You buy a locker and then what...

If you want all the information in one easy step, click on the link below! I've compiled information from some of the best in the business and outline how you can turn trash into treasure.

theartofpicking.com

LOL... I guess I am an old fool for standing in the sun all day trying to sell a table full of "low-end crap" at the swap but - more often than not that "low-end crap" is your only profit in a unit. Sure I would rather spend my time dealing with antique store or art gallery owners but the truth is most of what you find in these units is regular household items.

I, along with more than a few on here do this part-time...hubby has a very good job in the oil patch. I go to the auctions alone or with my 19 year old daughter, hubby goes when he can but he puts in 10 hours a day 6-7 days a week, I also have to empty the unit on my own, sort, clean, repair, do dump runs (many, many dump runs!), write E-Bay, Craigslist ads, run items to be appraised, pack totes for the swap or the antique mall or goodwill.

You get very, very dirty. You have to work in the heat, cold, rain. You have to deal with mouse/rat poo/pee, dirty undies, porn, spoiled food, needles, etc., all to find what you can to re-sell.

You also manage to learn a thing or two about all sorts of things....I now know how to re-finish furniture, I can make windchimes out of some of the most worthless junk, I can make broken china turn a plain flower pot into something I can sell at the swap, I can turn an old lamp into a birdbath. If you are not willing to work the very last penny out of every unit you will not make it. Prices are higher than I have ever seen them just to buy a unit and if you are not willing to swallow your pride and sell that toaster oven you might as well stay home and just watch the shows.

As craigls said below....I too value and appreciate the time I spend with my daughter at the swap or cleaning out a unit. At 19 there is not much she likes to do with dear, old mom so I take what I can get before she heads off to college.

BTW, I am very humble......yep, just an old, humble redneck granny!

Sure I would rather spend my time dealing with antique store or art gallery owners but the truth is most of what you find in these units is regular household items.

Oh Lord....not me!!  Maybe it's my location, but art gallery owners seem to be some of the snootiest folks I've ever met!!  
Yep~I'd rather stand in the sun and talk to 'real' folks any day of the week and occasionally twice on Sunday~

bulldogmom~I'd love to see some of your 'upcycled' art. 

Rockin......You are so right, there are a few that have real high noses! I was thinking more along the lines of...at least we are inside, under air-conditioning and not standing on dirt!

I have a lamp that will become a bird-bath soon. I will try to post pics but be forwarned....artistic is something I ain't! It is more of copying an idea from the web! I am more of a play with it until it looks presentable kinda gal!

But, hey...it sells.

Bev

Another story comes to mind.......

I used to clean a bar back in the late seventies and somewhere I had gotten the bright idea to do something with the bottles that I threw out. I found directions on melting glass at home...do not try this at home!! I cut the bottoms out and had plans to make a few windchimes by flattening the bottoms and hanging them along with a few shells and selling them for a few bucks. Well...you have to keep them in the oven for about 10 hours on 500 then remove the glass and press it flat, sounds pretty easy! What it found out was that I had let it cook for too long and when I removed them with metal BBQ tongs they started to melt into long strands that reached the floor and melted my lino.....big mess!

Moral of the story....I am not too good at some of this artsy stuff!

Lol bulldogmom - your still far ahead of me.  I'd not have a clue where to even start, think, or vision some of my junk as "art".  One of these days I may venture into attempting to make a birdhouse(s) with all the scrap lumber I've pulled out of units.  Waiting on daughter to learn how in shop so she can teach me

I had to laugh at my oldest when she came home last week.  She went with a friend to Myrtle Beach for spring break.  She comes home and says "Dad I found this flea market at Myrtle Beach - and it's inside".  Leave it to her to be on vacation and still scouting out places to sell stuff.

She has also informed me that for now on 1/5 of the table space is for her to sell the survival bracelets that she is making.  Maybe in another 5-8 years she will remember this when she sells her company to Facebook for $1 Billion and will toss some money toward her old dad.

@bulldogmom tooooo funny, glad I am not alone... Love the glass thing.

With Rockin would love too see some of your stuff.

Money... will do.