"Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet i will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of deer, he enables me to go on the heights." (Habakkuk 3:17-19)
These few verses pretty much tell the story of the last 10 years of my life. Ever since I graduated high school in 2002, it seems as though trial, after trial, after trial have come my way.
Finally when something good came my way, it wasn't long before another negative thing hit me in the face. I imagine a lot of people out there have a similar story. You can almost always guarantee when you have a string of good things happen, something bad always has to jump in and ruin the fun.
The opposite is also true, nothing is going well and then something good happens making you think things are better and then BAM you get hit with another thing that knocks you down. Some of you might be asking why this happens. Here are my thoughts...
God wants us to have faith in him and not rely on our own understandings of how we think life should be (Proverbs 3:5-6). I also think that sometimes bad things happen to good people in order to challenge our faith so that we might be built up in Christ and know that he is in charge and if we try and do it on our own, we will fail (Proverbs 16).
Lastly, sometimes bad things just happen for reasons we will never know. What we make of the situation will determine the path we take. We can decide to give up and be down all the time or we can decide to be joyful and make the best out of our circumstances.
This can relate to the project in that there have been countless days that I've wanted to quit this whole trading thing because it was not going how I thought it should. Or that it was taking forever to make a trade, even sometimes having a offer that fell through.
This whole project is in Gods timing, not mine. I can't make this thing happen in my own strength, otherwise it will for sure fail. I must rely in Gods wisdom and direction. This whole project could end tomorrow, who knows. I will end with this verse:
"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." (Proverbs 16:9)
Click here to see the potential add on to this trade
or how you can get it (as of 05-15-12).
Don't look too hard, we didn't hide Dirty, because we I forgot to bring our camera with the good zoom lens.
Also, this post is LONG, but well worth the read!
If you are just needing to see what the trade includes
you can scroll to the bottom
Moving on, I think the Branson Package was by far the one of the coolest trades I have made, and by far the hardest item to trade. I really thought it would be traded within 2 weeks and at the longest, one month. It took me nearly 2 months to trade this vacation.
The biggest obstacle I had to overcome was that many thought this trade was a scam. I'm not sure why because I literally gave every bit of evidence to show that it wasn't. I guess you can't make everyone happy.
I was offered all sorts of stuff for the trip, like: a manual breast pump (uh...), outdoor furniture, dinning room sets, golf clubs, a small generator, graphic design services, a little bit of money, hair salon services (I don't even have hair) and the list goes on.
Some of these offers would have been nice to have (minus the pump) but I did not feel they had big trading up potential. I was really starting to feel like this could possibly be the end of TMOOD. That is, until I received a text from this guy:
I am guessing you might be thinking this is a mug shot?
Not quite!
When I tell you who this guy is and what he does, then you will understand the reason for the straight face
Maybe this next picture will give you a better idea of who I was about to make a trade with
I was about to make a trade with a professional
hockey player and I did not even know it
His name: Marty Magers
He's one of the best goalies out there
On a side note to Marty, sorry brother, but I had to use the Mohawk picture. He told me his name, and at first it did not click as to who he was. I wanted to get the nitty gritty on this dude before I agreed to anything.
I Googled his name just like I did the radio station dude I had traded with. Marty's name pulled up some pretty cool stuff. I've only been a hockey fan for about 4 years now, so I had to call the expert.
I phoned my buddy Blaine and he immediately knew who he was. Blaine reminded me that Marty had played for the Tulsa Oilers a few years back. At this point I was really excited to make this trade! If you know anything about hockey you probably know this: Most everyone goes to the games to see the fights. Check out the video below, this is one of Marty's classic fights. I believe this was when he played with the Thunder.
Watch the whole video to get the full effect, it's only 2 minutes.
Even if you know nothing about hockey, I am sure your jaw will drop.
Marty recently retired this year (retired? He was only 28) from the Wichita Thunder. Click here to see his career accomplishments. When it came to professional goalies, Marty was the go-to guy.
In 2002, Marty was drafted to the Buffalo Sabers of the NHL. Since then he has played for teams in Michigan, New York, Canada, Connecticut, Virginia, Omaha, Iowa, Denver, and recently the Tulsa Oilers and the Wichita Thunder.
