Message:
Hehe! You're giving me too much credit! I bought all of 'em through eBay!
I owned an AMT Turnpike when I was a child in '62. My parents bought it for me for Christmas. I have no idea what happened to that set but my guess is that it was eventually thrown in the trash. As an adult, I wanted to relive the experience of one of my favorite childhood toys. Before the "Information Superhighway" (do you remember it was called that before it became the Internet?) I'd comb newspaper ads from across the country hoping to find an AMT Turnpike that I could purchase. I never found one. After the Internet, and after eBay was born, I purchased one through eBay! I was delighted that after all the years of searching, that I would finally have my treasured, and much sought after AMT Turnpike again. After I received it, I was disappointed. It was dirty, in poor working condition, and not what I expected. Then the businessman gene within me kicked into high gear! If I'm good at anything, I have a pretty good knack for recognizing business opportunities. I should refurbish and recondition this set, and sell it on eBay. I got it cheap but I'll bet if I reconditioned the set, back it up with a well written ad, I'd do well on eBay! I did just that and it quickly sold doubling my investment. There was no way to know that the AMT Turnpike eBay business was the first of approximately 6 or 7 eBay pretty successful businesses that I've started on eBay. I sold almost all of them as viable business entities and they continue on eBay today under new ownership. I knew the total dollars wouldn't quite set my financial world on fire, but double return on an investment is always good! This was especially so because it required very little of my time and it was truly a labor of love. The risk and financial investment was minimal so I repeated the buy low and sell high process over and over again. I probably bought and sold maybe 50 to 75 AMT Turnpikes on eBay doubling, tripling, and sometimes quadrupling my investment with each sale. Of course, in every business, whenever a successful concept is created, it's just a matter of time before others catch on and take advantage too. When competition happens, the profitability shrinks and this occurred with the AMT Turnpike business too. After awhile I moved on to my next money project. At any rate, I kept a couple of the sets and I still have them. The Kenner Girder and Bridge set is another toy I had when I was a child. I just purchased one through eBay to relive another childhood toy experience.
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