Happy Sixth Month Anniversary of the Last Time I Blogged!

Or, as the rest of the world calls it:

HAPPY NEWS YEAR'S DAY!!!!

Geez, the lengths I will go to for a joke...  I had to clam up for six months to make this one work.  I hope it was worth it.

Okay, seriously, I'm alive and there will be explanations forthcoming, as soon as I've had a chance to get my blogging feet back under me.

How about some festively appropriate, yet fully retro celebratory music?



Consider that chorus my promise to you.  (All together now!)

I will be with you again!

Maybe even as soon as tomorrow?  Maybe.

In the meantime, I am off to the last day of the Big Flea in hopes of snatching up some great deals in the antique wing.  It's a New Year's tradition, after all.

Thanks for sticking with me.  You all rock harder than U2.

Speaking of which, is there any other band from that post-punk/new wave era that has managed to stay together and relevant all these years later?  I can't think of any.  This song has all elements that made early U2 so memorable--powerful bass and drums, Bono's slightly eerie vocals, and the Edge's even more slightly eerie guitar, plus that little piano riff.  I just love it.

Also, how young they all were back then!  (How young we all were back then.  Sigh...)

I picked this particular clip to use because drummer Larry Mullen Jr is wearing that motorcycle jacket he used to wear a lot back in those days.  It's one of things I remember most about early U2.  Motorcycle  jackets are cool.  I wish mine still fit.  It...um...shrunk in the closet.

Yes, leather will do that.

Sad as that may sound, I did replace it recently with a brand new leather bomber jacket in my size I found at the Peddler's Mall right around my birthday.  It's cool too.  And warm.  Which is good right now.  If I remember, I'll get a pic of it.

Happy 2018 folks!

Be back soon.

Thoughts from a Closing

There were many things running through my head during the mall closing.  Not all of them were happy memories or near panic attacks about all the work I had to do.  Some were just my usual odd ruminations and rambling thoughts.

PEOPLE!

It is amazing to me how many people simply don't read signs, don't pay attention to things, make unfounded assumptions (then get angry when they're not correct), and just in general seem content to wander through life in a daze, hoping they don't get hit by a bus.

First, you have the vendors who, despite having the closing letter stapled to their statements, weren't aware that we were closing or had all the information totally wrong, especially the date we had to be out.  One guy was insisting that he had ten more days than we really had.  Nothing in writing ever said that.  Then you had the vendors who owed money and got upset that they had to pay it before they could move their stuff out, just like it said in the letter.  (And in our contracts for that matter.)

And then there are the customers.  Oh, the customers.  The ones who walk in the door assuming everything  everywhere is 75% off.  I got so tired of putting stuff back in my booth that should have been purchased, but wasn't.  $1.99 items that got put back because they weren't 50% off.  Really?  The damn thing was a bargain to begin with!  The worst ones were the ones who saw a 75% off sign in a booth somewhere and decided that it was for everything and would not be dissuaded from that.  I overheard a woman leaving complaining about "all those 50% off signs in front of the store and nothing is 50% off."  (There was one sign on the door for one booth.  Every other sign was about the closing date.)  Even better was the one who told me I was committing "false advertising" because a sign in the booth next to mine had 75% off and my stuff wasn't discounted.  I finally had to move that sign so that it could not be seen by people in my booth.  You'd think that they would just compare the booth number on the sign with the booth number on the tag, but no.

I hope they have better luck with the buses.

CUSTOMER SERVICE IS STILL IMPORTANT

I told the cashiers more than once how much I admired them for their restraint and self-control and professionalism during the last days.  I'm not sure I could have done it.  There was some rude, uncalled for behavior going on at times.

At the same time, though, I am always glad to help out when I can.  I do hang out at the register a lot when I'm having a rest break, so customers sometimes think I work there.  I directed customers to the exit, showed them things they were looking for (if I could), gave them negotiating tips for dealing with a vendor, even helped them load things.  (I got a $5 tip for that!  I told her she didn't have to, but she insisted.)  I also helped wrap and bag large orders, which I like doing because I can see if there are things I might like in a booth I've been missing that way.

WHY DIDN'T YOU?

So why didn't I run a discount?  Well, the main reason is that it's my booth, my business and I don't have to if I don't want to.  So there.

