Sales Cat

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues...

It's no secret that I will occasionally peruse the Facebook Marketplace looking for a bargain in Model Rockets. (The Big Score)

You can sometimes find either a good value on a used rocket, an OOP rocket kit or maybe a pack of motors that aren't available anywhere else.

Of course, as soon as I say this, there's immediately someone who pipes up and says, "You'd do better to buy a brand new kit from an existing distributor for confidence in the product."  

Yeah, you're right.  But part of the appeal is the thrill of the hunt....And the thought that you're rescuing a rocket from obscurity or investing in something that you don't mind if it goes sideways or doesn't come back.  You have little invested in it.

So, with that in mind, let me share with you something that I discovered just this week.  In order for your ad for a model rocket (or anything else, for that matter) to stand out, you need either a dramatic photo, or a catchy name, or both.

Just this week, I discovered somebody in the mid-west who is advertising their used rockets along with a photo of their cat.  Their hairless cat.

I don't mean that it's just a shot of a cat.  It's a shot of the rocket standing up on the kitchen table, and their hairless cat next to it.  You know that it hasn't been posed, cause sometimes the cat is laying, or sitting, or licking, or turning away.  But a little search for "Model Rocket" and then scanning the listings will turn up 3 to 5 of these photos and attract your attention.  And that's the name of the game... to attract your attention and get you to stop and look.

In almost every instance, the rocket has been used, and there are ample photos of the rocket from every angle. The descriptions are good and clear.

But every single listing ends with an additional photo of the cat, somewhat wrapped in a blanket, and some meme lettering superimposed that says, "World domination is within my grasp!"  Or something cute like that.  And in the description, it refers to the creature as "Salescat", though that's not the seller's name. "All proceeds go to Salescat’s space program for world domination."

It's been enough to get me to look at each of his listings.  Pretty clever.

But I've also noticed an honest frankness in the descriptions when it comes to damage, missing parts or other issues.

In the listing for the Mean Machine (normally 6 ft tall), the description shares that it is somewhat shorter than that now. "The 6 foot tall Mean Machine from Estes, but just a -tiny bit- shorter. Coming in at under 30 inches, this Mean Machine had an unfortunate encounter with the ground that resulted in its new height. "  It made me laugh at the understatement, and the fact that my Mean Machine went through exactly the same truncation! 

There's a listing for a Big Bertha rocket that admits that it had been treed for a while, until the body came down, minus the parachute and nosecone...."The famous Big Bertha from Estes! This model once coasted for 1.5 minutes and sailed a quarter mile on a flight with an oversized parachute that landed it in a tree. Unfortunately that tree charged a nose cone tax for the rocket and therefore there’s no nose cone included."  Such clever honesty makes me trust the listing, and I just MIGHT have a replacement nosecone.  I've experienced an Estes rocket or two hanging up in a tree, and suspended by the rubber shock cord.  Eventually, that shock cord fatigues or rots or tears...and the body will come down on its own.  So I know just exactly what he's describing here.

What I'm suggesting is that by applying a little creativity and frank, clever writing, he's got me seriously considering his listing.   He's likely to make a sale and I'm likely to gain a used rocket when I know exactly what's missing and why.

That's salesmanship.

But I suspect Salescat already knows that.

This has been the Thrifty Rocketeer, encouraging you not to overlook those used rocket listings.