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Pez Corporation is the most dishonorable, dishonest company on planet Earth.
Pez corporation committed Fraud taking 20 years of work n savings.
Last Friday was take your parents to work day at the Pez Factory in China.
Basic joke, David Letterman. Pez part added as most US Pez Are made in China.
Pick your topic; Racism, Sexism, Fraud, Graft or Copyright infringement. Pez Corporation has felt free to do it all. Out of sight out of mind, in various corners of the world. Pez Outlaw Diary is like a flashlight in a basement exposing the rats in the corners. The actions taken by Pez Corporation in 1998 allow me to speak my mind without fear.
Only Pez Corporation would approve an idea to sell Donald Duck Pez with BOOBs & Nudity to children. See below Pez Corporation advertisement below.
Pez Corporation 20 years later and still RACIST. Back in September I challenged Pez Corporation to reform there racist past by releasing a Black Santa for Christmas this year. Let me ask you, Christmas has come and gone. Did you see a Black Santa for sale retail? No, it would appear Pez Corporate racism is still alive and well.
Pez Outlaw did not exist in my days of smuggling Pez. Pez Outlaw was not born until Pez Corporation defrauded me out of almost a half a million dollars. In hindsight I guess I was a Pez Outlaw all along.
Pez Outlaw is the only person in the entire world or the 70 year history of Pez Corporation who can honestly say as an outsider. Pez Corporation created over 20 Pez Dispensers as a direct result of my ideas.
Pez Outlaw was one of the major players in the success of Pez as the collectible it is today. Before I entered the arena of Pez Collecting, it was an obscure hobby looked at with a puzzled eye, with 2 very modest conventions, more like gatherings today. At the peak of my efforts there were 6 well attended conventions a year, one of which I started. Among my clients were people in the movie business out in California. Several Actors etc. People who collected Pez were no longer viewed as weirdos. Pez collections were displayed in offices to make personal statements of individuality.
All modesty aside, I forget which, It was either Discovery or TLC channel actually contacted me thinking I was Pez Corporation when doing a feature segment. My efforts at that point in time so dwarfed in public exposure those of Pez Corporation that they actually thought I must be Pez Corporation. This happened more than once. I also had companies contact me not Pez Corporation searching for product. Go figure, I must have been doing something right.
Over half of the worlds population is non white, yet the only Santa Pez Corporation will release is White. I know it's impolite to ask but, approximately 75 years ago Pez Corporation were you forced or did you volunteer?
History is important when trying to understand how or why someone or a company feels comfortable behaving in a ruthless manner. My company was intentionally destroyed by Pez USA with assistance and indifference by Pez Austria. Indifference, went along to get along in a scheme any fare minded person would have said no to. So bringing up indifference 75 years ago gives you insight. Internally a person or a Corporation should know right from wrong and know when to say no. Destroying a clients purchase from you should have been an easy call.
Someone in Hungary once said to me. 75 years ago we picked the wrong side, I hope this time (the Iraq War) we picked better. AustroHungary was a single country at one point in the 20th century. I'm just saying, makes you scratch your head and not in a good way.
There are just so many areas that Pez Corporation should know better without being told. The FRAUD perpetrate on me by Pez Corporation is only one of them.
The Black
Santa Pez Dispenser was rejected By Pez Corporation because of racial prejudice. Some of this was
Austrian Pez Corporate Racism, some was an interpretation of perceived
racism by Pez Austria about the USA. So Black Santa was deemed to
offensive by Pez Corporation as a whole.
Marcos from Slovenia is the father of the Black Santa Pez Dispenser. Marcos was very, very proud of this dispenser & puzzled why Pez Corporation rejected the idea. You see Marcos was there pez test shot guy & pez experimenter in chief.
Marcos loved his work. He took us to a cabinet which housed there pez collection. I later gave him a pez space gun & a pez shooter for there collection. Most facilities had a pez collection of one sort or another. In Ljubliana it was different pez dispensers on a beam around the top of the a room in the warehouse. Seeing the pez collection one piece jumped out at me, it was a black Santa Pez dispensers. Like I said Marcos loved his work, he was a very enthusiastic guy when it came to testing pez colors. Josh & I went nuts you'd think we had just seen an alien. We were told he had made a small run of these Pez dispensers because he thought the company ought to do this. Austria had decided, saying it was to controversial to produce. COKO PEZ an African caricature on the box for chocolate pez candy was ok, but a black Santa Pez dispensers was to controversial. This would be big news to approximately 20% of the population in America for whom Santa is actually black. In my opinion Marcos was correct.
Black Santa is probably the most historic Pez Dispenser ever made by Pez without corporate approval. Reason being Pez Corporation was scared to death of him. Black Santa was very taboo, way to controversial to exist or do as a Pez Dispenser. For these historical reasons I believe my Black Santas are the rarest & most desirable Pez that exist. There were 3 different versions of my Black Santas. I know the politically correct answer to rarest is Make-A-Face. I disagree. Black Santa is rarest Pez as it was never meant to exist. Like Bubble boy, it was an in house rejection. Unlike Bubble Boy he was never mass produced. Make-A-Face was mass produced. Even Owl MMM was produced in larger numbers than Black Santa.
Let me restate, Black Santa was an actual proposed dispenser to Pez Austria. The first group of Black Santas are actually prototypes.
Black Santa was rejected by Pez Corporation because of racial prejudice. Some of this was Austrian Pez Corporate Racism, some was an interpretation of perceived racism by Pez Austria about the USA. So Black Santa was deemed to offensive by Pez Corporation as a whole to be a Pez Dispenser.
There is one other area of Pez Dispensers that has always bothered me. Generic Boy & Girl Pez Dispensers of various types. Why in Gods name haven't Black children, Asian Children or Hispanic Children ever been allowed the possibility of buying a Pez Dispenser that actually looks like them?
