No Strings Attached... Well, It's Only Missing One Anyways.

What I love about this process is that it is set up for success. As long as I continue toward my goal and keep at it, I WILL eventually get to my bass boat! Before we dive into my trade, I want to share some really exciting progressions in my story! I got an amazing email from one Tyler Reed who is the social media editor and the BASS Federation Editor for B.A.S.S. inc. He informed me that he had spoken to Trisha, the Texas sales rep for BASS that I told you all about, and they were quite interested in my project! He had visited my blog and decided that it was worth pursuing! They let me know that when I get closer to my bass boat that they would like to do a story on my journey! How Exciting!! We discussed what it might mean to be "close" and I decided to set a $$ amount to shoot for. That amount is now officially $10,000. So, what that means for BASS is when I get to about the $8,000 mark, they will be in touch with me to do a write-up. As if that wasn't incredible enough, they offered to share my story on their twitter page! Needless to say my ratings and views jumped like crazy! Here is a link so you can check it out! I also got in touch with Skeeter Boats. I spoke with a woman for about half an hour on the possibilities of working with them. She was pumped up about the potential for a story that she had me write something up that she could send off to the people who are over advertising to see if they might want to do anything about it! I'll let you know if anything develops on that front.

As most of you know, I have just opened up the spectrum of my trading audience to the whole state of Texas! And because of that, there are going to be many of you who are visiting my blog for the first time, so I'm going to do a quick recap of what we're doing here.

On January 9th, I began a journey to obtain my goal and realize my dream of owning a bass boat! I started with a broken water-pistol and traded up and up with that end goal in mind. In just 5 trades, I obtained a serger sewing machine ranging in the neighborhood of $500-800! In my next couple of trades, I really hope to bust into that four digit realm! AND You can help me get there!!

This trade took a while. In fact, I was sitting on my serger for something like 3 weeks! The longest I had gone before was about a week so this felt like an ETERNITY! All that said, it was expected as I explained it in my blog entry, Here's Where it Gets Interesting. However, it was not for lack of response. I had several offers for my serger, but they just weren't the right ones... until... I got that precious email from one Kim Marr of the Austin, TX area! She's not really as small as she looks... I am a giant! my 6'7", 300lb self makes most normal people look tiny. I had posted in several Craigslist cities that I was going to be in the Abilene, TX area last week and for Kim, that meant a win-win for her. She had some friends who lived in Brownwood, TX that she was dying to see and she had something she was dying to trade me for my awesome serger! So it worked out perfectly! It just so happened that one of the few storms that have hit Texas in the last year decided to try to rain on my parade! But, I wasn't going to let that stop me. I weathered the storm and drove the short one and a half hour drive to Brownwood so that we could make a trade!

 

Previously, Kim had informed me that she had the perfect item to trade me! She had a 1998 A.R. Seidel German made, 15" viola. I know what you are thinking... Did he mistype viloin...? And if not, what the heck is a viola?! Well, it is the much unappreciated, lesser known cousin of the violin. It is known for its smoother, fuller sound compared to the sometimes shrill nature of the violin. It's the alto version, if you will. From what I have been told, there are about 10 violins in the world for every viola. So, what that means to me is that they are harder to get a hold of, thus, in higher demand. Fortunately for me, I happen to know about 7 or 8 violists who hopefully can help me get hooked up with that next trade! Right now is the perfect time to try to trade it because UIL competition is getting ready to be underway and some people are going to be looking for a viola for their kiddos! 

Anyhow, after a little research, I came to the conclusion that this was going to be a good trade. It retailed new for over $1,700 according to this document that I found on Google. And that's just for the viola itself! This one comes with a hard case, bow, music stand and all the necessary stuff for maintenance and upkeep. Altogether, in the condition that it's in (which is immaculate), and given its age, it is priced at around the $800-900 range. It was not a big price jump for me, but what it provided me with is something that I can hopefully trade up quickly and for something awesome! It is missing a string which I will get replaced soon. In my next post, I will hopefully have a few more pictures and a video or two of someone playing it so you all can hear how beautiful it sounds!

Here's a little history on this beautiful viola. Kim purchased it in 2000. She was a double major in music and theater and needed to learn a stringed instrument. She claimed it was the perfect instrument for her because she has small hands and it wasn't a strain to try to reach what she needed to in order to make beautiful melodies! She enjoyed it so much that she bought it after her class ended so that she could keep learning. As many of us understand, when life gets crazy, some things get re-prioritized. For Kim, that meant that her dreams of being a professional violist had to be put aside for now. So it has not been played for quite a while and is in DIRE need of someone to put it to some good use. For sure, I am not the one to do that so I need to trade it away to someone who can as soon as possible. :) 

I have a couple of questions. Do you think a YouTube channel would be helpful? I was thinking about starting one so that I can show everyone exactly what all of my trades can do; how my viola sounds... how the serger would have worked... show you all how good the picture on the flatscreen will be... and how well the awesome giant pick up will sound when you crank it up... and finally, how my awesome bass boat runs! Let me know what you think in the comment box! 

So, now I leave it to you! All I ask is that someone out there will trade me something a little bit better than my viola! The options are wide open! If you have something you might want to trade me, feel free to email me at cag04f@acu.edu. You are also welcome to call or text at a decent hour. My number is 432-twoeighteight-four7zero6!

Thank you all for making this so exciting. To date, my page has received over 2500 hits from 10 different countries including Canada (maybe that's Kyle MacDonald of oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com coming to check out my progress)! Before you close out this page, I encourage you to subscribe to this page so we can keep in touch! Thank you again so very much! I'll keep you posted on all the excitement to come! Until next time... 

-Something Bigger Something Better