Travelling

I don't actually know if I'll have time to post today.  We're supposed to be going to see a mountain.  Or a forest.  Or a glacier.  Yes, I said "glacier" - I'm not in Kansas any more Toto, I'm in Alaska!

Will send pictures, but trust me they won't convey a fraction of how breathtaking it is here.

And the hunting's not bad, either.

A Time for Everything

I didn't have much time (or energy) for the hunt over the weekend because classes began on Saturday for the fall tests.  The time for finding (at least at yard sales) is on the wane, and the time for earning is coming into its own.  Long hours (Sunday was 9 - 930), and lots of drama, but one of the reasons I love my job is that this kind of chaos only lasts for a few weeks, then drops off, then goes away completely before ramping up again for the Spring insanity begins the cycle all over again.  And that's as it should be.

This is also the time I start thinking of my New Year's resolutions.  No, not for January - who wants to make resolutions in the midst of post-holiday excess and let-down? - but for the beginning of the school year.  It's a better time to not just make resolutions but to really put my best foot forward in order to actually keep them.  Besides, I don't know about you but after decades as student and parent in the U.S. public school system, Labor Day feels like a time of new beginnings.  Let's face it, we've spent most of our lives planning around that year, not the calendar year.

And so life continues to turn.  Shorter days and less time (and opportunity) to hunt.  Longer evenings in which to (perhaps) actually relax.  Cooler weather that just invites meandering walks (to get rid of the 10 stress-pounds).  And getting my days back (I work after school hours) so that I can get some things done around here.

Sounds perfect to me.

Zen and the Art of Treasure Hunting

Last week sucked.  I drove hundreds of miles to go to a mini-Longest Yard Sale and found ... okay, a really nice Coach bag for $3, a very old piece of ceramic for $2 (that I need to research), and a 14K gold clutchback in a bag of "singles" for 25 cents ... but, basically, for a full tank of gas and a well-before-dawn rise-and-drive, it was truly depressing.  On top of that, on the long drive home, in a petulant and hopeful mood, I stopped at the thrift shop in which I found much of my bounty a week or so ago and bought a pair of earrings marked "14K" and "585" which turned out to be gold posts and metal bodies.  To top it off, I'd done the same thing Friday - okay, I didn't actually find more than an Algebra book, but I did it all greedy and ended up wasting gas, money, and time.  Like a shark in a tank full of blood, I went a little crazy - again! - and harshed my Zen mellow, big time.

It's okay, though, I don't have to focus on the suckiness.  I have all kinds of things I can, and want to meditate on.  How about these?

Bugs galore.  The two at the bottom left are the gold bugs, upper left is the frat pin (duh).  The others are silver - the two butterflies are plique-a-jour (enamelled so that it shows through the wispy silver filligree like a stained glass window).  The ring, too, is really fabulous - shadowbox style, Taxco, marked with an artist I don't know yet.  There's also a watch, marked in thanks of 25 years of service (white gold and diamonds, for a sugar company!) that I forgot to put up (or even mention last week).  Overall, a very, very good day.

And the aftermath I'd mentioned, too, the week at flea market and thrift shop and yard sale.

That Orioles pendant is 14K, and will pay for the necklace (charm and chain) all by itself when I meet up with my new favorite guy.  The star necklace and small service pin were from an estate sale.  The rings were a combo of flea and thrift, and are all gold (10K, 12K, and 14K), some marked, most not.  The circle is marked and is all gold, as is the charm bracelet.  The cluster of earrings I bought for the clutchbacks, which are marked, but all the (unmarked) earrings also tested as 14K.  The tie tack is 18K, with a gorgeous opal (marked K18, oddly, which is why I'm going to retest everything once I get my mojo back).  The silver bracelet at the bottom is silver marked "Denmark" and "H.S.", which, I believe, stands for Hermann Siersbol.

Yeah, that was a very good week.  It helps to relive the successes, to ruminate on what went right.  But it helps more to meditate on the reasons it all went right, according to my own personal truths:

What we project and inject into the world we get back multiplied, so hunt with love and joy because bad thoughts, like greed, not only stop up the flow - they ruin my fun!

When I let my stuff reach critical mass I feel antsy and overloaded (and there's no room for more of anything).  We are channels, not reservoirs.  And the universe is perfectly happy with a judicious blend of donating, selling, and trading to keep the cycle going.

When I neglect my responsibilities (especially for the Hunt) I not only get little or nothing, I almost always end up in the hole.  What I do behind the scenes matters.

Hey, Mama Angel meddles in every area of my life.  I'd better remember that the next time I invite her to the party, huh?

Taking a Chance

My mother was a gambler, and a good one.  She broke even lots of times, won small often, even won big more than a few times, but as far as I know she lost money (overall) only once.  That's because she had rules.

Rule #1:  focus on games of probability and skill, like Blackjack or Craps - poker requires too much body language reading (skill), and both roulette and slots require only probability (both boring and, usually, break-even).

