This 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.
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.
I'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
Can’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.
LOL. 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.
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.