The more complicated reason has to do with profits and motives.  Most folks running discounts were the type who had nowhere else to take stuff and didn't want it going to their houses.  That's not my situation.  There were also a few (like me) who had tons of stuff  and didn't want to do the work of moving it all out.  That's also not my situation.  Since I don't know what my personal health is going to be like over the next few months, I am really terrified of not being able to go out and get stuff.  This way, I have a stash that is all priced up, boxed up, and ready to go.  Just in case.

My goal for the month was to have the largest check of my reselling history.  Since rent was not coming out of it, there was no reason not to shoot for the moon.  I could get a big check with markdowns, but not without writing off most of my profit.  Since my one remaining store is currently an underperformer, I didn't think I could afford to do that.

The funny thing is that even with no discounts, my stuff was still cheaper than several of the sellers who were 50% off!  Often on the same items!  Yet mine got put back!  PEOPLE!

LIVING IN THE WILD WEST

Since the mall wasn't fully rented, several vendors took advantage of the last weeks and spread their stuff into some of the empty spots.  I did this with the things from the storage room that I bought.  I also held on to that room as well, since no one was going to be renting it out again. It made the place look fuller and got more of my stuff in front of folks.

NOTHING BEATS FREE!

Hang around a all that's closing and you'll get offered all the cheap/free stuff you can stand.  And then some.  Everyone has something they don't want to move or fool with any more.  I got a half dozen or so new (to me) shelves that way.  There were enough, in fact, that I am now able to dedicate my plastic utility shelves totally to my shed and storage.  I had been wanting to get away from using them for display.  I was also given a drop-leaf table, a loveseat, and a very nice upholstered chair.  All that, and a box of nice candles in jars to boot!

SHOPPER'S PARADISE

Of course, at 50 and 75% off, you can find some goodies!  I would lay in a stash for a couple of days until I had a cartful, then check out.  I got to where I would call the item info out to the cashier and give them the discounted price to speed things along.  I always tried to avoid high traffic times when I did this, since I did tie up a cashier for a little while.  It was fun, for sure.

I used to say that my goal as a junker was to walk out of a store with a receipt as tall as I am.  I did it a couple of times.

I need a new goal now.

Sadly, my excursions in search of discounts led me to several booths I had never visited before because they were outside of my usual mall route, which pretty much just led to my booth and back.  I found at least a couple where the prices were so good before the discounts that I should have been shopping there all along.

PICKER'S PARADISE

There's the free that's handed to you.  Then there's the free you find.  During the clean up after the closing, there are always items that get left behind as people movie out.  Since I planned to do most of my packing up after the last day to maximize sales, I had the opportunity to scavenge a few things that otherwise would have ended up in the trash.  There was a person who was allotted to have first pick at the leftovers, in exchange for cleaning the place up and taking down all the walls, so I made sure that I wasn't impinging upon anything he wanted, before I swooped on something.  It was simple.  You go:  "Hey is that cart trash?"  If they say it is, then ask to grab a couple of things off the top.  Never dig through since everyone is busy.  If they say that they are keeping it, then compliment them on their good taste in items.

OUT WITH THE OLD

Of course, I got rid of a few things too.  I gave away stuff that had outlived its usefulness, mostly old display and shelving stuff.  A lot went to folks who also scrap, since there wasn't much other use for it.  I also gave away some small stuff and tossed a few things.  I try to limit what I just flat out toss, because I hate to see things get thrown away that might still have life in them, but when a shelf blew over while we were loading up and smashed to bits, it was an easy call to toss.  The store rented one of those huge commercial dumpsters, and several times it ended up looking like this:

Lots of good things got tossed, which killed me.  I had to keep telling myself that I cannot have all the things, save all the things, or sell all the things.  But I really, really wanted to try.  I just have to content myself with the thought that I tossed stuff out sparingly and tried my darnedest to get things where they would be the most use for others.

FUCK THIS DAMN CANCER ANYWAY!

Oops.  There goes the language again.  I just get so tired of being tired all the time.  It was very frustrating for me during the closing weeks.  I would just be getting started on something and need to take a break.  Quite a few things that I wanted to do didn't get done the way I wanted because of that, like markdowns, which happened kind of haphazardly and not in the lovely organized fashion I had envisioned.  It dawned on me a couple of days after we finished that the reason the storage unit is fuller than I thought it would be is from the items (most of which were large) that I anticipated would sell with markdowns.  Oh well.  More for later, I suppose.

