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Nick Federowicz - Vintage Advertisements That Are As Good As The Real Thing
811 Plays2 years ago
Today we’re chatting with Nick, the proprietor of AdPatina – a company that sources, sells, and frames vintage advertisements, ranging from watches, cars, to Eames chairs. I’ve been following Nick for a few years now, watching his business grow, and getting hooked on vintage advertisements myself. Nick’s a watch and ad collector as well, and while he can’t keep everything being that this is his business, he has immense passion for what he does and will tell you first hand that these pieces invoke a similar feeling of excitement when you look at them – especially if they are framed – and I can attest to that. There is a lot of exciting things in the works at AdPatina, but I urge you to check out his website and Instagram, just so you can get a sense for how great this stuff is. These make for a great collection for yourself or even a gift and won’t break the bank. Sorry in advance for giving you all something else to spend money on, but it’s too good to not share. So here you go, Nick @ AdPatina, for Collectors Gene Radio.
Ad Patina - https://www.adpatina.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/adpatina/
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Transcript
Introduction to Collector's Gene Radio
00:00:00
Speaker
But really the ad is, I said earlier, it's the next best thing to the watch. It's real. It's from the same era. And for me, it's the closest I'm going to come to a lot of watches. And honestly, having an original Nautilus ad hanging up in our home, I'm as content as if I were to own the watch.
00:00:25
Speaker
What's going on everybody and welcome to collector's gene radio. This is all about diving into the nuances of collecting and ultimately finding out whether or not our guests have what we like to call the collector's gene. If you have the time, please subscribe and leave a review. It truly helps. Thanks a bunch for listening and please enjoy today's guest on collector's gene radio.
Interview with Nick Frederick of Atpatina
00:00:50
Speaker
Today we're chatting with Nick Frederick, the proprietor of Atpatina, a company that sources, sells, and frames vintage advertisements ranging from watches and cars all the way to Eames chairs. Now I've been following Nick for a few years now and watching his business grow and flourish and really getting hooked on vintage advertisements myself.
00:01:09
Speaker
But Nick's a watch and ad collector at heart. And while he can't keep everything as it's his business, he has this immense passion for what he does. And we'll tell you firsthand that these pieces really invoke a feeling of excitement just from looking at them, especially if they're framed. And I can attest to that. Now there's a lot of exciting things in the works at ad patina, but I urge you to just check out his website and Instagram just so you can get a sense for how great this stuff really is.
00:01:35
Speaker
These make for a great collection for yourself or even a gift. And I can promise you they won't break the bank. So I apologize in advance for giving you all something else to spend your money on, but it's really just too good to not share. So here you go.
Focusing on Vintage Advertisements Instead of Physical Collectibles
00:01:48
Speaker
Nick at ad patina for collectors gene radio. Nick, AKA ad patina. Welcome to collectors gene radio. Hey Cameron. Thanks for having me, man.
00:01:59
Speaker
My absolute pleasure. For those that don't know you, I guess a quick synopsis is that you hunt, collect, sell, buy, find. Your proprietorship of ad patina is kind of the culmination of all of that. But your place in the overall watch community, if you will, and maybe car community as well, is quite different than most, right? Most people are physical watch and car collectors.
00:02:28
Speaker
what you're doing is you're sourcing and selling these advertisements to collectors. Would you say that's kind of in the wheelhouse there?
00:02:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, that does happen. People like myself are out there, which is nice. I'm not the only one. In the beginning, I wasn't sure how the ads would be received. Watches, there's so many objects that have a great history and track record of being lusted after and collected, but magazine print advertisements,
00:03:01
Speaker
haven't had that same enthusiasm. And so it's been nice to, over the years, basically share an area of history that I really like and enjoy for many reasons.
Promoting Vintage Ads on Instagram and Online
00:03:17
Speaker
And through Instagram and my website, I share these original magazine print ads and
00:03:27
Speaker
I share the reasons why I like them. And again, the reason varies. It's just beautiful. It could be it's very unique or hard to find. I don't like to use the word rare. But anyways, the number of reasons why I love the ads, which there's a lot of reasons people love watches. And then it's been nice to see over the years, again, other people like me,
00:03:54
Speaker
have a similar interest. At the end of the day, the ads do sell and they go to good homes, I think. They're gifted. People buy them for a variety of reasons. It's really nice to see the market for vintage ads come about. I think the way that I go about doing it is the
00:04:19
Speaker
I have a collector mentality and being a watch person and loving watches, it's just really nice to collect watches and do something in the watch world, but not with physical watches, with the next best thing in my opinion.
00:04:37
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you've effectively found a way for collectors like me to find something else to collect in the same realm, which are these advertisements. And I personally, I try and buy them for items that are in my personal collection. And we'll touch on that a little bit later. But I'm curious how all of this came about. I mean, where did your love for watches and maybe cars and then subsequently, vintage advertisements come from?
Journey from Rolex Datejust to Vintage Ad Enthusiast
00:05:03
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, a lot of people who know of me know my watch story. Basically, in 1998, so this is gonna be going on 25 years ago, I basically saved money from a minimum wage job and bought myself a Rolex Datejust, and I bought it during a high school class trip to Paris.
00:05:32
Speaker
So I'm going to leave it there. That's amazing. There's so much more I could like reminisce about and go down memory lane. And no, please do. It's an immensely important moment in my life for a lot of reasons, you know, just setting a goal.
00:05:49
Speaker
Just getting this, you know, why I wanted to watch, I wanted to own something that I had nothing to do with collecting. I'll say, you know, a lot of times, you know, watches are purchased today because someone's a collector, they're into watches, they love the history, they love
00:06:06
Speaker
you know, the movement, etc. Back then it was really, I wanted to own one nice object that I could have with me my whole life. And if I was going to spend this money, which was about $2,000 at the time, I wanted to buy something that would last. And, you know, I landed on a Rolex watch. And part of the reason I landed on a Rolex watch was
00:06:30
Speaker
I owe to the advertisements. So this was 1998. So again, when I remember going to the doctor's, I would be in a waiting room waiting to go to the dentist. And nowadays, everyone's on a cell phone in the dentist office waiting to get called in. They're scrolling through. There were no cell phones then. And so there were magazines. So you picked up a magazine and you flipped through it while you waited.
00:06:57
Speaker
And I remember seeing Rolex ads in magazines, and they jumped out at me. I was very impressionable.
00:07:09
Speaker
the ads reinforced this watch as being this indispensable, really great, essential tool that a lot of adventurers depended on. So obviously it was going to be something that would last and hold up based on the marketing. And also it seemed like an object that people purchased when they were
00:07:32
Speaker
you know, the height of their profession or something that they rewarded themselves with when they did good work. And all those things resonated with me. And so, you know, it was a combination of reasons why I landed on a Rolex. But yeah, so that's kind of going back 25 years now, how I got started with watches, and how I got introduced to magazine advertisements.
00:07:57
Speaker
And nowadays, it's kind of come full circle. I make a living. And it's really nice to do the business that I do because, again, it really reminds me of the early days, which I'm really fond of. I'm a very nostalgic person. And then as far as getting into ads, what I do today, this is probably going back five or six years. And I want to own more watches.
00:08:26
Speaker
But they're expensive, at least my taste. And there are a lot of competition for them.
Ads as a Cost-Effective Collecting Alternative
00:08:32
Speaker
And they're hard to come by. There's so many great watch dealers out there. There's just a lot of watch dealers in general. So when people have things, I love the hunt. My preferred way to acquire a watch is from an original owner or a family member. The most difficult kind.
00:08:50
Speaker
Again, everybody who collects things, they have a strategy, they enjoy certain aspects of it. One of the things I really love is just the hunt and the
00:09:07
Speaker
for lack of a better word, the transaction. That ultimately takes place because it's never always smooth. When you work with a dealer, it's probably smooth. There's the watch and there's a price and maybe you negotiate and you wire money and get it sent to you and it's kind of done. When you're dealing with individuals,
00:09:27
Speaker
There's always just kind of craziness that happens. And I love that part of the acquisition, bringing something into the collection. I'd love to have that story to go along with maybe the story.
00:09:42
Speaker
that's ultimately going to accompany the watch when I wear it and do things with it. But yeah, anyways, it got really hard to collect watches for a lot of reasons. And so I really have this urge to want to collect and collect watches, but I can't because, again, they're expensive. And so I thought to myself, I know of ads. I've seen images of ads. I know these exist, right? Sometimes they would pop up occasionally in an article, a reference.
