By Rita Farlow, Times Staff Writer
Friday, August 20, 2010
TARPON SPRINGS — The calls started coming in to the St. Petersburg Times city desk early Friday morning.
From Clearwater and Brooksville and Sun City Center.
They all wanted to reach the Postcard Lady.
A story in Friday's Times about a Tarpon Springs woman who is selling homemade postcards to try to come up with the money to save her home from foreclosure spurred readers into action.
The Postcard Lady is Anne (pronounced like "Annie") Cobb and she's yet another victim of the economic downturn. She was laid off in May from her job as an assistant at a mortgage brokerage firm. And work has been scarce for her husband, a construction contractor.
The couple are about $5,000 behind on their mortgage. Foreclosure looms.
So Cobb, 49, came up with a plan to use her skills as an amateur nature photographer to keep their Locust Street home.
Her goal? Sell 5,000 of the cards — created from photographs she's taken — for $1 apiece.
She's become a late-afternoon fixture at Sunset Beach and Fred Howard Park, where she approaches sunbathers with a smile and tells her story to anyone who will listen.
Several people who called the Times said they wanted to buy some postcards.
"I can't give her $5,000, but I can buy 10 postcards and send them to my family and have my friends buy 10," said Christine Wilkes of Gulfport. "Five or 10 dollars isn't going to make a difference in my budget, but it really might make a difference in hers if 10 of us do it."
Wilkes said she admired Cobb's unwillingness to give up.
And, she said, the postcards are pretty.
Several people called offering to replace Cobb's battered camera, the one with the broken battery lid.
One lady just wanted to send her a check.
Some people who commented on the online version of the story advised her to expand her market by creating a website.
"Someone in Idaho or Canada or even in Europe might love a nice sunset picture of a beach because it's something they hardly ever see."
Others said they respected her attitude.
"Nice to see someone making an effort. Good luck."
Brenda Gordon, who lives at On Top of the World condominiums in Clearwater, lives on Social Security, but still wanted to buy some postcards to help out.
"I don't want to see anybody going into foreclosure," she said. "I've had friends who have done it, and it's rough. It must rock you to have your roof taken from over your head."
At the end of the day, another reader called in, wanting to help.
Tarpon Springs business owner Michael Murray said he'd like to offer Cobb a sales job at his company, Tarpon Internet Marketing.
"It seems to me she's got all the characteristics of a sales rep," he said. "She's got to be tenacious as hell to do what she's doing."
Times staff writer Martine Powers contributed to this report.