2.27.2008

political things

It's that time of year again. You know, the time when the politicians and pundits are filling the airwaves with incomprehensible rhetoric, yard signs and bumper stickers are going up all over town to make sure you know just who your friends and neighbors will be voting for and everyone's talking about a change. Honestly, it all just makes me weary. Don't get me wrong—I've voted in every single election since I was eighteen—but I sometimes need a bit of a distraction from all the chatter. So I found these Things in the warehouse to help take my mind off of it for a while.

No matter which side of the aisle you favor, we have something for every political taste. For example, these non-partisan Politicards and cast today's political players—left, right and center—in roles from classic feature films. See John McCain as Rocky Balboa, Barack Obama as Moses and Mitt Romney (“We're on a mission from God!”) as Elwood Blues from The Blues Brothers. It's the most fun you can have playing a card game, especially at this time of year.

If you'd like to have some fun with the current administration, check out these George W. Bush playing cards. Our Commander In Chief's face is pasted over the faces of bathing beauties and a few other crazy bodies. Talk about gender (and species) confusion! Our Bush Toilet Paper is great for home use and for a great gag gift. Liberals will love it and conservatives will love to hate it. Each sheet shows the classic “Dubya” face with quotes like “They misunderestimated me.” Finally, you can use our Head of State to clean your head with this Bush Bowl Buddy. Now that's a mission accomplished!

Of course, we can't neglect poor Hillary! The Hillary Bowl Buddy is an amazing likeness of Senator Clinton, right down to the prim and proper dress and sensible shoes. Just pour in some cleanser and swish her head around the toilet for a sparkling clean result. She's tough enough to get the job done! I mean, just look at this Hillary Clinton Nutcracker made in her honor. With “legs of steel,” she can crack anyone's walnuts.

We have a whole host of political Things to help you laugh your way through the upcoming election season. Just don't get laughing so hard that you forget to vote!

2.18.2008

gadgets & things

As I mentioned last week, I've been on a quest to find cool new gadgets. A short trip through the warehouse was all it took to uncover some very handy Things for the car, for your health and just for fun.

Things I found for the car make life both easier and safer. The Porta-Jump™ recharges your car battery in about 10 minutes using the power from your car's cigarette lighter socket. Plus, it's small enough to fit in the glove compartment of most cars. It's a lot more convenient and a lot safer than waiting for the auto club or carrying jumper cables and depending on strangers for assistance. Speaking of safety and convenience, I bought a Spare Key Hider for my aunt. Since she drives an older car, it doesn't have an alarm to alert her when she leaves her keys in the ignition. Of course, it doesn't have electronic locks either, so she doesn't realize she's locked her keys in the car until right after the door slams shut. I've rescued her enough times to make this handy little Thing a good investment. The Grip It Power Brush is a great car gadget. It connects to your hand drill to make cleaning road grime out of your wheels a lot easier. I tried it out last night—it really works. The cleaning tip gets around lug nuts and into other nooks and crannies. It's completely safe for chrome and other surfaces and it also works great on head lights, tail lights, grills, bumpers and mirrors.

I found a few Things that can help improve your health, too. Who knew that keeping your wallet in your front pocket not only makes it less accessible to pickpockets, but helps prevent backaches? It seems that sitting on a wallet is a major source of back pain for a lot of men. This Front Pocket Wallet is designed to match the contour of your front pocket. It's very slim so it doesn't show even through lightweight slacks.

For insect sting and bite relief, I found this Therapik. It neutralizes the venom in about 20-30 seconds. I'm going camping next month and I'm definitely taking one of these with me! For travel, I think this Portable UV Scanner is one of the best Things ever invented. We've all seen those awful stories about hidden filth in hotels and motels. In just a few seconds, this gadget destroys bacteria and viruses like E-coli, hepatitis, influenza and others with the same technology that is used in hospitals. The UVC light turns on when you flip it open—you simply pass it over surfaces you want to sterilize.

I like useful Things, but Things for just plain fun are my favorite. These Wireless Headphones make it easy for two people to listen to music or television at the same time, even in different places and at different volumes. I think they're more comfortable than ear buds and without being wired to the stereo, you can work outside or just roam around the house without getting out of earshot of whatever you're listening to. Digital Picture Converter makes 35mm negatives and slides into digital images. It's a smaller, less expensive version of high-end negative scanners. My sister and I were playing with it here in the office and she had a great idea: we're going to “steal” some old photos from our parents and create a digital scrapbook for their wedding anniversary.

I think I'll head back out to the warehouse and see what other great Things I can find.