00:10:12
Speaker
But i never i didn't have them in my hand i couldn't hold i didn't have this physical i wanted i wanted to. You know have it in my hands cuz i wasn't sure like is it a real add something else photoshopped is it sales catalog is actually in a magazine and i just really appeal to me to try to like on ads because i have to go through all the same.
00:10:33
Speaker
methods to find these ads as I do trying to find a watch where I prefer to find them. The process really appeals to me trying to find something. Scaring magazines, flea markets, eBay.
00:10:48
Speaker
Yeah, it's everything. I like to get my hands dirty and I like to get out there in the world and I like to communicate with people and talk to people. It's fun to get packages in the mail. It's fun to discover things. It's fun to share things that you find. I have so many great
00:11:08
Speaker
great friends, you know, that are amazing collectors. And I, you know, I love when they find like a fresh watch, you know, like, I just know that it didn't come from a dealer, it just they, you know, they've got their ways and they've got their network and, oh my God, how did you just come up with this, like,
00:11:27
Speaker
This watch was like buried in a time capsule. It's like your speed master has never been worn. Wow. That's a thrill. I say it to this day and I really am honest. It's really honest. When I get the same thrill, the same excitement level, finding certain ads as I would if it was the watch.
00:11:52
Speaker
And it's because of how I think about these ads. It's how special I feel they are. Not everyone feels it that way, and that's fine. But yeah, they've really taken the planning ads, collecting ads, has really taken the place of meat-eating watchers. I mean, I want more, but I'm not buying for a new one tomorrow.
00:12:14
Speaker
Is there a fine line between you, you know, buying the ads for your business and then also collecting them for yourself?
Balancing Personal Enjoyment with Business in Collecting
00:12:23
Speaker
Yeah, in the beginning, you know, I didn't go into this thinking I was gonna have a business. It was just to collect, right, for myself. And I shared them on my Instagram. And then eventually, you know, I was encouraged to sell them. And it was a tough decision a little bit because I was like, you know, well, what if I can't find it again? You know, this is like hard to find.
00:12:43
Speaker
I kinda reconciled it pretty quickly because you know part of the fun is the hunt and you know what if i sell something i can find it again and that's just how how goes you know there's a lot of watch dealers that cannot keep the watches that they find because they have a business to run and it's the same thing and also.
00:13:02
Speaker
I've gotten to know so many people and it's nice to know where ads go and it feels good knowing where the ads are going. The way my business works, I communicate with everybody.
00:13:14
Speaker
And I know I have a chance to interject. I have a chance to talk to everybody. People have a chance to ask questions. So no one goes on a website and just clicks and buys something and then it gets packed up and sent. And so when someone wants an ad, let's say that's a hard-to-find ad, like, ooh, I'm on the fence about selling it. Ooh, I don't know what I'll have it again. You know, I know that person. And chances are that person is someone that's
00:13:37
Speaker
They've been along for the ride for years, you know, and it feels good. Like, hey, I don't mind, I don't mind selling this parting with it because I know it's going to so and so. And man, if I ever needed it back, sure we could work something out or, you know, even if not, it's just, it's wonderful to know, you know, X person or Y person, and they're proud of it.
00:13:56
Speaker
But yeah, in the beginning, everything had to go because you're starting a business, you need to sell things, you need to get a track record, reputation. Nowadays, it's a little different. I'm a lot stingier. I use that word. I'm letting things go because five plus years in, I know a lot about availability. I know a lot about
00:14:20
Speaker
you know, how hard it's going to be to replace something. I know a lot more about my customer base. I know a lot more about pricing. So yeah, certain ads, it's kind of developed. I kind of have a little bit of everything, right? Like I have, I'm like a watch dealer that sells like Seiko and Paul Newlands, right? I have everything. Right. You know, over time, and this is a credit to, you know, there's just been so much interest in the ads.
00:14:46
Speaker
that certain ads have separated themselves from the pack for a variety of reasons. They've just proven that they're great. People love them. They just respond to them. They want to frame them. They're just beautiful. They're historic. People know they're hard to find and they want to own something that's on the rare side. Today, I do hold back some ads.
00:15:11
Speaker
you know, whether they're reserved for making sure they really go to the right home or, you know, people have been with you for a long time and supported you. You want to make sure they get a chance to, you know, kind of get a first crack at something. You know, I think that's only natural. And so I think one of my responsibilities, you know, over the years I've kind of taken on, I kind of put a lot of responsibilities on my shoulders now because there's a market and there's an interest in these ads and
00:15:38
Speaker
And so it's kind of my job to also archive and save stuff. So I do save stuff now to have it because it's not for sale because I don't know when I'll ever have it again. And I need to have a record of this. I need to have this real original object. And I've told many people, someone wants something. I'm like, well, I only have one right now.
00:16:01
Speaker
When I get another one, then I'll make one available. For me, it's important to run a business, but it's also important to be an archivist or have these preserved for the future. I don't know what the future holds for the ads.
00:16:25
Speaker
I'm sure a lot of watch dealers wish that they just like, you know, saved stuff, you know, like they just, but you know, they couldn't for some reason, you know, and that happens to me sometimes sometimes it's like, you know what, it's time for this one to go. I know I'll find it again. You know, but there are some ads that are just like, I don't know when I'm ever going to have it again. And I tell people all the time, like,
00:16:42
Speaker
I don't have that one is gonna leave them to like price and you know what people reach out for me about an ad and sometimes it's very you know it's a very you know normal and let's say right like it's not nothing hard to find. It just comes down to you know let's find this make sure you get a really nice condition one.
00:17:01
Speaker
But sometimes some of the pricing is a bit crazy. And it's that way. It doesn't just happen out of the blue. It happens over the years. Again, there's kind of a history with ads and things selling. And so I'll tell some people sometimes I'll be like, you know, I know you want this ad. I haven't had it in a long time. This is one that I might get one a year.
00:17:22
Speaker
to be honest. And I kind of set expectations what they're getting themselves into with the weight and the price. And so yeah, pricing is all over the place. I said before, I love being the only one doing this, at least the way I do it, to the level and the lengths that I go to, whether it's sourcing or talking to people or framing. I'm very involved in the business and I love all aspects of it.
00:17:49
Speaker
But pricing had to start somewhere years ago. I had to think about what I would pay for something. I had to think about the time it took to find it, different other costs that go into things like shipping.
00:18:05
Speaker
And then I had to think about what is it that I have in my hand? How will people react to an original Nautilus ad? When it's 2017, I've got an original Nautilus ad in my hand. I don't know much about this ad. I don't know what the universe looks like for this ad. I don't know if there's a zillion of them, if there's one of them. But you've got to start with a price somewhere. So you just kind of start with a base and then you kind of adjust
00:18:33
Speaker
from there based on what you feel like you got. It's really about gut. It's really about instinct. It's what I believe something's the value. That's a weird place for me to be and I talked about it with people. It's an exciting place to be. If I became a watch dealer tomorrow and I had an inventory, there's a lot of people selling watches and there's a range for pricing.
00:18:57
Speaker
And so i don't you know there's always little tweaks you can make you know something box and papers or condition but you know for the most part there's a system in place and you know with ads. I didn't invent selling ads i didn't invent framing an ad but i don't but i think the people that have done it in the past.
00:19:14
Speaker
they're not passionate watch collectors, right? And so they don't recognize if they've got two Patek ads in front of them, right? And they've got one that's an ellipse, maybe, and one that's anautilus. You know, to that person who just ripped them out of a magazine, they are equivalent, right? But to a watch person, those are not equivalent, right? And so the price shouldn't be equivalent, you know? And so I think that's one of the,
00:19:41
Speaker
You know, that was an interesting place for me to be back in the day using my, you know, watch knowledge and also, I guess my eye for ad spotting, you know, what I thought was a good ad. Again, I don't have a background in advertising and I'm not an authority on giving out awards for like most effective ads. It's just, it really comes from my heart and my brain and just, hey, this looks like a beautiful ad.
00:20:08
Speaker
And you've done this long enough that you know what you've seen over the last few years and how many and how many you haven't seen of certain ads? I would say 75% of what I sell is very simple to price, right? There's a system to it and that I pretty much stick to. But there's 25% of the ads, let's say, that are hard to price and hard to know what to do with.
00:20:29
Speaker
It's a day-to-day decision. It's a game-time decision because it might be something I have that I only got one of them. I don't know when I'm going to find another, like I said. But it doesn't mean the ad is rare. It doesn't mean it's hard to find. It might just be a drought. Maybe I'll find 10 next week. Or maybe it's true and it will prove that it is going to be hard to find. So I deal with that all the time. What do I do with stuff?
