Stuff I've Found in the Last 30 Days!

Only allowed 128 kb per post, so I'll just describe some and show pics of a few.  This is just a list of some of the most interesting stuff I've found in the last month:

Kitchen Cabinets
Brand New Stainless Steel Gas Range
40" LCD TV
Carpet Cleaner....commercial
Gold (found 15 rings in one unit!)
Loads of Costume Jewelry!
11 Hummels figurines
80 Gallon Upright Air Compressor
Microfiber Sectional
New Small Kitchen Appliances........all unused and in the boxes
Nice Stainless Steel BBQ.....Got rid of my old one and kept it!
Lot's of nice artwork
Big Storage Tote Stuffed with legos
Nice Brown Leather Couch
Nissan Tires and Wheels.....very nice, sold in about 20 minutes on CL!
Hedman Hedders for SBC
Lot's of tools...sanders, routers, sawzall, etc.
Two Concrete Power Trowels and a bunch of concrete working tools
Large Craftsman Top Box
HP Laptop Computer running Vista
Genuine Harley Davidson Boots
Danner Camo Hunting Boots
Bosch 11236vs roto hammer
Bunches of DVD's and CD's
Two nice outdoor furniture sets, includes tables and chairs for both
Lot's of Ceramic Tile, 12" and 4"
Brand New Cafe Doors in the boxes!
Carpet
books
toys
games
Ceramic Jugs and Big Container with lid
Puzzles (Lady must have had a couple hundred in there!)
Then just all kinds of clothes and misc. kitchen and household cleaners and general stuff!

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A couple more pics:

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Last ones, Jewelry and TV!

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Nice!

I like what you have found.
In what are are you hunting?

Awesome stuff! I'm jealous! Keep the stories coming!

I'm in the Seattle area.  When you look at this, just keep in mind that all this stuff came from a number of units.  I buy quite a few per month, and this doesn't show all the work and garbage I have to go through to find the good stuff!

How many do you buy per month?


So far i am doing 2-3 units a month, because thats what i can handle storage wise.
But as soon as i get more space i am upping the game.

You've been doing good despite all the new competition!

I picked up about 14 in the last month, and even with a good sized warehouse, space is always an issue!  I try to process this stuff quickly to make room for more.  I just took an entire trailer load up to a guy I know that has a thrift store and sold him all the contents for 1500!  Very nice stuff, the lady lost a number of units and she used to own an antique store.  Same unit I dug all that jewelry out of in the last picture!

14 units, wow. I take my hat of for that.

I hope i can be up on 4-5 soon, i need more products to float thru my system.

Thanks, it's a lot of work!  And it's not always this good.......another guy I know has had four stinkers in a row!  He knows he's about due to get another good one, but it can get pretty disappointing when it seems like you are doing a lot of work for nothing.  It is a little harder with all the new competition.  I may go two or three auctions and not buy anything, and then buy four at once.  I bought 7 last week, and they are all cleaned out and a bunch of the stuff is already gone.  Out of all those, I have about a half a trailer load of stuff sitting on my shop floor left to process.  This is a full time gig, and is not the ideal occupation for someone that is inherently lazy!  But, to me it is a lot of fun, it's like being on a treasure hunt every single day!

hi teach....

question:  do you think it is possible to do this full time, as you are doing, without a thrift shop of your own?  or the willingness to go to flea markets every wknd?

in other words, can you get rid of all your merchandise strictly from CL, ebay, and whatever contacts you end up making?  or do you need a more "permanent" channel for selling stuff

thanks

richard in NY

It's very possible, and there are a lot of people doing it.  It may be a little harder to get started right now because of all the excitement of the reality shows, but still possible.  Just keep in mind, it is a lot of work and to make a decent living at it, you have to work it like a job.  You need to be willing to clean out your units as soon as possible after the auctions, and you need to go through it all and get it up for sale instead of just sitting on it.  You'll have to interact with customers and have to make yourself available to meet at times that are convenient to them, which means 5:00 - 8:00 PM a lot of times!  And, you need to move a lot of stuff, the whole key to making it work for me is volume.  Your area may be slightly different.  But the key thing anyone that wants to do this should remember:  THIS IS A LOT OF WORK!  My advice to anybody that wants to do it is buy a half dozen or so units and try it before you quit your job or go buy a truck and trailer.  If you don't like it, you won't last.  I've had a number of friends do this with me off and on over the last few years.  Even my best friend of 30 plus years bailed on me.  Even though he was making some decent money at it, he told me "I don't want to work that hard"!  It's not for everybody, but yes, if you work it, you can make a living.

I would also like to add that I have been doing this for a few years now and I do it as a hobby but I make great investments in the process. Most of the auctions I go to are live auctions where you can see what it is you are bidding on and beforehand I do my homework on items so I know exactly what they are worth and make my limit. That is pretty obvious to most of us but some people just dont understand that this isnt about finding furniture for your house or nice stuff to have... this is a business that makes a Boat Load of Money.
I finally realized what it is about this that I enjoy so much and the line I am going to use from now on is this, "This is a competitive treasure hunt".

Sometimes that "boatload of money" fills a rowboat, a canoe or a kayak and if you haven't heard the definition of a boat, it is..."a hole in the water into which you pour money."