Because I am an inventor and not a salesman, after I had the first 100 APPELSPADES manufactured, I tried to interest shops in my product. My first thought was garden-centres. So I wrote letters to a number of garden-centres with information about the spade, but got little response. I also called them to make an appointment to come to them with the spade. Then they asked me to send information first, and after that I never heard from them. When I contacted them again I eventually was told that because of "logistics" it's not possible to do business with someone who can supply only one kind of product and I was directed to a wholesale dealer. Called wholesale dealer, he asked information, information sent, no response. Eventually I only had contact with one retailer, that means I went to him with a spade. He wanted to buy spades for 35 euro (excluding V.A.T.) and then sell them for 79.50 euro (including V.A.T.). Nice as such, of course, but the spades cost me a lot more than 35 euro. The bright spot was that he expected to sell no more than 50 a year, so my loss on anual basis would be limited. I decided not to do it. It seems better to me to sell the spades for more than they have cost me.

In response to an article in an English garden magazine I got a letter from an Englishman who was interested in the spade and was willing to show it to the garden department of Harrods, London, where he was employed, he claimed. However I sent several letters to him as well as Harrods, but never got any response. Inspired by this I sent some information to several big department-stores in Berlin, Paris and Brussels, but without success.

The only retailer I've been able to find is gallery K.I.S. (Kunst In Serie, meaning Art In Series), Paleisstraat 107, Amsterdam. There has been an APPELSPADE for sale for about a year, but because people don't know it's a genuine APPEL, it still isn't sold.

I'm looking for an experienced retailer, preferably a big chain of stores with establishments all over the world. Who is interested ?