BIG BUMMERS

The whole thing was such a time-eater.  I know I had to do it, but, dude!  I missed out on some other opportunities and things I usually do.  My brother emailed me a couple of days ago, just to make sure I hadn't been sick(er).  He was worried because he hadn't heard from me.  Thrifting?  No time!  Blogging?  No time.  You all are going to be reading January topics in February and March.  I missed a closing sale at Toys R Us and two good estate sales to deal with this madness.  I keep telling myself that I cannot go to all the sales, but still.  I also didn't really get to do my Christmas clearance shopping this year.  I would have just been starting that when we got the closing notice.  There just wasn't time.  Thankfully my discount booth shopping yielded lots of Christmas, since most booths still had theirs out and left it out through the closing.  I don't have a stash like I usually do, but I'll get through.

STOP THIEF!

The biggest bummer of all was the very nice piece that was stolen from me during the chaos of the closing.  It was the first major loss I've ever had.  I've lost smalls here and there, which is usually no biggie.  That's the kind of stuff that happens.  This was a nice, pricey (for me) piece.  I'm still bummed about it.  It's the kind of thing I'll never find again.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Finally, some last looks.  Before we left for the last time, I took some pics.  People always used to talk about how big the store was.  It never felt big to me with all the booths and stuff in it.  Empty?  The place is cavernous!

Also, soulless.

Lifeless.

Barren.

Have you ever seen the ending episode to a TV series where they keep pulling the camera back and suddenly you see the sets and the lights and stuff?  And there are people walking off the set and cleaning up and turning out the lights and then that's all?  That's the way things felt for me right then. 

Monday Rambles

I'll warn you in advance, this is one of the rambliest rambles I've put down in digital ink in ages.  Get ready for a wild ride!

Another chemo week is down the pike and I'm slowly crawling out of the pit.  I've figured out that part of the problem during chemo weeks is the extra pills I have to take to accommodate my shots and stuff.  The Benadryl beforehand makes me so sleepy I can't stand it, so I end up going home after my shots and going to bed.  By the time I wake up, the chills from the shot are setting in, so I have to take more pills.  I think all the extra meds contribute to my nausea problems.  I know I start feeling better by Sunday, when all of the extra stuff has filtered out of my system.  Then I can start dealing with the bricks.

One more to go!  One more to go!  I'm filled with an equal measure of anticipation and dread.  Sometimes, just thinking about going back to the cancer center makes me reflexively retch.

My grandfather passed away Saturday morning.  They said he had a really rough couple of days and then passed on.  I'm really glad that we went to see him week before last.  He was alert and talkative then, and that's a good final memory to have.  He was 94, and kind of just gave out.  The last few years were pretty rough on him.  Besides his own declining health, one of my uncles passed away in 2009 and then Mom died in 2010.  I cannot imagine being in your 90's and yet having to bury your kids.  No one expects that.

His funeral will be Tuesday, which is going to make for an odd sort of week.  The Fourth was already throwing an extra day off in there, and I'm still trying to recover from missing a day of work last week due to chemo.  It's going to be a short week, but one with lots of commotion, apparently.

For some reason, my sales decided to pick up over the last week and a half.  That was a bright spot during the week of chemo blight.  All of a sudden, I started selling large items again and making my sales targets.  I finally made rent, and now I'll be getting a (very small) check.  But it will be a check.  Now I've got to get busy and replenish my stash of larger items.  About half my floor stock of small furniture is gone.  Luckily, I kind of made up for that with some weekend shopping.

I did get out to one church sale over the weekend.  We actually went to two, but the second one wasn't happening until Sunday. What kind of church does that?  I mean, besides the Adventists?  We did end up going back on Sunday, but it was a bust.  We found enough stuff at another Sunday stop to more than make up for that minor irritant.  More details on that tomorrow.

Speaking of church stuff, week before last when I was working my booth, there was a woman there seated on the floor in front of my religious wall.  She was going through all the pamphlets and booklets very carefully, like she was looking for certain particulars.  At one point, she asked me where I found all the older Catholic resources.  I kind of gave my usual hem and haw answer (junkers don't reveal their sources easily), so she asked if I was Catholic.  My answer to that is always "I'm not, but my father was."  She asked if I was raised Catholic.  I told her that I was raised Southern Baptist.  (The "Southern" part is very important--even all these years later.)  I didn't mention my conscious lack of a religious affiliation these days.  That seems a bit too personal for a casual conversation with a stranger.