Educating Customers on Ad History and Significance
00:20:53
Speaker
But at the end of the day, I'm always available to talk to people. I talk to people all the time on the phone. I'm happy to take extra pictures. I mean, go to any lens people need me to go to for any ad, any size project so that people know exactly what they're getting and they know about it. I think it's not exciting for me to just sell something. It's exciting for me to share something and then educate people about it.
00:21:20
Speaker
to the extent that they want to know about it you know i'll talk to someone for an hour on the phone about a thirty five dollar ad you know that's probably not efficient for business but oftentimes i don't view that what i do as a business it's just my it's my passion it's like what i love to do and,
00:21:37
Speaker
Yeah, I can talk about and geek out, nerd out over an ad and all the little aspects of it, just like you can a watch. Talk about the fonts and the dimensions and this and that. But yeah, pricing. The last thing I'll say is sometimes it's really just about like you start somewhere and then hey, maybe an ad, I just think it's beautiful.
00:21:59
Speaker
mark it up a little bit just because it's gorgeous. And then maybe I mark it up a little bit more because it's hard to find. Maybe it gets marked up a little more because it's very popular. And so it's an equation and it's, I don't know what kind of equation it is, it's calculus, trigonometry, it's all these things. But I don't know, it's fun to price stuff. It's fun to, it's been really great to again, introduce ads.
00:22:23
Speaker
to people who didn't necessarily pay attention to them. Even myself, I am each day, as the weeks roll on, I get more excited about the ads in different areas that I want to dive into to talk about and to share different aspects of the ads. And doing a variety of products and brands really allows me to
00:22:51
Speaker
It's a huge topic and it's always hard to know where to start when it comes to discussing it.
00:22:57
Speaker
A lot of people would probably think finding these ads would be fairly easy, but it's really not, especially when it comes to some of the rare ones. They can go on your website and see ads between, call it $45 and $95, but when it comes to the really, really rare stuff that's really not making it to your website, it's just going based off of a client list or someone's having you source something.
00:23:21
Speaker
If someone wants to come and do that with you, what can they usually expect in terms of a range to pay for something that's really, really rare? So nowadays, again, I said there are certain ads that have kind of proven themselves over time, meaning they have a great track record of people being interested in them, ultimately purchasing them. And there's also knowledge that I have these days where I may find an ad tomorrow and I may have never sold it before.
00:23:51
Speaker
But I know based on similar ads that this is one of those ads. And I'm going to speed up the process of giving it its pedestal and maybe the pricing that goes along with it. And so there's a number of ads now that if somebody wanted to buy one and it was framed, it would probably be $6.95 to $9.95 all in.
00:24:18
Speaker
I'll be honest, sometimes it's hard for me to ask that price because it is a bit of a jump. But I have some people that tell me I don't charge enough. And yeah, I mean, I listen, but also it's one person or two people, right? And I really want ads to be enjoyed by everyone. I love selling a variety. But I can't have every watch, right? I can't go and
00:24:47
Speaker
call up Eric Wynn tomorrow and be like, yeah, I'll take that big crown sub, and I can't afford that. I can't buy that watch, right? That's not for me. It's not for me. But when you can, he'll find it for you.
00:25:00
Speaker
Well, I don't want to ever be that person that says, oh, this is not for you. But that's how watches work, right? I mean, it's unfortunate, but I can't buy a vintage Daytona. I would love one. I would love to own one. Maybe someday, I'll save up, I'll splurge, I'll make a crazy financial decision, and I'll buy one. But I can't get a vintage Daytona right now.
00:25:25
Speaker
And when someone wants a vintage Daytona ad, you know, some of them are priced on the higher side. You know, there's one from 1967. And I'm not going to say it's rare. It's hard to find. Maybe this year, if I had to guess, I might have, I don't know, I'd stay confident I could probably find six of them this year, you know, maybe two months.
00:25:50
Speaker
That's pretty rare. If you divide up the amount of time that it would take you to spend and look for these, I would say that that makes that fairly rare, especially given the time period. That's an ad that I'm not going to find a ton this year. It's not going to be raining 1967 Daytona ads. It's a beautiful ad. Of all the vintage Daytona ads I've had, talking about four of them from the 60s, full-page vintage Daytona ads, that one has performed the best.
00:26:20
Speaker
And I think there's a reason why. I think it's just visually awesome, the imagery. It's a driver with racing gloves and he's in the cockpit of a race car and the watch is on his wrist. It's just a really cool ad. It's really a photograph first and then an ad second. And I think people respond to framing photographs. That's what we're trained to do. And so anyway, a lot of reasons I think it's done well. But forever, that ad sells.
00:26:46
Speaker
you know, all day long at a high price, right? And so the history, the future of that ad is going to be, it's going to be constant, right? At that price point or creep up a little bit potentially. And, you know, part of the reason is because the people who bought that ad
00:27:02
Speaker
I couldn't just sell it to one person for one price and then sell it to the next person for half the price. That's not fair. No watch dealer would do that. I keep using the watch dealer as an analogy, but I think it makes sense. You have to have a consistency. You have to be fair.
00:27:17
Speaker
We have to go through the same motions with everybody when they reach out when they reach out about something talking about what's the condition of this one you know maybe the condition isn't as good and we've got a little room for error you know hundred dollars here and there but yeah i mean i don't know i and there's there's a number of ads now that are.
00:27:33
Speaker
you know, frame their $6.95, $7.95, there's a few that sell for $9.95. And then when I say sell, I mean, they've sold. And I just think that I like the market being developed and sort of being where it's at. Because I have other Daytona ads, right? Like, I have some really great... I have other great 10-16 ads that
00:27:59
Speaker
you know, are a third or half the price. And so there's other options, right? And so it isn't like every Daytona ad is priced that way. No, there's, you know, three or four out of the 25. But I don't know, I try to be fair, I try to work with everybody. Again, I'm an open book to discuss things with people. I give people all the information and then ultimately they will decide. I do like educating and, you know,
00:28:25
Speaker
you know people love to know about their ad you know there's not a lot of history is not a lot of resources out there for people to find out about stuff so when someone buys a particular ad you know i'll tell them you know what year it's from and i'll give them little bit of information over the years about my experience finding it in
00:28:40
Speaker
maybe I'll tell someone where it came from. And so when they have it in their home or their office or when they're gifting it to someone, it isn't just like, here you go. It's, hey, this is from 1967. And they can rattle off some bullet points. Just like anyone who owns a watch, they love to share little bits and pieces and factoids about their watch, the nuances of their watch. I can go onto the nuances of an ad.
00:29:05
Speaker
And I think that that's just a little, I mean, I would want that, right? Like, I think I view the experience I give to somebody, it's what I would want if I was going to spend $100, $300, $500 on something, right? I would want that, that one-on-one individual attention and be able to ask any question and not be afraid to ask any question and be able to have an open dialogue about like what it is where
00:29:31
Speaker
working with here. Because I want people to be infected the way I was by ads. I want people to feel the energy that ads give to me. I want people to feel that energy. And I think the only way to do that is to just kind of open up and go hard and just really spill my guts to people, whether it's typing a caption on Instagram or whether it's talking to them on the phone.
00:29:59
Speaker
With watches, there's already been so much work that's been done and there's been so much content and so much passion that's poured into watches that it's not hard to fall in love with the GMT. As an example, it's a little hard to fall in love with this ad, but really the ad is, I said it earlier, it's the next best thing to the watch. It's real. It's from the same era. For me, it's like,
00:30:30
Speaker
It's the closest I'm going to come to a lot of watches. Honestly, having an original Nautilus ad hanging up in our home, I'm as content as if I were to own the watch. Maybe I've never owned an Nautilus and if I had the money to do it, I'd probably do something else with the money, a different watch or just a different thing. Sure.
00:30:49
Speaker
And so the ad works, man. It's a crazy fraction of the price and it's really beautiful and there's so much wrapped up in that ad if you want to dissect it. And it gives me pleasure. It gives me joy, especially when it's just a super mint ad and it's framed precisely and I take care of all the frames. I'm really fanatical about
00:31:13
Speaker
you know, being really careful with things and making sure stuff is pristine. I can attest. I mean, they definitely strike a chord. I have a few myself and I adore them. I love looking at them. You know, as I mentioned earlier, I collect them based on the watches or models of watches that I own. And to me, that's just like the coolest thing to have to just think back to those times, especially when you collect vintage, right?
00:31:40
Speaker
to think back to those times when they were putting these watches out into the world and into these advertisements and the marketing that they were doing behind them to try and get people to buy them is just so different than what they do now. I mean, in my opinion, they really don't do anything now, but we'll get back to that later.
