TYPICALLY AMERICAN THINGS THAT YOU COULD SELL TO EUROPE
I AM TYPICALLY AMERICAN. YOU
CAN'T GET ME in PARIS or LONDONWhen you move merchandise, or do "Import/Export" do it to benefit from the inequality of coin. What costs you a dollar should be worth TEN DOLLARS somewhere else. That's the place you want to find. Having researched the way to attract those big, fat Euros I've found certain items that are HOT in EUROPE which we've got here and nowhere else! When we're just starting up, we can't afford air travel, so it's best to create things or find things HERE to EXPORT to more 'flush' shores.
You start with exporting (not importing) as local artisanry is cheaper for you to get hold of within a few miles of your home. Not a whole lot of travel expenses. LATER, when you're a Mr. Moneybags, you can travel to the third world and upgrade their designs to spark Europe's interest. EUROPE already has great CHINESE designs and EAST INDIAN items galore but maybe you'll put a design spin on Oriental items and get hold of those EUROS.
But let me tell you one thing Europeans want and can't get at any price. That is Kiowa, Blackfeet or Navajo, AMERICAN INDIAN fashions or objects! CANADIAN tribes make these items as well.
I suggest you buy (USED) any of the dollar books ABEBOOKS has titled 'NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN ARTS" I found a copy for a dollar online, by Andrew Hunter Whiteford. You can search by AUTHOR's name ---Try both TITLE and AUTHOR separately. Then when you know where the RIGHT INDIANS are, you can use CRAIGS LIST to connect with folks in say...KANSAS near the KIOWA, or in IDAHO near the BLACKFEET, and there are tribes even in Vancouver and Canada. Frankly, I have NOT done my homework as I just have the idea, am not near tribes, and don't drive anyway anymore. I'm old! But I'd gauge that 100 cities across America and Canada are very close to a tribal reservation!
You want to find UTILITARIAN ITEMS which folks really need: suede beaded vests, beaded suede bags that hang from the belt and suede moccasins and boots, which are worth hundreds in Europe cuz there are no INDIANS over there!
So go to ABEBOOKS.COM just put in the title NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN ARTS and see what you find. They have books that are used, inexpensive.Use my secret method to order them. Go straight to the bookdealer. THIS BOOK helps you locate the cities where say Kiowa, Navajo, Black feet are NOW. That would be a fascinating trip around AMERICA to set up suppliers who reliably create a line, ship it to you in your home town, never realizing that you pass the merchandise on to the big money in EUROPE & get thousands for the stuff. Now, you do need one good Department store in Zurich, Berlin, Paris, London, Amsterdam where you establish reliable, steady customer contacts.
Another hot seller would be TYPICALLY AMERICAN garb. This would require SEAMSTRESSES and you'd make them in ASIA, or buy them used here. THEY LOVE AMERICAN FOOTBALL jackets, CAMPUS VARSITY JACKETS. You can make them in shiny satin in contrasting colors in Asia, for nightime wear, all the ROCK BANDS have their own. Or you can find leather and nubby cotton mixed for daytime wear. VINTAGE VARSITY JACKETS are found at swap meets, you can google around online, find a dealer. Buy used ones all over America using CRAIGS LIST or EBAY.
NEXT THOUGHT: ANDY WARHOL was TYPICALLY AMERICAN but his work is costly and copyrighted however, you can copy his unique multiple-PHOTO CONCEPT. It's not patented. Look at THE WARHOL WEDDING IDEA for PHOTOGRAPHY ARTISANS. Perhaps European clients can mail you their digital and you do their portrait with giclee, customized Warhol multi image concept. Once dried, roll it up, ship it to Europe.
Another AMERICAN item, very EXOTIC to EUROPE is our GRAFFITI., Imagine just words, advertising, or odd words in odd languages as if on the wall of an alley along with a lot of old, rubbed off posters. A painter who worked that way was BASQUIAT. Imagine Cigarette boxes with BASQUIAT designs on the outside. 'copied from Jean Michel Basquiat's paintings but not exactly his 'designs.' Choose the paintings he did that look like GRAFFITI. Some do, some don't.
Imagine Basquiat graffiti as MODERN ART sprawled all over a jewelry box or mirror frame or on a shoulder bag. Or the designs printed or silkscreened onto bright cotton upholstery fabric used on pillows or try to stay UTILITARIAN during a RECESSION. Why buy a pillow? We all need a big book bag or small suitcase or something between the two, maybe an ARTIST's CARRYING canvas bag for student artists where you put large drawings without folding them. And the thing about artists in EUROPE...No one they admire more than Jean Michel Basquiat! Google his name in the IMAGE SECTION. Think of similar images, that you would do in silkscreen, done on canvas book bags, beach purses, t-shirts, wall hangings or painting kits requiring buyer stretch your canvas on stretcher bars with a staple gun, then frame and hang.
THE TRADE SEMINAR The entire concept is covered at http://www.masterjules.net/frugartisan.htm
THE DESIGNS AND LINES (of merchandise) is at http://www. masterjules.net/index8.htm
<=== BACK TO THE GUERILLA CAPITALISM WEBSITE
