Jackpot

I recently posted an ad for an item on Craigslist. I had no idea someone had been in search of this item for most of his life. It seems like I have been holding onto this item since the day I acquired it for Brendan. Here is the email from Brendan describing his journey in finding this most cherished item. I firmly believe nothing is impossible if one believes.

Hi Kaoru,

Just a not-so-little bit of background for you . . . which you may find of interest.

Imagine that you regularly bought a Lotto ticket each week using the same numbers. You won the occasional small amount, then for a couple of weeks didn’t buy one only to find out that your winning numbers had scored the $20 million jackpot……

At the age of eight after some begging and carrying-on I convinced my parents to take me to my first non-G-rated movie –– AIRPORT ’’77. It showed in a grand atmospheric theater in Auckland (which still exists today) . . .

http://www.civictheatre.co.nz/home_index.html

Enough said that it made an impression on me.

Jump forward to 1983 when I discover that the Auckland City Library has back issues of the New York Times on microfilm…… of course I dive in and hunt for newspaper ads for the release of AIRPORT ‘‘77. I am enthralled to see that the US ads differed from the international ones in that, while they included the standard art of the plane resting underwater on a sandbank, they also showed new (to me) and exciting artwork of the plane crashing.

Years and years of hunting, goggling and e-Baying later I finally happened across an auction for a fold––up map brochure (in less than stellar condition) for the Universal Studios Tour which featured a mini-pic of this artwork on the front section measuring approx. 2-inches square. I was in hog heaven when I won the auction. However, in the back of my mind was a niggling question –– surely when the Airport ’’77 attraction opened it would have been featured in some way on the front of a Tour Program. I regularly checked e-Bay for such an artifact but failed to do so for a few weeks. Then one day I do a search and find an auction (from a deceased estate) that ended the week prior . . .

Little did I imagine that it would have had sole pride of place on the front cover! So, as you can see, I didn’t buy a Lotto ticket that week, and my numbers came in …….

The day before I did my e-Bay search I had been chatting with a work colleague and somehow Craigslist came up in the conversation . . . I had vaguely heard of the site before but didn't know much about it.

My colleague happened to have a DVD on them that they had just borrowed from a student of theirs (they have more than one job) called 24 HOURS ON CRAIGSLIST. Luckily part of my job involves examining the content of DVD's so I was able to view it while I caught up on some data checking.

Having discovered that my imagined holy grail actually existed, I fell into a bit of a funk upon realizing that to get it I would have to find someone who visited the Universal tour between 1977 and 1978, who had not discarded it and who was willing to part with it after all this time . . .

After exhausting every Google and used book search I remembered the Craigslist DVD and threw caution to the wind and posted a wanted ad for the program.

A few days later I decided to just check my ad to see that it was still there which I did by doing a search for "Universal Studios" and lo-and-behold I found your ad placed just three days later - a Free to boot! In gratitude I was, and am, more than happy to have been given the opportunity to offer you something for this item, and just wanted to let you know how much I truly appreciate your releasing this item to the universe.

It has also shown me the truth of the law of attraction at work! (five days from finding out it existed to securing a copy!).

Thanks again Kaoru.

Namaste
Brendan

I thought this was a very cool story and I wanted to share it with you.

- Kaoru