Demand and Scarcity of Specific Vintage Ads
00:31:56
Speaker
What are some advertisements that are being requested from you on a consistent basis? Not brand-wise, because obviously Rolex and Patek and Porsche and all those brands are getting requested, but how about a specific advertisement?
00:32:10
Speaker
There isn't one particular ad that's selling five of them a week. It's not like that. How about this? Are you getting requests for the GMT ads where the Explorer ads are some of those the most requested, would you say? Yeah. I would say the Matterhorn, the top of the Matterhorn. That's such a cool one. That has been the most requested ad.
00:32:41
Speaker
All time. Not that easy to find either. Very hard now. I should have held on. I mean I have a few right now. I should have held on more. But it's okay because again I know the people who have them. And it's part of running a business and it's a great ad. There are certain classic ads that I post.
00:33:01
Speaker
that I do get a lot of inquiries about. I would say one is the Eames chair. It's an ad from 1969. It's the Eames lounge chair. Whenever I have that one, people want it right away.
00:33:17
Speaker
But it's not something people are requesting, right? Sometimes it's like people don't know unless they see it, they're not thinking about unless they see it. And that's one when when it pops up, you know, I do get a lot of requests for it. It's extremely difficult to find now. Like, if we did that same question, you know, how many do I think I'll find this year, Eames ads, I'd probably cut it in half and be like maybe three this year, I'll find I'll be happy with, you know, once when we want a quarter, maybe we'll go four.
00:33:45
Speaker
And are those ads specifically being found in magazines, would you say, or? Well, everything's from a magazine, but that's going to be one of those ads. That's an outlier, you know, condition irrelevant too. You know, sometimes when something is so hard to find, you have to be really willing to, um, forgive certain, uh, condition issues. You know, um, there are some ads, you know, like kind of a, you know, a more, um,
00:34:10
Speaker
an ad that's maybe $45 or $65 or $75, that's probably an ad that's not terribly difficult to find. If I had one and it wasn't great, I would tell the person, hey, just hang in there a few weeks and let me find you better. Part of collecting is being patient and I give people the opportunity to get the best when it's possible. Some people do wait, they're very patient.
00:34:36
Speaker
But it's not a great answer, really. And I think what I love about not being able to answer this question with a firm like, hey, this is the most requested, this is the, is that I'm getting so much interest from so many different types of people for so many different types of ads. Very unique ads. It's got to be pretty hard to keep track of.
00:35:00
Speaker
I always just gravitate towards finding ads and pulling ads that I like personally and that I think there's an audience for. I talk to people all the time. The Instagram is like a forum. Everyone's messaging me in the background, talking, discussing things. They're planting seeds. Hey, have you ever find a Volkswagen Golf ad? Let me know. So now I'm like, oh, okay.
00:35:26
Speaker
you know it you know over the course of six months when i have like four people ask me what was wagner ads maybe it's time to like a little more attention to both wagner ads and let's let's let's find a few and those are like you know really satisfying projects to do especially because.
00:35:42
Speaker
They're very specific ads that might only be for one person. The market for that ad might be one person. The market for the Matterhorn ad is like thousands of people. So many people would want one. But there are some ads where it's just for one person. And it's cool to be able to match that up. Find that ad with that person and for that reason. It was the car they learned to drive on when they were younger. It was their first car or something. You know what I mean? They went on a road trip. And it has a memory.
00:36:10
Speaker
And so, I will say, nowadays, people are really interested in two-page ads, which are a little more challenging to do when it comes to framing. But they're really great because they obviously have a lot more scale. You know, magazines are only so big, right? These are not posters. They're not, you know, large works of art. And so, you know, they can only get so big.
00:36:35
Speaker
You know whenever i post a good two page ad if they get screwed up pretty quickly. You know sometimes i'll post a two page ad and it's like i did one the other day of daniel craig. He's like walking on the street is wearing a sea master is nasty martin and to pay.
00:36:50
Speaker
up really quickly, right? It's incredible. Yeah, I think I'm learning as I go and that's really one of the exciting things about doing what I do is that this is new territory, right? I get to experiment not only with what I show but with how I create a framing and I get feedback. When I do a frame with color, do people love color or do they hate color?
00:37:13
Speaker
And some people have probably been following for years and all of a sudden you just do one ad in one combination and they're like, oh my god. Like the other day someone commented about something I did and it's nice to get feedback and to know what's working and what's not and I'm constantly tweaking things and being critical and I love myself.
00:37:36
Speaker
Have you ever, you know, been skimming through a magazine, you know, maybe a year prior and let's say you pass by a Volkswagen advertisement and you're like, yeah, it's cool, but not really my thing. I'm not really getting requests for it. And then the next year, a week later, you get a request for it and you've already thrown the rest of the magazine out. Oh God. Yeah. You know, in the beginning, you know, the first couple of years, it was such, it was so much watch emphasis, right? And like some, some automotive stuff, you know, like some Land Rover and Porsche stuff, you know, sort of the brands that I,
00:38:06
Speaker
I knew it was a market for it. Of course, there's Porsche community and Land Rover's are great ads. But yeah, I'm still constantly looking for watch ads. There's so many I know exist. Just like day one, I know watch ads exist. I haven't found them yet. That's the thrill. That's part of what keeps me going. This year, I hope to check off
00:38:26
Speaker
you know, three or four grail ads, right, that I know exists, but I've never physically had them yet in my hand. I've never possessed the magazine. I've never opened it up. I've never taken it out. And then there's some stuff that nobody knows exists. And I hope to be the person to discover it, right? And I did that a number of times, I think, last year.
00:38:44
Speaker
And those are great moments. And so, you know, the watch stuff will continue. But yeah, in the beginning, it was a lot of watch stuff. And, you know, I would flip past cars, some car stuff. I would flip past some, you know, ads for travel. You know what I mean? That I wish I had today, you know. It's just, you know, you can't keep everything, you know. You know, you try to recycle things and you try to use the magazines the best you can. But ultimately, you know, you have to make decisions.
00:39:12
Speaker
I'm sure watch dealers pass up on stuff, tons of stuff. I don't know. Of course. I don't want that. Why do I want that? That's not going to sell. Who wants a Universal Geneve Tricompax? I'm selling bubblebacks. That's just the nature of it. How about a horror story? Have you ever found a perfect ad and then you're tearing it out of the magazine and you accidentally rip it in half?
00:39:34
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great question. And I talk about this stuff, you know, certainly with people individually. But, you know, people see the end product, right? Like, nobody sees what goes on to get there, right? Like, whether it's the time or the mistakes. And, yeah, I can remember, you know, a few times
00:39:56
Speaker
where I'm talking about the two-page ad. One of the challenges with a two-page ad is you have to basically extract it and then reconnect it. Sometimes there's imagery right in the middle, and that imagery has to line up perfectly to me.
00:40:12
Speaker
And you only have one chance to do it. So there's a very special archival tape, for lack of a better word, that's very safe to use on thin paper. It's not going to harm the paper. There's no residue that's going to seep through. When I do framing, there's no shortcuts. I use all the best materials.
00:40:38
Speaker
Are collecting is like preserving this and having it last forever like i love the idea of rescuing this great ad for a magazine that will otherwise be tossed or. Who knows you know and rescue me and now we have to you know preserve it cuz it can last you know for a long time and so i have to put these you gotta put two pages together and basically what's the use of this tape on one page and then you gotta lay this other page like perfectly.
00:41:04
Speaker
And you only have one shot, because once that paper touches the tape, it's not coming off the tape. So if you have it crooked, if it's overlapped too much.
00:41:13
Speaker
It's done. And so I was doing an ad. It was a year ago. It was a year ago, maybe next month. And someone reached out to me and they wanted this ad and I had one. It was a two page data graph ad. And I was all ready to do it. And I'm telling you, I had it like, I was like filming it, like to do a real, like I had a whole thing planned to like show the process. But I think it's cool to show the process, like what goes on behind the scenes. So people understand like,
00:41:39
Speaker
You know, this stuff doesn't just magically happen. Like, I don't find these things. We have to, like, rest and feel like it's so paper together and, like...
00:41:46
Speaker
make things kiss and so that it all presents the right way. None of these ads were meant to be framed, right? And so they don't all cooperate nicely. And sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. So anyways, I'm filming and yeah, I end up just missing my mark, right? It's lined up wrong. And oh my God, I think my wife was home. I think the kids were, they were at daycare.
