Enter Roger Jensen

So we move to the country, and supplement our residual income by combing flea markets for neat finds to sell on eBay. One day, while standing in the line at the Post Office, this guy comes in with an armload of boxes. Well, as I was doing the same thing, I thought he might also be posting eBay items. So I ask him about it. Kinda nosey that way, I am....

No, he says, I run a pottery company. "Like pots and things made on one of those wheel things?" I ask. He said that he makes mostly cookie jars. Humm... I think I may find a little part time work here.

"Hey, could you use some part time help?"

He asks me if I can use an Air Brush. Yes, I said. (I was an automotive painter in a past life...before computers took over my life in the early 90's)

In about 3 weeks, I was his production manager, and my wife was acting as his business consultant. You have to understand, this guy was a total moron, but it seemed that he had been doing pottery long enough and had enough contacts that we might be able to use his past business venues to help him put out an acceptable product and gain an acceptable margin. He hardly made a dime on his pottery due to his poor business practices and spending habits.

The other thing we had to deal with was that he based his product line on other companies’ products. Defunct companies, vintage items. He even marked his items to mimic the original. He had originally told me he was the McCoy Pottery Company, so I didn't think anything about this until my wife did a little checking, and found that this guy was the scourge of the cookie jar collectors’ genre.

We tried for three months to turn this guy around and make his company something legitimate. We even enlisted the help of the President of The McCoy Pottery Collectors Society, Chiquita Prestwood.

See her complete article about that effort HERE

So what happened? I'll post that in the next topic.