Pez Corporation. By the very nature of the product you produce, you market to children. Yet you refuse to make those very children feel good about themselves with the very product you want to sell them. Ethnic identification is very important to a child. Marketing only white children in Pez Dispensers tells children of other ethnicity's that they are not important enough to be represented.
Pez Corporation it is well past time for you to let go of old racial biases. You do realize you are offending at a bare minimum 25% of your potential market in America. Not to mention South America, Mexico, Africa, Asia & the Middle East.
The picture below is a drawing of the image used on the top of chocolate pez display boxes in Hungary in the early 1990s.
Like I said the above image of COKO PEZ an African caricature on the box for chocolate pez candy was ok, but a black Santa Pez dispensers was to controversial. I believe the rational was African caricature as mascot for chocolate Pez ok, but a black person as an icon no way.
This type of forgive me Sambo image was not acceptable any more. In the early 1990s the Coko Pez image was absolutely considered acceptable by Pez Europe for Eastern Europe.
Below is an Actual 1970 Pez advertisement. Only Pez Corporation would approve an idea to sell Donald Duck Pez with BOOBs & Nudity.
If google says that the below advert by Pez Corporation is pornography & they did. It must be pornography. It would appear Pez Corporation intended the use of Pornography to sell Donald Duck Pez.
I
smuggled approximately 700,000 Pez Dispensers into the USA from Europe.
Get yours signed and authenticated as a Pez Outlaw Pez Dispenser.
The first being that in 1998 buying pez for what became the Color Wars I spent $471,950.00 on Pez dispensers. These purchases from Pez Corp Austria are detailed in the next chapter. The second surprise was that over an 11 year period of selling Pez I earned $4,530,899.00 in Gross Sales. Then lost it all in the Pez Color Wars. The third thing that surprised me when I realized it was. For approx 3 years by default I ran Pez USA. The reason I say this is for 2 to 3 years most of what Pez USA did was in direct response to what I was doing.
I've been collecting different types of things since about 1970. Cereal Premiums, Cereal Boxes, McDonalds, records 45s, 78s, 331/3, Toys of all types & different paper items. First I only attended toy shows & swap meets buying. Later selling at toy shows, swap meets & conventions. Eventually creating the first California Pez Convention.
In the mid 1980 I started noticing Pez Dispensers as a collectible. In the 1980s my hobby was traveling all over Michigan Buying closeout from stores mostly Toys-R-US & McDonalds buying leftover Happy Meal Toys & Boxes. I remember clear as a bell my first curiosity about Pez Dispensers. The specific object of my curiosity was a no feet Spiderman Pez Dispenser at a Toys-R-Us in southern Michigan.
effects of one pivotal moment.
When life handed me my first pivotal choice, I said yes. I saw something & moved on it with everything I could muster. That first pivotal moment for me was in 1994 when I decided to start traveling to Europe buying Pez. Over 70 trips later the hobby had been changed, all hinging on that one decision to go. Decisions accompanied by actions impact events.
My second pivotal decision to go forward with the Holiday Colors also had a huge impact on myself & the Pez Hobby. This time, not so good.
The third big pivotal decision for me was when I decided to write Pez Outlaw Diary. Everybody told me. Don't write this, just let it go. How do you let something like this go, while you still have breath in your body? People still think I'm crazy to take on a major international corporation like Pez. What are they gonna do, destroy me? To late they already did that.
I'm very content with the decision I made to take on this fight. To be honest it would have been against my nature to otherwise.
My first foreign Pez buy was approx 1991 in Canada at a Zellers. I went to Canada to buy Cereal Boxes. The Pez buy was a whim an afterthought. The reason I first bought PEZ was, I had been noticing a few other dealers selling things like Rhino Melody Makers for $25.00 successfully. Not many but they did sell them occasionally. People like Sue Sternfeld, some guy named Kovell I believe & 2 other guys from out east.
That Canadian trip in about 1991 buying Cereal Boxes I noticed this odd chain of stores called Zellers. Thinking I might find some interesting toys I went in. Upon entering I ran smack into a 6ft Peter Pez Display rack filled with Pez Dispensers. I had no idea what I was looking at. Today I'd buy the entire thing. What I did recognize though was Rhino Melody Makers & other Pez that people at toy shows were selling for $25.00 each at a buck n change. No genius but even I knew this would work.
Let me set the table for you. In the 1980s till mid to late 1990s Pez corporation sold several lines of Pez dispensers outside the USA that were never or no longer available in the USA. These dealers had been slipping up to Canada buying Pez for a buck then selling them in the USA for $25.00. It was easy for even me to see I could make money at half that price.
Here's where the difference came in. I'm compulsive obsessive by nature, so what they were just dabbling in, I went nuts on. I started bringing in large amounts of PEZ from Canada, then even larger amounts from Europe. I traveled East to west in Canada buying all I could find once I figured out what was good. First year Zellers only, then the regional wholesaler. When Canada could no longer provide what I needed, I started on Europe.
All that said it is important to get back to my other point. Pez as a collectible up to about 1994 was not what it is today. Prior to 1994 it was an oddity at shows or wherever I tried selling it. At toy shows I'd put sets of pez out in long rows next to sets of Mcdonalds premiums only to have them just sit there on display. People bought the McDonalds & cereal premiums like crazy, but only commented on the Pez.
I remember one show on a hot summer day watching Pez stems curve from the heat with no real interest in Pez. Though the reality of where Pez was at that time, it also serves as an apt metaphor for where Pez was at as a Collectible. I had to promote the Hell out of Pez for it to become what it is today. This was done in the form of FREE STUFF. FREE Video tapes, FREE Pez Handbooks, FREE Pez Pins, FREE Pez Bags & FREE Pez Body Parts. Two to Four full page advertisements in collectible publications every month for years.