00:42:15
Speaker
I mean, I like the F bomb and I just like lost my mind. I think I literally just like, I didn't even try to see if I could fix it. I remember just crumpling the ad in my hand and throwing it. I was, it's like real. I would, I must've been so red in the face. My veins, my neck pulsating. I was like probably shaking. I was so bad for like 30 seconds, right? Like just.
00:42:43
Speaker
Oh my, I just couldn't believe it. And to this day, I've never found that ad again. And that person still wants it. And I talked to them like last month. I still have not found that one ad. So again, talk about like, man, I had it all ready to go. Ready to get, you know, the project was ready. He was going to pay me. Everything was in the works. And I, it happens, right? I'm a human, right? Like none of this is done by a machine, right? There's a human element to this.
00:43:12
Speaker
And I allow myself to have some degree of imperfection, right? Because it's impossible sometimes to be perfect, right? Like I'm dealing with paper. I'm not Rolex. I'm not a factory with like all this precision lasers and machinery. Like I'm a person and I have hands and trust me, I'm super, super careful.
00:43:31
Speaker
And I have a pretty high degree of quality control. And for whatever reason, when I landed that page and it was misaligned, I just hated it right away. And I just crumpled it up and I just went ballistic on myself. And eventually you cool down and it's not the end of the world. And you write an email to the person right after and you explain what happened. And he was super understanding. I think he appreciated that.
00:43:59
Speaker
You know, striving for like, you know, perfection. But yeah, I have other stories too where I've, you know, screwed up in the head. And sometimes I can fix it, sometimes I can't. Sometimes it's like reaching out to the person being like, hey, I just dropped an X-Acto knife on your ad and there's a hole in it now. And can you wait? Can I find you a new one? I mean, it's not common, right? Like that's such a, it's a very low percentage of the time that that stuff happens.
00:44:30
Speaker
Yeah, mistakes happen, man. I don't know. I'm sure a watchmaker or a dealer has had the same thing happen, you know?
00:44:36
Speaker
Of course. And they fix something. I mean, the important thing is you keep in touch with people and you let them know what's happening. And when that netframe will eventually get done, like I said, that person is still hanging in there. And when they do get it, they'll have that story to tell. So when someone comes over their house for dinner, they can not only talk about the ad that it's a hard ad to find, right? Like I've had one in a year. But they can also talk about this was attempt number two, because the first one, what happened?
00:45:05
Speaker
But yeah, there's a lot that goes into, you know, making things happen. So it definitely, you know, usually it goes smooth and usually it goes really according to plan. And certainly, you know, the end product on Instagram, let's say, or the website, you know, the finished product looks like, you know, looks great. But yeah, there's a lot of blood, sweat and tears sometimes. I mean, I've cut myself before and, you know, tried not to bleed on that. I mean, all that stuff. So obviously a large portion of the ads that you sell are
00:45:33
Speaker
vehicle base now, Porsche, Land Rover, Mercedes, and you get requests for things like the Eames chair and
Expanding into Luxury and Fashion Advertisement Collecting
00:45:39
Speaker
whatnot. But do you see yourself really expanding and starting to really stock ads for other luxury collectibles and jewelry and stuff like that? I do. I don't know the percentage, but I would say watch ads are still pretty heavily
00:45:54
Speaker
heavy percentage of what I do, which is fine. The car stuff is great, the auto stuff. There's always been travel sprinkled in. My background is fashion retail, so I worked at Nordstrom, which is a really well-known big department store in the US. I sold women's shoes, men's shoes, so I'm familiar with fashion.
00:46:18
Speaker
And yeah, I personally have a really strong desire to share more ads from different products. Of course. Because they're beautiful. At the end of the day, you know, I want something, you know, we all, we love stuff, right? Whether it's a car or a handbag or cameras.
00:46:43
Speaker
And when you can find something that is related to an object that you save up for, that you collect, that you lust after, you can find something that's authentic, original, and is part of that object's history. Kind of almost sometimes the origin, where it started, or from a day and age when it wasn't collectible, when it was a utility.
00:47:08
Speaker
when the price was crazy low or whatever. I think that resonates with people. For example, I do have the website now. I'm constantly working on the website, updating it. I have a lot of fun things in the works for the site this year. I have a section on there. It's called Fashion.
00:47:29
Speaker
lifestyle and you know there's a there's a area there with Chanel you know and Chanel it's obviously a it's a fashion brand it's clothing couture it's you know it's fragrances it's a lifestyle and you know there's a lot of great Chanel ads just showing a perfume bottle you know they're just just a nice pretty ad you know the color I think a lot of fashion ads
00:47:56
Speaker
I don't know if it's the nature of the industry or the people, the creative people, but a lot of fashion ads tend to just be more beautiful. I don't know how else to explain it. Just the colors and the layout and the ambiance and the aura is less, sometimes less product and more of a picture or an image or a scene.
00:48:25
Speaker
And so they let them sell a lot of fashion ads lend themselves well framing you know what ads are the same way sometimes your car as you sometimes we talk about the daytona ad earlier you are the matter for you is a great image is a picture of a hand holding on to a mountain and you just know you can picture that photograph if you took off the words. You can picture that photograph in the gallery of the photography wing of a museum you know just this really nice black and white
00:48:52
Speaker
And so I think a lot of fashion ads have that vibe to them, that feel. And I think there's a lot of people out there that would appreciate an ad for those products because they use them. On our home, we have a Chanel ad framed from 1947.
00:49:11
Speaker
And it's crazy to think how old it is. It's post-war. And trust me, my wife and I, we have two young kids and we don't go out on date nights. We don't dress up. We don't put on a perfume. And so I think the reason I love that ad is because it sort of represents an aspiration, like a goal. Like, hey, someday we'll get to this point in our life where we
00:49:39
Speaker
Can i rekindle some of that you know i'm going out and dressing up and.
Preserving Ad History and Educating the Public
00:49:44
Speaker
You know putting a perfume could be a little older and will be able to you know and and so you want we want to you know you aspire to have that lifestyle you know that that that that. You know call grown up.
00:49:57
Speaker
kind of fancy lifestyle, but it's not happening right now. And the ad fills in, right? And so when I see that ad, it reminds me like, hey, you know what, you get there one day, you'll be able to kind of do something luxurious. But also that ad reminds me of fashion and working in retail. I worked in shoe department and right across from the shoe department was always the cosmetics department, right?
00:50:21
Speaker
I have a correlation to that and it's also just a beautiful picture and it's super old and it's just the idea of holding this piece of paper that's that old and not knowing how that ad came to be. I don't know if that bottle of perfume or that ad is a photograph or a drawing. I don't know. And that's part of also what I want to do and the service that I want to offer to people is tell the history of ads. And because a watch collector, there's so many great resources to learn the history of a GMT or a Royal Oak.
00:50:51
Speaker
And I want to be able to share with people more information about ads. Who's the agency? Who are the photographers? Where did it come from? How did this photo shoot go down? Because I think that's all important stuff to know and that collectors want to know, and it's going to help.
00:51:07
Speaker
Appreciate more and also get them hooked more and it's gonna find the people gonna find you know it's gonna strike a chord with certain people and so yeah that's a goal for twenty twenty three and i have some stuff in the works also to you know share more about the history of ads not just my personal history sourcing experience framing and handling and
00:51:27
Speaker
the availability, I can always give people that education, right? But the more scholarly education, the more academic education, the more industry education about the process and magazines being published and hopefully I get to talk to people this year about that kind of stuff that have been in the industry that are retired and just get little bits of information and start piecing it together. I think that's one of the exciting things about being in this area is being able to
00:51:51
Speaker
try to piece it all together and then figure out how do i get this information out there. I can't do it all myself. So do I bring somebody on to help write about stuff and post stuff? We'll see. It's a lot more than just selling ads. It's really a whole experience and welcoming them into your life. Ultimately, people are hanging them on their walls and it's a form of art. I think
00:52:19
Speaker
We tend to hang things on our walls that we love, you know, pictures of family or vacations or, you know, we follow a photographer that we love, you want to hang up their work. And, you know, watches or automobiles, they're such a big part of people's lives that it makes sense to have something from that on the wall. And some of the people that created these ads, you know, those are the artists
00:52:47
Speaker
that are important to us. Whoever created the Matterhorn, I don't know who it is, but I wanna know the man or woman who created that ad. And once I know that, that name is gonna become a household name, because I'm gonna let people know. And we wanna give credit to those people who created these great ads and celebrate their work. That's their life's work. They worked at an agency and they played such a vital role in getting the word out and then perhaps getting people hooked, just like I got hooked on watches through the ads.
