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Originally Posted by rokitflite
OK Gordon,
I was printing decals for people for about 3-4 years before you bought Excelsior. Do you want me to stop now since you own it?
I helped Phred out by getting him Alps cartridges at cost while I had an account with a wholesaler. I don't think I made him quit.
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For me, the late G. Harry Stine has a "philosophical hand" in this series of events, as I shall explain below.
Scott, I just received both your four printed Yankee decal sheets and a vintage Yankee decal sheet from DaveR (who also threw in a vintage Wizard decal sheet), and I want to express my thanks to both of you for your help. (The decal sheets you printed have a "micro-weave" pattern on the decals which does not detract from their appearance [one must look at them closely to see it], and I think this may confer some extra strength to the decals when they are being applied to the rocket.)
This week I also ordered two of Sandman's Yankee decal sheets because I promised to do so when I asked him for them some time back. Awhile back he had informed me about the severe constraints on his time (which I understand from my own home business experience), and I was pleasantly surprised to see him bring them out so quickly. I well understand what he says about having a successful home-based business that doesn't provide him with a paycheck, because a friend of mine also had such a business that "paid the bills" but usually didn't produce enough profit to allow him to write himself a paycheck each week. He still loved his electronic services business because he didn't have to work for anyone besides his customers.
Where G. Harry Stine fits into all of this is as follows. Although my personal interactions with him were very few and brief (all via e-mail or postal mail), I consider him a mentor in other matters besides model rocketry. As can be seen here (see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._Harry_Stine ), he was interested in the concept of non-immediate profit-driven free markets, which dovetails nicely with his "pay it forward" philosophy that he learned from an older rocket engineer. This is relevant to this decal situation (please bear with me for just a few more lines...).
I have been putting Stine's "creed" into practice by helping the owner of an art-themed trading post/grocery/deli/dessert shop-type store that opened recently next door to my apartment building, by introducing her to new specialty & ethnic food items and recipes, glider kits, and model rocketry. I bought sample glider kits and model rocket kits, motors, and accessories for her. I also helped her to build up a customer base of local teachers by e-mailing every one of them to inform them about her store and the fact that she carries the White Wings educational glider kit bulk packs. They began coming in and discovered her unusually wide range of culinary offerings, and many of them are now her regular customers. She is getting ready to carry model rocketry educational products (as well as consumer rocket kits), and when she is ready I will again e-mail all of the teachers to let them know about her new educational product offerings.
What's in this for me? Besides the fact that most draft horses--including those who happen to be in human form at the moment--like to be of service to (kind) human beings, helping a full-service store that is just a few feet from my disabled public housing apartment building to succeed ensures that we disabled residents need not have to go very far to do our grocery shopping, which is particularly important during our severe winters here in Alaska.
Scott, you and DaveR have also done a similar thing by sharing the reproduction and vintage decals with others as well as with me because your actions help Sandman, who is in the business of (among other things) producing reproduction decals. Your decal "samples" demonstrate to other model rocketeers (tenderfoot newcomers as well as BARs) what classic decals he can make, factory-fresh and in quantity. I have also helped Sandman by posting about his decal offerings here on YORF. To put it in its most simplified terms, what you two and I are doing is a form of assistance to a non-immediate profit-driven free market, which could also be called "charity for business." Over time, our help enables them to thrive, which in turn enables them to provide more needed and wanted products and services to their customers.