Monthly Archives: March 2017

THE NEXT BIG THING: SELLING USED CLOTHES ONLINE BY CONSIGNMENT

It’s the next big thing: selling used clothes online by consignment. Many used designer sneakers are being sold on consignment. No wonder sales of apparel in retail malls across the country are on the downswing.

Check out this Youtube video from fashionista Hayley Segar.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVMyKZ4Z7uE

 

Why donate clothes to the Goodwill when you can sell them online on sites like Poshmark and ThredUp, where some teens are making big $$$ and others are launching careers as fashion designers. Check out this Podcast from the WSJ.

http://www.wsj.com/podcasts/online-market-for-recycled-apparel-is-booming/6C5630F9-5F63-4B15-9A5F-67B90CCB5299.html

Are online stores an avenue for counterfeit apparel? There’s no easy answer.

Sites like Poshmark have a prohibited items policy that includes counterfeit apparel

https://poshmark.com/prohibited_items_policy

 

 

INTERPOL INTERNATIONAL IP CRIME INVESTIGATORS COLLEGE

 

Readers of my blog know about my association with IP investigator David Woods who I’ve interviewed many times for PI Magazine and who is the basis for my novel The Counterfeit Detective. That’s why I found this website about the Interpol’s International IP Crime Investigators College quite interesting.

Over 100 countries have visited the IIPCIC website since its launch and over 7000 law enforcement agencies have enrolled in the training.

Check out their website: http://www.iipcic.org/

IIPCIC is mandated to develop, coordinate and administer training programs to support international efforts to prevent, detect, investigate and prosecute transnational organized IP crime. The College will serve the needs of INTERPOL’s partner organizations and other key international stakeholders.

The mission of IIPCIC is to deliver leading edge training to enable investigators around the world to effectively combat current and emerging threats from transnational organized IP Crime.

The college is delivered on a multilingual platform that supports over 20 languages. The intellectual property crime courses are offered in the four INTERPOL official languages of English, Spanish, French and Arabic. Mandarin has recently been launched and Russian and a number of other languages will be launched shortly. Quite impressive! And a testimony to the growing threat of product counterfeiting.

 

 

Tommy James & The Shondells – Hanky Panky 1966

 

You sometimes read or hear of how the theft of intellectual property can benefit creativity. A case study could be made of how a bootlegger, who got hold of the 1960s song Hanky Panky, helped launch Tommy James and the Shondells.

A local dance promoter found a vinyl copy of Hanky Panky in a used record bin and started playing it in Pittsburgh dance clubs. The audiences loved the song, prompting a bootlegger to copy and press a version of the song with a faster tempo that went on to sell an estimated 80,000 copies. Hanky Panky soon became the number one hit played by the Pittsburgh radio stations in early 1965.

Hanky Panky was originally recorded by Tommy James and the Shondells in Niles, Michigan for an indie record label called Snap Records that was owned by Jack Douglas, a local DJ at WNIL radio station in Niles.

Douglas was unable to promote the record nationally and moved on to other projects but he heard about the song’s popularity in Pittsburgh because his name and record label were always mentioned and, as a result, he received numerous calls. Billboard and other trade papers began listing Hanky Panky as a regional breakout hit in Pittsburgh.

Interestingly, Tommy James travelled to Pittsburgh and re-formed the Shondells, which had broken up by this time, to perform the song to sell-out crowds and from there the Shondells went on to rock and roll history with Crimson and Clover, Mony Mony, I Think We’re Alone Now, and many others.