Even though he has retired, Marty did mention he might fill in for the Oilers if they ever needed anyone. Marty had a busy schedule, he worked a long 2 1/2 hour day (8:00am-10:30 am).
Since he had more free time on his hands,
he decided to pick up a new hobby
This is where the "Trade 7" really begins...
Marty took up bartering and became quite good at it, as you can see from the picture above. Let me rewind a bit and take you back to the first few deals he made and how he ended up with this fancy truck.
While in Wichita, he bought an old pick up for around $1,100. He then traded that truck for a 2004 GMC Sierra and loaded up all his stuff and moved to Tulsa. Not long after that, Marty found a guy that wanted to trade him a 1987 Grand Prix, plus give him $1,200 cash.
Already he's made his original $1,100 back plus some! He put a new set of wheels on the Grand Prix and it was ready to go.
Here is where the truck pictured above comes into play. If all this was not cool enough, he now had a guy that wanted to trade him a 1964 F-100. Here's the kicker, this sucker was listed on Craigslist for $9,500!
Marty's plan is to put a little money into it and then continue his process of trading. Can you see that dirt bike in the back of his truck? He found some old boy out in some podunk town that needed some money and sold it to Marty for $250. Marty said, "I will probably sell it for $500 in a few days."
At some point in time, I had texted Marty (not knowing it was him) to see if he would be interested in trading the Branson trip for a scooter he had listed on Craigslist.
Some time passed and I finally received a text back saying he would give me $400 for it. The package was worth close to $800, but I nearly jumped on his offer because I was having a hard time getting any solid offers for the trip. I thought for a minute and told him that I was really wanting to trade the trip, rather than get money for it.
He then informed me that he had a very unique business
There was only one other photo booth like this in the Mid-West
guess how that person got hooked up with one?
Marty of course
Marty's offer:
The $1250 Platinum Package, which was 4 hours of nearly unlimited fun for most any event. I jumped at the offer right then!
Did I mention how he obtained this totally rad booth? A little bartering here and there was all it took! In short, he bought a Cadillac for $1200 and traded his way up to a 1971 Camaro SS (all original parts, numbers matching). He then sold that for 12 grand and soon after bought the photo booth.
Pretty cool, eh?
This is not your regular photo booth that has the fabric back drops and can only hold a max of 3. This was a GREEN SCREEN photo booth that can hold up to 12 people and can literally have an endless amount of backgrounds.
Marty's business, "Mr. Smiles Photo Booth"has done large events for groups such as: The Tulsa Drillers, The American Cancer Society at The Cains Ballroom, River Parks Youth Soccer, and many weddings.
This contraption is way too cool for me to try and tell you all its pros, click here to get a small taste of its greatness!
What does this trade entail
and how can you benefit from it?
This is the Platinum Package worth $1250!
You will get to have it on site for 4 hours!
PLUS EVERYTHING BELOW
1. A full time fun attendant to take care of the booth and make everyone happy.
2. Free delivery in the Tulsa area.
3. Unlimited prints during the event.
4. CD set of pictures during the event.
5. Color or black and white pictures
6. Up to 4 different green screen backgrounds.
7. Four professional layouts.
8. Prop box with tons of your favorite props.
9. And 1 scrapbook made by a professional scrap booker.
You can use this for weddings, corporate events, graduations, charity events, high school reunions, birthday parties, etc... I would venture to say, pretty much any event.
How can you benefit from this? Everyone will be talking about how cool your party or event was for a long time. Second of all, if you are strapped for cash for say a wedding you are planning, then all you have to do is look around for something worth at least $1250 (or something that is really cool everyone would want) that you would be willing to let go of.
"Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow, your only a day away"
That would be from the movie Annie, if you did not get that.
Here's a crazy thought, It will never be "tomorrow", because it is ALWAYS a day away. So, if it is always a day away, then it will never be tomorrow. Where did little Annie come up with that song?
Okay, I'm thinking way too much about this. Anyway, what's happen tomorrow? Wouldn't you like to know :) Something big, with somebody big. I guess you will have to wait until tomorrow to find out :)