Anyway, in the middle of all this, she says"  Well, you know those guys in Rome right now aren't the Catholic Church.  It's been nothing but anti-popes since 1958."  OMG!  I have a real-life sedevacantist on my hands!  I knew that Louisville had an SSPX chapel, because I had been to an awesome yard sale there one time, but I had no idea that there was anyone in town who was so anti-Vatican II that they went to the extreme positions.  Wow!  Now I realize why she was looking through everything so carefully.  She was checking for publication dates and imprimaturs!

She told me that she appreciated the stuff I had for sale and that it was a great resource for her and others, then left.  Wow!  I'm supplying goods for extreme traditionalist Catholics!  Who knew?  For the record, I find church politics almost as fascinating as church articles.

Day by Days:  It was another solid week, for the most part, but not a spectacular one.  The show was more about laying groundwork for some of the bigger action to come, as Sami prepares for trial and EJ moves ahead with his plot to take down Stefano.  I'm beginning to wonder if Kate wasn't the one who swiped the razor from Rafe's room, to bog down Sami's defense.  Judi Evans was excellent this week as Adrienne tried to keep her fears in check and keep from alienating her family.  Sonny and Will and the baby are so cute together.  Nice little moments with Nick/Will, Gabi/Nick, Kate/Sami (loved how Sami's hand kept hovering over Kate's shoulder, inches away from giving a little comfort, yet totally unable to reach out to her worst enemy), EJ/Chad and Adrienne/Jennifer.  JJ continues to annoy me.  The Cameron/Abby/Chad triangle looks to be boring as grass growing.  Who is the rooting couple supposed to be?  Durned if I know.  And, we got a Lucas scene!  Not enough of those these days.

Kim Thompson died recently.  I was going to mention here it last week, but I forgot.  He was co-publisher of Fantagraphics, which was one of my favorite comic book companies.  Towards the end of my comic book days, most of what I was reading were Fanta titles.  He was responsible for, among other things, bringing the works of Lewis Trondheim and Swedish artist Jason into print in English.  He brought wonderful things to an impoverished American comics market, and had a tremendous impact on my own reading habits.  He will be missed.

Finally a political note.  (Those of you who don't really want to read this sort of thing can skip the next two paragraphs.  I probably should have said that about my Days paragraph too.)

Like a lot of folks, I am celebrating the Supreme Court decision last week in the DOMA/Prop 8 cases.  At the same time, I am only cautiously optimistic about the eventual results of the decision.  For one thing, Keith and I still cannot get married under the laws of this state.  The decision changed nothing about that.  We cannot go to a state where same-sex marriage is legal, get married, and have that marriage recognized here.  That part of DOMA was not in the challenge.  My parents were married sixteen yers before they split.  Keith and I have been together 23.  My mother was able to get an increase in her Social Security when my dad died, and they weren't even married then!  Me?  It's not totally clear yet.  That's what I get out of the decision.  Not entirely clear yet.

I'm not downing the decision.  It was the right one.  It was a strong challenge to an unjust law.  All I'm saying is that looking at the aftermath and the meaning has to be done with a careful eye.  To go further, there is no federal law protecting LGBT folks from discrimination in housing or employment.  Unless someone lives in one of the cities or states that offers such protection, then they can be fired or evicted simply for being gay.  It's 2013, and this is still reality.  It's unconscionable.  We won a big deal last week.  There's no doubt about that.  We also still have a long ways to go.

From chemo to yard sales to soaps to Catholics to comics!  From the personal to the political!  I've hit the rambling gamut today, haven't I?  How about that?  About the only thing that didn't make it in was an Emmylou Harris mention.  And now you have that.

Despite everything that's gone on this year, I have managed to stay on track with my posting goals.  We are halfway through the year, and I am just a little over halfway to my posting goal of 200 posts for 2013.  Blogging has helped me cope with the stress of chemo, and I appreciate your reading along with me.  This week is already plotted out and pre-published, so keep checking in.