00:53:17
Speaker
It's just fun to be able to kind of showcase this work of people and not have it thrown away. Absolutely. How many watches or how many watch ads rather would you say are in your personal collection? And do you have one that is maybe a standout favorite? Yeah, in my personal collection, I don't know, I'm probably hanging on to like, I don't know, maybe a dozen.
00:53:46
Speaker
You know, stuff that's, you know, ad, they're not all watch ads. They're ads that are hung up around our home. You know, the one that I will say is my favorite is not a watch ad. It is a Cartier ad. It is larger.
00:54:04
Speaker
A larger page, which is cool. Again, talking about scale. It's a larger page. It's an ad from the late 90s and it is basically a panther looking in a window. I absolutely love that advertisement. It is one of my favorites. Yeah, there's never one reason why I do something or like something. I think one of the reasons is we have two young kids.
00:54:31
Speaker
I didn't grow up in a family that collected things. And I like that our kids get to interact with these ads and they get to see me work on a daily basis doing what I do because, you know, essentially work from home. I love that they're around all this, but they don't know what it is exactly. Right. So they're around.
00:54:56
Speaker
watches around these wonderful vintage ads for these brands and things that are very luxurious, cost a lot of money, are very sought after. But the Cartier ad, they see a panther. That's what they see. They see an animal. And that's what I love. They interact with that ad.
00:55:19
Speaker
in a way that is so innocent and so without any knowing what Cartier is, they're not thinking about jewels, they're not thinking about prices, they're not thinking about Paris, they're not thinking about the things that we go to first.
00:55:37
Speaker
That's the very last thing on their mind, right? Right. The best thing for me about that advertisement is that Cartier decided, one, I just love Cartier and anyone that knows me knows I love Cartier, but they took a line of products that they already made under that name and
Personal Favorites and Aesthetic Appreciations
00:55:54
Speaker
they just brought it to life in a really, really fun, creative and simple way.
00:55:58
Speaker
Yeah, it's amazing. It's an ad that has performed well over the years. It's on the higher end. It's 995 framed. I have one now available. It's in absolutely perfect condition.
00:56:15
Speaker
Again, it's in our home. To this day, I look at it every day and I never get tired of it. It's just a nice image, the colors. When you get up close and see it in person, like the paper quality, somebody who ended up buying it, I was describing it to them and I called the paper, I called it sumptuous. They were like, Nick, stop. I'm sold at sumptuous. You don't need to say anything else, right?
00:56:44
Speaker
Again, people have interacted with watches forever, but not everyone's interacted with an ad, like the actual paper. It's an experience. When you see that paper behind glass and you see the dimensionality and the tactility and you see the character and you know it's real. It comes to life. It's very dynamic. It isn't just like this
00:57:12
Speaker
thing that's photocopied on a perfect piece of paper, on a perfect board. It's a real living thing behind glass. That's something that I've had to really come to terms with. What does a perfect frame look like? What does a perfect page look like? That's something that I'm still
00:57:29
Speaker
You know, determining today, you know, I mean, so much of collecting things, you know, condition and grading stuff and pricing stuff based on condition. It's such a big topic. And that's that's part of my world too, you know, and it's also it's very subjective. And when no one else does what I do, I'm setting the standard, right? I've had plenty of people, you know, I mean, I've
00:57:50
Speaker
You know bought things from people and and and their idea of perfect is not my idea and i'll be like you know sorry i would have bought that but i see fingerprint stains on it you know it's just not i just can't do it you know i don't really want to have that you know i don't want to offer that you know and turning things down. Sometimes that's an opportunity for someone to get something great at a great at a really low price to you know like some of these ads we mentioned if i had them and they were in really poor condition.
00:58:12
Speaker
will be priced accordingly and so just like a watch, a watch with a service dial is less than one with an original dial. But yeah, the Cartier Panther, again, that's in our home. We move it around to different, I'm always moving frames around and that's moved around to different rooms in the house. But that one still really brings me a lot of joy.
00:58:35
Speaker
I had somebody receive it as a Christmas gift recently and they ended up calling me on the phone and telling me that they got it and they were so happy with it and that was such a nice call to hear. When someone picks up the phone and calls you to tell you that they unwrapped this framed Cartier Panther ad and that it was everything they hoped and more. And that ad delivers. I will say that ad delivers every time. It is never a letdown at all. No, it's never wrong.
00:59:06
Speaker
If you could say one thing to watch brands about their current advertising now versus their vintage, if you will, advertising, similar to the ads that you sell. If you could say one thing to the brands right now, what would you tell them? Oh, that's a good question too. Are brands listening to collector's gene? I hope so, but maybe not for your sake.
00:59:31
Speaker
So there are some good ads out there. I mean, in general, there's definitely not the percentage wise, there's not as many great ads today as there were years ago.
00:59:44
Speaker
To me, I look at the advertisements and I feel that they've just taken photos from their website and put them on a big page. There's no emphasis around it. Once in a while, you see a celebrity in an advertisement wearing something. But to me, they just don't evoke any sort of – they don't pull on any sort of heartstrings or anything like that. I think maybe a lot of today, a lot of things sell themselves today.
01:00:10
Speaker
how effective advertising is, like print magazine advertising, I don't know how effective it is, selling a product more so than it's just, it's another
01:00:20
Speaker
It's just another way for the brand to be in somebody's field of vision, you know, in their periphery. So I don't know how much time and energy is being spent creating ads. Now that's not, listen, there are ads where I can tell that there's a lot of creative energy and a lot of time and energy being spent. You know, there are Gucci ads, for instance, these days that come out that are like, you know, four or five pages. There's like a whole scene. It looks like a Vogue photo shoot. You know, there's obviously a lot that goes into that, right?
01:00:49
Speaker
But I think that I don't know, I guess I wish that maybe brands would see it's tricky because, you know, we're in this we're in this watch community and we think that we're their audience and sometimes we're not right. Like their audience is just sort of the someone who's not in so deep. Yeah, I think the ads just I wish that they had a little bit more
01:01:12
Speaker
I want to say soul or more. I think that's perfect. They're not stopping me in my tracks. They're not compelling me to read. They're just not connecting with me. But there are some ads like I saw a Rolex ad recently and it was for Daytona. It was for a white gold.
01:01:31
Speaker
Daytona on the rubber strap and it's two pages and you know, there's images f1 There's images of Jackie Stewart and so there's examples out there and again, I'm not looking for modern ads on a regular basis So although this is my world I may not be the best person to judge because I'm not like I'm seeing them all right like I'm 90% of the time I'm looking at vintage stuff. So I'm very biased towards vintage stuff I think in general it probably is if we probably is better but I think that there is an effort being done to
01:02:02
Speaker
make ads that are a bit compelling in terms of going back and making them visual, making them tie into history. Is anybody buying that Daytona because of Jackie Stewart? Probably not. Are they buying it because there's an F1 car? Maybe that's more so the reason. An F1 has been used in ads going back to the 60s for Rolex.
01:02:26
Speaker
Yeah, there's just some of the ads are just a little sterile. They're just a little kind of plain. They just kind of feel like they're being done because it's a part of the process. You know, advertising is being done differently now. And I think the energy that maybe brands put into like their content creation on Instagram or their
01:02:46
Speaker
Things that they do, events that they do, those are probably more effective today than print magazine ads because people aren't reading magazines that much. People are going to, people are on Instagram where people are not going to events. People are seeing, people are conscious of watching celebrities and athletes and that's
01:03:06
Speaker
the new way, you know, watches aren't tools anymore. So I don't know that you can advertise them as tools like you could back in the day. And that's part of the reason we love old ads because it's this, you know, way that they're being marketed to us. You know, like it's so cool to see a explorer on the hand of somebody grabbing a mountain, right? Because nobody's wearing their explorer.
01:03:32
Speaker
10-16 to go mountain climbing. Most people, right? And so that's why that ad part of it, that's why it like stands out. So it's like, holy moly, this is just like, wow, this like hits me. This is like so cool. I can imagine, remember the days, you know, someone bought that for like 195 bucks. They got a discount. They were on a trip and they wore that watch for 30 years. You know, I think that's part of it. And you can't really recreate that with something modern. You know, there's something about vintage that you just can't create with modern. You know, even when a brand recreates a watch, you know,
01:04:00
Speaker
If they make a good good good stab at it but for someone who really loves vintage stuff it's never gonna be equivalent right. And i think there's opportunities for brands to do more compelling ads i think that they gotta be people really nowadays were such a visual.
