Sounds insane but it works and it’s been working very well for him since 2001! How do I measure that works? Well probably by the fact that he’s managed to sell over 1,200 garbage cubes that now happily reside in over 25 countries worldwide! And these cubes don’t come cheap either. They sell for a minimum of $50 a cube and can fetch up to double that amount for a limited edition cube!
Right so what exactly goes into these cubes and what’s so special about them? Well pretty much like what their tag line says ‘Hand-picked from the fertile streets of New York, NY, that’s exactly what sells. Pieces of garbage littered by the good residents of New York are harvested then artistically put together before being sealed in a smell proof clear cube.
Now you probably have the same question as I did when I read came across this Garbage of New York City cube – why would anyone want to pay for actual trash and geez I could do that too and it surely won’t cost me $50! So thinking about it, I think it sells on the same idea that the tourism industry exploits – people want a piece of a place that to commemorate that visit. That’s why tourists to the bewilderment of locals buy sand in bottles, seashells from the beach, crappy plastic keychains with the most tacky prints…you get the picture.
But New York is New York…and while you can associate white sand beaches to the shores of say the Caribbean or beautiful corals to the Great Barrier Reef, New York isn’t made up of much else than sky scrapers and mean yellow cabs. So what else would represent a piece of beautiful New York then the litter than make up the streets!
And if you think it’s a plain crazy idea, well you’re not alone but acknowledge that this little cube is now around the world and even has a spot on ESPN Mike & Mike’s table, a page in Playboy, CNN, CBS and NBC!