2.12.2008

movie mania

If you follow this blog, you know I love movies and movie memorabilia. Not just collectibles like film cels, but toys, posters, stamps, action figures and just about anything that reminds me of my favorite movies. Our buyers are always looking for cool Things to collect from the movies—and there are a lot of them this year.

The Harry Potter series is one of my favorites. I've read all the books and seen every movie so I had to have this framed set of Harry Potter Film Cels from the original prints of all five movies. I also bought one for my cousin, even though his birthday is several months away. You never know when we're going to sell out of these Things.

The Lord of the Rings is arguably the greatest fantasy film series of all time. These are movies that you don't see just once, but twice or even three times. (Who? Me?) I got The Lord of The Rings Trilogy Cels to display on my bookcase between my worn out old copies of the books.

I honestly can't see why, but my sister is totally crazy for Johnny Depp. She was the very first to buy the Pirates of the Caribbean Film Cels from us. True, I was second, but because I think the series is one of the best Disney has ever released, not because I want to make googly eyes at Jack Sparrow's picture. Sheesh. Maybe I don't always understand her, but my sister can be kind of cool sometimes. For example, she knows that Star Wars is one of my favorite science fiction movie series. She bought the History of Star Wars Film Cels collection for me before I even knew we had it. It was just hanging in my office when I came to work one morning.

Toys from the movies are fun, too. Especially if you actually play with them like I do. I got this Star Trek Phaser for just that reason. It has sound and light effects and a break-away design that lets you remove the “type one” phaser from the pistol grip. I keep it on my desk, right next to my Alien Vs Predator action figures. If you ask me, memorabilia you use is the best kind.

That's why I always end up buying Things like this Scarface Gun Lamp and Indiana Jones Hat. I use the lamp in my home office and, yes, I do wear the hat—not just for Halloween, either. It's a cool hat and it's well made.

Sometimes useful Things are purposely transformed into collectibles. This Harry Potter Stamp Set is a perfect example. Issued by Britain's postal service on July 17, 2007, the stamps are canceled with the official "First Day of Issue" Quidditch postmark, so even if you lived in Great Britain, you couldn't use them. Because they're a piece of British memorabilia celebrating the Harry Potter phenomenon, of course I had to have them.

Now that I have my collectibles in order, I'm going to head out to the warehouse and see what kind of new gadgets we have to play with. I love my job.

2.08.2008

coins, coins, coins

We're collectors. Nearly everyone who works here collects something. My grandpa collects coins. Since his birthday is coming up, I went looking through our stock of coins for something unique and interesting to add to his collection.

America's First Silver Dollar was the first Thing that caught my eye. It's not a replica—it's a .903 silver coin minted when Mexico was still a Spanish colony. Based on Mexico's eight Reales silver coins, these silver dollars were legal tender in the U.S. from 1794 to 1857. He also collects the state quarters, so he might like these 51st State Quarters even though they're outside the official collection. They were privately minted after a the Senate bill that would have extended the program with quarters for Washington DC and the four US territories was anonymously blocked.

Gramps also likes to search bulk coins. When I was a kid, I used to help him go through bags and bags of unsearched coins looking for that one rare find that would make his day. This bag of Buffalo Nickels, minted between 1913 and 1938, might help him round out his nickel collection.

Our Genuine Mercury Dimes collection contains ten of these increasingly rare coins. The dimes are mounted for display with one .900 silver dime from each of the last ten years of issue (1936-1945.) And this set of Double-Dated Coins is also ready for display. It contains coins of the same denomination that shared a common production year but had different designs. For example, in 1916, the Barber dime was ending its 24-year run and the Mercury dime was beginning.

Lincoln pennies are really popular with collectors and this is the best Lincoln Penny Collection I've ever seen. 98 pennies, one from each year of issue (including the increasingly rare 1943 steel cent) are displayed in a museum-quality portfolio. It's great for both new collectors and lifetime collectors like my grandfather.

Collectors also like counterfeit coins—as long as there's a good story behind them. The Racketeer Nickel is a perfect example. Called “the most brazen coin fraud in American history,” a deaf-mute named Josh Tatum gold-plated Liberty Head Nickels and passed them off as five dollar coins. And because of a legal technicality, he was never punished for it! To reproduce Tatum's crime, we've plated these Liberty Head Nickels in 24-karat gold and mounted them for display.

Finally, no collector can resist recovered treasure. Our Sunken Treasure Coin is part of a collection of coins lost in 1809 when a British trading ship bound for India sunk in a sudden storm. The ship and its cargo were recovered in 1985. The “10 Cash” coins were packed in wooden casks and trapped in the thick mud so they are still in mint condition.

Since I can't buy every Thing I found in our collection of coins, the hardest thing now will be to decide which of these collectible coins and/or coin collections to give to Gramps for his birthday...