Geese Mate for Life Necklace

Geese Mate For Life

Most Popular Piece of Jewelry
in the History of Cross Jewelers

We started with one pin in 1989. We ran a tiny Christmas ad in our local newspaper. Four guys rushed right in, obviously, we could only sell one that day. We offered, and made three more, and two extra for good luck. The two extra were sold before they arrived. We’d never seen anything like it.

We began experimenting with advertising in magazines and couldn’t believe our luck. Dozens responded. After a few months, we placed an ad in the New Yorker magazine and sold many dozens. We mastered the art of shipping to a national audience. We tried the New York Times, The Washington Post, and The San Francisco Chronicle. For a little upstairs jewelry store in Portland, Maine we couldn’t believe what was happening.

Then one day in the mid-1990s, a guardian angel whispered “Wall Street Journal” to us. We called; they sent an application requesting references and credit checks. After a month of interviews they allowed us to run an ad. We were not prepared for the response. The Wall Street Journal guys would call and were talking so fast they were giving us name, address, telephone number before we even picked up a pen. We sold many thousands over several years. Our Geese pin with ruby eyes was the most popular item in the history of our store.

In September 2001 the Wall Street Journal changed several things. They added color to their newspaper, narrowed the column width, and moved small space advertisers off of page 3. The ad we ran in August of that year was the last time an ad worked for us and was profitable in the Journal.

Over the last 18 years we’ve continued to make the Geese Mate for Life pin and pendant and usually we sell a dozen or two each year.

Flying Out the Door

Christmas 2018 something new happened that struck us as mysterious; sales of geese pins and pendants shot through the roof. We ran out, replaced, ran out, replaced then simply ran out. We couldn’t make any more. We did no advertising, nothing special, it was on our website as it had been for the previous 18 years and suddenly everyone wanted one.

We’ve heard many stories over the years from customers who purchased, as well as received, a Geese Mate for Life piece of jewelry. Here are two of our favorites:

It Meant More Than We Could Have Imagined

I took the call from a woman. She said. “I just have to tell you this,” and got halfway through. Overcome with emotion, the words were difficult to get out. Her husband had recently passed away. She was cleaning his desk and came across a wrapped gift. She opened the box and inside was a Geese Mate For Life Pin, a gift intended for their upcoming anniversary. The card we tuck inside told her everything her husband wanted to express. It was a gift more precious than gold.

Man Said, “You’ll never believe how I found this pin”

We’ve heard stories from all over the country from people who wanted to buy our Geese pin. One of my favorites was a call I took from a man in California. He told me that one morning after a sea storm, he was walking the beach near his ocean front home and a sailboat had wrecked on a sandbar. He said he walked out to the boat to check it out. No one was around, but he saw a New Yorker Magazine washing in the waves near the hull of the boat. A page was open to our ad. He said it was perfect for her upcoming birthday. He called us right up to order the pin.