Eventually creating & personally funding every aspect of the first California Pez Convention. This is important, I paid for everything. Example, most Pez Conventions at the time solicited prizes from dealers, I know because I contributed heavily to all of them. California was different I provided everything, asked nobody for anything. Then after the first year, gave the convention away. Yes gave it away, the only time a Pez Convention was given away. As you may or may not know Pez Conventions are sold not given away. Further I ate most all costs of that convention and an imaginary $2,000.00 profit was donated to charity.
Pez as the Collectible it is today would not exist if it had not been for PEZ Outlaw. The haters will shred me for making this obvious statement. Thing is, if you were there, you know it is true. Which room or booth did everyone want to go to first? Which dealer were people talking about going down hallways at conventions? Who brought BIG & showbiz To Conventions? Who was it that all media was directed to for a comment at Pez Conventions? Who ran up to 5 nation wide full page advertisements promoting Pez every month for 5 years? PEZ Corporation ran none. Who publicized all the Pez convention with 1/2 page advertisements in national publications? Who created the Pez Handbook? What video did people want concerning Pez in the early 1990s? Where do you think the Pez Pins you now get at conventions originated from? Who still today are the best convention stories about? PEZ OUTLAW, that's who.
During my years selling and promoting Pez, the Hobby grew more than any years before or since. Truth is you still have not seen what is possible.
It wasn't just for all the things I've mentioned that I make that claim. I provided the middle for the Hobby of collecting PEZ. Without the middle or low end collector, you cannot have growth. At least not the growth that occurred during my years. You don't start buying $100.00 pez out of the chute. You have to work your way to it. I provided with my product the rapid growth of the middle to low end collector. The lifeblood of any hobby. Also a little known fact, approx 10% of my inventory was no feet pez. I made it possible for the hobby to grow faster with a large variety of middle to low end pez product priced reasonably. Which was not the case before Pez Outlaw. The Movers & shakers of the Pez Hobby before me had a much smaller vision of what was possible.
My presents within the world of PEZ was big enough that a cable channel doing a feature on collectibles contacted me thinking I was Pez Corporation. Or should I say Pez Corporations profile was so small by comparison to mine that a cable channel had never heard of them, but had heard of me.
Without PEZ POLETIKA none of what I did would have been possible. Because of PEZ POLETIKA everything was possible. The sibling rivalry between Pez USA and Pez Austria would have given Sigmund Freud a Woodie. PEZ POLETIKA is where my life as a Pez Outlaw began. PEZ POLETIKA exposed the vulnerability of Pez Corporation and how the game would be played. Big men with enormous egos, much to do, much to do.
Every game has at least two players. My deficits were to much to fast and I started believing my own myth. Now Pez Outlaw is a persona I choose not one I feel empowers me with a cloak of invincibility. Pez Outlaw is told with much humility, not ego. I lost the game, but I will win the History.
POLETIKA at one point was a flaw in Pez Corporations armor, a vulnerability. Now POLETIKA is mine, a tool I will use to correct the Fraudulent History of Pez Corporation in the 1990s. Until Pez Outlaw Diary a lie was accepted as fact. Pez Outlaw Diary will use POLETIKA to correct that. To be clear POLETIKA is a term I've invented to call the various methods that are and will be used by Pez Outlaw.
I'd also like to suggest that the Pez Outlaw character would make a far better icon for pez product than Peter Pez. Truth is Peter Pez just plain sucks, sucks in the suck category of The Burger King icon. Pez Outlaw as an icon is more in the category of Colonel Sanders of KFC.
Peter Pez is a scary looking thing. Pez Outlaw reminds you of your grandpa. Pez Outlaw reminds you of Santa Claus on his off season. There's a reason Santa Clause has been a staple for over 50 years as a Pez Dispenser. Peter Pez on the other hand has only been used roughly 15 years in 2 incarnations with modest success. Why like the Burger King Peter Pez is just plain creepy & scary. Off duty Santa/Pez Outlaw is much better.
Obviously my rendering of Pez Outlaw is a mockup. Some fine tuning would be needed. Like I wear glasses & my beard is longer. As pictured a cool thing would be to include attachable shoes (like from Body Parts) that are pink Bunny slippers.
As I will go into later a back story for dispensers is a huge asset to any pez. This goes double for a corporate icon. Peter Pez aside from being kinda creepy, what's his story? Zippidy Do Da that's what. Really your going to represent an international corporation with a creepy icon with no back-story. Your choice but then again Kinda Lame.
Pez Outlaw has an entire Diary, 19 chapters & available in 20 different languages.
Pez Outlaw looks like Santa Clause gone fishing. Pez Outlaw reminds children of Santa & there Grandpa. A beloved Grandfatherly figure. Peter Pez is some Psycho Clown. You do realize some people & some children have a deep fear of clowns, let alone Psycho Peter Pez.
This exchange recently took place on facebook.
Original post by me on facebook.
facebook friend comment. PEZ International knew that the Holiday Colors were being made for you?
my response. What difference would it make. an order was placed. The order was accepted. The order was paid for. pez accepted & cashed the check. an honest transaction. That the end recipient was me does not justify a Breach of implied Contract. Or are we saying that this behavior is acceptable because it was done to sj glew? Thanks for commenting.
I honestly appreciated this comment. It helped me flesh out the thought/ position, which is helpful. The behavior of Pez Corporation to a client is the issue. Are we saying a corporation has the right to screw a customer because they decide that they don't like them. This interaction has proven to be a very good illustration of POLETIKA.
Lets be honest it gave me something to yammer on about this morning..
