To contextualize the scene...
It was 2004, and having only recently moved to New York (from Santa Cruz), I found Fulton Street in Brooklyn. As a young adult who ALWAYS wanted Air Force 1's *but had a really difficult time finding them*, Fulton Street became my AF1 mecca. Shop after shop after shop with any and every Air Force 1 on the planet.
This place was amazing to me...basically...starting up near Jay Street and walking down Fulton - the first sneaker store I found was a bit of a hole in the wall. I'd walk in, look around, see a few gems, ask the price, then say to myself 'hmm, I may come back for this in a bit.' I'd step out the front door and see *another sneaker store right across the street. So I'd go into that one, and then the next, and the next...basically zigzagging my way down the 6 or so blocks that make up the Downtown/Fulton Street shopping section. It was just me and my backpack popping into sneaker shop after sneaker shop, none of which even had signs (or names, for that matter).
Eventually, I stumbled across a place called 'Hyperactive', and they actually had a Nike account, so they had to charge retail for their shoes. I found those Brooklyn AF1's for $74.99 and I bought two pairs. One for me, one to (maybe) resell on eBay. I bought the D-Town AF1's for the same.
A few weeks later, when I realized my apartment was becoming a bit *too* packed, I decided to sell both pairs. Not really as like a crazy 'resale' thing, but just to make a bit of cash to offset the cost of the pair I wanted to keep.
I don't really recall what price I sold each for, but I do remember thinking that if I could keep my profits above $20/pair, that'd basically fund my collection pretty simply. So that's what I did.
My whole 'sneaker collection funding idea' came to my while I was living on 22nd Street in Manhattan, and it started with these two pairs here...no question here. Just a quick trip down memory lane.