AUGUSTA - What is sometimes purple, 19 years old, and mostly full of talk about cars?
If you guess - "my teenager, sick over a toilet bowl, rambling about how his suped-up Chevy Nova is the talk of the town" - you're wrong.
The correct answer, in this case, is the Uncle Henry's Swap or Sell It Guide, Maine's weekly compendium of down east thrift and eccentricity.
This is the marketplace for Herbert Hoover campaign buttons, unopened cans of Billy Beer, and a "middle aged man to live on a small homestead in Troy for light chores and yardwork. Where 300 cement blocks are offered in trade for "good, clean, used bricks" and where an Alaskan homestead, complete with sled dogs and traps, once went up for sale.
"It's a wish list. There's no frills. It's straight to the task. And people know every week that it's going to be there on time," says Justin Sutton, 25, who together with brother Jason, 23, and father Joseph, publishes the weekly out of offices located on Eastern Avenue.
Each week, the guidebook reaches an estimated 150,000 readers and 2,300 stores in Maine and New Hampshire, up from an 800-store distribution when the elder Sutton purchased the weekly five years ago.
Uncle Henry's charges no commission and no fees for those advertisements which arrive in the mail on their free-ad form. This leads you to believe, and the brothers to say, that they offer free advertising. True, except that in order to get the free ad form you must buy a copy of Uncle Henry's. But who can begrudge these middle men the 95 cents for the guidebook and a free ad?
Advertisers choosing not to buy the guidebook can place an order over the phone, for $4 charged to Mastercard or Visa.
The Suttons describe the amount of ads received each week as "a lot of reading, a lot of typing." They praise their typist, Robin Forbes, who they say can type 500 ads a day. Then they wonder if they ought to have made such a fact public, fearful that another company might try to entice their worker away.
In an average week, they estimate, 2,500 ads are run; in a better week, 2,800 and in record weeks, 3,330 and up. The best seasons for Uncle Henry's are spring, when it's " a clean house type of deal," and autumn, when "they're selling their summer stuff to buy winter stuff," notes Jason.
Though the book is a weekly and made out of newspaperish paper, the guide maintains a shelf-life longer than the average periodical. "They don't get old quick," says Justin. "They hang around - in pickups, in bathrooms."
"People buy the newspaper to read, they buy Uncle Henry's to buy," adds Jason.
Or to manipulate as middlemen. Jason knows of some dealers who will make a profit fulfilling the needs of the "wanted" categories from other listings in the same issue.
Today Uncle Henry's is delivered by mail, but only three years ago, a fleet of 30 part-time drivers distributed the guidebook statewide. Justin recalls the days when he would deliver a particular store's allotment and there'd be 20 or 30 people waiting inside just for Uncle Henry's.
Jason cautions his brother against exaggeration here.
"We've had stores that worry they'll go out of business if they don't get their Uncle Henry's on time," says Justin. Getting your Uncle Henry's on time is a justifiable concern for those who would take advantage of deals that shine
only once in a lifetime. Remember the vindictive woman who sold her husband's Mercedes for $100 through Uncle Henry's after he fled to the Carribean with a younger woman.
Perhaps because it might create an unfair advantage for the bargain hunter who would get a jump on the competition, the brothers will not disclose the location of their printing, commenting instead that 20 elves take care of business in their cellar.
Kennebec Journal |