Goals 2013 (Long Term)

I think I'm going to spend some time the rest of this week blogging about personal stuff related to 2012 and 2013--recaps and goals and such.  I usually don't seem to get to these posts until about the end of January every year, but I seem to have some free time on my hands right now.

I've written before about January as a time for looking forward and looking back.  I think I've also explained the way I feel about New Year's Resolutions, which are kind of like cultural cliches, and goals for the year, which to me implies targets that are reachable, but which require work throughout the year to make them.

When I used to keep a paper journal, I would leave a bookmark on the page where I wrote my year's goals, so I could look back on them from time to time and remind myself about the things I wanted to accomplish.  One thing I learned was to write every goal so that I would know for sure that I had met it.  There's no point in saying "I will be a better person in 2013." because you have no standard or way to measure it by.  If you can instead focus on actions that you want to take or habits that you want to eliminate, you'll know for sure that you made your goal.

I used to be absolutely horrible with my bank account--constantly overdrawn, bouncing checks, losing tons of money to fees.  Setting the goal of "being financially responsible" didn't seem to help.  What does that even mean for me?  It wasn't until I set the goal of not bouncing any checks for a year that I was able to get a handle on the issue.  In order to not bounce checks, I had to identify the things I needed to be doing to prevent that from happening.  It took a couple of years, but I did get that under control.

That's the way I approach it anyway.  I'm not a lifestyle expert and I've never been on Oprah or written a book, so take that as you will.  I'm just a babbly junker with a blog.

As for me and 2013, I've got several goals that I'd like to meet this year.  Several of them are a bit too personal for me to put up in a public forum like this.  Some of them are so boring that I cannot think that anyone would  have any interest in them at all.  There are, however,  a couple that I can share here.  If I remember, we'll look back on these and see how I did at the end of the year.

No pun intended, but my biggest issue right now is my weight.  I weighed in at the hospital at 264 pounds, which is the largest I have ever been.  I know it's the largest I have ever been, because every time I hit that number, I start working like nuts to get a few pounds off.  It's been probably more than five years since I've had any kind of regular fitness and diet thing going on--one designed to take weight out and help keep it off.

It will be a little while yet before I can really start doing anything about this, obviously, but once I've bounced back from the surgery, I'd like to really work on my weight.  My goal for this year is to drop 40 pounds by the end of the year.  We'll definitely drop back in on this one and see how it's going.

Meeting my blog goal for 2012 was a big deal for me.  I've not blogged that regularly for that long since I started this blog back in 2003.  (Is this my tenth anniversary year?  Oooooo!)  While I'm not sure that I've really added that much to the overall signal to noise ratio of the wider internet,  I'm kind of happy with myself for applying the necessary organization, planning, and discipline into practice to make 200 posts happen.  I definitely want to do that again.  Once again, I'm shooting for 200 posts this year, which will also propel me past two other goals.  I'm on the verge of 900 total posts now, so I should hit 1000 before the end of the year, if I can add 200 to that total.  1000 posts in my first ten years!  Insert sarcastic "woo hoo!" here.

Finally, a business goal.  Like a lot of junkers, I have succumbed to the temptation of buying too much stuff.  I've got way more in backlog than I absolutely need.  You simply don't make money on it when it sits and waits.  This is an extreme goal, but a necessary one.  By the end of the year, I will have all of my backlog stashes (there are three) cleared out and in the booths.

Okay, that's enough about me.  If you've read this far, you deserve a cookie or something.  What about you?  Did you set any goals for 2013?

Gratefulitude

Happy Tofurkey Day, Everyone!

We made great time back to Louisville on Tuesday and actually made the whole trip in one big chunk.  That's not really the way we prefer to do it, but we got past the point of no return and just kept on going.

We were actually quite surprised about it.  Going down, we got caught in a massive construction slowdown outside of Memphis.  It took 3 hours to go about 12 miles!  We were prepared to get stuck in that again, but we cruised right through the same spot with no issues.

Our early arrival back home meant that I had a whole afternoon to spend at Peddler's Mall getting ready for Black Friday.  A lot of the items I had put out before we left sold while we were gone, which was a good thing.  I had kind of ran out of room for all my Xmas stuff!  I was able to totally rearrange and completely restock the area, so I am totally ready!  I have a few more Christmas items to go out, but for the most part, it's all out.

