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This will sound weird but I am a collector of swag from large companies that have collapsed due to anything from mismanagement to outright fraud. While we're a
by sharkweek 5y ago
This will sound weird but I am a collector of swag from large companies that have collapsed due to anything from mismanagement to outright fraud. While we're a rare breed there are others like me out there. Still, even with this oddly specific marketplace being small, let me tell you, the Theranos swag market is hot right now (check eBay if you're curious).
Wish I had gone big on this one earlier, because I have a feeling this verdict is going to spice things up in the short term.
All that to be said, if you've got any authentic Theranos gear hiding in storage please do let me know, I'm a motivated buyer.
For those curious as one example: Nothing raises a few eyebrows more than a note written on Lehman Brothers letterhead with a Purdue Pharma OxyContin pen with the dosage pullout.
- whatever1 5y agoDo you have the epic ENRON intern Tshirt in your collection ?
- AdamN 5y agoWhy not a stock certificate :-) https://www.apmex.com/product/50847/enron-corp-stock-certificate https://www.apmex.com/product/50847/enron-corp-stock-certifi...
- dmix 5y agoOnly 3 left in stock! Also I love that website. As a recent casual collector of paper currency. I never thought to buy some old stocks/bonds. Edit: it’d be hilarious I’d the Enron stock was fake
- systemvoltage 5y agoMy intern job back in 2005 was to take Enron's wind turbine division's technical handbooks and scan them on large flat bed scanners. They were all stored in Tehachapi desert, flooded and with water damage. I found a bunch of cool stuff in these boxes including a binder containing Enron's branding assets and standards manual.
- civilized 5y agoI totally get this! I would LOVE to have some Theranos crap. Then I would fabricate stories about why I have it, just like a real Theranos CEO! (Hmm... might as well fabricate the collectibles themselves, as some other commenters have suggested...)
- EZ-Cheeze 5y agoThat's hilarious and cool. You got a list of desirable brands? Off the top of my head I can only think of Enron, Lehman Brothers and Theranos.
- daenz 5y agoWhat a super interesting niche. Do you see returns on your investments?
- lbotos 5y agoThey said collector, so I suspect they aren't holding to sell :P
- testplzignore 5y agoA Theranos memorabilia pump and dump scheme would be quite something.
- sharkweek 5y agoTo be completely honest, I'm more of a buyer than a seller. I have a few items that are "worth" (in a loose sense) in the hundreds and thousands, but most are nothing more than a rare conversation piece I have on my desk.
- celticninja 5y agoDo you have a website to show some of them off? I would love to see some of your gravestones.
- sharkweek 5y agoThis thread is the most interested anyone has ever been in this stuff, I'll have to consider some sort of catalog as the collection grows, not a bad idea.
- celticninja 5y agoI'm assuming it's lots of dot-com era, do you also collect outside of tech? E.g Lehman Brothers or Enron
- 5y ago
- meetingthrower 5y agoOne of my biggest regrets is not getting a Kozmo messenger bag from dotcom 1.
- walrus01 5y agoI know someone who has both beenz and flooz promotional stuff
- proactivesvcs 5y agoblinks Do you mean to say that Beenz wasn't a fever dream I enjoyed? Next you'll be telling me that Swatch's Beats was a real, actual attempt at redefining time, and wasn't just something I overheard being invented by a bunch of Jolly People at the pub one night.
- nikanj 5y agoThe crazy thing is, Beats is a reasonable idea. The whole hype surrounding it was stupid, but a fully-remote-across-seventeen-timezones team would really benefit from a single, well-defined time standard. No more "Can I call you at 8am your time?" "Sorry do you mean my time at home, or my time in Costa Rica (came here for the holidays)"
- walrus01 5y agoThis is why UTC already exists and is used for aviation, military, telecom and ISP purposes.
- wrs 5y agoOne of my prized possessions is a Kozmo-branded CD opener, which I got by ordering a single CD from Kozmo, with free one-hour delivery. Thanks, venture capital!
- sho_hn 5y agoWhat intrigued me about your comment is the reference to a "CD opener". I had no idea!
- sushisource 5y agoThis is a really cool hobby I never would've guessed existed. Good luck to you!
- CPLX 5y agoI’ve got a nice looking Ozy coffee mug if you’re interested.
- dooglius 5y agoWhat does "authentic" mean here? Isn't company swag just the company emailing a logo to 3rd parties who print it on shirts/whatever?
