I'm stuck with 10,000 Lance Armstrong DVDs to shift

9:12am Monday 21st January 2013 in News By Joanna Codd

WHEELER DEALER: Karl Baxter wants ideas on how to sell 10,000 DVDs about Lance Armstrong. Picture: Jon Beal WHEELER DEALER: Karl Baxter wants ideas on how to sell 10,000 DVDs about Lance Armstrong. Picture: Jon Beal

A POOLE entrepreneur is looking for creative suggestions after becoming stuck with 10,000 DVDs featuring disgraced former US cyclist Lance Armstrong.

Karl Baxter of Wholesale Clearance UK at Willis Way bought the discs before the seven times Tour de France winner’s name was fatally tarnished in a doping scandal.

Armstrong had persistently denied rumours that he had used performance-enhancing drugs, but last August decided not to challenge the decision of the US Anti-Doping Agency to strip him of all his competitive results since 1998 – including his record-breaking run of consecutive Tour de France victories. Last week he admitted, in a two hour interview with Oprah Winfrey, that he had indeed cheated his way to all seven Tour de France victories.

A rueful Karl said: “I bought the DVDs at a good price. The idea was to sell them in small job lots so traders could go on eBay, Amazon or car boot sales and sell them on.

“There was a slight amount of risk. There was suspicion but he wasn’t admitting to it.

“I was hoping the problem would die down and I would be able to find a home for them. Now I don’t think I would get a tenth of the money back.”

Karl, who sometimes buys bankrupt stock from stores that have gone out of business, said: “This is one of the few things I’ve managed to buy that has come back to bite me. I’m paying storage on them. I’ve got a few at the warehouse to show customers.

“I could make a tower or build a big dominoes track for my three-year-old. Armstrong has had a good life for the last 20 years. I just wish he had either kept his mouth shut a bit longer or not done it in the first place.”

Armstrong, who retired in February, 2011 while facing a federal investigation into the doping allegations, was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996.

Although it had spread to his abdomen brain and lungs, he recovered after aggressive treatment and set up the Lance Armstrong Foundation – now Livestrong – for cancer support.

Comments(61)

Controversial But True says...
9:18am Mon 21 Jan 13

Drug rehab charity?

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John T says...
9:25am Mon 21 Jan 13

Perhaps Karl could try recycling them as uppers or downers, or maybe pedal them on the Black Market!

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Hessenford says...
9:26am Mon 21 Jan 13

Always sell them off as coasters.
Bit risky buying that amount when an investigation was going on.

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mark.s says...
9:35am Mon 21 Jan 13

Make some form of art from the disks, maybe a bike?!

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Tripod says...
9:37am Mon 21 Jan 13

Rebrand them as Fiction.

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Duckorange says...
9:41am Mon 21 Jan 13

Yeah, I know a couple of blokes who'd take 'em off your hands: Del Boy and Rodney

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canfordcherry says...
9:49am Mon 21 Jan 13

By this time next year we'll be millionaires Rodders!

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sharkforsale says...
9:55am Mon 21 Jan 13

Poor Karl. Shame on Armstrong. However, Im not sure why the photographers made him crawl across the floor like Gollum? :) I am a regular, happy customer of Wholesale Clearance, but I don't think I could shift these at the local car boot! Good luck Karl :)

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Phixer says...
9:57am Mon 21 Jan 13

Del, get Rodney to hang them in the garden as pigeon scarers

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Phixer says...
10:00am Mon 21 Jan 13

PS, you didn't expect to get sympathy from Echo readers did you??

Anyone with half a brain cell would have kept quiet about making such a silly mistake.

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Afcbpete says...
10:07am Mon 21 Jan 13

Phixer wrote:
PS, you didn't expect to get sympathy from Echo readers did you??

Anyone with half a brain cell would have kept quiet about making such a silly mistake.
I laughed and the only reason I laughed is, that's the sort of thing that would happen to me. You have my sympathy Karl.

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l'anglais says...
10:07am Mon 21 Jan 13

Karl, is that your downhill pose?

Rather ironic, I suppose.

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John T says...
10:16am Mon 21 Jan 13

l'anglais wrote:
Karl, is that your downhill pose?

Rather ironic, I suppose.
I think you will find that arms stretched is the Echo photographer's variation to arms folded for those with Armstrong enough to take the pain!

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In Absentia says...
10:17am Mon 21 Jan 13

A story that could have come from 'Only Fools and Horses'.

That's market trading, he took a punt and it failed. Never mind.

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John T says...
10:20am Mon 21 Jan 13

Phixer wrote:
PS, you didn't expect to get sympathy from Echo readers did you??

