On vacation in Colorado !

Been in Denver area for 4 days now and enjoying my children and grandchildren and the different atmosphere here.

It's nice to not be moving boxes, taking pictures, making listings on eBay/Clist !

Hiking, watching soccer practice, etc.  Going to the big flea here Saturday before moving on Sunday to New Mexico to visit my brother for a few days.

Also nice to visit the forum here (no matter where I am) and see how you are all doing.  Posts seem to be slowing down a bit, but maybe that's a good sign...maybe the newbs are finding enough answers on their own or maybe not as many even inquiring about the biz in general.

Every subject has a life of its own....this one has too. Still predicting a good year before any kind of return to "normal".

Glad you are enjoying those grandchildren.

Think it is easier being a grandparent than a parent. (my experience) 

Hope you are right for why the post are slowing on here.

I have to go move some boxes and get things listed. 

Enjoy your vacation.

Hmm - don't want to be a grandparent for another 8-10 years (oldest is only 13).

Glad you are haven fun Movieman.  Colorado is a pretty cool state.  Got to visit parts of it when my sister lived out there in Durango.  Hope you find some nice picking at the flea.  I know a guy did at my table last weekend while I was getting breakfeast (my fault, but still feel he took advantage of my daughter.../sign).

I've noticed not so many newbie post for the most part.  Maybe you are correct that people are actually reading the threads.  Or better yet are no longer interested in storage auctions.  Only time will tell.

Glad you're enjoying some time away from home. A little rest and fresh perspective is always good!

As for forum activity, I was curious and checked some things out.

When I first joined in early November, the average "new users" was over 10/day. It's now down to 8.8. Doesn't seem like a lot less, but when you consider how averages are calculated, that is quite a slow-down.

I haven't been posting as much lately, but have been reading daily. Mostly because after hitting a few auctions and reading the reports around here, I realized I would do better with picking and Goodwill auctions. If things continue to slow, I might be hitting storage auctions again. I've got some good fundraiser garage sales (church and school) this weekend, so hopefully I'll find some gold!

Good luck at the fleas!!

Saturday morning, 7:30....

Heading out to the Mile High Marketplace pretty soon...about a 30 minute drive.
Looked at Yelp reviews and they were overwhelmingly negative !

Sounds like the "yard/garage sale" type of vendor (that we all are) is only about 25% of the market with the rest being
Asian imports (and duplicated from stall to stall) and of course prepared food vendors and produce vendors making up the bulk.  

Hoping the vendors I am looking for will be there. Apparently Sunday is a better day for them but I will be flying out
to Santa Fe Sunday afternoon.

Oh well, gotta go...pretty much the only shot of any size.

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It seems Salvation Army is small in this area; Goodwill a bigger player along with ARC thrift stores. I will hit one independent I found on the net...Mile High Thrift.  Will report back on the the venues I go to for any other folks who visit this area and want to stay in touch with the biz roots while visiting family etc.

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A few days ago I picked up about $300 (wholesale price) of "rocks" at a wholesale only place near Colorado Springs. Prices not nearly as good as Quartzsite, AZ, but didn't get there this Jan/Feb so will live with it. Will still make money off them but not as much....needed some variety to add to my existing stock.

Children love "rocks" and they are a good seller for me in Spring/Summer. I also enjoy just talking to people about them and they often lead to other sales from my other tables. I am still using 8, six-foot tables (and some smaller ones) spread over 4 parking spaces and the "rocks" take a full table.

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Gotta get offline. Hear stirring grand-children who will soon be flopping in grandpa's lap !

Gotta get offline. Hear stirring grand-children who will soon be flopping in grandpa's lap !

Great line!  Glad to hear your enjoying yourself MovieMan!  Beautiful time to travel the west.  We're (already) pushing 90 degrees here today which meant minimal foot traffic at the local flea.  Soon it will be brutal.

So true on the rocks & kids!  My oldest daughter stops all the time to look over 'rocks' and animals and pokemon cards and......

Enjoy your vacation!

Flying out to Santa Fe today (Sunday, April 1st)......No fooling !

Had a great time with my children and grandchildren and am sad (but happy) that my one daughter and
her husband have taken a teaching job in CHINA for two years. They are great teachers and it will be a great experience for them and their two young children. They taught in Italy before they had children.

As a bonus my current plan is to spend 3 weeks or so with them in China after they have been there about a year.

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Now on to spend a few days with my brother in Santa Fe.  Saw him there two years ago; unfortunately he had a stroke last year and is now not in great shape; he is in a care home but his wife lives near by and sees him constantly. His daughter is also a "worldly" figure who has lived in Paris for many years.

Our families....what it's really all about. 

Forgot to comment on the Mile High Marketplace (flea market, etc).