We're now prepping our annual vegetarian feast.  I'm pricing up stuff that I haven't had time to get to recently.  I'm going to spend the afternoon working on my junk room, which has become impassable again.  Tomorrow, I'll head to YesterNook and put out my last vintage Xmas stuff.  I think I'll hit a thrift that's doing half off, then to Half-Price Books for their sale.  I'll get my gift-shopping done there.

If you're watching my post total, you'll see that 200 is just around the bend!  Woo hoo!

I'm planning on getting some posts done and scheduled this weekend, so you'll have some content this week.  Hopefully, you'll read about some recent acquisitions, recent travels, and other thoughts in the next few days.  I've also found a huge stash of vintage Christmas cards, so "Your Vintage Christmas Card of the Day" will be returning, once I get some scanning done.  I'm also working on a couple of "Junkin' Memories" posts and a "This is How We Do it" post.  Plus, I've got a kind of a personal issue to talk about.  Stick with us, folks.  There's lots to come!

In the meantime, please go over to the Monkeybox blog and show Shara some love.  Her family got dealt quite a blow a few days ago.  There's always a personal side to just about every headline you read.  It's sad how often we forget this.

Upping the Date (or would it be Dating the Up?)

Just a quick one to kind of touch base.  I'd been doing pretty good with the regular posts, then...BLAM!  Out go the lights.

Normally, I would tend to just let this whole thing slide until I could post again for real, but I've picked up a couple of followers, so I feel I ought to be polite.

Truth is, I am just slammed right now and probably will be for a while longer.  There's just too much going on, and something had to give.  As usual, that thing was blogging.  I've been just too exhausted on the weekends to even think about planning ahead.

So, here's a summary:

It was hotter than the hinges of Hades for a while here, but it seems to be better now.  By better, I don't mean in the 70's, but it's at least into the normal range for the Ohio Valley in the summer.  I'll take it.

Craziness at the booths.  More on that in a future sales update post.

Still finding neat stuff at the yard sales and thrifts, just not as much.  I bought a bunch of excess stuff from my uncle recently, so I'm sitting pretty with really good merch, so I don't have to hunt as hard and I can be a little choosier.  I always like it when I get to this point.

One of my fave neighborhood sales is coming this weekend.  Should be some good findings, even for the newly choosy.  I may photodocument this one.  We'll see.

I'm having to do way more lesson planning than I ever counted on for the current work gig.  That's what is eating into my time most of all.  That all ends next week, so things will free up a bit. 

I got offered a part time more permanent deal starting in mid-September.  It's only a few hours a week, but it's not a time limited project, like the things I'm doing now.  And, it has the possibility of growing into something more.

And that's the way it is in these parts!

I'm going to try to finish some posts and get 'em scheduled over the weekend, then let those carry me until Thursday, when this job ends and I have a breather.

Thanks for bearing with me.  I've got some fun stuff in the finishing stages.  I've been really happy with the way some of the last few posts have turned out, so I'm looking forward to continuing in that vein.

Goodwill Hunting

Okay, I know that's not the most original title.  Probably dozens of junkers have used it in the past.  Still, it fits.  I was at one of the local GW's this week, and it occurred to me, for some reason, that I ought to just do a blog post on the whole experience.  Not really sure why I am thinking this, as it was a pretty typical downtown GW day, but nevertheless here it is.

One thing about this particular Goodwill is its randomness and unpredictability--especially as far as pricing goes.  You can literally go in one day and find everything priced at 50 cents, no matter what it is.  But, if you come back the next day, everything will be 7.99!  Seriously!  I've done this before.  I've bought nice furniture in there for five bucks before, and seen horribly ratty pieces priced at twenty-five!

On this visit, however, I seem to have caught them in the transitional phase. Everything they were placing out at the moment had the outrageous prices, but what was already on the shelves was reasonable.  I'll never understand it, so I go with the flow. 

Late afternoon is always a good time to get to this store, because they start hauling out racks of newly priced stuff to restock the shelves with for the next day.  And they don't care if you grab things right off the rack!  One time, I scooped several MA Hadley plates, cups, and bowls right off the rack!  It was during one of the good pricing phases, and those suckers would not have lasted five minutes at what they were marked.

