Finally! It's about time!
Click here or go to the "contact me" tab to make an offer
Nearly a year had gone by since I had made a trade, associated with my project at least. When I first decided to trade the Branson trip for the photo booth package, I figured I was set and was ready to reel in the next big trade. I waited, and waited, and waited for the right offer to come in; I'm "technically" still waiting, but I will get to that a little later in the post.
When I traded the Branson trip to Marty Magers, a former professional hockey player, and owner of the company Mr. Smiles Photo Booth, I was confident that this would be a piece of cake to trade. It was exactly the opposite! It was not because it wasn't desirable to have, it was because either A) Everyone that emailed me were offering items that had no potential in trading up, or B) They REALLY wanted to have the photo booth at their party or wedding, but literally had nothing to trade.
That took a chunk of the year. The other chunk of time (from November 2011-August 2012) was because I was recovering from an accident that required an intense surgery. During that time I was not really feeling up to trying to make any serious trades. If you have no idea what I am talking about, you can read through the past years posts (particularly January 2012), or just talk to me in person and I will tell you about it. I don't want to take any attention away from this current post. The good thing is, I am back to full strength, (with some restrictions) but otherwise doing well.
If you are wondering what is going to happen to the photo booth package, (valued at $1250) you're going to have to read through this whole post to figure out how you can have it for free!
I really thought my project was going to end or that I was going to have to start all over. I knew one thing for sure; I was not going to quit just because it was not going my way! Quitting has never been an option for me!
I continuously brainstormed as to how I could market this past trade. I tried just about everything I could think of that was within my means. I had hit a roadblock...That was until I had received a phone call from the mom of one of my old high school buddies. I think 10 years had gone by since really seeing either of them, other than the occasional running into the old stranger and then having to jet times. That always seems to happen when you have something important to do that prevents you from really catching up.
Anyway, she had called me up prior to me having my accident. It was during a time in which I was "in between jobs" early in 2011 (another one of our hardships...that's a whole other story). During that time I did some odd jobs to try and make up for the lack in pay. Upon finishing the work at her house and a rental property, she mentioned she had some stuff that she wanted to give me. One of which was an old classic Kimball Player Piano!
Obtaining this piano took a lot of hard work; lots of emails and planning went into bring this thing home. My friends mom had a very tight schedule and traveled a lot, which in turn made it difficult to coordinate having it delivered. This piano was a lifesaver (more like a project saver)!
We were finally able to coordinate a moving day (in which she paid for, what a blessing) through the help of some tenants that she rented to just down the street from her house. The piano was actually at the rental house and needed to be moved in order to make more room.
We're all just glad it did not go to the dump! Me especially!
The piano was dusty as expected because it had not been used for quite some time. It needs about $125 of work (mainly standard tuning and servicing) some of which I can do. I was so estatic when Saied Music of Tulsa, Oklahoma showed up to deliver this amazing treasure!
The history behind the piano was that it belonged to the late parents of my friends mom. We are assuming it is a late 60's model; There are a lot of markings I still have to investigate. My friends Grandpa had bought the Kimball Piano and later added the player portion because he wanted to "act like he was really playing" it. Be honest now, how many of you have gone to a music store and sat down at a player piano and "acted like you were playing?"
I would do it all the time when I was a kid! I had a blast! I still want to do it! I am a bit of a musical instrument store geek. I would equate it to how a kid loves the candy store or how your husband loves Home Depot or Lowes. I just love to go to music stores. My wife is probably reading this and is saying, "you have never told me that." It's because I never have; I guess you could call it a guilty pleasure? Is that how they say it these days? If not, my wife will be quick to correct me. I'm not down with all the lingo these days.
Here I am standing there like I'm really going to catch the piano if it rolls back and falls. Really, Matt? I've got one foot forward and one foot back, all ready to sacrifice myself in order to protect that piano. That's my baby! Once I get everything cleaned and restored, I am planning on posting more detailed pictures.
It is going to look beautiful when I am done with it, nearly as good as it looked when it was "bran new". On a completely random tangent, check out that blog post (bran or brand?). It explains how the term came about. Anyway...
There I am on the right "helping" and doing my part in carrying the power cord. It's kind of funny actually, you see those two guys on the left? I actually went to high school with them and had not seem them in over 12 years! These guys were awesome student athletes and friends. It was great catching up. It was quite a surprise seeing them getting out of the truck.
And of course my 2 year overdue unfinished garage project...I promised "the wife" that I would have it cleaned out by this Winter so she could park her car in there (a first in 3 years). I had to put the piano out here in order to take it apart, clean it, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, blah, blah, blah...Moving on.
And finally, the "official handshake picture". You gotta have a handshake picture, or the trade did not happen. Brad on the left and Chris on the right agreed to let me have them stand in place of my friends mom, whom was not available because of travel.
So there you have it folks...Trade #8 is officialy available and ready for offers. A special thanks to "my friends mom" for literally saving the project.
As for the photo booth package (A $1250 deal)... Even though I technically did not "trade it", I still technically "have it." So heres the deal: As long as Marty's end of the deal holds up and he sticks to our agreement when we made "Trade #7", I am going to give it away to someone completely free. Yes, you heard me right...F.R.E.E. The only stipulation is that your event needs to be inside or a close to a suburb of Tulsa in order to have free transport of the green screen photo booth.
You can click here to see what all is included (Scroll to the very bottom). Unfortunately, this deal only applies to local Tulsa area citizens or you have to be willing to travel to Tulsa for your party (that you organize).
So how do you get the photo booth? You can either email me, Facebook me at Trade Me Out of Debt (a page like would be nice..hint hint) or my personal Facebook if we are friended.
Just somehow contact me and tell me why you feel that you deserve to have this state of the art green screen photo booth at your party. Entries will end on October 6th, 2012 at 11:59 CST. The winner will be picked the following day (Sunday Oct. 7th). Also, whoever gets the photo booth package will also get a signed Michael Dorn picture that was given to me to give away. One of my readers from Tennessee gave this to me. Just in case you aren't familiar with Michael Dorn, he was "Warf" from Star Trek. This is valued at $40
And of course the Dirty T Contest...I completely forgot to hide DT in one of the pictures. So here's what I am going to do...Email me or leave me a comment on this post to be entered. Entries will be accepted starting Tuesday, September 11, 2012. The contest will be closed at 11:59pm CST on Tuesday, September 18th, 2012. To be eligible, you must live within one of the 50 United States (unless you want to pay for shipping elsewhere).
What am I giving away? I will be giving away my personal copy of One Red Paperclip, by Kyle MacDonald. He is the guy that traded a paperclip to a house in 2005, all in one year (In just 14 trades)! Kyle is a great guy to get to know. His book is awesome!
I am out of here! Enjoy the rest of your week! Share the love and tell someone about the project! If you are new to the site, I would love to have you follow me by email (on the upper right side of the page) and also if you are a Facebook person, click the pic on the left side of the page, mid way down!
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