The above facebook exchange brings up the idea of Moral Equivalency.
If you are a bank robber or a car thief does that give say Walmart the right to cheat you if you come in there store to purchase something? Is it legal to hold up even a known thief at gunpoint? The answer is no in both cases.
With Pez it's all about who you are and who you know. There is a support system that exists in Pez collecting to maintain the status qua. Doing what is best for there small idea of the hobby. Problem is this frame of mind actually hurts the hobby.
Break the rules if you are well connected, get out of jail free. Chapters 8, 10 and 11 go into detail about this, along with the end of chapter 16. The short of it is decisions that result in silence are made which affect your collections.
The difference between $200.00 & $2,000.00 for the same piece is who you are & who you know. This has been true for the last 22 years. Recently Pez Outlaw Jr. sold his collection and I was stunned to hear some of the results. Two pieces in particular shocked me. A Black Santa one of the iconic pieces in the hobby and an off color Dino. Both sold for way under $200.00. Absolutely unreal. Less than 300 Black Santa's exist and it sells for under $200.00. Yet an Owl MMM sells for $2,000.00 of which there are also at least 300. Someone tell me the logic. It's who you are and who you know.
The off color Dino also sold for less than $200.00. Folks you do realize only 2 of those dispensers existed. If Dave, John or KOA had sold it, it would have brought $2,000.00. Again who you are and who you know.
Want to push an agenda. Again who you are & who you know. During my days as a Pez Dealer I sold a lot of vintage Pez at 1/2 the previous going rate. I did this in quantities that threatened existing inventories held by some of the Good Ole Boys and there minions. This was a prescription for later retaliation. Funny thing is they actually had far less in each dispenser than I did. No matter, my prices did not maintain there vision of value. I only asked what I needed so I could make the next buy & pay my bills.
Impolitic and you must go. Your views or activities conflict with the smaller vision of the hobby, you are destroyed. A smallish number of people support a group think that in there perception is best for the hobby. When the group think is directed to specific agendas people are maligned and ostracized. Average collectors don't even see it as it comes down from on high. End result is collections full of questionable dispensers.
Personally I think my way was better, but to know the difference you would have needed to be collecting in the 1990s. My problem, which caused me no end of grief was I was not a part of the Pez Good Ole Boy Network. I was most definitely the outsider, therefore perceived a threat. I did not play by there rules. I charged what I felt I needed for an item not the conventional wisdom of its value. This ruffled a lot of feathers. So when the long knives came out in 1998 so did theirs.
My independence as a dealer was the problem. That I became so powerful as an independent dealer became a threat. How do the good ole boys maintain the status qua if an independent alone is almost as big as they were combined. Methods were tried with some success, like rumors about my pez not being real. That I was either making them or having them made. Coincidentally exactly what they knew one of there brothers was doing.
The Pez Good Ole Boy Network had no luck getting rid of the independent Pez Outlaw. That is until Pez Corporation committed FRAUD in 1998. That is when a sort of alliance of convenience resulted in a good old fashion dog-pile. Pez Corporation committed the Fraud and the Good Ole Boy Network either wholeheartedly supported it or passively looked away. Inaction and silence is the same as action when you know better. Within one year the status qua was reinstated.
Doubt my words. OK, tell me this. Are the original Holiday Color called that in any published price guide except mine? No they are called The Misfits, which were the secondary product. Are they referred to individually by there real name? You tell me, a systematic replacement of an ORIGINAL products name by a secondary duplication. What is that? It's an agenda. It's political. Do you realize the effort it takes to ignore a reality in favor of an agenda.
Misfits were copies, an act of vengeance against an original, a company and a person. This was heartily welcomed???? Tell me politics is not alive and well. Many old scores were settled in 1998. Many problems were solved for some. The purge was a success.
To me from my point of view. The good, a breath of fresh air was thrown out. Reinstated was a very twisted not so nice past with some very questionable players.
That is, until PEZ Outlaw Diary. Now the other side, the other point of view is getting out there.
My first goal is for people who write price
guides to refer to the Holiday Colors by that and each dispensers real
name. Stop calling them by the copies, MISFITS! Stop calling them MISFIT
Santa, witch etc. By calling them MISFITS in your price guides, you are
ab-bedding the FRAUD by PEZ Corporation. Don't you understand this.
With each copy of your price guides you are an active participant in a
FRAUD on me and collectors. Price guides are the first step in my effort
to correct history. It's a very small matter, yet extremely important
to me.
Pez Outlaw Diary is unique because I answer to nobody. My words are written without fear of repercussions. Like me or hate me, I honestly don't care. Pez Outlaw Diary just tells the story as it happened. The actions taken by Pez Corporation in 1998 allow me to speak my mind without fear. Also having nothing left to lose (thank you Pez Corp) liberates me from the restraints prior to 1998.
I played in a very big world for 10 years. A world bigger than my experiences to that point. I did OK, but I have to tell you I was out of my depth. Especially on a personal level. My comfort zone is more in line with the life of a hermit. So traveling the world, interacting with so many people was a real stretch for me.
I love the computer age, for me communicating through typing is a very good fit. I like people. I am also very optimistic by nature. Though unlike most people I really don't need or seek personal relationships. Family and my dogs are way more than enough.
Recently a neighbor stopped by, he asked the
familiar question. How are things going? Meaning my business. I started
talking about well you know the recession etc. Then as he nodded I
realized he had read Pez Outlaw. I found it kinda nice that I could now
just use a shorthand as he already knew all the details. You see
during the Pez Money years things were so different. It's just nice not
to have to hash over all that to explain the new normal.