- VWWHFSfQ 5y agoThis is some of the scammiest markets of all time. Hey OP, I got a Theranos-branded mug I can drop-ship you from Alibaba. $800 OBO
- miohtama 5y agoWhat you do not have is called provenance :)
- brandall10 5y agoJust out of curiosity, how does one prove provenance? I’d think the only way is to be the original owner (ie proof of employment at the company), but even then, given such a hot marketplace it would be super easy to just purchase and resell knockoffs.
- hyperbovine 5y ago> Just out of curiosity, how does one prove provenance? The same way they do it with art ... research.
- brandall10 5y agoBut with art there is only one work produced by an artist, or if a series, probably some way to properly id it based on a number of factors. With say a sweatshirt produced by a third party based on some digital stencil art, do you know for sure the one you're receiving was printed by the company and given to an employee/customer? Literally hundreds, possibly thousands would be in circulation. How would you be able to distinguish that from say something a former employee w/ access to the original art data having it reprinted?
- short12 5y agoI have a lehnen brothers decision cube type of thing and it has some pretty interesting ones like "responsible risk management" erc
- gbronner 5y agoPractice sound risk management! I still have a coffee cup and a a garment bag that I bought for 10$
- BeefWellington 5y agoAlong these lines an old investor I knew kept a framed Bre-X share on his wall.
- walrus01 5y agoThe whole bre-x saga really amazes some Americans when I explain the depths of fraud that have historically existed in AB and BC small cap mining stocks... For the longest time the historical Vancouver stock exchange, vsx, was known as something like the fraud capital of North America. All of that is before we even get into the ugly history of some Canadian mining companies that have got into bed with non-democratic regimes in places in the developing world, where they did actually have a real mineral resource to extract, and damn the consequences.
- jazzyjackson 5y agoNever heard of this, reading the wiki on bre-x now... " ...one of the five women who considered themselves his wife... " This is some serious drama. Have you got any reading you can recommend on the topic? I recently bought "The Prize" to catch up on my oil & gas history, perhaps there is a sibling book for minerals?
- walrus01 5y agoas I recall several Canadian journalists wrote books on it. It was also extensively covered in the western provinces' newspapers and national papers (the globe and mail, etc) at the time.
- jafo 5y agoHoly cow...Bre-X that takes me back. People were actually suicided in that one.
- paxys 5y agoHow exactly do you check if something is authentic? I can have a hundred Theranos-branded t-shirts, mugs, pens, diaries, socks and whatever else you want made and shipped to me in like 2 weeks.
- Danieru 5y agoThat's your job. Sellers are motivated to provide evidence. "I just have it lol" is not going to command much premium over your costs.
- throwawaylinux 5y agoYes that's hilarious but you're missing the interesting part. How does the seller provide convincing evidence that withstands scrutiny such that a diligent buyer would be satisfied that it is authentic then.
- bener 5y agoI would suggest checking some of the high value auctions and seeing what their proof is. It would be trivial to prove you worked at a company if that's how you were given it, you might even have photos of an event where stuff was given out, emails detailing a "welcome pack", I'm guessing it's these sort of things that are used as proof.
- anduru_h 5y agoI never knew this was a thing, but now that I do...I want in!
- cammikebrown 5y agoGot any Clinkle swag?
- Legogris 5y agoI can totally get behind this. Holding tight on my Blockchains LLC swag half-hoping there will have a wider audience of recognition than the other people at that Prague conference. The other half hoping they actually manage to create something of lasting value, of course ;)
- filmgirlcw 5y agoI am also a fucked company swag collector and Theranos has been my white whale since 2015/early 2016. Now it’s all knockoffs. I wish you luck in your search!
- sharkweek 5y agoWell well… I imagine we’ve crossed paths on eBay before - too funny.
- filmgirlcw 5y agoAmazing to meet another fucked company collector! I thought this was something only I did, genuinely.
- jpm_sd 5y agoThis feels like a real Colin Robinson / Evie Russell meet-cute* [*from What We Do In The Shadows]
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- abakker 5y agoI've got two beer glasses from WeWork that say "glass half full" on them. They make me laugh every single time I see them.
- iab 5y agohalf Kombucha, half lies
- arcticbull 5y agoNow that’s a powerful slogan
- redisman 5y agoThe metal ones? They still have those at the offices
- yobert 5y agoI have a WeWork shirt that says "The Future Is Awesome". I used to hate it but now I love it :D
- Ansil849 5y ago> I am a collector of swag from large companies that have collapsed due to anything from mismanagement to outright fraud That's a really cool collection! I always find it interesting to learn what obscure things folks collect. > any authentic Theranos gear How do you tell if it's authentic? If I was a collector in this area, my big concern would be that especially given that the market is hot, someone could just look on ebay for images of branded products, and then make replicas of them by passing the same logo onto promotional printers.
