A Gibsons man managed to secure a lucrative deal on the CBC television show Dragons' Den last week to finance his vintage sports photograph business.
After trying out for the program in Sechelt, 51-year-old Eric Olsen rushed off to spend three days in Toronto during the month of May. There he filmed a segment on the show where his request for $100,000 in exchange for 33 per cent of the company turned into a bidding war.
The episode did not air until Nov. 2, a length of time during which Olsen was legally bound to keep the results quiet.
"I couldn't even tell my kids," he said. "It's an interesting process, because the form you sign says you must be willing to be ridiculed on TV."
But Olsen was anything but ridiculed when he appeared before the Dragons. His business of buying original sports negatives and selling them individually for a profit has taken off since 2006.
Originally a worker with B.C. Ferries, Olsen began selling his childhood collection of memorabilia and sports cards in 2002 to help support his family. Using eBay, it was then that he made contact with a photographer who offered to exchange pieces of his work for the items.
"So I sold it and found out there's a market for it," Olsen explained.
From there he began doing research and looking for more photographers, past and present, to purchase from.
His efforts took off in 2006 when he managed to buy an entire collection, a career's worth of images by one photographer that spanned some 30 years. Olsen estimated his current stock to be between 40,000 and 50,000 original photographs.
After thousands of transactions on eBay, he knew the enterprise was capable of more. Olsen had been paying the Internet company roughly 20 per cent of the profits, as well as taking considerable time to scan each photo himself.
His case before the Dragons was that an investment would allow him to move away from eBay, to start his own Internet venture, purchase more stock and hire people on a piece-work basis to carry out the tedious work of scanning the product.
"I sort of tried to get things that would grab them," Olsen said describing his preparation for an appearance before the Dragons.
He took care to pick photos he felt would most appeal to each member of the cast, including shots of Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Bobby Orr and Mario Andretti.
"When you come out of there, it's like a fog," he said, describing his memory of the experience. "You don't remember what you were in there for because there's so much stress and tension, and time goes by really fast - but it drags. It's a really weird sensation."
For the Nov. 2 air date, Olsen invited friends and family to the Sunshine Coast Golf and Country Club to watch the program.
After describing his business to the cast of the show, the offers rolled in.
First past the post was Bruce Croxon, a boxing enthusiast whom Olsen hoped would be impressed by the photo of Ali. He immediately offered the deal Olsen had set out for.
Led by the often scathing personality of Kevin O'Leary, a coalition was formed against Croxon to steal the deal, but ultimately Olsen chose the first offer.
"To be perfectly blunt, as it was all happening, I found it very difficult to really comprehend what was being offered and what wasn't in that time frame and that environment," Olsen said.
Looking back, he said the thing he will remember most is waiting outside the set with a stage worker counting down the time before he was pushed in, the Dragons chanting his name.
"From there on it gets really foggy," he said with a laugh.