For me my years as a Pez Dealer were like winning the Lotto. I was ill prepared to deal with the quick success of it all. Like a lot of Lotto winners in the end I was broke & in debt. I had help getting there but the choices were mine. Those 10 years as a Pez Dealer were the best years of my life, followed by 10 bad years. Ying & Yang if you will. On the plus side it was 20 years overall of higher education which better prepared me for the next 20 years.
My pain was real. My loss was real. The money was real. The motives behind Pez Corporations actions is what the Diary explores.
Pez corporation committed Fraud taking 20 years of work n savings.
Last Friday was take your parents to work day at the Pez Factory in China.
Basic joke, David Letterman. Pez part added as most US Pez Are made in China.
Pick your topic; Racism, Sexism, Fraud, Graft or Copyright infringement. Pez Corporation has felt free to do it all. Out of sight out of mind, in various corners of the world. Pez Outlaw Diary is like a flashlight in a basement exposing the rats in the corners. The actions taken by Pez Corporation in 1998 allow me to speak my mind without fear.
Only Pez Corporation would approve an idea to sell Donald Duck Pez with BOOBs & Nudity to children. See below Pez Corporation advertisement below.
Pez Corporation 20 years later and still RACIST. Back in September I challenged Pez Corporation to reform there racist past by releasing a Black Santa for Christmas this year. Let me ask you, Christmas has come and gone. Did you see a Black Santa for sale retail? No, it would appear Pez Corporate racism is still alive and well.
Pez Outlaw did not exist in my days of smuggling Pez. Pez Outlaw was not born until Pez Corporation defrauded me out of almost a half a million dollars. In hindsight I guess I was a Pez Outlaw all along.
Pez Outlaw is the only person in the entire world or the 70 year history of Pez Corporation who can honestly say as an outsider. Pez Corporation created over 20 Pez Dispensers as a direct result of my ideas.
Pez Outlaw was one of the major players in the success of Pez as the collectible it is today. Before I entered the arena of Pez Collecting, it was an obscure hobby looked at with a puzzled eye, with 2 very modest conventions, more like gatherings today. At the peak of my efforts there were 6 well attended conventions a year, one of which I started. Among my clients were people in the movie business out in California. Several Actors etc. People who collected Pez were no longer viewed as weirdos. Pez collections were displayed in offices to make personal statements of individuality.
All modesty aside, I forget which, It was either Discovery or TLC channel actually contacted me thinking I was Pez Corporation when doing a feature segment. My efforts at that point in time so dwarfed in public exposure those of Pez Corporation that they actually thought I must be Pez Corporation. This happened more than once. I also had companies contact me not Pez Corporation searching for product. Go figure, I must have been doing something right.
Over half of the worlds population is non white, yet the only Santa Pez Corporation will release is White. I know it's impolite to ask but, approximately 75 years ago Pez Corporation were you forced or did you volunteer?
History is important when trying to understand how or why someone or a company feels comfortable behaving in a ruthless manner. My company was intentionally destroyed by Pez USA with assistance and indifference by Pez Austria. Indifference, went along to get along in a scheme any fare minded person would have said no to. So bringing up indifference 75 years ago gives you insight. Internally a person or a Corporation should know right from wrong and know when to say no. Destroying a clients purchase from you should have been an easy call.
Someone in Hungary once said to me. 75 years ago we picked the wrong side, I hope this time (the Iraq War) we picked better. AustroHungary was a single country at one point in the 20th century. I'm just saying, makes you scratch your head and not in a good way.
There are just so many areas that Pez Corporation should know better without being told. The FRAUD perpetrate on me by Pez Corporation is only one of them.
 |
| 1st one |
Marcos from Slovenia is the father of the Black Santa Pez Dispenser. Marcos was very, very proud of this dispenser & puzzled why Pez Corporation rejected the idea. You see Marcos was there pez test shot guy & pez experimenter in chief.
Marcos loved his work. He took us to a cabinet which housed there pez collection. I later gave him a pez space gun & a pez shooter for there collection. Most facilities had a pez collection of one sort or another. In Ljubliana it was different pez dispensers on a beam around the top of the a room in the warehouse. Seeing the pez collection one piece jumped out at me, it was a black Santa Pez dispensers. Like I said Marcos loved his work, he was a very enthusiastic guy when it came to testing pez colors. Josh & I went nuts you'd think we had just seen an alien. We were told he had made a small run of these Pez dispensers because he thought the company ought to do this. Austria had decided, saying it was to controversial to produce. COKO PEZ an African caricature on the box for chocolate pez candy was ok, but a black Santa Pez dispensers was to controversial. This would be big news to approximately 20% of the population in America for whom Santa is actually black. In my opinion Marcos was correct.
Black Santa is probably the most historic Pez Dispenser ever made by Pez without corporate approval. Reason being Pez Corporation was scared to death of him. Black Santa was very taboo, way to controversial to exist or do as a Pez Dispenser. For these historical reasons I believe my Black Santas are the rarest & most desirable Pez that exist. There were 3 different versions of my Black Santas. I know the politically correct answer to rarest is Make-A-Face. I disagree. Black Santa is rarest Pez as it was never meant to exist. Like Bubble boy, it was an in house rejection. Unlike Bubble Boy he was never mass produced. Make-A-Face was mass produced. Even Owl MMM was produced in larger numbers than Black Santa.
Let me restate, Black Santa was an actual proposed dispenser to Pez Austria. The first group of Black Santas are actually prototypes.
Black Santa was rejected by Pez Corporation because of racial prejudice. Some of this was Austrian Pez Corporate Racism, some was an interpretation of perceived racism by Pez Austria about the USA. So Black Santa was deemed to offensive by Pez Corporation as a whole to be a Pez Dispenser.
