Each time in the Fall, for the past two years, my sister-in-law has attended a kids consignment sale in Durham, NC near the RDU airport. I’ve heard her talk about it several times, and every time you can literally hear the excitement in her voice. The consignment sale has tons of great kids clothes and toys at awesome prices. For her, one of the best parts of it is the priority access she gets where you get to go through and purchase stuff during a private pre-sale only available for certain people.
Now, this is where it gets interesting. Inquisitive as I am, I asked how she gets access to the pre-sale. One way to get access is to bring 10 items, only from specific brands, a week in advance to put up for consignment at the show. Once those items are evaluated and approved, then your name gets put on a list. That’s for one day before the show begins.
The even more amazing thing is how to get access to the show two days before it begins. How, you ask, do you get such early access? Glad you asked. Here’s how: you volunteer for 20 hours helping the show producers sort items, put on price tags, and generally do whatever they need help with. Wow, 20 hours of labor to get access to a consignment show? Oh, and it is a for-profit event. That’s right, the people who put on the show get moms to work for free for them so that they can then buy stuff from them where the stuff they buy is from someone else on consignment, hence the owners of the show don’t have to carry any inventory.
If that’s not some of the most passionate customers, I don’t know what is — and, yes, my sister-in-law is one of the ones who donates 20 hours of labor to get first dibs access to the goods.
What do you think? What are some similar stories you’ve heard of regarding passionate customers doing things that are hard to believe and loving it?
David Cummings on Startups 
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