Anyone with half a brain cell would have kept quiet about making such a silly mistake.
Why keep quiet, when the Echo will give Wholesale Clearance for free advertising to any dope?!?

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madras says...
10:51am Mon 21 Jan 13

I read that if you string them up in the garden they make good bird scarers - try touting the local allotments :-)

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ian_the_bute says...
11:04am Mon 21 Jan 13

Hilarious ,that has made me laugh out loud . What a lovely Monday

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large_cheese says...
11:12am Mon 21 Jan 13

Lucky he didn't buy that job lot of suntan lotion that expires Feb 2013!

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The Renegade Master says...
11:15am Mon 21 Jan 13

Do you drive a yellow Reliant Robin by any chance?

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Ex-pat, thankfully says...
11:18am Mon 21 Jan 13

sharkforsale wrote:
Poor Karl. Shame on Armstrong. However, Im not sure why the photographers made him crawl across the floor like Gollum? :) I am a regular, happy customer of Wholesale Clearance, but I don't think I could shift these at the local car boot! Good luck Karl :)
haha, my favourite comment of the day :-)

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Couchy125 says...
11:22am Mon 21 Jan 13

What ever you do Karl. Don't go on dragons den. I'm out.

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mattbo says...
11:37am Mon 21 Jan 13

shame he didnt give them to ppl at xmas as a free gift or next time u sell something or items use them as a free gift, if nothing else works i expect tescos would buy them for there next batch of economy burgers

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Frank28 says...
11:56am Mon 21 Jan 13

Entrepreneur!!! Re-Cycle them!

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BarrHumbug says...
12:00pm Mon 21 Jan 13

"I bought the DVDs at a good price"
Good price, I wonder why that was?
"There was a slight amount of risk"
I would say a big risk, unless you were going to shift the lot straight away?
Maybe you could try suing him like the papers and sponsors are attempting?

Oh well you have always got 10,000 black DVD cases you could always flog? Be quick though burning DVDs is on the way out now in preference of cloud and nas storage.

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speedy231278 says...
12:02pm Mon 21 Jan 13

Who knows? There might even be a surge in interest now!

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Bliggo says...
12:04pm Mon 21 Jan 13

It's always a great idea to publicise your failures.

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uvox44 says...
12:06pm Mon 21 Jan 13

one thing Armstrong certainly got right was the title of his autobiography "It's not about the bike" !

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cherrygood says...
12:07pm Mon 21 Jan 13

This dvd came out over six years ago, so without the recent headlines he would have struggled to shift them on in anycase.

But with all the controversy and Armstong getting all this media attention right now I would have thoughts his chances of selling them would have increased.

Suggest he moves them out of the factual section and into the fiction section first!

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boyerboy says...
12:27pm Mon 21 Jan 13

Phone AFC Bournemouth and offer them a swop for Wes Thomas- they will snatch your hand off.

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The Liberal says...
12:31pm Mon 21 Jan 13

A description of The Science Of Lance Armstrong DVD from another website: “The viewer is introduced to the F1 Team the people who work with Lance on the road or developing new strategies in laboratories.”
 
No kidding!

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Huey says...
1:18pm Mon 21 Jan 13

There should be two cycling competitions - one normal and drug free, and another where cyclists can neck as many uppers and inject as many barbs as they want.
Just for fun.

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Molecatcher says...
1:20pm Mon 21 Jan 13

Why not do what I did... Go to your favourite search engine and type in 'things to do with old cds'. One of the top answers is:

http://www.hintsandt
hings.co.uk/musichal
l/cdroms.htm

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poolepaul says...
2:10pm Mon 21 Jan 13

Fair play to Lance Armstrong for riding a bike on drugs. I tried it once and hit a dog and fell off.

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RageAgainstTheMachine says...
2:43pm Mon 21 Jan 13

He has them on his website for sale at 25 grand lol I nearly choked.....and wet my self!

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The Liberal says...
2:56pm Mon 21 Jan 13

RageAgainstTheMachin
e wrote:
He has them on his website for sale at 25 grand lol I nearly choked.....and wet my self!
With a 'potential profit' of £174,900! LOL

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manyogie says...
2:57pm Mon 21 Jan 13

Bird scarer`s
all my old cd`s do that
hung from a tree

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John T says...
3:01pm Mon 21 Jan 13

RageAgainstTheMachin
e wrote:
He has them on his website for sale at 25 grand lol I nearly choked.....and wet my self!
You forgot too add, (or were to p.issed to add!) that his website offers them for sale at the bargain job lot price of £25000....with a potential profit of £1,74,900 (sic).