- bombcar 5y agoPromo freebies change so often that you can often work out what company and what year made a particular squeeze toy or similar. And rip offs will often have subpar artwork obviously not using original AI/EPS files.
- dannyw 5y agoYou underestimate the lengths people go to make knockoffs.
- dylan604 5y ago>I always find it interesting to learn what obscure things folks collect. A buddy of mine has a similar fascination with picking things up from defunct companies, specializing in film/video post production companies. One of the items he picked up was a standard banker's box. Inside were a pile of CD-Rs which turned out to be the entire digital back up of an unfinished 3D animated feature. The entire recordings of the actor's lines. The 3D objects, scenes, etc to an unknown level of completeness. Even though the work product was purchased from the bankruptcy auction, the copyright was still owned by the creators and could not be rendered/released just because they bought a box in auction for $20.
- Ansil849 5y agoWow, that's so fun to stumble upon a veritable treasure chest like that. Were there any big names involved in the unfinished film?
- seumars 5y ago>I am a collector of swag from large companies that have collapsed due to anything from mismanagement to outright fraud This is why I log on to this site.
- glenstein 5y ago>the Theranos swag market is hot right now (check eBay if you're curious). I was curious. My ebay search for "theranos" turned up 50 items. There were fleece jackets with high asking prices, so that certainly was something. But everything else I saw for mugs and hats and t-shirts was in the $20-50 range. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=theranos https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=theranos
- dmix 5y ago> But everything else I saw for mugs and hats and t-shirts was in the $20-50 range. Seems like plenty of new things not collectors items.
- sharkweek 5y agoMost of those were likely never truly distributed specifically to employees in the first place. Reprint or print on demand swag is generally obvious with the white background. Look for real photos, especially in people’s homes. In my totally arbitrary set of rules the item must have been available or given to employees only. Here’s one I’d love to get my hands on if not for the price: https://www.ebay.com/itm/255014966170?hash=item3b6013939a:g:rroAAOSw6IpgxUU9 https://www.ebay.com/itm/255014966170?hash=item3b6013939a:g:...
- 2YwaZHXV 5y agoAs someone who used to work there and has one of those water bottles and likely knows the person selling that one on ebay (based on the username) I find this hilarious...
- sharkweek 5y agoSo… how much you want for it?
- 2YwaZHXV 5y agoUntil seeing your comment I had never considered that someone might actually want any of that stuff, so I had never considered selling or otherwise parting with it since it is fun to keep all that stuff around. I'll certainly let you know first if I decide to part with it, though.
- dangle1 5y agoSomeone in my neighborhood wore a Theranos sweatshirt while jogging last year, I made up a story in my head that it was in solidarity with Ms. Holmes. If I'm right, I assume she wouldn't be willing to part with it.
- gbronner 5y agoI worked with a guy who collected stock certificates of dead startups that he'd worked at, and displayed then in frames on his wall. I think he called them good misspent youth. The Lehman Brothers risk management/principles cube was a hot seller for a while, but I'm curious as to long term valuations. Thought the art collection didn't actually do that well on resale.
- annoyingnoob 5y agoCollector or Speculator?
- marnett 5y agoWhat an awesome collection/hobby Thanks for sharing. Is there any way to see all that you have?. I became interested in this after seeing someone with an Enron shirt on at a music festival earlier this year. Surely it was not an “original”, as you collect, but it had me reflecting on the artistic value.
- arcticbull 5y agoIf anyones got a juicero lmk I’ll pay double market haha
- SkyMarshal 5y agoMaybe contact @pud and turn his old https://fuckedcompany.com/ https://fuckedcompany.com/ website into an online museum for that swag.
- incanus77 5y agoAbout 15 years ago, I worked at a small tech/political agency in DC. We got a new office just off NW 16th & K near the lobbying & financial areas. While I was setting up the server closet, I found a rolled-up blueprint from the office design. We unrolled it and... turns out it was built by Enron. Ken Lay had just died, so we always kinda-sorta felt haunted by his ghost.
