He laid out the details for Peter. “Look. I’ll tell you my secret as long as you promise to use it only for paintings and not encroach on what I sell.”
“Yes, of course. I only sell art and paintings. I’d never tread on your feet.”
“Okay. Let me explain. As I attend stamp and collectors fairs, I have a local company deliver colour leaflets door-to-door in the week before I’m due to attend the fair. I have 10,000 full-colour leaflets designed, printed, then folded in half, for £180 and then arrange for a local leaflet distribution company to deliver the leaflets door to door in the more affluent postcode areas for a price of £40 per thousand. Look, here’s one of my leaflets. It shows the photo examples of items I’m interested in buying, and examples of the prices I’m prepared to pay. So the whole thing with the extra couple of days in hotel bills costs me about £700 and each time I always make an extremely good profit.”
Peter took note of the wording: ‘Do you have cash hidden in your attic? Renowned International Stamp and Postcard Dealer wishes to purchase collections and single items. Free valuation and best prices paid.’
Martin went on to say, “It’s simple. I get the leaflets dropped and then arrive at the hotel a couple of days before the fair and visit all the people who’ve replied to the leaflet. I’ve found lots of items that people have hidden in their lofts for years. Often they’ve been left a stamp collection or some old postcards by an elderly relative and they have no idea what they’re worth. And,” he boasted, “I usually manage to pick them up for a song. Now I’m making a very nice income. A very nice income.” He repeated it as if to emphasize the point.
On Sunday the fair closed at five and within half an hour, Martin and Peter had loaded all of their remaining stock into their vehicles.
“It was a real pleasure to meet you, Peter. I enjoyed our time together. We must do it again some time.”
“Yes, that would be nice. I enjoyed it too. And thank you for the details of the leaflets. I’ve decided I’m going to give it a go as soon as I get back to London. I’ll contact the leaflet companies you’ve kindly written down for me. Thank you for the meal and everything. I enjoyed meeting you and, well, you know. I’ll send you a list of the fairs I’m attending and perhaps we can meet again soon. Safe journey.”
The next day, Peter woke up just after ten. He was always a late riser, whereas Norman was usually up by seven.
Norman was already working downstairs in the shop. Peter decided to contact the sales representatives whose name Martin had given him. The first one he contacted advised Peter to run the leaflet in certain postcode areas where the population was of a ‘more mature age’, as he put it. They could target the drop and miss out council estates and student bedsit areas.
Peter knew someone who worked in the art department at the local college and they put him in touch with a student on a graphic design course who could produce a leaflet based on the one Peter had been given by Martin.
He had them change the wording from the same as Martin’s to ‘Renowned London Art Dealer wishes to purchase original paintings and antiques. Do You Have Cash Hidden in Your Attic? Free valuation and best prices paid.’
The young designer also added photos of antiques and paintings he had found on the internet as examples.”
The next big fair Peter was due to attend was the Evesham Art and Antiques Fair in the Midlands town of Market Drayton. However, the sales rep suggested he run the leaflet drop some fifteen miles away in a town called Trentbridge, as it offered a better demographic of wealthy retired people.
Following that advice, Peter consulted Google and found the Albion Hotel listed as the best in the area and just a fifteen-minute drive from where the fair was being held.
Shortly after the first batch of 10,000 leaflets dropped through letter boxes on the Friday of the week before the antiques fair, he received five phone calls. Things were looking good.
Maybe, just maybe, this was going to be the lucky break he had been searching for.
Chapter Six
MAY 2016 - THE FIVE APPOINTMENTS
Peter was a worried man. Since the leaflets had gone out he had received five phone calls with people offering to sell him paintings. He had just left the second of the appointments empty-handed. Both items, which had been described on the phone as family heirlooms had turned out to be cheap reproductions.
So far he was £700 out of pocket for the cost of printing, delivering the 10,000 highly attractive full-colour glossy leaflets and his hotel bill.
Then, to his relief, from his next appointment he walked away with a collection of five paintings, bought at a cost of £240 and worth about £1,800.
He expected one or two of them would sell at the Evesham Art and Antiques Fair over the weekend.
A short distance away at his forth appointment, he found a single painting, which after an initial offer of £350 was rejected a final price of £480 had been accepted. It should still make a profit. Peter was confident it would sell for £800.
The stamp dealer was right. Based on the paintings he had found so far, and taking into account the costs of printing and delivering the leaflets, Peter estimated he had already made a profit of more than £1,000.
As he made the two-mile journey his satnav promised would take him to the last address, he was hoping this final