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EGHH says...
4:53pm Mon 21 Jan 13

He has future that boy in banking. Tell you what, give mortgages to those who can't afford to repay them. Oh its been done already, never mind.

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John T says...
5:02pm Mon 21 Jan 13

EGHH wrote:
He has future that boy in banking. Tell you what, give mortgages to those who can't afford to repay them. Oh its been done already, never mind.
It's still being done, but it won't stop his potential for a banker's bonus, will it?

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CoogarUK.com says...
6:04pm Mon 21 Jan 13

If he was that keen to offload them, maybe some contact details should be provided above. I'll offer 1p each, as long as they're brand new, sealed and in good, saleable condition. Serious offer: £100 for the lot.

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Philip.J says...
6:23pm Mon 21 Jan 13

Perhaps he could sell them to A street Pedlar.

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alasdair1967 says...
6:41pm Mon 21 Jan 13

large_cheese wrote:
Lucky he didn't buy that job lot of suntan lotion that expires Feb 2013!
Now what part feb does that run out lol seeing as I'm off on my hols at start feb for a fortnight maybe I could sell it on to the egyptians

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BIGTONE says...
7:16pm Mon 21 Jan 13

They make good table leg levellers.

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High Treason says...
8:52pm Mon 21 Jan 13

No way is he an entrepreneur.
The person who sold them to him is an entrepreneur and saw him coming..

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Wageslave says...
9:27pm Mon 21 Jan 13

madras wrote:
I read that if you string them up in the garden they make good bird scarers - try touting the local allotments :-)
Tried that , it only fools the pidgeons for about a week.Even they are brighter than poor Karl.

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The Timelord says...
9:29pm Mon 21 Jan 13

manyogie wrote:
Bird scarer`s
all my old cd`s do that
hung from a tree
Keeps the birds away cos they don't like the music!

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Football banning order yob says...
9:38pm Mon 21 Jan 13

What a stupid photo!

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Mikeyunibournemouth says...
10:05pm Mon 21 Jan 13

As sound as Karl sells them all off at a loss we will probably find out that Armstrong wasn't guilty after all....lol

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Ferndown Steve says...
10:25pm Mon 21 Jan 13

Sell them to Lance Armstrong ! - He should buy them back - Under the 'Not fit for purpose' regulations !

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Yankee1 says...
10:46pm Mon 21 Jan 13

They are a write off. Valueless. Write the loss off against your profits when you file tax.

Such is business. You take a risk. Don't expect anyone to clean up your mistake.

But the free publicity here from the ever dutiful Echo might make up for your loss.

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Tom 'Boscombe' Jones says...
4:19am Tue 22 Jan 13

Is this news?

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Tom 'Boscombe' Jones says...
4:19am Tue 22 Jan 13

Is this news?

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mikeba says...
8:07am Tue 22 Jan 13

That has got to be one thick business decision ... hopefully they won`t end up with all that other market tatt down Poole High Street on a Thursday or Saturday

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JackJohnson says...
8:13am Tue 22 Jan 13

Trade them in with Amazon. They never miss an opportunity.

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JackJohnson says...
8:27am Tue 22 Jan 13

Just remembered.

This is for Karl. I have a job lot of Jim'll Fix It medals you might be interested in...

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MrPitiful says...
8:34am Tue 22 Jan 13

Here you go:

http://www.musicmagp
ie.co.uk/

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The Liberal says...
9:19am Tue 22 Jan 13

They're not valueless, though. The going rate for DVD cases is about 15p, so this lot should be worth around £1,500.

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UZZY says...
12:10pm Tue 22 Jan 13

Give one each to the druggies in Boscombe if theres not enough to go round some could share !

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cycletourer says...
1:16pm Tue 22 Jan 13

UZZY wrote:
Give one each to the druggies in Boscombe if theres not enough to go round some could share !
Went to Boscombe the other day,first time in over a year.Didnt take to long to realise why i never visit more often.

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Rich1978 says...
12:01pm Wed 23 Jan 13

What a bunch of jokers you all are. I know other peoples misfortune can be amusing, but in a time when dozens of business are going out of business every week I feel for Karl.

I hope he manages to shift them.

The advertising from the Echo and various other sources around the UK will of course help.

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bmthlad69 says...
7:33pm Wed 23 Jan 13

Rich1978 wrote:
What a bunch of jokers you all are. I know other peoples misfortune can be amusing, but in a time when dozens of business are going out of business every week I feel for Karl.

I hope he manages to shift them.

The advertising from the Echo and various other sources around the UK will of course help.
£25k though lol

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