Money... will do.

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... 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!

LOL! It did look like a U-Haul lot yesterday...I don't think too many folks had any idea of what doing this entails!

The compressor is an older Craftsman 20 gallon and hubby just called -  he sold it to a fellow he works with....yippee!

The W/D is older but clean. I would rather unload it quick right out of the unit and not have to load it more than once!

I forgot to mention - I am now the proud owner of thousands of baseball, football, basketball and NASCAR trading cards. Seems as if grandpa bought whole collector boxes each year from three different companies!

Also, 2 Sessions mantle clocks. I love clocks and hubby is worried that those will stay to add to the noise! I have an appointment with the clock guy tomorrow....maybe I will just have him clean them.

Bev

I have not posted anything in a while......finally moved into a space at the antique mall, hitting quite a few estate sales and estate auctions and working my dogs a bit in agility.

Saturday I attended our local storage facility auction - we live in the sticks and I have to travel at least 45 min to get to most of the auctions (more often than not an hour or more!). The auction was only 10 min from home and we are a small community of about 9,000, the manager only holds an auction every few years or so and the last one we attended was 3 years ago - dozen or so units and about 8 bidders. Well Saturday was a whole different world! They had 32 units for auction and most had not been entered for a year or more. Daughter and I arrived at 8:30 to sign in and already there were about 100 people there....crap! Since I knew many of the people that had units up for auction and had somewhat of an idea what I would find in them we decided to stay and hope that most were looky-loos! By the time the first unit was opened the crowd had swelled to well over 150 and from listeneing in on conversations all but a hand full were new and had traveled from outside the area.

I bid on a few but most were going for $500-$1200. There were 10 units that belonged to an older lady that was an avid hoarder and her units were all 10 X20's and were packed to the rafters....I had to chuckle as most of those went to new folks. I ended up with the one I wanted but I had to overpay by about $200....after the bidding reached $400 it was between me and an idiot that reminded me of the younger fellow from SW-Texas (don't remember his name). I ended up having to pay $700 but I knew the family and felt comfortable with what I paid.

Since we are local and the manager was also my children's chemistry teacher in high school I have a week to empty the unit.

So far:

Electric guitar with amp - sold already for $375
Old Bible podium from one of our local churches - sold $150
Mahagony tea cart - going to the antique mall with a price tag of $100
Complete set of cobalt blue Dragonware - going to antique mall - $100
Many pieces of Depression glass - going to antique mall, should bring in another $200
Silverware chest with silverplate setting for 8 - I can get $45 at the antique mall
2 boxes of Dolls (I hate dolls) - sold to our local "doll lady" for $90
Maytag washer and dryer - going on CL for $150
Upright freezer (sears) - going on CL for $100
Air compressor - CL for $90
Framing nailgun - CL $125
2 bikes - may keep one, the other will go to the swap.

Plus another 10 boxes of crap I have to go thru today!

Hubby and I were looking thu boxes yesterday and it was quite a show watching the first-time buyers empty units. One lady left her son and husband in tears....just got in her car and drove away. I heard her tell them that they could deal with it! Maybe this will be their first and last unit....

Anyhoo, just an update and a rant! All in all we should do okay.

Bev


 

$50K in diamonds!! Good luck selling it for that....I would take $10k then book a weeks vacation - I ain't greedy! 

I am not sure how long the storage auction thing has been active. We bought our first one in 1998 for $30 before that we would hit a weekly general merchandise auction at the local livestock auction (Jones's) and re-sell at the swap or through ads in the newspaper.

Good luck to ya and I hope the next one you buy will have a whole box full of sparkly things!

Bev

Well....I sold one complete bedding set (comforter, skirt, shams and window coverings) for a whopping $15! I am not hauling it out to the swap again...it takes up too much room! All of the bedding and clothes are going to Goodwill. 

Drbecker - packing material...that is a great idea altho I try not to list too much on ebay. The fees kill ya!