There is one other area of Pez Dispensers that has always bothered me. Generic Boy & Girl Pez Dispensers of various types. Why in Gods name haven't Black children, Asian Children or Hispanic Children ever been allowed the possibility of buying a Pez Dispenser that actually looks like them?
Pez Corporation. By the very nature of the product you produce, you market to children. Yet you refuse to make those very children feel good about themselves with the very product you want to sell them. Ethnic identification is very important to a child. Marketing only white children in Pez Dispensers tells children of other ethnicity's that they are not important enough to be represented.
Pez Corporation it is well past time for you to let go of old racial biases. You do realize you are offending at a bare minimum 25% of your potential market in America. Not to mention South America, Mexico, Africa, Asia & the Middle East.
The picture below is a drawing of the image used on the top of chocolate pez display boxes in Hungary in the early 1990s.
Like I said the above image of COKO PEZ an African caricature on the box for chocolate pez candy was ok, but a black Santa Pez dispensers was to controversial. I believe the rational was African caricature as mascot for chocolate Pez ok, but a black person as an icon no way.
This type of forgive me Sambo image was not acceptable any more. In the early 1990s the Coko Pez image was absolutely considered acceptable by Pez Europe for Eastern Europe.
Below is an Actual 1970 Pez advertisement. Only Pez Corporation would approve an idea to sell Donald Duck Pez with BOOBs & Nudity.
If google says that the below advert by Pez Corporation is pornography & they did. It must be pornography. It would appear Pez Corporation intended the use of Pornography to sell Donald Duck Pez.
| I had to add a picture before this one in chapter 1 because google was calling the picture below of the Pez Advert Pornography. Which meant posting from this chapter violated Googles pornography policy for google+. Posts feature first photo. |
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| The Sex. Actual 1970 Pez advertisement Only Pez Corporation would approve an idea to sell Donald Duck Pez with BOOBs & Nudity. |
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|  | $4.95 |
Humility is for after you win.
Three things surprised me while writing Pez Outlaw Diary.
The first being that in 1998 buying pez for what became the Color Wars I spent $471,950.00 on Pez dispensers. These purchases from Pez Corp Austria are detailed in the next chapter. The second surprise was that over an 11 year period of selling Pez I earned $4,530,899.00 in Gross Sales. Then lost it all in the Pez Color Wars. The third thing that surprised me when I realized it was. For approx 3 years by default I ran Pez USA. The reason I say this is for 2 to 3 years most of what Pez USA did was in direct response to what I was doing.
I've been collecting different types of things since about 1970. Cereal Premiums, Cereal Boxes, McDonalds, records 45s, 78s, 331/3, Toys of all types & different paper items. First I only attended toy shows & swap meets buying. Later selling at toy shows, swap meets & conventions. Eventually creating the first California Pez Convention.
In the mid 1980 I started noticing Pez Dispensers as a collectible. In the 1980s my hobby was traveling all over Michigan Buying closeout from stores mostly Toys-R-US & McDonalds buying leftover Happy Meal Toys & Boxes. I remember clear as a bell my first curiosity about Pez Dispensers. The specific object of my curiosity was a no feet Spiderman Pez Dispenser at a Toys-R-Us in southern Michigan.
effects of one pivotal moment.
When life handed me my first pivotal choice, I said yes. I saw something & moved on it with everything I could muster. That first pivotal moment for me was in 1994 when I decided to start traveling to Europe buying Pez. Over 70 trips later the hobby had been changed, all hinging on that one decision to go. Decisions accompanied by actions impact events.
My second pivotal decision to go forward with the Holiday Colors also had a huge impact on myself & the Pez Hobby. This time, not so good.
The third big pivotal decision for me was when I decided to write Pez Outlaw Diary. Everybody told me. Don't write this, just let it go. How do you let something like this go, while you still have breath in your body? People still think I'm crazy to take on a major international corporation like Pez. What are they gonna do, destroy me? To late they already did that.
I'm very content with the decision I made to take on this fight. To be honest it would have been against my nature to otherwise.
My first foreign Pez buy was approx 1991 in Canada at a Zellers. I went to Canada to buy Cereal Boxes. The Pez buy was a whim an afterthought. The reason I first bought PEZ was, I had been noticing a few other dealers selling things like Rhino Melody Makers for $25.00 successfully. Not many but they did sell them occasionally. People like Sue Sternfeld, some guy named Kovell I believe & 2 other guys from out east.
That Canadian trip in about 1991 buying Cereal Boxes I noticed this odd chain of stores called Zellers. Thinking I might find some interesting toys I went in. Upon entering I ran smack into a 6ft Peter Pez Display rack filled with Pez Dispensers. I had no idea what I was looking at. Today I'd buy the entire thing. What I did recognize though was Rhino Melody Makers & other Pez that people at toy shows were selling for $25.00 each at a buck n change. No genius but even I knew this would work.
Let me set the table for you. In the 1980s till mid to late 1990s Pez corporation sold several lines of Pez dispensers outside the USA that were never or no longer available in the USA. These dealers had been slipping up to Canada buying Pez for a buck then selling them in the USA for $25.00. It was easy for even me to see I could make money at half that price.
Here's where the difference came in. I'm compulsive obsessive by nature, so what they were just dabbling in, I went nuts on. I started bringing in large amounts of PEZ from Canada, then even larger amounts from Europe. I traveled East to west in Canada buying all I could find once I figured out what was good. First year Zellers only, then the regional wholesaler. When Canada could no longer provide what I needed, I started on Europe.
All that said it is important to get back to my other point. Pez as a collectible up to about 1994 was not what it is today. Prior to 1994 it was an oddity at shows or wherever I tried selling it. At toy shows I'd put sets of pez out in long rows next to sets of Mcdonalds premiums only to have them just sit there on display. People bought the McDonalds & cereal premiums like crazy, but only commented on the Pez.
