring about the total amount of the prospect’s bills receivable, but I changed my canvass a little, and early in the interview brought up that point. Most business men do not know how large an amount of money they have coming until they look at a balance sheet. Then they are a little surprised and often worried about it. When I’d ask a prospect what the total of his bills receivable amounted to, he generally called the bookkeeper and requested a statement. Intently he would consider that statement. ‘I guess we should use some kind of system. How much did you say that one cost?’ he would usually remark, and the order followed.” Sullivan pointed out that he doesn’t make many calls in a day, since it often requires as much as an hour for his selling interview. He averages ten calls daily, however, and of these sells six, giving him a high percentage of closures. His commissions run better than $8.00 a sale. Collection systems are much in favor during the present era of tight credits. While you may not make as much money as Sullivan did selling this system, it does offer an opportunity for the inexperienced man who prefers calling on business men in factory, office, shop or store. A store unit, declares Sullivan, runs about $7.50. The others are in larger amounts. The commission is either collected in advance, or the full amount of the order may be collected C.O.D. upon delivery, and the commission sent to the salesman.