We had one of the best Date Days, as far as finding bargains is concerned, that we've had in a long time. We actually found an Estate Sale where the daughter wanted to SELL, not price everything so high that people just looked and left. We had handfuls of things, and ended up paying for one batch and taking it to the car, and then coming back for more!! We were like kids in a candy store, except it was future $$$$ signs that we were seeing.
We also went to one sale where they advertised that there was a lot of "old stuff." I would hate to be that fellow's neighbors, as his property, front and back, was one huge junk yard. We bought one nasty shaving mug for a dollar, but it will clean up into something I can add to my own collection of shaving and mustache mugs, strops, and razors. That one won't be going up for sale. Luckily, I've chosen to collect something that you don't find much of any more, so I'm not forever adding to it. I have no idea what possessed me to get interested in this particular type of item, but I find them fascinating.
This man's yard really made us both stop and laugh about what someone would think if they saw all the STUFF we've accumulated over the last few years from our forays at the yard and estate sales. Our poor children!! Well, as we've told them over and over, we have long since made our profit out of all of it, so they can just bag it all up and donate it to the local Thrift Store!
As hobbies go, ours is really not so bad, because it at least pays for itself! But it does take a lot of time to inventory it all, take pictures, and write the descriptions for eBay and for selling on our own website. I'm so far behind now that I can't possibly get everything listed, no matter how hard I might try. We kept buying, as an outlet to get away from our care giving responsibilities, even though I didn't have time to list anything, and it went on that way for almost 2 years! Now we have bags and storage boxes just packed to the overflowing with who knows how many stuffed animals destined for our Plush Animal Shoppe and vintage breakables waiting to be listed in our Dirty Butter Estates store.
Hmmmm... maybe I'd better stop blogging and get busy listing, eh??
6 comments:
What a fascinating pastime! I love to go to estate sales and country auctions too, but don't have the professionalsm about it that you do. To me it's like going to a museum but you can bring something home with you out of the past.
We get to "own" some really unusual things for a little while, and we always have the pictures to enjoy. Then we get the fun of seeing someone else get all excited about finding something they've really been wanting. I'd call that just about perfect, Jan.
My sister-in-law and I were in an area of town, yesterday, with memorabilla stores. I carried my deceased mother-in-law's replica of an old fashioned radio that she bought for about $25.00 new. No one was that interested. Fianlly one man bought it for $5.00. Well we walked to the ice cream store and had a delicious dessert, all on mom. She always liked to pay for little things like ice-cream outings, and we laughed about mom still paying for some fun for us.
What a great memory that's going to make, Sharon Lynn. You'll probably smile about that radio every time you go for ice cream from now on.
Plus, the fellow that bought it will probably turn around and sell it to someone who will have good memories that it brings back for them. The gift that keeps on giving ....
That's a really interesting pastime Rosemary. Car boot sales are very popular here in England. There have been stories in the press here of of a few people who bought things they thought were bric a brac and they turned out to be antiques of great value!
The same kinds of stories make the rounds here in the US, too, Naomi. People really do find that they have something of real value that they thought was junk. We've even had it happen to us. We had a Carnival glass bowl on our dresser, with our huge dog running free in the house. Then, on a whim, I decided to look it up in a Carnival Glass book while we were at the book store. We immediately put it away very carefully, and ended up selling it for $1800!!
Post a Comment