THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 21, 1996 TAG: 9602200058
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LORI A. DENNEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 141 lines
SAMUEL A. BLACK JR. knows a sick mailbox when he sees one. The symptoms are obvious: peeling paint, rotted wood and severe leaning. Sometimes, the self-proclaimed postal physician says, the affliction spreads through whole neighborhoods.
That's when Black, a.k.a. ``Dr. Mailbox,'' prescribes a cure - buy a new box.
Black, 41, sells and installs at least one mailbox a day from his small store at Churchland Boulevard and Tyre Neck Road in Portsmouth.
But that's only a small fraction of his sales.
Most of his customers probably don't know that he exists. That's because they bought their mailboxes through one of several hardware stores throughout Hampton Roads, including Virginia Beach. Black is a wholesale supplier for the stores, which include local Lowe's outlets.
And, he's been commissioned to install boxes for whole neighborhoods, like Bishops Green in Portsmouth where he and his employees are now erecting 102 boxes.
Still, if they look closely, these indirect customers are likely to find Black's signature sticker adorning the bottom of their boxes. It all adds up to combined wholesale and retail sales of about 1,000 mailboxes a year.
Whether a customer wants a simple wooden mailbox or something elaborate and unique, Black has it all. A 3-inch thick catalog sitting atop his desk offers a glimpse at the possibilities.
The boxes can be made of metal (with a polyester powder coat finish much like a car's), aluminum, stainless steel, fiberglass, armor-plated or waterproofed wood.
Posts are sold in most of those same materials with the additional choice of a high density plastic made of recycled diapers. Posts can be embellished with carvings, stripes or scroll work.
Those who prefer a whimsical design can choose from boxes depicting locomotives, classic cars, trucks, fire engines, flamingos, dolphins, fish, lobsters, dogs and cats. Whatever a customer wants, Black probably can special order it.
Although Black started his business only about four years ago, he first discovered an untapped market for mailboxes when he was 10. The enterprising young Churchland native found a can of paint in his garage one day and decided he could make some money painting mailboxes in his then Edgewood Park neighborhood.
``I'd go knock on the door and ask them if they wanted their mailbox painted,'' said Black, a High Street resident. ``I painted quite a few of them.''
Black eventually grew out of the mailbox-painting business and began collecting aluminum cans and delivering newspapers.
During his teenage years he became a singer in a local rock band.
When that didn't pan out, he landed a job for several years selling insurance. More importantly he met Sherry, his wife of 13 years, when he sold her a policy. At one point, he also worked for a carpet company selling and installing carpet.
He came across the mailbox business idea when he read an article in a handyman's magazine in 1991. He saved for more than a year, then purchased a line of sample mailboxes from a Pennsylvania dealer called Janzer.
He opened his store in 1992 and is now afraid to relocate, even though he says he needs more space.
``The location now is perfect. I'm on a busy corner with a traffic signal that stops people right out in front,'' Black said.
Black is a man who knows how to attract attention.
He drives a white Isuzu pickup with two mailboxes mounted in the bed. The truck, he says, is an attention-getter and is known by many in Portsmouth.
The Isuzu now sits in front of his home on High Street, where he also has a ``US AIRMAIL'' mailbox mounted atop a 16-foot pole in his yard.
The most popular item sold out of Black's store is a rural mailbox with a special finish. Including the post, it sells for $160 installed.
Black, with the help of two employees, will paint or install any mailbox. He rises at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday to install boxes until his retail store opens at 10 a.m. during the week and 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.
The biggest sellers among those he supplies to hardware stores are the wooden colonial mailboxes. The top-opening boxes start at $29.95 retail, while the top- and front-opening boxes start at $42.
Black sells these two types of colonial boxes to hardware stores but offers his store customers the same boxes with three different upgrades.
Other boxes sold out of Black's 525-square-foot store start at $70, without the post or installation.
In addition to mailboxes, Black also has surrounded himself and the interior of his small white building and parking lot with other outdoor things he sells like lamp posts, weather vanes, cupolas, house and building signs, sundials, flags, door knockers, house and mailbox numbers, windsocks and chimes.
``Sometimes people come in with their own themes,'' said Black, who works alongside his wife in the business. ``I can design it and have it made.''
Paul and Syd Clemmons of Portsmouth had their own ideas for a mailbox. Their waterfront neighborhood is inundated with mosquitoes every summer so they came up with the idea of a mailbox that features a big can of Off with a mosquito penetrating its top.
Black commissioned a man out of state to make the mailbox.
``We have some rather feisty mosquitoes here,'' Syd Clemmons said, laughing and adding that she gets comments on her mailbox all the time. Her friends ``really seem to enjoy it,'' she said.
To Black, there's a certain psychology behind mailboxes.
``The mailbox is the hallmark of your home since it's the first thing people see,'' Black said. ``You can tell a lot about a person's personality by their mailbox.''
Black's own red cedar-wrapped mailbox needs to be replaced. The 20 coats of polyurethane paint Black used to protect and seal the wood hasn't stopped the box from aging.
What does that say about Black? It says that he's a busy man who doesn't have time to replace his own mailbox.
And, if he had the time? He says he can't decide which one of the dozens he sells he would choose to install. MEMO: Dr. Mailbox can be reached at 484-1981.
ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
DOC IN THE BOX
Staff photo on color cover by MARK MITCHELL
ON THE COVER
Perhaps Sam Black's most unusual mailbox belongs to Paul and Syd
Clemmons of Portsmouth. Their waterfront neighborhood is inundated
with mosquitoes every summer so they came up with the idea of a
mailbox that features a big can of Off with a mosquito penetrating
its top.
Staff photos by MARK MITCHELL
Those who prefer a whimsical design can choose from boxes depicting
locomotives, classic cars, trucks, fire engines, flamingos,
dolphins, fish, lobsters, dogs and cats.
Sam Black has even been commissioned to install boxes in whole
neighborhoods, like Bishops Green in Portsmouth where he and his
employees are now erecting 102 boxes.
Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
Nelson Dickinson, an employee of Dr. Mailbox, sands a mailbox post
in the Churchland shop. The posts can be embellished with carvings,
stripes or scroll work.
by CNB