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Sounds like an interesting story! How big was a pallet? How does one come to know the specific truck driver?
by gantron 3y ago
Sounds like an interesting story! How big was a pallet? How does one come to know the specific truck driver?
- qingcharles 3y agoThis was back in 1997, so my memory is a little hazy, but I remember it being about 6ft x 6ft x 6ft. It was a bunch of cardboard shipping boxes with clear wrap around them. I think I was paying £10,000 per pallet. He told me he would just skip scanning a pallet at the docks as they were loaded into his trailer, and then his mate would meet him at a roadside services on the motorway with a van and they would somehow move the pallet off the semi into the van. Sometimes I would hit the jackpot and get dozens of the really expensive bears. I sold 800 bears once for $250,000 in cash to a guy who flew into the UK from Chicago. The truck driver found me. He must have seen one of my adverts in the press or maybe someone he knew came to one of my Beanie Baby fairs, or heard one of my adverts on the radio. He lived in this crazy council town near me in Bristol where every house appeared to be of government construction, even the church. I remember sitting in his living room one day and there was a literally constant stream of little kids coming through his front door emptying bags of shoplifted merch onto his floor, and he would pick through and buy a couple of things and then they would go to the next house.
- leobg 3y agoIf you wrote a book, I’d love to read it. Not a book that glorifies crime. But one that shows us the hidden sides of humanity. The kind of stuff that happens and the kinds of things people do that you will not see on YV, or read about on X. Another window into the true lives of our fellow humans in an age where many of us are occupied with LLMs and project managers.
- qingcharles 3y agoI'm just bummed I was left out from the recent Beanie Baby movie and the the documentary that came out a while back. I was easily the biggest, most ridiculous vendor in the world. Even Ty (the owner) tried to bribe me out of existence. I have picked up a lot of stories over the years. Like the time the Secret Service were after me thinking that I was trying to assassinate Bill Clinton o_O
- leobg 3y agoCan’t we do thing where you just tell all these stories to a voice recording app on your phone. And then we use GPT/Whisper to transcribe and convert it into a book. Not gonna win any fiction award. But sometimes it’s better than a thing exists than that it is perfect.
- qingcharles 3y agoOne day! The story isn't over (yet).
- SomeoneFromCA 3y agoI once stole cookies in supermarket...Still not sure why I did it.
- ak39 3y agoPlease don't stop there! How did the conversation go? How did he convince you that you won't be double-crossed?
- qingcharles 3y agoLOL. I'm not sure what you mean? He called me up on the phone and asked if I wanted to buy a lot of Beanies. When I went to meet him at his house it was obvious he was legit. I only paid cash on delivery. I got whatever sealed boxes I got. He didn't have the ability to pick and choose which pallet I got and I don't know if we ever figured out what was in each box from the outside.
- InCityDreams 3y agoI can't wait for more....
- qingcharles 3y agoLOL. I have lots of stories from those days. It was crazy times! eBay was the wild west.