OK, will wait for a few more guesses on this one but should reveal by end of today, July 10.

Went to two auctions today; same auctioneer.

First place had a crowd of about 20 with only 5 or so regulars. Rest new faces. Had 12 or so lockers. Half of them were trash. Other half OK and prices pretty much OK. I didn't bid on anything.

The best one had a bright yellow Matco tool box about 4 feet wide 2 feet deep and 4 feet high. Maybe 10 drawers; a good looking tool box and aside from the yellow its most distinguishing feature was.....the black vinyl rails on the drawers were DUST COVERED.....BUT....there were two sets of disturbed dust on each grip...where you would put your left and right hands to open a wide drawer. Each drawer had this pattern.

The other notables in this locker were 3 hard case guitar cases, 3 amps, Fender and Marshall brands.

Go ahead and guess what this sold for...10 x 10 with a dismantled keyboard as well and maybe 6 totes.

*****

The next place had double the crowd but only the same regulars, so 50 people and 45 newbies.  Again 12 lockers and prices were OK but nothing special in content. I bid on one 5 x 5 because it  had a heavy duty plexiglass display case I could have used.  Started it at 100 or so and it quickly got to my 200 limit,  but I thought I owed an obiligation to the industry so I took the newbie up to $475 and let him have it. Alls fair in love, war and storage wars. Less cash for next time and might even be a lesson in being more cautious.

The gas can guy is as believeable as all get out...where in the world do these people come from !

Your taking it out of his hands and closing the door was classic !

Yep, as a corollary to "are CL customers really that crazy?".... there are definity more than a few out there.

But where would we be without the crazies.

On Sunday the 8th of July I visited an antique flea and was there from 12 to 2 visiting a vendor friend.

Fellow came up and said "Would you take $5 for the pitchfork?" 

My friends response was "Well, let's see, I'm asking $15. Let me think about it for a moment. No."

While it's mostly the norm for people to make an offer that is less than the asking price, if they want it they typically wouldn't go THAT low. When I offered that "He might split the difference with you" the customer's response was "Hey, it's the end of the flea today."

This was not some old fart (who often offer such deals) but an early 30's guy and someone who could have afforded $10 or $7.50 but maybe wanted it for $5 because he knew someone who would pay him $10 to $15 for the item.

Or maybe he was just cheap...that happens too.

****

Bottom line, it takes all kinds.  I'll end this one and add one more in the post below.

I'm the guy that bid squeezing that rubber chicken in that one episode.  


This part I can almost believe.

 I will have Brandy one day and when I hit that mment, I will squeeze that chicken to deathl  !

This will NEVER happen.

Went to 2 of 3 auctions today...same auctioneer.  Crowd decent...maybe 25. Lockers not so good. I've gotten pickier about what I buy  though....most expensive ones were $300 or so. Both places had 5 or 6 each. Nothing special about any of them.

Liked seeing the crowd though...now if we could just up the quality of the lkrs.

Ull be out in two trips

Must vary by state or regional area anyway.

I have a friend who got a HUGE amount of clothes (all good quality) and he did well with the best pieces from $3 to $50 but when all THAT was gone he took a break from clothing and went with "the usual" stuff.

Then a few weeks later he came back with the leftover clothing. He has 18 tables and maybe 10 "z" racks for clothing to hang.

He put up 10 signs mounted to all his upright shade verticals.  "Clothes...50 cents each".  He sold what he claimed was $600 worth of those. Note I say "claimed"...that's 1,200 pieces at 50 cents each.  Have any of YOU ever sold 1,200 pieces of anything (aside from box lots of 50 of something) at a flea.

He's a nice guy, but I don't believe him for a minute...not to mention the following:

OK, I'll mention them...

1) he said customers then said "how about 25 cents each?"
2) he still had a ton of stuff when I went by later in the day.

*****

I only sell jackets in the wintertime....athletic team logo jackets, work jackets (Carhardt, etc), raincoats (dressy), ski jackets, hunting jackets, etc.  That works for me and and I can't go further. I sell garbage bags of clothes (cheap) to other dealers and let them mess with the "ropa, ropa, ropa !". (Remember, central California is also known as Mexico North).

Just my 2 cents.