One of the things I like about thrifting is the people watching.  There is some serious fun to be had if you're at all into taking in the passersby and the drama.  One of the games I like to play is "Who's the Dealer?"  Re-sellers have a particular aura about them in a thrift.  If I can spot a really obvious one, then I try to note all the behaviors they are exhibiting that I don't.

Another good one is "Spot the Hoarder."  "Find the Slumming East-Ender" is also good. She'll be the one who drove her Mercedes over from the ritzy part of town in search of designer duds at a steal of a price, yet she's afraid to actually touch anything in the store.

And then there's "How Much Polyresin?"   Try to guess how much cheap, chipped made in China crap you'll find in the nick nacks section.  But of course, everyone's favorite thrifting game is the one I was there to play myself:  "Find the Treasures."

I didn't see any slummers this time around or any other dealers, but I did spot two I was sure were hoarders, even though one was trying to do it on a budget.  The answer to the polyresin question was the same as it always is:  Too damn much to count!  And, yeah, I found a couple of treasures, including five hardback volumes of a Better Homes and Gardens sewing series from the 60's and 70's.  I also found a Palm Loom!

I have to remind myself when I'm in public sometimes that not everyone shares my sense of humor, and not everyone appreciates a total stranger coming up to them in a thrift store and making smartass remarks.  Oh, but it can be difficult.  There was a woman in the kids clothing holding a pair of jeans that looked to be for a 5 or 6 year old girl.  She was holding them down to the floor, as if she was trying to visualize her own child and where they might come to on her.  It took a bit of willpower to keep from walking over and saying something like "Honey, I think those are going to be a little short for you."  It's times like these I really miss my mother. 

The real fun this time around started in line.  I stayed probably ten minutes longer than I planned, because I was trying to let the line die down a little.  When it became obvious that wasn't going to happen, I jumped in.  I ended up behind the budget hoarder and in front of a woman on her cell phone who loudly exclaimed into her phone:  "I may just leave this shit here!  I only got two things and these fuckers in front of me got carts full of shit!"  I felt like turning around and telling her:  (1) "This fucker in front of you can hear you talking about him. (2) This fucker in front of you is generally polite and would most likely have let you go in front of him with your two items, but won't now because (3) you just called him a fucker!"

Instead, I decided to see if she really would leave her stuff behind, which she didn't.  In the meantime budget hoarder was offloading stuff out of her cart to stay under her limit.  She plopped a whole pile of stuffed animals on the counter and said she wasn't getting those, so I scooped up a couple of myself, resisting the urge to taunt the woman behind me.

Then the woman in front of me said something about the leather bag she wanted to get wasn't in her cart any more.  The cashier said someone probably took it out of her cart when she wasn't looking.  She also said that happens a lot in that store.  So I started thinking about the ton of wicker doll furniture in the other hoarder's cart.  If only I really had the nerve to be that rude.  (Not really.)  It also occurred to me that if there was cart-jacking going on, then there had to be another dealer in the store!

Anyway, the rest of the check out went smoothly.  The cashier is a relatively new one, and I like her a lot.  She's a tad slow, but thorough and friendly.  And she seems to be pretty unflappable.  Nothing really seems to rattle her, not even women screaming about fuckers on their phones.

Bits and Pieces

Just another bunch of randomness...

So I go to my booth last week for my regular stock and clean, just like I usually do.  I always start out walking through all the spaces and collecting items that don't belong to me.  When I go to my wall of religious items, I found that someone had turned all of my crucifixes upside down.  All of them.  Now we know.  Satanists like to look for bargains at flea markets too.

(Sorry no pic. I have got to start taking my camera with me.)

I took a hammer and nails with me, so I hung most of the crucifixes and religious plaques up on the wall around the shelves.  It makes that space stand out a little more and will probably keep the Satanists and vampires at bay for now.

I'm planning on having an actual written (non-video entry) written for every day this week.  I'm working on the booth report right now.  Did expanding make me rich or cost me my shirt?  Find out tomorrow!  I'm also going to start doing a monthly recap of the books I read the previous month.  You can find out what a well-educated, well-read kind of guy I am!  Or not, as the case maybe.  Mostly not.  I've got a couple of three things atarted for each of the other days, but haven't decided which way I'm going to lean yet, so you'll just have to wait and see.

