How To Turn A Fad Into Cash?

Boom Box, Flagpole Sitting, Pac-Man, Slinky, Bellbottom Jeans, Pet Rock, Hyper-Mini Dress, Mood Ring and Hula Hoop.  What do these all have in common?  They were fads.  Products all the rage in their day and the long life of a snow cone in the Sahara Desert.  I'm sure we all love a snow cone in the Sahara. That's also the appeal of fads.  People willing to try anything once leap on board social craze.  What are the fads today?  What where the fads of last year or five years ago?  Please try to remember because the fads today may bring you lots of cash tomorrow?

Aha.  Got ya!  You don't think you do.  Ever watch Antiques Road Show.  You nod your head.  I watched it all the time.  I love to see all those expert appraisers making a living giving advice and revealing the rising cost of old fads.  The early Barbie goes for thousands of dollars.  Some old candy dispenser worth more than a computer.  You get the idea.  I'll return to this later.

Knowing a trend can make you savvy.  You'll probably get a promotion at work.  Everyone will want to be your friend on the playground if you in the know of trends.  They'll laugh at you if you're into a fad.  If your friends don't want to be around you, you're probably following some fad.  On the other hand, trends don't make you a lot of money.  Try to sell a 386 PC.  I'll give you $2, if it works.  Trends mean everyone will have the item and its upgrades for a long time.  Fad means everyone will pay you to take their Hula-Hoop off their hands. Wii is a trend.  Where's the Beef?" fad.  The Walkman from the 70s was a trend.  Beta was a fad.  VCR was a trend.  Brat Pack Movies fad and probably worth more money than ever before now.  Three wheel cars are a fad.  When a lot of movies are being made about meteors crashing into earth -- you're seeing a fad.  One the first two fad meteor movies will make money.   Be careful when you research for fad from trend.  Some website get this all wrong. High School Musical, mini skirts with leggings, Speed Dating are fads but Ipods, You Tube and Blogging are trends.  If you know a trend from a fad your on your way to making a lot of money -- in the future.

You must know which fad is so bad; it's no good at all.  The not so bad fads may bring you lots of money.  Gee you say this is hard work.  http://www.badfads.com they make it easier at Badfads.com.  Hint: Bad fads usually involve a lot of pain: Flagpole Sitting, Dance Marathons and Goldfish Swallowing.

We all have junk in our attics, basements, closets, drawers, flea markets, garage sales and even unpacked suitcases from vacation trips. Asks your parents of those a generation behind you? They'll barely remember, but they will remember their generations' fads or trends. You're dad or mom stuff their Star Wars Light Saber Version One somewhere... ask them? Hope it's in good shape.

Try this website http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2011.php They give you a run down on all the objects your generation up to a specific year has never heard about. I also list this on my blog on http://cupiderosbooks.com/Blog.html if you should ever forget the name and link. Fascinating site to realize you were born when so many fad objects died and trends started taking off.

Click out to Crazyfads.com just so you can practice knowing a Fad when you see one, go here: http://www.crazyfads.com

A generic list of where to find fads and trends:

Antiquities
Arms and Militaria
Asian Arts
Books and Manuscripts
Clocks and Watches
Collectibles
Dolls
Folk Art
Furniture
Glass
Jewelry
Metalwork and Sculpture
Musical Instruments
Paintings and Drawings
Photographs
Pottery and Porcelain
Prints and Posters
Rugs and Textiles
Science and Technology
Silver
Sports Memorabilia
Toys and Games
Tribal Arts


Second Place in the Antiques Roadshow Top Ten Items Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlkYn39i4Fw
A hand-woven Navajo Ute First Phase wearing blank. A blanket!

First Place in the Antiques Roadshow Top Ten was a 1937 oil painting by one of the leading figures of Abstract Expressionism. That's sounds about right, Abstract paintings are very weird and faddish, but this painting paid off huge!

One woman and her grandmother brought home a cache of assorted trinkets from the Mariana Islands and other South Sea destinations estimated to be worth an astounding $35,000. http://www.mercurynews.com/topstories/ci_13162433

Trends, the flip side of fads, will make you money decades later -- after everyone else has thrown their trend objects away.  I know this is paradoxical thinking, but the early Wii will be worth thousands by 2060!  Of course, all of us would have traded ours in, toss them away, smashed them into walls and let our pets play use them by then.  What can I say?  Trends have a hard long life.  Success can be boring for making money as a collectible.

For me this is a toss up.  I've seen blogging sites here today, gone tomorrow.  I've seen websites follow this trend too.  Personally I believe with great content, blogging is definitely a trend on its way up.  What is becoming a 100% fad are newspapers!  Shocking but true.  So I'm going outside to buy a newspaper right now in my Zootsuit Suit, Bellbottom Jeans and Platform Shoes working my Rubiks Cube in my right hand, the same hand my Mood Ring is on, and hopping to find a girl in a tye-dyed rainbow top and Hyper-Mini dress who is swallowing goldfish as I appraise the Ute blanket around her shoulders.

Cupideros is the owner of a creative writing website, http://www.cupiderosbooks.com and has used these methods in his fiction writing and has a Free Online Fiction Writing Course and Free Online Poetry Writing Course.  He is the owner of http://www.careysastrology.net where he sells astrology reports, future transits, friends and lover reports.  If you want to order 20+Characters for Fiction, you'll find this one http://cupiderosbooks.com/20Charactersforfiction.html