Oh I've had a grand time this week..... !
Sorry bottle people out there, hoping to pick up some useful earlyglass hints and wrinkles, this blog will be a downright get-it-off-my-chest moan, but then I am 50 so now a fully paid up member of the grumpy old men....and this is my blog and I'll ...how does it go...cry if I want to...cry if i want to...
So here I am on a certain forum, been there several months, putting nice pretty pics of items I've picked up, the better stuff of course, because it's nice for diggers and collectors to see, stuff they don't see very often, because it usually gets bought by the big money guys and never seen again, because of course I want to show off a little, and this thread is so popular that it gets pinned, oh my! But this is the bottle world and someone wants to spoil it, "someone" out there who also is commercially involved in the bottle scene gets a bit jealous/frightened about this, and they are retentive enough to point out that I am getting these pics on there with, naughty of naughties, my website address and presumably making all sorts of money selling these items to people looking at them on the forum...oh if it was only that easy!...
Ok it's sort of fair enough reaction if you're that way inclined. they themselves are paying money to be associated with this forum and place ads and use the facilities etc etc, and they reckon I am not and should be. But then I'm making sod all out of doing this apart from perhaps some general flag waving publicity for my one man band, so the mods have to rather embarassingly ask me to either pay similar fees or.....well not sure what...
Now for a little while I was half a mind to pull the plug entirely, but that would be entirely what these business people would like, and would disappoint the genuine diggers and collectors who liked the thread and pics, so I go for the literary gagging and "it'll never happen again sir" approach and have my thread unpinned and my addresses removed and I'm not allowed to ever mention that these items might be for sale ever again, for ever and ever, amen.
Now this is a pretty low point in my bottle life. I've come up against competitive reactions before but this sort of pettiness is a first. So what is the answer to my depression? OK, WE FIGHT BACK in a way they won't expect....this is all about the pettiness of money, so lets GIVE a bottle away, a good one, give it to whoever is lucky enough to win a free draw for it. I've done this before two or three times and it was a really pleasant and refreshing experience, people didn't seem to expect it, done though the forums, and then my real brainwave....if people could enter the draw simply by logging onto the various forums, and the more forums they lg onto the more chances they get, it also gives the forums more new members and more traffic and more interest, and got to be good for the hobby...
So now several days later and after several hundred rather boggled entrants, plus TWO MORE PRIZES added by a couple other pragmatic guys, joining in the fun, good prizes too which I'd like myself, but dammit I can't enter my own draw! There's always a cloud to the silver lining.:):)
So hundreds of entries so far, and loads of goodwill, and all this unusual generosity of feeling later, I'm feeling a happier bunny, and pretty pleased with myself, and .......oh, yes,.... well unfortunately as a side effect, my name is now on the lips and posts of hundreds of bottle guys worldwide, I've had loads of complimentary emails, quite a few direct sales from new clients and all in all it's pretty much St Mark of Earlyglass, oh dear! ....Guess I'd better thank the guy who prefers to complain and was worried I'd be profiting by not paying my fees, it would never have happened without him....anyone else want to complain? please?
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