CONTENTed

My First Directory
The other day I was riding my bike and spotted a Schlitz beer can on the side of the road. Not really a remarkable occurrence except that it flashed me back about 30 years to when I used to collect beer cans. Schlitz was known for having cans in a variety of sizes from about 7 oz. to 24 oz. Those cans looked pretty cool on my shelves back then.

As my friends and I sourced these cans from road sides or cajoled our parents to buy them we learned about a book called the Beer Can Collector's Bible. It was published by Jack Martells in 1976 and it served as a directory to help us organize our collections.

Aside from a dictionary, thesaurus or encylopedia, this was the first bit of reference material I owned that was not for some scholarly pursuit. The biggest frustration, however, was that the publication lacked any information on price or value of the cans. It's amazing to think about how the market for collectibles and other items has changed with the advent of the Internet and marketplaces like EBAY. Collectors can communicate with each other to find the elusive item for their collection and get current market conditions.

Alas, my collection got put in the dumpster last year when my parent's sold their house. They did have someone take a look at the collection but there was not much worth selling. At least I still have my baseball cards!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

You Should Never Say "What Customers Need to Understand is..." I always cringe when product people utter the words “What customers need to understand is…”. To me it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how to serve a market. I saw this sentiment reported in a recent New York Times article on the hearing aid market which explained that the pricing model is essentially a forced bundle where two thirds of the price was for service, including hearing evaluation, counseling and adjustments over the life of the product. This approach has put a pair of hearing aids at or about $5,000. The manufacturers believe, and perhaps rightly so, that diagnosing and treating hearing loss are too complex for consumers to do using consumer devices, without the aid of a professional and therefore justifies the forced bundle. However, in this age of self-service people will search out their own solutions. By assuming a status quo approach with forced bundles a...

Trading Print Dollars for Digital Dimes in the Paperless Cockpit There was a fascinating article in the New York Times entitled the Paperless Cockpit . It describes the trend of airlines and private pilots to trade off 40 pounds of paper for a 1.5 pound iPad. One interviewed pilot summed the benefit up succinctly: “ When you need to a make a decision in the cockpit, three to four minutes fumbling with paper is an eternity.” There were a couple of other noteworthy points that the information industry can relate to as pilots embrace the “electronic flight bag”: Form Factor – The small, easy to carry tablet affords many benefits to pilots. As all professional publishers know, the shift to electronic offerings has been going on for decades. The Information Industry Association, the predecessor to the SIIA was founded over forty years ago for pioneering digital publishers. Early electronic products focused on news and financial data. However, accountants, consultants and ...

Publishing Industry Contacts (Updated December 2019) As I've moved through the information industry I've collected contacts about associations, financial firms, companies, recruiters and consultants. I've maintained it as a word document and am finally moving it online so that I can refer job seekers and industry researchers there. I'm hoping it will be easier to update and more permanent. Please send any additions, deletions or corrections to ed.keating@gmail.com or use the comment feature below. 1) Associations a) SIIA – Software & Information Industry Association. They cover the content and software area quite well. . i) FISD.net – Financial division of SIIA b) SIPA – Specialized Information Publishers Association (merged with SIIA) c) American Business Media – Founded in 1906, American Business Media is the association for business-to-business information providers, including producers of print publications, websites, trade shows and other medi...