Inherit Forward

Click and Read.

Think about it.  Then do it.

'Nuff said.

Almost Human

Never did get back to the flea (as a seller, anyway).  The Fall was hijacked by an intransigent Congress, an intense work schedule, a new grandbaby who had to spend the first ten days of her life in ICU, and ... okay, by several pieces of wonderfulness (still sorting, still researching, some gone already).

So my husband is still working, though I've finally slowed down; my new girl is crying, pooping, and grinning as she should, thank God; and I may or may not be selling anything that isn't tied down on eBay soon.  Because though I'm feeling just about me again, I'm living in Fred Sanford's house.  And there's no flea market until April.

Sigh.

Selling Part Next

I lied - I forgot to take pics in August.  Made more, learned more, set up for September 7 ... But not only did I get heel spurs around Labor Day from long walks, not only did I decide the long weekend was the time to cut down seven - SEVEN! - weeds-turned-trees I'd ignored for years, but I also got a flat-pack buffet three days before I was due to sell, a week earlier than the company projected.

Let's just say I didn't relish unloading, loading, standing ... Hell, I haven't relished anything but ice packs and Tylenol for two weeks.

October.  Definitely October.

Selling

I rose at 4 a.m. on Saturday.  I left the house at 5:15.  Started setting up at 5:40 in a corner spot right by the second-busiest entrance/exit to the flea market.  It was already 78 degrees, but this was in a parking garage, and though the traffic whizzed by behind me, it was pretty breezy so not too bad.

People started buying around 6 (mostly other dealers), the flea formally opened at 7, and I stayed until 12:30.  I set a goal of $250, made $388, and had a lot more fun than I thought I would.

Suburban treasure hunting isn't all about keeping it all (that would be Hoarders).  I don't sell much, but when I do I usually list it online (good stuff) and donate everything else.  Well, with sequestration furloughs about to begin, and retirement looming, I decided to attend this month's  First Saturday flea as vendor.  And it was more eye opening than I thought it would be.

Lessons learned;

1.  The prep work is the hardest.  I decided to do this 3 days before the flea, and I sacrificed price tags for display.  That's not a bad trade-off when you know your product, and other than my senior moment sale of a Furla clutch for $4 instead of $40 (it's a $300 bag new), my memory was good ... and people horse trade anyway.

2.  Great choices - a 4" PVC pipe stuck into a Christmas tree base on which I hung purses (got a ton of comments), a 3-level jewelry box for "project" pieces (at 50 cents ea then 25), and the sawhorse-and-luan-door "table".  Especially when you have a bad back and no helpers.  Oh, and the cooler full of ice water and soda, enough for me and fellow sufferers - it got to 99 degrees and even the breeze was hot.

3.  Jury is still out on the red single top sheet I covered my "table" with - red gets attention, prompts impulse buys (supposedly) but it was a LOT of red.  Also, the spinning earring display - looked fantastic, set it all up the night before and stuck it in plastic to transport, but what a pain in the ass for the customers to use.

4.  Never again will I use the spindly TV tray.  Even covered with a vintage tablecloth it looked like crap.

5.  Thanks to helpful vendor-buddies I learned that while everyone loves bowls or baskets  with other stuff inside through which people can rummage, unless the thing is obvious (like the jewelry box) you MUST pull at least some of the items out to entice the buyers.

6.  Collar my kids to show up at least once, if for no other reason than I never got a chance to prowl around and buy.

I didn't sell everything - my main purpose is to clear my house, but someone who would've offered me $4 for the Furla bag would've gotten a clear "no."  And I literally gave away several things (especially with bulk buyers), and even sold at well below what I paid (on purpose!) a few times.  See, I want to learn (maybe for retirement), and learning demands a Price.  (And, let's face it, after the time involved, and the fees, eBay is a pain in the ass.)

Even though I roasted and spent most of Sunday recovering, even though I didn't make what I could've made in other places or times (it was a holiday weekend), I do believe I'll do it again in August.

This time I'll be a little bit smarter, and take a lot more pictures.

I can't wait!

Break Point

I'm taking a little break from hunting.  It's time to fix up, sort, sell, donate, and store.  I will update some, but mostly I have so many irons in so many fires that I can hardly function any more.

I'll be back.  With photos.

Fugue

I had a great run in May, one that lasted a bit into June.  Then it started:  the break-even blues.

I know I should be happy; once upon a time I would buy amazingly bad items for well over what they're worth but now my "learning curve" is about treading water, not drowning.  In my heart I understand what a huge improvement that is.  I do!  And yet ...

Sigh.

It's the Dog Days of the season, and it's not even summer yet.  That's completely wrong.

I need a new challenge.

Hmmmmm...

Argh!

More rain.  Tropical storm rain.  Really?!

Climate Change

Two weeks ago we had 38 degree mornings.  Today I almost passed out at a community yard sale (it's 90 degrees right now).  What the hell happened to spring?

Still found some great stuff (including a fab calculator).  But going from winter to summer is getting really, really old.