All the Yelp reviews were bad, but I found there were about 150 "yard/garage" sellers there and I was satisfied
with my tour.

I noticed about 3 vendors all selling the same new, yellow multimeter and some of them had two cases of them
stacked at the front of their space with the top case open and showing one open box with a multimeter (and another 20 in the case unopened).  This goes AGAINST any marketing I do of such a product.

To my mind the potential buyer sees two things:
1) He has so many he'll sell them cheap
2) He has so many I can buy one anytime in the next two months.

If I had that many I would put out TWO; one in open box one in unopened box and then replinish as necessary thus
avoiding what I see are two marketing mistakes mentioned above.

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I saw one video editor which I looked up on the iPad. They wanted $30 and they weren't selling on eBay, so didn't buy.
I also saw a commerical quality tool for $20 that I would sell for maybe $180 or so, but it would have needed disassembly and sending back to California, so passed on it as well, but would have bought if I was at home.

Best result was just seeing confirmation of my (our ?) believe that "stuff is stuff" no matter where you are.

Also I took pictures of several potential products I want to investigate.

So, on to Santa Fe where I doubt they have mid-week flea markets. Their big thing is the central market where primarily silver jewelry is sold.

Later friends....

keep on buying and selling !

Forgot to comment on the Mile High Marketplace

I hear they have a club, admission is free but you have to bring your own airplane. 

I hear they have a club, admission is free but you have to bring your own airplane. 

I am not a member of that club, and it has been awhile since my plane has been in the hangar  .

Meanwhile I am sitting in a black designer chair at DIA waiting to fly to ABQ !

You are so right Movieman that "Family" is what it's all about.  Part of the reason I buy lockers and sell at the flea is to spend time teaching my daughter.  We've had some painfull mistakes, but that is part of learning and life.

Wish I had some good quality rocks to sell at my flea.  No one really has any down here.  When hit the mountains for a overnight vacation will take the girls to pan for gold.  Will then prob sell any of the rocks they don't want to keep.  Geodes sell for a good bit down here, even in rough and original shape.  Cut and polished ones can do well.  Not much quartz around here.  May have to try and find a small sample on ebay to re-sell at flea.  See how it sells.

Have fun in Santa Fe.

Wish I had seen your post earlier   As Ive been selling at mile high flea market since I started storage buying 15 years ago.
As any real storage aution buyer knows ...You need a flea market to actually make buying units profitable.   
And the thrif store thing.  Ive seen so many come and go   it cost just to much to have a store front  to make it work.
Mile high flea was a great place for many years    only flea market in Denver  (believe it or not)  but you would really get 30K people on a weekend.   But then 3 years ago the old owner who in his 90's  sold out to his advertising manager with backing from a california real estate group.  The new owner deciede to make this more like    a high end downtown walk with artist and high end stuff... well it failed miserably for the last two years.   The new guy got fired back in march   so you wouldnt notice a difference   they have gone back to mile high flea market instat of   of the other crap.
If you were their you knew to stay out of the buildings and their wiere still a bit of otheres out their throwing the stuff on the ground.  Its been hard three years for us here in colorado as the owner had told us basically he didnt want us here and tried to run us out.   Their now trying to rebuild and bring back all the buyers they lost and sellers that didnt want to buy chinese  crap out of a building.  They wanted a flea market.   This was actually a very good flea market   and the orginal owner was a very hard corp about keeping any competetion down.. But we didnt care cause we made money  but last two years the new owner did everythign in his power to basically take a money makeing thing and destroy it.
Its coming back   Im out every weekend   as any real  stoarge buyer knows  you have to have a flea market to make this profitable
yes you can do garage sales  (more then 6 a season  will give you diminshing returns  as people think you have same stuff all the time)     craigslist is dying like a dog
ebay and amazon great  but we  all know how much you get for on line sales out of a typical unit
could have shown you around    when you were here   hell you may have came in my space

MajBlade 2....

Well, I enjoyed the Mile High and I think there were about 150 or so of what I would call "flea market sellers".
Sure there were some outside booths with Chinese products, but all told I thought it looked pretty good.

I saw one item for $20 that I would be able to sell on eBay at $100 plus, but it was too bulky to get back to California and shipping it would have taken out a lot of the profit.

As it turns out I didn't buy a thing, but I did enjoy the stroll.


What's with the 3 or 4 vendors selling the same YELLOW multimeter?  And those who did had three or four boxes stacked up which to me was a bad idea...I doubt any buyer wanted more than one, and as a customer I would have thought..."I don't need to get one now... they've got a ton of them."

Majblade2,

"craigslist is dying like a dog"

Can you expand on this comment you made? Why do you think Craigslist is dying?