Rule #2:  never bet more than you're willing to lose.  She'd set up early in the evening and bet very conservatively.  Once she had a pile of winnings, she'd remove her initial stake and go crazy.  In general, she earned a pretty good hourly wage.

Rule #3:  losing is more probable than winning, so love what you do and have a boatload of fun - or why bother to play at all?

I don't go to casinos and I don't day trade, so I never realized how much I'd learned from her until recently.  A few weeks back, at a quarterly antique show, I visited one of my favorite vendors who had not only a stunning sorority pin (for a great price) but two beautiful pieces to feed my newest passion - figural bug jewelry.  I don't know if it was the little ladybug tie tack that nice lady gave me last year or the Alice Caviness wasp I found last fall for a song or the fantastic gold-and-turquoise butterfly from a few months back, but I've been finding the little beauties everywhere lately, so I succumbed and bought them both.

In fact, on the first day of the event, I happened to go by another vendor, a friend of the first, and, when a fabulous bee (gold, set with jade) caught my eye, I had to buy it.  "$150," he said (a fair price, based on its heft).  I sucked in a breath, however - who wants "fair" when there are so many deals out there, right?  And I didn't quite have that much in my allowance.  But it was beautiful ... and I happened to be wearing a pair of heavy 14K earrings I'd bought at an estate sale for about a third of that ... so I asked if he buys as well as sells.  "Of course," he said, and told me it's one-to-one with trade.  (My best guy is 85% trade, 75% cash.)  I removed my earrings, we struck a deal, and I walked away with a big smile and a (slightly) smaller allowance balance.

The next day, I couldn't stop thinking.  I made time between tutorials ... went back for a quick hour with a jewelry bag filled with (cheap) bits from yard sales.  He had a mostly empty display case (did I mention his prices were very fair?) but one new-since-yesterday piece held me mesmerized and ... we dickered (but not hard - see "poker face" in dictionary and not find me) and ... okay, I am the proud new owner of a perfect gold-and-enamel butterfly ... and somehow I came out ahead.

Huh.  I gave him things I don't like any more, things I can't, won't, or just don't wear ... I got a perfect pin, and change.  Change!

What a racket!

Acid Trip, who's been hunting with me every weekend, pointed out over a hot pretzel that I still paid his price (because I could've cashed in the gold) but I asked him (with arched brow):  hey, who's the math geek here? First, I actually got a 25% discount (see "my best guy" above), second I didn't like that stuff, and third ... hell, it's just not the same.  If I pay 50 cents for something I could sell for 12 dollars, but I trade it for what I wanted to buy anyway and got 16 dollars off the price of the something I wanted ... then, as I see it, I still only spent 50 cents of my money!

It's not gambling, exactly, but Mama was right.  I stuck with probability (finding) and skill (recognizing).  I also kept my initial stake (the change cleared the first pin's overage and covered what I'd originally paid for the trade goods). And I not only had fun, I got things I love, things that were, essentially, free.

Add to that my shining vision of a display ... a box-like terrarium filled with silk branches covered with bright, colorful (solid gold and sterling!) bugs ... it's a DragonBunny's dream.

By the way, the strangest thing happened next:  after weeks of a nice find here, a decent one there, suddenly I was swamped with bargains everywhere I went.  The last ten days have been ripe for picking - unmarked pieces priced as costume, marked pieces that were priced at those TV gold-guy scrap values, dirty and broken pieces at the bottom of boxes!  None in the five-pennyweights-for-a-dollar category (the first butterfly pin) but still very good deals ... for several hundred dollars in trade goods.  And I'll need it since my new favorite vendor said he'd found some flowers recently ... in gold and enamel ... some with gemstones ...

Sigh, I can't wait for Fall.

Yard Sales

You heard about the yard sale find ($45) that might be worth $2mil (Ansel Adams negatives thought lost, maybe).  I hear stories, too.  A guy in Salvation Army told me about a sale he went to (on his way to the casino) and found a box full of Newcomb pottery for $25 - the "old couple didn't know what they had."  Another recognized an original (some artist) that was appraised for more than 100 times what he paid for it.  And as you know by now, I've found several pieces that would sell for many times over what I paid (mostly from pawn shops, thrift stores, and antique stores), and though my conscience might've gotten the better of me in those heard-about cases, I don't have much trouble making a killing from storefront operations ... or most flea markets ... or mean people.

However, for everyone who ever wanted (or, especially, needed) to make some money off a garage sale, here's a piece of advice:  check, double-check, and recheck!  Easiest way I know to do this is to text 466453 - just type "price" and a couple of good descriptors of your item, and then wait for the return text that'll tell you what it's going for on at least three web sites!  It's great for buying, too!  And (at least on my network) it's free!

Seriously, I would love to take your stuff for almost nothing.  I would love it better if it saved you from foreclosure (as this might just do for one family).  Really, check it now ... before you put up your sign.