PeopleWillBuyAnything.com
One of my employees sent me a link this week that I thought was hilarious.
This guy makes and sells “origami boulders”. It’s really just a crumpled up piece of paper, but he charges $10 for one. For $15 he’ll write a haiku on the sheet of paper before he crumples it. For $29 you get a nice bamboo display stand included.
Is it a successful business? I don’t know, but it’s a brilliant product.
It reminds me of the Pet Rock craze. It’s really IS possible to take something really mundane like a rock or a wadded up piece of paper and through the magic of marketing and copywriting, create a legitimate, valuable, sellable product. I personally wouldn’t sell useless stuff to people, but it’s an interesting sociological experiment if nothing else.
Like I always say…God bless the internet!!
Posted by Brad Fallon on Wednesday, October 4th, 2006 at 10:54 am 
I am sure that guy has some success. People buy crazy stuff, like land on moon
. Not to mention the pixel revolution in advertising. I am sure if a product is well promoted people will buy it. And I have a few ideas myself. And after I see all this on internet I really think about doing it. The internet is amazing. William. http://ineeddough.com
It would be interesting to study what motivates people to buy; even when something has no apparent value such as the origami boulders. It is a great idea, because it is so different. I’m sure no one has thought of this before, (and likely never will again). http://www.sackvilleharness.com/
Anything’s possible. According to Alexa, the site has been around since May 2002 and the site has a PR of 5. They must be doing something right and they’re probably laughing all the way to the bank.
Well its a great thing maybe not the product but the link bait. You linked to it and I am sure many others did to, so if anything else I am sure they could sell advertising on there website and make way more money than the product. One way PR 5 = $.
Very nice! I remember owning a pet rock many years ago. I think it would bring back the wonderful nostalgia of going to fairs and parades and seeing people carrying them around.
Madison
Modern Furniture
That’s hilarious, truly.
This reminds me of that kid who auctioned off his forehead on eBay, here’s the article: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9071-1470552,00.html
There are literally loads of this kind of stuff going around these days.
Wow! That is hilarious. And over 300 backlinks. If people are buying this then, wow, that’s crazy–people really will buy anything. I see one of the back links is a list of Hoax sites, with this one included.
Also I thought the performance art was funny. You pay but you don’t receive anything–the performance is done by an artist you never see!
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This is great that you mention this because that is what many of us art trying to do. Find a niche that we can dominate and really make a contribution to. Origami boulders may not cause any fights at the local toy store this xmas, but it’s that type of sometimes zany creativitity that can lead to something truely unique and profitable.
Pet Strollers
That is so true.
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This is too funny. I also remember the pet rock and I think I may have even owned one! I’m sure people thought bottling water was crazy!
Burial at Sea
Wow, I guess it really is true that anything and everything can happen on the internet. Way to go!
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This is totally funny. Anything can happen on the good ole www.
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I’m curious to know how many of these have sold. As mentioned earlier its like the Pet Rock phenomenon revisited.
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say, maybe they’ll get bought out by google? gotta love the net!
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Now I know what to do with my paper!
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Maybe he could use some Trust Seals to improve sales conversion
like Hacker Safe, Control Scan or my favorite for quality and price Trust Guard.
Later,
Mark
Hi Brad,
Thanks for the great resource as usual. You’ve been a great help and inspiration!
Thanks again.
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I think this example along with everyone’s comments just proves how easy it is to make money online. It also shows us would be marketers not to be so sensitive to price. Balled up paper for $29 bucks.
Nice! I sell an ebook for that amount and now think I’m being short changed. Brian http://www.Brian-Stephenson.com
Wow. That’s depressing for those of us trying to sell what we thought were ‘legitimate’ products. Let’s see, how many paper airplane varieties can I remember? Might be time for a change in product line.
Don’t be bitter. Use that energy to your advantage. If they can do it, I can do it. What is your pet rock, that is right under your nose and you don’t even realize it?
I was at the Ben Mack – Think Two Sales Ahead conference a few weeks ago with some great speakers like Dave Navarro, Ann Devere, and others – one of the speakers Alex Nghiem talked about the idea that your products, services and skills are worth more than you think – for the right audience. In fact, in Hollywood (yes, I know it’s Hollywood) there’s a guy who charges $2,000 for a mobile car wash. How many of those does he have to do a month to make a NICE living? Way better than a $100 mobile wash job, eh? He does 1 for the average guys 20-25. It’s about the market.
So if you want to pay $15 for an origami rock. I have something even better. I’ll be working on my $150 rubber band ball
Be Well!
Michelle
Just for fun, I went to the site and added 1 to the shopping cart to see what was up. He has a 221 Verified Paypal payments. Now I don’t know if those are all incoming. But I just had to look.
Keep the fun stuff coming Brad!
Mich
Genius. Motivates me to finally add some tumbleweeds direct from New Mexico to my line of Native American Jewelry. I have about a thousand in my back yard and could spray paint them with pink and blue and varous southwest colors. Just need to figure out a good shipping system. I’ve been looking for a good environment friendly cause that could also make some money.
Dan
http://www.southwest-silver-jewelry.com
Now the next question is- who will be the person selling e-books on how to make money online selling crumpled balls of paper? Gimme a break.
MacDawg’s Pet Supply
I’m curous to know what the packaging design looks like! Sometimes the packaging is more fun that the product.
http://www.bigcitygraphics.ca
Who needs persuasion if someone’s gonna buy someone else’s garbage?
The psychology of this just astonishes me. You’ve got to respect the idea and execution. It would be a fascinating to study to see what motivated people to buy such things – when they can create the same thing in a matter of seconds. Do you know of any such studies (more generally on what makes people buy online)?
Love your stuff. Thanks for the resources.
If you were willing to take the risk, I believe a career devoted to creating zany ‘things’ could pay off handsomely if you hit a home-run.
Look, people make bad buying decisions all the time. I have friend selling diamonds on ebay. Site unseen to buyers who don’t know him. Some people buy junk from crooks too.
I’d buy one just because the copy on the site is so darned funny. Anyone who can make me spit coffee out of my nose can have the $25 just for comic relief!
And, it IS the perfect gift to get someone who has EVERYTHING. I mean, you know that the person wouldn’t get two of those!
This is awesome. If people are willing to buy it, then more power to him, keep on crumpling those pieces of paper.
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