Getting desperately creative in the downturn

With three kids, four months of unpaid bills and a home teetering on foreclosure, Jenny hopes salvation lies in a precious slice of bubblegum-scented cardboard.

She’s praying to be rescued by a baseball card.

Specifically a 1975 Nolan Ryan card formerly cherished by her late father but now dangling on eBay, priced at $2,500 and punctuated by Jenny’s tale of woe.

“It’s a long shot, but it’s all I’ve got,” says Jenny, who lives near Greenville, S.C., and asked that her last name be withheld to protect her daughters who are 6, 9 and 11. The single mother is employed but fell behind, she said, during an eight-month medical leave. She had no health benefits at the time.

“My dad’s ball cards are probably the only thing I have that’s worth anything. It is very hard for me to let go of them. My dad loved baseball. I love to look at them and just remember,” Jenny says. “I think my dad would want me to sell them. He loved his girls, all four of us. I am doing this for my children.”

Jenny has reluctantly waded into a surging undercurrent of the rough, financial ocean. Call it “the recession market.” Found primarily at online sales and auction sites like eBay and Craigslist, it is an economy of the grim and also the quirky, blending desperation, dark humor and — depending on your perception — savvy marketing or cold opportunism.

Simply plug the word “recession” into the eBay or Craigslist search boxes and you’ll instantly be browsing used iPods, children’s violins, even snapshots of family puppies that are offered up explicitly to “pay the rent” or “save our home.”

In Santa Rosa, Calif., Stephen is selling on Craigslist a heart-shaped diamond engagement ring that he originally bought 10 years ago for his then-girlfriend. His price: $500. “Even though I no longer need it, I don’t want to sell it,” he wrote in his ad.  “But I need to … darn recession.”

Health and dental care are even morphing into bad-times bargaining chips. In Miami, a 33-year-old masseuse has offered on Craigslist to swap hours of body rubs to any “compassionate” dentist who can provide her with two porcelain veneers and a crown. She’s offering the same deal for any plastic surgeon who can supply free liposuction.

Video   Home could be yours for $100 Nov. 10, 2008: A Michigan couple is selling 2,500 raffle tickets for $100 each. The winnder gets the house. WDIV's Hank Winchester reports. NBC News Channel

Memorabilia marking the economic crisis — especially any trinket that comes with its own punch line — is emerging as a hot commodity, too. For sale on the Internet: Lehman Bros. ball caps ($70), “lucky recession horseshoes” ($20), and “Brother Can You Spare a Dime” T-shirts ($15.99).

And of course, there are some apocalyptic goods strewn across eBay and Craigslist: water purification kits, survival guides, military radios and, for $49.98, maps to help “beat the recession with gold prospecting locations in 26 states."

“Even though some people might be out of a job, they’re still buying this item,” says Ryan Smith, of Cranberry Township, Pa., who sold 700 gold maps on eBay in 2008.

But the recession market’s sad face continues to be people like Jenny who share their stories of financial misery as they simultaneously peddle their treasures.

“Is there anyone so kind that they would help a stranger in need?” Jenny wrote in her eBay listing. “You will not only be buying a card, but a second chance for me and my kids.”

“I am not happy with my situation,” Jenny acknowledged in an e-mail interview. “I hate asking anyone for help. But I have no other choice. Times are hard and a little bit scary for all.”

Business author Jay Conrad Levinson says he’s never detected such a lofty level of fear in the marketplace — and he’s been studying seller and buyer behavior since the early 1970s when he wrote his first book, “Earning Money without a Job.” 

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