Suffice to say, it’s been slow over the past year, and especially over
the last couple of months. Call it my season
of discontent, if you will. Despite the unseasonably warm weather, pickings
have been slim this winter with Saturday forays typically yielding very few
sellable items. Even though both Ella
and I know that this downswing is typical, it doesn’t ease our concerns because
bills never take a holiday.
Thankfully, the dam burst a little on Saturday.
Despite the aforementioned unseasonably warm weather lately, it was
cold on Saturday morning, with the temperature hovering just above freezing as
we pulled up to our first sale of the day.
The yard was full of stuff, and after a cursory glance for books, a
habit that I really need to break, I noticed a table full of football stuff. A closer look showed that the table held a
Dallas Cowboy collection with bobble heads, action figures, and assorted other
boxed and unboxed collectibles.
Unfortunately, the items had been left outside overnight and were
covered with a fine layer of frost.
I looked around some more, and came back to the table. It was nagging at me. “How much for the football items?” I finally
asked out loud. A gentleman walked over
and inquired as to which item I was interested in.
“All of it,” I said, figuring that I couldn’t/wouldn’t afford it, but
also knowing that it never hurts to inquire.
“How about $50?” he said.
“Sold,” I said. Ella paid the man, and then we loaded everything into
the van. I still really didn’t know what
I had purchased, but I was too cold to really care at that point.
One of our next stops yielded a large collection of large new in box
die-cast cars, which cost me $40.
Between the two stops, our van was full.
After a few other sales, and before we headed to a nearby city for even
more sales, we unloaded all the items into our warehouse.
We pulled into a church sale, and I was amazed that I found a box full
of automotive and race car repair books, including one that scanned at
$300. I then spotted three boxes of
paperback Star Trek novels, and inquired as to the price. After a quick negotiation in which I overbid
myself on purpose (They asked for $2 per box, and I volunteered $10 for all
three), we paid $15 and headed to our next sale.
The remaining sales were hit and miss.
Late morning had turned to early afternoon, and both Ella and I were
tired. We debated going to one
additional sale in another nearby city, and eventually decided to head that
way.
We pulled into the estate sale around 2:30 p.m. It was fairly picked over, obviously, but no
one it seemed had touched the two media towers full of Christian CDs. Did I
mention that there were about 300 of them? I started scanning, and had pulled
out a small stack that were worth pretty good money. Looking at the shelves of CDs yet to be
scanned, I wondered how much all of them would cost. I asked, and after a quick negotiation, I
loaded both wooden media towers, and all the CDs into our van for $100, which
left me a whopping $14 in my pocket.
Unbeknownst to me, Ella had been trying on clothes, and had a small
stack of nice jeans and tops. I also had
picked up a cool racing jacket, and a new with tags pair of men’s pants. Our total bill came to $119, which was $5 more
than we had.
Crap.
Ella happened to search her pockets, though, and pulled a $5 bill that
she had kept as change from a previous sale.
As we drove home, we realized that between us, we only had about $1 in
quarters left.
On Sunday morning, we started triage on all the CDs, separating the
good (sellable) from the bad (non-sellable).
We had time to list a few, but we still have many left to get online.
Early afternoon, we went to the warehouse. While Ella started straightening the stuff in
the warehouse, I started working in the office, looking through all the
football stuff that we had picked up on Saturday.
Turns out, someone really loved the Dallas Cowboys. I need to research and price the items, but
the signed Roger Staubach mini helmet complete with certification of
authenticity should bring more than triple what I paid for the whole lot. I’m not sure what the oversized Super Bowl
ring will bring, nor do I have any idea about the assorted Danbury Mint
items. To make the lot a little more
personal, I also found several small photo albums complete with photos of the
previous owner’s trip to Dallas. If it
had not been so cold on Saturday morning, I might have talked to the seller for
a few minutes. Sometimes the story
behind the items makes them a lot more interesting.
The Star Trek books included complete sets of various novels, most of
which are penny books individually but sold together should bring a nice
profit, especially since I only paid $10 for all of them.
By the time I had finished my inventory triage, Ella had almost
completely transformed the warehouse from a mess into a functional area in
which we can actually walk. She’s an
organization whiz, and I think I need to buy her an ice cream for her efforts.
Looking ahead to what I hope is a busy yard sale season, the annual Peaches to the
Beaches sale starts next week, and, as usual, we’ll take two small road trips
on Friday and Saturday to grab some goodies.
With spring in the air, I hope that the overall quality of sales on Saturdays
picks up as well.
