Welcome the new President

There is a whole industry surrounding the Obama brand, already. Just out of curiosity, I visited Ebay to see how much some of the items that I own sell for.

An Obama t-shirt that I bought for $20 now sells for $30 to $70.

Some Obama pins that I got for contributing as little as $1 now sell for $3 to $12 each.

A poster that I got for free now sells for $10 to $70.

A sticker set that I got for free now sells for $6 to $40.

A flyer!!! that I received from one of the volunteers now sells for $3 to $7.

A yard sign!!! (which I had to hang in the window, because I do not have a yard) that I got for free now sells for $5 to $25.

And don't even get me started with all of the out of print newspapers and magazines that are selling for 1,000% and 10,000% to 100,000% over the cover price.

An issue of Fast Company profiling the Obama campaign, which I threw out, now sells on Ebay for $4 to $20 (I paid $10 for the subscription, which means I got that issue for $1).

I went out to get the Time and Newsweek issues because I wanted to read the articles on my to and from work on the train, and found out that they sold out on Saturday, before breakfast!!!

I have also noticed a pattern. There are some people in Midwestern and Southern US, who are buying up all of the magazines in the areas where Obama is not as popular and are selling them to all of the Obama-obsessed fans on the West and East coasts, where all of the magazines are sold out.

There is a business opportunity in everything.

The above cover is from the Economist. I would have used Newsweek or Time, but their dumbing down has left me feeling that I am not the audience they are looking for.