The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I get the feeling that this Mike guy is a bit like Thomas Kinkade being discussed in an Old Masters art forum.

Jwb88 wrote:I get the feeling that this Mike guy is a bit like Thomas Kinkade being discussed in an Old Masters art forum.

Mike is a genius at what he does. One cannot deny that his TV show is a success. In this day and age, when antique shops are rapidly becoming a thing of the past (there are virtually none here in S. Florida) his show does a lot to promote interest in collecting antiques of all types.

There is a vast chasm between technical and marketing expertise. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in over 40 years of being in business for myself, it’s not to get bogged down in the nuts and bolts. Find out what your customers want, and give it to them. And be there if something goes wrong in the process. Example: Last year, a good customer of mine severely broke a $40,000 clock that I had shipped to him several months before. He claimed that he had just taken it out of the box. Dubious, but any event I had it shipped (at my expense) to a clockmaker in PA, and when it was fixed I flew to PA, rented a car, picked it up and hand-delivered the clock to him in Boston. Guess what? Another $150,000 in business from him in the interim. Do you think that if I had left him high and dry with his broken clock that there would have been another sale?

So, I say, enjoy the TV show for what it’s worth, take from it what you can get, but don’t run Mike (or Frank) down, he’s made a fortune doing what he loves. Does it get any better than that?

Raphael

Raphael wrote:So, I say, enjoy the TV show for what it’s worth, take from it what you can get, but don’t run Mike (or Frank) down, he’s made a fortune doing what he loves. Does it get any better than that?
Raphael

https://giphy.com/gifs/XaiXz23xsg1JS/html5

James.

^ ^^