- grouphugs 5y ago
- thechao 5y agoMy favorite tshirt is for a company picnic for Enron (scheduled for after it’s dissolution); the back is covered in MBAspeak: honesty, integrity, … It’s one of my favorites — up there with my Orwellian yellow plastic “Great Place To Work” Intel tamborine.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- nyjah 5y agoThat's funny. I was just talking a friend of mine the other day that is printing a bunch of swag gear for Nikola Motors. I would guess he doesn't know the history of Nikola Motors and I didn't say anything, but I was thinking, how much swag does a potential scam company need?
- sokoloff 5y agoPerhaps trucks roll downhill better if the occupant is wearing branded swag?
- jjordan 5y agoGreat timing! Not sure if this qualifies, but I just listed a copy of the Oct 2015 Inc Magazine where she was touted as "The Next Steve Jobs". Was a subscriber back in the day. https://ebay.com/itm/255312572520 https://ebay.com/itm/255312572520
- Bud 5y agoI do have two refrigerator magnets from Webvan, which died in 2001. Was a pretty cool service while it lasted.
- chunkyks 5y agoI worked at Lehman for a year around 1999/2000. While I was there, they handed out these plinths, I still have mine: https://imgur.com/a/NKnJh https://imgur.com/a/NKnJh
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y agoFor anyone who wants to read more about this hobby: https://outline.com/TCdngY https://outline.com/TCdngY
- hnacct2001 5y agothanks for sharing -- most entertaining thread i've read in quite some time
- anigbrowl 5y agoI wish I'd known that notorious S.W.A.G. was A Thing because I pegged her as a scam artist when she first entered the public sphere. Next time my spidey-senses tip me off I'm gonna acquire as much promotional material as possible.
- minism 5y agoHappen to own a juicero? Its a dream to have that on a shelf one day.
- spyspy 5y agoI have some yik yak socks I got a few months before they went bankrupt. Didn’t know there’s a market for that.
- dannyphantom 5y agoOh wow, I remember using that app in high-school. That's awesome.
- TaylorAlexander 5y agoReminds me of the water bottle from Palantir I have that seems very cursed.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mehrshad 5y agoA colleague of mine was contracted by one of several firms tasked with liquidating Theranos' Newark facilities back in Aug 2018. I took the opportunity to grab the equivalent of $15,000 of tools, furniture, scientific equipment, and of course, swag. All legally - liquidators are tasked with clearing the site of everything by a set time. Had free reign throughout the facility for two days, scavenging through 200k sqft+ of warehouse, marveling at the cringey pseudo-motivational blather posted everywhere and grabbing whatever could fit into my apartment at the time. At one point, we spotted Holmes (and her "special needs" Siberian Husky puppy who left dribbles of urine on the warehouse floor) arguing with some operators from afar. We weren't allowed to touch specific computers, chemicals or any hardware locked in the cages (incl Edison devices), but everything else was up for grabs, from high-end Mitutoyo measuring tools to Aeron chairs to U-Line desks, Theranos bumper stickers, water bottles, etc etc etc. So yeah, I've got a few bits of Theranos branded gear... Still waiting on the right time to sell. [0] https://imgur.com/a/36HtZCp https://imgur.com/a/36HtZCp
- ethbr0 5y agoIf you're in the mood to sell, I'd be interested. 0 -> o + .co @ gmail. I like hubris branding for the same (mythical) reason Canadian engineers do iron rings [0]: so that maybe when I'm waivering on an important decision, I'll look down at the logo on my coffee cup and remember that some things are more important than immediate professional gratification. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Ring https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Ring
- nojs 5y agoClassic pics, thanks for sharing. I’d love to see the full quote in the first photo. It almost reminds me of Office Space.
- _air 5y agoI think the quote reads: "Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."
- FooHentai 5y ago
- jedberg 5y agoI have a hat that says "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" from the very first taping (and only seven months before the last taping!).
- y2kenny 5y agoThis reminds me of the Black Mirror's "Black Museum" episode...
- nimazeighami 5y agoIt’s not totally defunct yet but I saved a bunch of super rare Magic Leap swag exactly for people like you lol
- donkarma 5y agoNow I want some, look at what you've started.
- Tepix 5y agoWe still have a nice Webvan magnet on our fridge somewhere. Good times.
- rwmj 5y agoI still have the Enron mug which I nicked from their London office.
- cwarzel 5y agoI've actually wanted to write about people who do this kind of collection! If you're interested in talking more about it, lemme know! charliewarzel@gmail.com
- bherms 5y agoSo... Found this thread via a former coworker... I have a friend who is cousins with Elizabeth Holmes. His mom was her first investor and she has the original stock certificates... They're planning on turning them into NFT's and selling them.
- com2kid 5y agoDo you have an email for contacting you at?