If You Sell It, They Will Buy?

Happy Halloween, and bday to Olivia.

So I was looking for a birthday card today, and I noticed that in addition to the expected sections for Birthdays, Weddings, and Thank-You Cards, there was also a pretty big section for Halloween cards.

It made me wonder to myself, do people actually get each other Halloween cards? Have any of you out there ever given or received a card for Halloween?

I guess I just can't picture that happening. Can you imagine the following scene ever taking place:

[A group of friends are hanging out, watching the game. A handsome Asian guy approaches with a stack of envelopes]

Dudo509: Hey guys, happy Halloween! Look, I got you all some Halloween cards!
Friend #1: Wow, you're the greatest friend ever! Sorry I forgot to get you one though. I owe you one.
Friend #2: Yeah, this is sweet man. Halloween sucked until you came along with these awesome cards!
Friend #3: This is the most flaming thing you have ever done. I'm gonna kick your ass.

[A giant can of Milwaukee's Best falls from the sky and smashes the handsome Asian guy]

Or maybe I'm just ignorant, and giving Halloween cards is completely normal. Maybe they should even be selling "Happy Belated Halloween" cards for guys like Friend #1.

Another card I don't understand is a birthday card for a 1-year old. In case you didn't notice, babies don't freaking know how to read yet. They're barely awake to begin with. The only good I see for those cards is when you buy them as a joke for your adult friends on their birthday. Never ceases to be funny, on someone's 25th birthday, to give them a card that says "Congratulations on turning 4!"

Maybe a bigger question to ask is, "is there anything people won't buy?" Like when my sister was doing consulting for Staples, they started selling those "Easy buttons" that you see on the commercials. She actually bought a few, and gave me one, which I eventually brought to work. And since then at least 3 or 4 people have seen it on my desk and been like, "man, those are cool, I got to get me one of those!"

I mean all that thing does is have some guy's voice saying "That was easy" when you press the button. I dunno about paying 5 bucks to get one, but there's obviously a market out there for these things. One that apparently includes my sister and several people I know at work.

Or you have those jeans companies, I've always wondered how they can take a pair of jeans, rip holes in it and make it look as worn as possible, then mark up the price and sell it for hundreds of dollars more than a normal new pair of jeans.

That might lead one to the conclusion that you can sell anything if you just market it well. But I don't know if even that explains it. Just do some browsing around on eBay. For every item I see that makes me wonder, "who the heck is going to buy that?!", there always seems to be at least a few bidders out there who are willing to pay money for it. Never fails.

So on that note, I guess the lesson learned is, people will buy anything. You know how a few months ago I wrote something about how all the good ideas have already been thought of? Now I realize that it doesn't matter, cause there's plenty of dumb ideas left out there for me to think of, which I can still probably make millions selling.