Rain Rain Rain

We are in climate change.  I get that.  But why do the climate change gremlins seem to pick Saturday for their proof-of-wacky-weather Olympics?  Seriously, one weekend was frost (people gave up before they even set things out) while several other weekends have been (will be) thunderstorms.  Yes, we go from 28 degrees one week to 87 the next (I am serious) and that means we're a horrible greenhouse-gas-loving bunch of destroyers, but why has most of it hit on SATURDAY?!

No, I haven't been cooped up (favorite finds this month - diamond & sapphire earrings and a stone-pulled, unmarked ring, each $1) but it just isn't cool for the Weather Channel to tease us with 20% forecasts one minute that zooms to 80% at 5 a.m. the morning of the best neighborhood sales.  Nor is it cool to see nothing on the radar when you leave the house and run into a squall line that would drown an average cat.  Unfair!  All of it!  I want my crazy, hectic season back!

Sigh.

Ah well, fewer things but not none, more thrifts but fewer yard sales, and, of course, more cash for when things finally even out. 

Because they will even out, right?  We're not that stupid as a species.  Are we?

Local

My neighborhood is either getting poorer or they're holding onto things in fear of the apocalypse - an event in which gold and diamonds will be as useful as tits on a bull. I'm just sayin'.

Mostly because salt and pepper is the way to build wealth for the dystopian future.

Seriously. Think about it.

Bits

All things I buy, I buy because they're lovely and/or useful. Sometimes they're useful, however, as a simple asset.

Take beads. They come in such as range of materials that the mere thought of them makes even this treasure hunting Bunny quail. But the same dread that we have as finders also gets the sellers. And, to be honest, the easiest bead to identify is the gold bead - a simple push with your thumbnail will crease it, and since many necklaces are clasp-less, they're easy to spot. (Don't try this if it isn't worth your while to buy the now-damaged piece, though - it takes about 65 of the smallest beads for a gram, I'm just sayin'.)

Once you have it, be careful! Herding a dozen tiny cats is easier than corralling those beads. Plus, unless you plan to reuse them, you want them flat so your scrap guy doesn't want to shoot you (because he needs to pour them out to weigh them, remember.)

Here's the trick: put your necklace into a lunch bag before you cut the string (to prevent runaway beads) then dismantle it inside the bag (the ones with no clasps have fewer knots). Once done, pull the much-bigger stone beads out (they'll sell separately) and grab a metal (not silver) thimble. Yes, a thimble - the indentations will keep the bead relatively stable. Then put it on a magazine or cutting board (not a table) and just push.

Happy hunting!

Hunting in the New Era

I'm a jewelry hound, and a cheap one at that - I won't pay for anything I'll lose money on if I change my mind later (a hangover from digging out from under a mountain of debt). Trouble is, while the WOW finds still exist in the jewelry realm (and I've had a few lately) that segment is drying up - too many people know the price of gold, and too many believe the current stasis denotes a "new normal".

So, even though I've always glanced at other things, lately I've been widening my scope even more. Art is my current training ground, but (maybe because everyone is focused on jewelry) non-jewelry silver has given me the biggest surprises.

The occasional piece always slips through the cracks (examine everything!) but some lately have been stunning. A few weeks back, in fact, I found a snuff or pill box in a jewelry case that had just two marks - a star and a letter. Plate, right? I bought it ($2 is always worth a risk) and researched just a bit ... to find I had a Spanish silver (915) box from the early '30's.

Then there was yesterday. I'm visiting family, and went to a local shop. A pair of earring (925 with 14k wires) was a nice find but a quick sweep of the knick-knacks have me a tarnished nut dish that had incised numbers and what looked like "sterling".

And if you look very closely, you'll also see "Cartier".

Good Hunting to all!

Franken-stuff

A friend of mine told me once that when you have a timepiece that has the case of one company, the dial of another, and the works of yet one more, you have a "Franken-watch."  I've found several in my treasure questing - in fact, I recently found out that making a generic gold case that would fit several makers' watches was fairly common (as well as "dipping" rose gold, which wasn't as popular, into white gold to mimic platinum).  We as collectors disdain these, but if it works it works, yes?

A few months back, I found another Franken-thing.

Uninspiring from the back, I know:  brass plaque with something soldered to the front and back ... badly.  What do you expect with a $4 price tag, right?

Then the story unfolds.  Shiny edges.  Hm, the price on the sticker looked as if it might have once been forty-something but the "something" had been scratched out with the same ink.

Look at that attitude.  And that hair!  She's really lovely!

So I said I'd take it, telling the clerk, with a smile, that I can't go wrong for that price. 

"What price do you think it is?" she asked after frowning at the tag.

"Four," I said.  "Isn't that right?"

She looked at me, then at the tag, studying it from different directions, but I had been right there while I looked and she knew I didn't change the price.  "Sounds right," she said, and I paid and walked out.

It was only later I saw the "10K" mark on the ring base.  I'd already figured out the cameo was stone.  Edged in 14K gold.  That had been there, sitting in the costume jewelry, for who knows how long.

Remember ... look at everything.