He sold potato peelers for $5 each and became a millionaire

I heard about this gentleman on HN a few years ago. You have to watch him work: it's a performance, in every sense of the word: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCUct4NlxE0&hl=en-GB&gl=GB

It's like dollar shave club - the story is worth so much more than the product.

So, like David Rees, then? http://www.artisanalpencilsharpening.com/

The peeler guy makes a 100% irony-free pitch, based on value, which we can all learn from.

Exactly. At every stage he also reminds his audience that they too can do these wonderful things - he relates his pitch to things they do, or at least have seen done, and demonstrates how his solution lets them do it. That's true selling.

"You only want one? You've got no friends. Like me."

There is even Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Ades

"Ades died on February 1, 2009, only a day after being informed that he had been granted American citizenship."

I lived in that neighborhood where he sold them (sadly he passed away a few years ago). Union Square in New York. I had no idea he was so successful. Thanks for digging this up! (2008)