01:04:20
Speaker
Society I think with Instagram especially you know I know I respond to things you know visually first probably and So you know ads have to just be they have to catch you they have to catch your eye And you know when a watch just kind of sits there on a page
01:04:34
Speaker
We see better pictures taken by people on Instagram. We see more cooler, more fun photos by people on Instagram. There's people that take great wrist shots, and I'm not even talking about basic wrist shots. You know what I mean? I think the pictures that we see in coffee table books and pictures we see on Instagram, maybe if more of those type of photos were used in an ad rather than
01:05:01
Speaker
brand using a celebrity might be more effective, you know, just a person who isn't a celebrity, but it's just a lifestyle shot somebody, you know, and let's hope they're listening. Yeah, instead of using a tennis star, like I get it, like, I'm sure people buy watches because Roger Federer is a Rolex, you know, ambassador, right? Roger's probably a really good guy. And he's think they want to because he's a Rolex ambassador, you know, but I don't, I don't think they necessarily can.
01:05:31
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it makes total sense to use him in ads, right? And Rolex has used athletes in their ads for the longest time, so you don't need to deviate from that. But, you know, maybe the way you should photograph him, where it doesn't look like you know he's just sitting in a chair with people all around him.
01:05:49
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like a cooler, a different setting, you know? Of course. Like if there was a Roger, if there was a Rolex ad with like, you know, him just kind of like with his wife and they had their watches on and it was just like, it looked like a picture Annie Leibovitz took or something. It would be like, that would be sick, right? Like that would be amazing. You know, like Louis Vuitton just did an ad with Messi and Ronaldo and they're just playing chess and it was shot by Annie Leibovitz, right? Yeah, it was incredible.
01:06:15
Speaker
Right away, that's an ad and that has an incredible impact on Louis Vuitton. Those are two huge people in the world that are incredibly followed on Instagram.
Comparing Modern and Vintage Watch Ads
01:06:29
Speaker
That might persuade somebody who never bought a Louis product to go and get a wallet. But the way that that ad is shot,
01:06:37
Speaker
Yeah, I get it. They probably don't play chess. They're sitting over a chessboard, right? And so, yeah, these two probably never played a game of chess in their life. But the way it's shot, it's so believable and it looks so like, I don't know, it just feels... It's a great shot. I think at the end of the day, none of us are going to be framing a Roger Federer watch portrait for Rolex in our homes.
01:07:03
Speaker
Oh, but I mean, listen, you'd be surprised. And I just think that there's so many talented people out there who do photographs and who write content and write copy and create short movies. Again, I think the ads are out there that are great, but I don't think that they're necessarily magazines, perhaps because it's just not worth it because people aren't like reading magazines that much. I don't know. Let's wrap up here with the collector's room rundown. Sure, man. All right. What's the one that got away? Oh, man.
01:07:33
Speaker
Yeah, the one that got away. So it's very apparent to me and I still have nightmares. It was probably 2000 and it was 2014. This was before I was on Instagram. Before I ever had a watch friend, right? I met people after I joined Instagram. So I had nobody in my corner to
01:07:56
Speaker
hey any help do you think this watch is real what should i do and so i had an email from a jeweler local jeweler and it said hey nick i got a rolex Daytona cosmograph from nineteen seventy eight. And it's seven thousand dollars. He said if you want we can polish it and replace the dial with a new one.
01:08:19
Speaker
Let me know if you have any interest. So I'm reading it because I saved the email because it's so crazy. This is not even real life, but I saved the email to prove to people this is real. So that's the email I got from somebody, from a jeweler, and I knew nobody to say, hey, is this like a real watch? Like $7,000 for a vintage Daytona? This is a big red, 6265.
01:08:41
Speaker
And I remember going to look at it, and it's funny because he said, we're going to polish it for you if you want, like to sweeten the deal. Hey, we'll throw in a polish and we'll pick it up. And this is a Tiffany and Company dial, by the way. Oh my gosh.
01:08:54
Speaker
Well, yeah, even worse. $7,000 being offered in 2014, a 6265 Big Red Tiffany dial. And the condition is insane. It's unpolished. It's ridiculous. And I remember going to visit it. I held the watch. I checked it out. And I passed on it because I didn't know enough about watches. And the Valjoux movement, the pushers are not equidistant from the crown.
01:09:22
Speaker
and they're kind of like off balance. And I don't know, I just felt like I was a red flag and I just, I didn't get it. And I had a lot more money, disposable income back then than I do now. And so yeah, that haunts me to this day, passing up a Tiffany Daytona for 7,000 bucks that I'm, I'm 99% sure it was the real deal.
01:09:49
Speaker
Knowing what I know now, going back, as painful as it is to revisit that email and all those photos. I mean, it's just like the classic photos that someone takes under like a light box with like a wooden ruler to show you light. I mean, I'll send it to you, the link. Yeah, gotta see those photos. Yeah, that by the way. How about the on deck circle? What's next for you in collecting?
01:10:11
Speaker
Yeah, honestly, I think I'm a big Rolex lover. I told you earlier that that was my first brand that I bought 25 years ago. So I have a long history and I'll never not love old Rolex watches, especially with a story. The watches are smaller, they fit my wrist better. So I'll never pass up a great Rolex if it just comes about.
01:10:34
Speaker
especially from an original owner. We're talking about just finding one in the wild. But I think realistically, I really want to get to Cartier Tank. I'm just really caught up in the Cartier fever hype. I'm in the process of reading the Cartier book right now that's been out there for a few years. My wife bought it for me for Christmas. I'm 100 pages in and I'm loving it. It's just the history of the company going back and how the Santos came to be.
01:11:04
Speaker
It's a great book, and Francesca's amazing too. Yeah, no, I mean, I'm reading it slow, deliberately, just to like soak in the details and try to like really memorize the names and facts. But yeah, Cartier, it's just, you know, there's a lot of tanks out there. I got to do a little research because there's all different medals and different movements and different price points. But I think I love a lot about what the tank, to me, you know, kind of stands for.
01:11:32
Speaker
over time and today. And so I could really get behind that. And I think that's just realistic from a price point. It might even be a court's one that I get. It's really not about having the
01:11:44
Speaker
You know, something from the sixties, you know, it's, it's about just having one that I just, I like that it's got good, it's got good bones and it's got a good soul to it. And you know, so we'll see, but yeah, a tank I think is, um, is in the cards. I'm excited to see which one you go for. Putting in my due diligence, reading the book first. So, um, how about the unobtainable? Maybe when you can have it's too expensive or in a private collection, maybe a museum. Um,
01:12:11
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to give you another Rolex answer. I know it's boring, but a couple of years ago, there's an auction house in Chicago that I would go to, and they got a lot of cool
01:12:26
Speaker
things from estates and stuff, not like collectors. I imagine a lot of big auction houses, they get things from collectors, it's been owned a few times, but they had a fresh-to-market Paul Newman Daytona. It had box and papers, it was unpolished.
01:12:44
Speaker
6239, the white panda dial. It was incredible. And I got to spend some time with it. I knew the person who ran the watch department. And so I got to be in a room with it and spend some time with it and just take some pictures. The watch was obviously going to be too much, right? But at the time, a lot less than it would be today. And so it was a bit unobtainable then still. It's more unobtainable now. And I don't know where it ended up.
01:13:10
Speaker
right? I was in the room when it got auctioned. I remember sitting right next to a fellow collector's gene radio guest, Jason Fried. Yes. I think he bid on it. I don't think he went as high as they went, but we were sitting next to each other in the auction room. Yeah, it went to somebody and they got an amazing watch. It was worn, but
01:13:35
Speaker
unpolished and the patina was perfect. The plots were perfect. They were not missing. They were creamy. It was the one. I don't know where it is now. It would probably be three times the price or more because they had blocks and papers. That's the one where I'm like,
01:13:51
Speaker
Man, I wish I just liquidated my 401k in 2016 when it was available and bought it. That would have been a hell of a story, but I would wear it. That's the thing. I wouldn't buy it and save it. I would wear it. No, you got to enjoy it. Yeah, I'm big on wearing stuff. You and I both. How about the page one rewrite? If you could collect anything besides watches and advertisements, what would it be?
01:14:18
Speaker
Yeah, I don't have any fancy taste to be like, oh, I would love to collect Picassos. I think being a dad and having two kids, I wish that I was collecting Legos over the years. Yeah. Save you from buying them now.