I remember one show on a hot summer day watching Pez stems curve from the heat with no real interest in Pez. Though the reality of where Pez was at that time, it also serves as an apt metaphor for where Pez was at as a Collectible. I had to promote the Hell out of Pez for it to become what it is today. This was done in the form of FREE STUFF. FREE Video tapes, FREE Pez Handbooks, FREE Pez Pins, FREE Pez Bags & FREE Pez Body Parts. Two to Four full page advertisements in collectible publications every month for years.
Eventually creating & personally funding every aspect of the first California Pez Convention. This is important, I paid for everything. Example, most Pez Conventions at the time solicited prizes from dealers, I know because I contributed heavily to all of them. California was different I provided everything, asked nobody for anything. Then after the first year, gave the convention away. Yes gave it away, the only time a Pez Convention was given away. As you may or may not know Pez Conventions are sold not given away. Further I ate most all costs of that convention and an imaginary $2,000.00 profit was donated to charity.
Pez as the Collectible it is today would not exist if it had not been for PEZ Outlaw. The haters will shred me for making this obvious statement. Thing is, if you were there, you know it is true. Which room or booth did everyone want to go to first? Which dealer were people talking about going down hallways at conventions? Who brought BIG & showbiz To Conventions? Who was it that all media was directed to for a comment at Pez Conventions? Who ran up to 5 nation wide full page advertisements promoting Pez every month for 5 years? PEZ Corporation ran none. Who publicized all the Pez convention with 1/2 page advertisements in national publications? Who created the Pez Handbook? What video did people want concerning Pez in the early 1990s? Where do you think the Pez Pins you now get at conventions originated from? Who still today are the best convention stories about? PEZ OUTLAW, that's who.
During my years selling and promoting Pez, the Hobby grew more than any years before or since. Truth is you still have not seen what is possible.
My vision of what is possible for PEZ has still not been achieved.
It wasn't just for all the things I've mentioned that I make that claim. I provided the middle for the Hobby of collecting PEZ. Without the middle or low end collector, you cannot have growth. At least not the growth that occurred during my years. You don't start buying $100.00 pez out of the chute. You have to work your way to it. I provided with my product the rapid growth of the middle to low end collector. The lifeblood of any hobby. Also a little known fact, approx 10% of my inventory was no feet pez. I made it possible for the hobby to grow faster with a large variety of middle to low end pez product priced reasonably. Which was not the case before Pez Outlaw. The Movers & shakers of the Pez Hobby before me had a much smaller vision of what was possible.
My presents within the world of PEZ was big enough that a cable channel doing a feature on collectibles contacted me thinking I was Pez Corporation. Or should I say Pez Corporations profile was so small by comparison to mine that a cable channel had never heard of them, but had heard of me.
Without PEZ POLETIKA none of what I did would have been possible. Because of PEZ POLETIKA everything was possible. The sibling rivalry between Pez USA and Pez Austria would have given Sigmund Freud a Woodie. PEZ POLETIKA is where my life as a Pez Outlaw began. PEZ POLETIKA exposed the vulnerability of Pez Corporation and how the game would be played. Big men with enormous egos, much to do, much to do.
Every game has at least two players. My deficits were to much to fast and I started believing my own myth. Now Pez Outlaw is a persona I choose not one I feel empowers me with a cloak of invincibility. Pez Outlaw is told with much humility, not ego. I lost the game, but I will win the History.
POLETIKA at one point was a flaw in Pez Corporations armor, a vulnerability. Now POLETIKA is mine, a tool I will use to correct the Fraudulent History of Pez Corporation in the 1990s. Until Pez Outlaw Diary a lie was accepted as fact. Pez Outlaw Diary will use POLETIKA to correct that. To be clear POLETIKA is a term I've invented to call the various methods that are and will be used by Pez Outlaw.
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| Pez Outlaw Dispenser |
I'd also like to suggest that the Pez Outlaw character would make a far better icon for pez product than Peter Pez. Truth is Peter Pez just plain sucks, sucks in the suck category of The Burger King icon. Pez Outlaw as an icon is more in the category of Colonel Sanders of KFC.
Peter Pez is a scary looking thing. Pez Outlaw reminds you of your grandpa. Pez Outlaw reminds you of Santa Claus on his off season. There's a reason Santa Clause has been a staple for over 50 years as a Pez Dispenser. Peter Pez on the other hand has only been used roughly 15 years in 2 incarnations with modest success. Why like the Burger King Peter Pez is just plain creepy & scary. Off duty Santa/Pez Outlaw is much better.
Obviously my rendering of Pez Outlaw is a mockup. Some fine tuning would be needed. Like I wear glasses & my beard is longer. As pictured a cool thing would be to include attachable shoes (like from Body Parts) that are pink Bunny slippers.
As I will go into later a back story for dispensers is a huge asset to any pez. This goes double for a corporate icon. Peter Pez aside from being kinda creepy, what's his story? Zippidy Do Da that's what. Really your going to represent an international corporation with a creepy icon with no back-story. Your choice but then again Kinda Lame.
Pez Outlaw has an entire Diary, 19 chapters & available in 20 different languages.
Pez Outlaw looks like Santa Clause gone fishing. Pez Outlaw reminds children of Santa & there Grandpa. A beloved Grandfatherly figure. Peter Pez is some Psycho Clown. You do realize some people & some children have a deep fear of clowns, let alone Psycho Peter Pez.
This exchange recently took place on facebook.
Original post by me on facebook.
facebook friend comment. PEZ International knew that the Holiday Colors were being made for you?
my response. What difference would it make. an order was placed. The order was accepted. The order was paid for. pez accepted & cashed the check. an honest transaction. That the end recipient was me does not justify a Breach of implied Contract. Or are we saying that this behavior is acceptable because it was done to sj glew? Thanks for commenting.
