Swap Or Sell, Uncle Henry?s Probably Has It!
AUGUSTA - The show was cancelled when the King died, but for $1,600 a woman in Oakland will sell you a mint condition ticket to an August 1977 Elvis Presley concert in Portland. Too expensive? Then call Sherry Salisbury in Canaan. She's selling a ticket to the same show for just $300, if you don't mind the fact it bears a stamp indicating it was returned for a refund after Elvis died. The decades-old Elvis tickets, along with skis, tractors, cows and just about anything else you could imagine, can be found each week in the multifarious collection of used Yankee merchandise in Uncle Henry's Weekly Swap Or Sell It Guide. With about 10,000 classified ads, Uncle Henry's is the grandaddy of want ad magazines in northern New England. The $1.50-a-copy magazine is sold at convenience stores just about everywhere in Maine. It's even snapped up by lawmakers, lobbyists and state workers at the State House snack bar. Circulation has grown from about 10,000 copies a week to somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 in the 15 years Editor Justin Henry Sutton's family has owned the publication. Sutton says there is no secret to Uncle Henry's success. "It's just a damn good idea," said Sutton, who can attest to the magazine's value: he and his wife found their home, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a Jeep, and their dog and cat, from within its pages. Indeed just about everyone in Maine seems to have bought or sold something through Uncle Henry's during its 29-year history. The Oakland woman with the $1,600 ticket, who declined to give her name to a reporter, said Elvis keepsakes aren't the only treasures she's bought and sold through the magazine. "Living room sets, storm windows, whatever," she said, paying special attention to point out a memorable Ford Crown Victoria. "Uncle Henry's is my favorite." Although the magazine circulates to New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont and parts of New Brunswick, Canada, the lions share of its buyers and advertisers come from Maine. Just like in most newspaper want ad pages, items like used cars and trucks, real estate, electronic gear and appliances are the bread and butter of each week's approximately 300-page offering. But with Uncle Henry's, shoppers and browsers also see a slice of Maine life not found on the classified pages of a big-city newspaper. Harry Pratt of Bucksport placed an ad hoping to trade his 1972 Cadillac coupe for a Brunswick pool table. He said he's had trouble selling the car, which he says is in excellent condition. "This was just a thought," said Pratt. "I'd use a pool table a lot more than I'd use a Cadillac." Although Pratt may not have been aware of it, at least two Brunswick pool tables were for sale in the same issue. Also in that issue, a North Yarmouth woman who spoke little English offered gift certificates for Italian lessons, while someone in Bar Harbor was trying to sell Italian courses on tape. People hawked Beanie Babies, baseball cards, tractors, lobster boats, golf clubs, and old canoes. Noteworthy items advertised in the past included a personal submarine and a 1,500-year-old mummy. The attic clutter and odds and ends have clearly been good to the 22-employee, family-owned magazine. Last spring, Uncle Henry's moved its headquarters about 250 yards down Eastern Avenue from a dingy shed-like office to a bright 4,600-square-foot office that still has a brand-new feel. Despite the new headquarters, Uncle Henry's maintains its down-home flavor. As editor, Sutton wears work boots, faded jeans and a work shirt. A pair of sunglasses rests atop his head. Incidentally, while Sutton's father Joseph Henry Sutton owns Uncle Henry's, and his brother, Jason Henry Sutton, also works there, the family had nothing to do with the magazine's title. "Just coincidence," Sutton said of his family's common middle name, before briefly humming the theme from "The Twilight Zone." The Suttons bought the magazine from the original Henry. Despite their success, the Suttons don't take dominance in the Maine want ad business for granted. They're trying new things, like a website that goes on line this month, allowing browsers to cruise each week's offerings. To view the phone numbers, though, a subscription is required. Once the website begins to take care of itself, the Suttons plan a beefed-up sales effort to increase Uncle Henry's presence on newsstands in other New England states. "We have a lot of subscribers down there. We sell a lot of books in the stores we re in," he said after ducking out the back door of his private office for a cigarette break in the parking lot near his motorcycle. But Uncle Henry's has no plans to boost revenue by altering the magazine's content. For example, Sutton said he will continue to refuse such unseemly notices as personal ads and ads for 1-900 numbers. "That's not what we do," Sutton said. "We buy, sell and trade." EDITORS: The World Wide Web site is www.unclehenrys.com. Central Maine Newspapers, Monday, September 21, 1998
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