01:14:37
Speaker
Yeah. Legos are collectible. There's people that run into a Lego store, buy everything and stash it, and then sell it on eBay for more. But there's just a lot of... I was into Legos as a kid. My mom saved them for me. And so I was able to bring them out when our son... I think I brought them out when he was two. He was very young still, but I ended up rebuilding a lot of the sets that I had when I was
01:15:03
Speaker
a kid in the late 80s and early 90s. And my whole life as a dad, Legos have been part of our life, building sets with him. And they're just such a good toy, for lack of a better word, to learn so many important skills. He learns to count, follow directions, be patient. It's just you'd be creative. And yeah, you can't just buy sets all the time because they're expensive, and especially older ones. There's so many great sets out there. And I wish that I just had
01:15:33
Speaker
a bunch of them over the years. Even if I just bought like five a year and we would just go through them now and it would be so fun to just have like 100 sets sealed and just start opening them all, just building them all with my son and daughter. That would be such a cool experience. And I mean, you can do that, right? Like I can buy these sets. They just cost a lot of money. And I did it once. Before our son was born, I bought a Ferrari F40.
01:15:58
Speaker
And you know it was five hundred bucks or something but you know and he's built it but i wish i did that you know before i even thought to have kids you know in like.
01:16:09
Speaker
In 2000, I would go to the mall and then buy a set for 50 bucks and now we build it today. If you want to buy that set today, maybe it's the Robie House of Frank Lloyd Wright. To buy that set today, it's $400. Maybe the box has been opened and it's been built. To be able to have bought it back then 10 years ago for 50 bucks and have it saved and now crack it open, that would have been a cool feeling. Yeah, I'd probably go back and collect more Legos. That's great.
01:16:35
Speaker
Sorry, that's not a sophisticated, fancy answer. No, I love that stuff. It's like the real talk I gave you with crumbling up an ad and crazy stuff. Those are great answers. That's what I want to hear. Who do you look up to in the collecting world? I know so many.
01:16:56
Speaker
people who have amazing watches, whether it's one watch or a bunch. I think for me, you know, collecting is a journey. It's an adventure. Collecting is something that I think is enjoyed
01:17:09
Speaker
with people, you know, sharing experiences, ups and downs. Again, you know, the way I do the ads, I talk to people and it makes it more enjoyable, you know, collecting them or showcasing them or even if someone just buys one, they want to be proud of it, you know, just doing it with a sense of kind of collectiveness. So I think that the collectors that I always come to my mind that I really love, like enjoy and paying attention to are people who are friends of mine because I've seen them collect over the years and I've been with them
01:17:39
Speaker
when they found stuff, right? And I've shared, I get to know the inside story of how they found something. And that's really interesting to me. You know, sometimes a collector might pop something up on Instagram and it's like, oh wow, so-and-so just got this. But you don't know how they got it, right? You don't know if they bought it from a dealer or what. And so, for me, three people that I admire and think they have great collections and I look forward to watching their collections grow would be my friend Justin Brackus.
01:18:06
Speaker
who is in Wisconsin. He's a watch dealer. He also collects many other things. My friend Andrew, T-Swiss T. Amazing collection. And Rob Bazamut.
01:18:18
Speaker
So those are all names people might know, but I'm very fortunate to have them for a long time. I mean, I can remember the early days with Rob and Andrew and to see where they're at now and to see their taste change, evolve, you know, for them to, you know,
01:18:37
Speaker
Get rid of examples, replace examples, fall out of love with something, buy it again, to know the stories about how they found stuff. So and so sent them an email, or they had to drive here.
Living Vicariously Through Friends' Watch Collections
01:18:47
Speaker
I kind of live vicariously through them. I don't have the time these days to hunt watches. They do. Well, I mean, they're busy too, but that's kind of their side project that they do, is collect watches. And my side project is running this business, which takes a lot of time. And so I don't get to do the same hunting that they do on a daily basis.
01:19:06
Speaker
So yeah, they don't, unfortunately, Rob and Andrew, they used to be local here in Chicago and they moved away. So I don't see them as much. And so that's, I miss them. And I miss, you know, sharing a beer with them and really getting the scoop on a watch that they found. And they have impeccable taste and their condition is always really great. And they're smart guys and they're very willing to share information. And I think that's part of what makes a great collector is collecting in a variety of ways and also, you know, not keeping it all to yourself, you know, sharing it and helping people.
01:19:36
Speaker
Couldn't agree more.
Enjoying the Hunt and Ownership of Collectibles
01:19:38
Speaker
I think you answered this one earlier, but do you enjoy the hunt or the ownership more? I don't know if I answered it. I think when you truly find something, an object that you love, I think you love the process and you love the ownership. Some people just kind of love the chase and then
01:20:01
Speaker
Once that's over with, you know, it's kind of like a little bit of a, you know, it deflates a little bit and then they kind of like move on to something else. I think, yeah, I think I'm kind of a 50-50 person. You know, it's like you definitely, definitely I'm a little bit more on the hunt side, right? Because I just crave the hunt, the getting my hands dirty, the story, the chasing it. But when you, whenever you obtain, whether it's a watch or,
01:20:31
Speaker
When it's right, it's as satisfying as everything that led up to it. Yeah, it's always nice to enjoy said thing. Yeah, you want to enjoy the object at the end of the day and with watches you can because you can wear them and ads you can because you can visually see them. You can put it on your wall and you can look at it and you can enjoy it. It's not on your wrist, but it's like your wall is the wrist.
01:20:58
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, I have a couple watches. I have, you know, one of my old explorers, you know, I love the hunt and I love finding it, how I ended up acquiring it. But I also wear it like almost, I've worn it, you know, to this right now, at this moment, I've had it on over a hundred days straight. And I love wearing it, right? I look at it and it's beautiful. I love the scratches. I love the perfect dial under the crystal. I love watching the crystal get all
01:21:23
Speaker
you know, crazy swirls and stuff on it. I love my kids touching it. I fell asleep with it on the other night. And so I love the ownership and wearing it and enjoying it.
Story of Acquiring a Watch from an Original Owner's Grandson
01:21:37
Speaker
But I loved going back in 2017 when I got that email from somebody and said they had one and it was the grandson of the original owner and all the things that led up to it. The emails, the back and forth, meeting the person at Starbucks, eventually buying it in a parking lot, paying for it on the hood of a car with a cashier's check. That was all very exciting too. That's the kind of thing. In a perfect world,
01:22:00
Speaker
You love all aspects of it and it just never fades. The joy never really fades. It's always there. I love it.
Desire to Expand Collecting Interests
01:22:10
Speaker
Most importantly, do you feel that you were born with the collector's gene? Yeah, I do. I think I want to have a lot of stuff.
01:22:20
Speaker
You know, it's a terrible phrase and it's probably like a horrible thing to say. I mean, look, I understand what I want and why I want it. I think that's really important. I think you have to know why you're buying stuff and why you're collecting stuff.
01:22:35
Speaker
For me, sometimes it goes back to the watch that I bought 25 years ago. You're making money, you want to spend money on something. Yeah, you have to take care of responsibilities first. And a lot of things I don't own today that I want to own, that I want to be irrational and buy, but I have responsibilities. I have kids, I have a business.
01:22:57
Speaker
But yeah, I hope to acquire more watches. I hope to have some more cool pieces of furniture. I hope to buy some vintage Lego sets that are, you know, crazy priced. Maybe I'll have a cool car one day. I don't know. But I definitely want
Collecting as a Communal Activity
01:23:13
Speaker
to have more stuff. And I think what makes it really, what makes it feel good is that, you know, I'm not doing it by myself. You know, I'm doing it with people.
01:23:21
Speaker
people who are helping me along the way with advice. And also, people are enjoying it with me. My kids will enjoy everything I buy. My wife will enjoy everything I buy. And I think that's important. I'm not buying anything to put on a shelf. It's for people who come to our house,
01:23:41
Speaker
If I buy an old travel poster and it costs $1,000, I want people who come over our house to have dinner to see it and to think it's cool and to look at it and then for me to talk to them about it and to maybe get them interested in it and maybe they don't buy an original, maybe they buy a replica. But it's fun to share this stuff. It's not something I want to just have all to myself. It makes it worthwhile or justified. I don't know.
Conclusion and Appreciation for the Interview
01:24:05
Speaker
There you have it Nick from ad patina. Thank you so much for coming on the collector's gene radio It's been truly a pleasure to chat with you and I can't wait to follow along for the future of everything you're working on Yeah, man. Thank you again for the opportunity. This is a really awesome way to start 2023 and You know look forward to more of the guests that you guys have on the show. I appreciate it. You take care. Thanks Cameron
01:24:35
Speaker
All right, that does it for this episode. Thank you all for listening to Collector's Gene Radio.