I honestly appreciated this comment. It helped me flesh out the thought/ position, which is helpful. The behavior of Pez Corporation to a client is the issue. Are we saying a corporation has the right to screw a customer because they decide that they don't like them. This interaction has proven to be a very good illustration of POLETIKA.
Lets be honest it gave me something to yammer on about this morning..
The above facebook exchange brings up the idea of Moral Equivalency.
If you are a bank robber or a car thief does that give say Walmart the right to cheat you if you come in there store to purchase something? Is it legal to hold up even a known thief at gunpoint? The answer is no in both cases.
With Pez it's all about who you are and who you know. There is a support system that exists in Pez collecting to maintain the status qua. Doing what is best for there small idea of the hobby. Problem is this frame of mind actually hurts the hobby.
Break the rules if you are well connected, get out of jail free. Chapters 8, 10 and 11 go into detail about this, along with the end of chapter 16. The short of it is decisions that result in silence are made which affect your collections.
The difference between $200.00 & $2,000.00 for the same piece is who you are & who you know. This has been true for the last 22 years. Recently Pez Outlaw Jr. sold his collection and I was stunned to hear some of the results. Two pieces in particular shocked me. A Black Santa one of the iconic pieces in the hobby and an off color Dino. Both sold for way under $200.00. Absolutely unreal. Less than 300 Black Santa's exist and it sells for under $200.00. Yet an Owl MMM sells for $2,000.00 of which there are also at least 300. Someone tell me the logic. It's who you are and who you know.
The off color Dino also sold for less than $200.00. Folks you do realize only 2 of those dispensers existed. If Dave, John or KOA had sold it, it would have brought $2,000.00. Again who you are and who you know.
Want to push an agenda. Again who you are & who you know. During my days as a Pez Dealer I sold a lot of vintage Pez at 1/2 the previous going rate. I did this in quantities that threatened existing inventories held by some of the Good Ole Boys and there minions. This was a prescription for later retaliation. Funny thing is they actually had far less in each dispenser than I did. No matter, my prices did not maintain there vision of value. I only asked what I needed so I could make the next buy & pay my bills.
Impolitic and you must go. Your views or activities conflict with the smaller vision of the hobby, you are destroyed. A smallish number of people support a group think that in there perception is best for the hobby. When the group think is directed to specific agendas people are maligned and ostracized. Average collectors don't even see it as it comes down from on high. End result is collections full of questionable dispensers.
Personally I think my way was better, but to know the difference you would have needed to be collecting in the 1990s. My problem, which caused me no end of grief was I was not a part of the Pez Good Ole Boy Network. I was most definitely the outsider, therefore perceived a threat. I did not play by there rules. I charged what I felt I needed for an item not the conventional wisdom of its value. This ruffled a lot of feathers. So when the long knives came out in 1998 so did theirs.
My independence as a dealer was the problem. That I became so powerful as an independent dealer became a threat. How do the good ole boys maintain the status qua if an independent alone is almost as big as they were combined. Methods were tried with some success, like rumors about my pez not being real. That I was either making them or having them made. Coincidentally exactly what they knew one of there brothers was doing.
The Pez Good Ole Boy Network had no luck getting rid of the independent Pez Outlaw. That is until Pez Corporation committed FRAUD in 1998. That is when a sort of alliance of convenience resulted in a good old fashion dog-pile. Pez Corporation committed the Fraud and the Good Ole Boy Network either wholeheartedly supported it or passively looked away. Inaction and silence is the same as action when you know better. Within one year the status qua was reinstated.
Doubt my words. OK, tell me this. Are the original Holiday Color called that in any published price guide except mine? No they are called The Misfits, which were the secondary product. Are they referred to individually by there real name? You tell me, a systematic replacement of an ORIGINAL products name by a secondary duplication. What is that? It's an agenda. It's political. Do you realize the effort it takes to ignore a reality in favor of an agenda.
Misfits were copies, an act of vengeance against an original, a company and a person. This was heartily welcomed???? Tell me politics is not alive and well. Many old scores were settled in 1998. Many problems were solved for some. The purge was a success.
To me from my point of view. The good, a breath of fresh air was thrown out. Reinstated was a very twisted not so nice past with some very questionable players.
That is, until PEZ Outlaw Diary. Now the other side, the other point of view is getting out there.
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| Goofy B |
Pez Outlaw Diary is unique because I answer to nobody. My words are written without fear of repercussions. Like me or hate me, I honestly don't care. Pez Outlaw Diary just tells the story as it happened. The actions taken by Pez Corporation in 1998 allow me to speak my mind without fear. Also having nothing left to lose (thank you Pez Corp) liberates me from the restraints prior to 1998.
I played in a very big world for 10 years. A world bigger than my experiences to that point. I did OK, but I have to tell you I was out of my depth. Especially on a personal level. My comfort zone is more in line with the life of a hermit. So traveling the world, interacting with so many people was a real stretch for me.
I love the computer age, for me communicating through typing is a very good fit. I like people. I am also very optimistic by nature. Though unlike most people I really don't need or seek personal relationships. Family and my dogs are way more than enough.
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| Popeye C |
For me my years as a Pez Dealer were like winning the Lotto. I was ill prepared to deal with the quick success of it all. Like a lot of Lotto winners in the end I was broke & in debt. I had help getting there but the choices were mine. Those 10 years as a Pez Dealer were the best years of my life, followed by 10 bad years. Ying & Yang if you will. On the plus side it was 20 years overall of higher education which better prepared me for the next 20 years.
My pain was real. My loss was real. The money was real. The motives behind Pez Corporations actions is what the Diary explores.