Speaking of video entries, there was some kind of snag on a couple of my entries from last week and the videos didn't show.  I think it's fixed now.  So, if you really wanted to see Jenny Lewis and Jonathan Rice doing "Love Hurts" or Guy Clark and Emmylou Harris doing "Dublin Blues" now is your chance!

I went cat-sitting for a couple of days last week, which put my dear buddy Kosh over the edge while I was gone.  Since we lost Bennie, he doesn't deal well with changes in the household at all, particularly when it involves me.  If I just start getting stuff ready to take to the booth, he starts wandering the house with his worried look.  Poor guy!  When I got home, he was GLUED to my lap!

The weather is warming and staying warm, during the day at least.  It's still cold enough in the morning for a coat, but it all means Spring is one the way.  Yay!  It also means lots of rain around here too.  It rained a lot on Saturday, but fortunately, there were a lot of indoor sales to go to.

I guess that's enough on the babble front.  Before I go, I do want to send out good flea market vibes to Mari-Jo, who just opened her own booth.  Good luck with it and I hope you have fun!

Oh, yeah, and a great big Happy Birthday to my buddy Roger Green!

Pondering, updates, and linkages

Just a bunch of sheer randomness.  Trying to get a bunch of stuff done right now, so I apologize for the extreme stream of consciousness ramble.  Onward!

Cold weather moved in with a vengeance last week.  Snow, ice, and wind.  I can deal with everything but the ice.  Everything has been slicked over like a skating rink.  The effect is beautiful when you're looking at blades of ice-encrusted glass poking up through the snow.  Not so much when your stuck in the middle of a damn sidewalk trying not to fall on your fat ass.

Seriously, it's like we're having January four weeks early.  What's up with that?  More is on the way for Xmas.

When the storm moved in, I had a one day sales dip, but it bounced right back.  I'm over 600 at the moment.  Not sure how much higher they'll go, as I'm expecting a slow down this week.  I'd like to clear four hundred this month, which would be my new record. 

I'm holding up on re-stocking right now, hoping that the last of the holiday stuff will ride out the month okay.  Otherwise, I'm shifting things around to fill holes on shelves.  Sometimes, all an item needs is a new location  in the booth to sell.

I'm planning on calling a moratorium on merch purchases at the end of the month, after I get through the post-Xmas clearance period.  I've got about 8 large Rubbermaid tubs of stuff stashed all over the house, which should give me enough to last the winter.

Early next month, I'm sweeping through, pulling some items, marking down a bunch more, making a clearance table and completely re-stocking with fresh stuff for the new year.  I'm ending 2010 on a roll, so I need to blow into 2011 with a bang.

I had a moment of panic a couple of days ago when I couldn't remember all Santa's reindeer.  I was forgetting Dasher.  Why does Santa have a reindeer named Vixen, by the way??

I've come to realize that I could watch the Powerpuff Girls Christmas Special, "Twas the Fight Before Christmas" over and over every year and not grow tired of it.  And I'm not ashamed to admit it either!

Enough of that, how about some links?

Queen of Fifty Cents has put a new video up.  This time it's all the pets she has met while out saling this year.

Why has this not been done? Link courtesy of VRS.

Well, I gotta scoot.  More later.

Linkages and musing

October is always a fun month in the blogosphere (Does anyone use that term any more?) as various bloggers start their spooky celebrations. I've got something planned for a little later, when I've got time to fire up the scanner, but here are a couple for your reading pleasure right now.

Bully is revealing the awful truth about Archie's hometown. And it's shocking. And apparently all the evidence has been staring everyone in the face for years, but no one ever put it together before. Leave it to the little stuffed bull to put it all together.

Meanwhile, at Postmodern Barney, Dorian has started his annual celebration of horror movies with a long-forgotten "gem" from the 80's and the early days of the video revolution.

On the yard sale front, Yard Sale Bloodbath shows us how Berkeley a yard sale can be. In case you're wondering, it's pretty Berkeley. That may not qualify as an October horror--unless you're a rabid tea-partier, that is--but it's certainly something to see. I'm kinda jealous I wasn't there.

October or any time of year, Thrift Shop Horrors is always the best stop for things that should not have been sold the first time, much less resold.

Continuing my Nanci Griffith kick of the past few days, here's a very nice overview of her career and its ups and downs, album by album. No vids this time, but I do have a couple set aside for a special occasion.

October has started off extremely slow for the booth. Last month I set a sales record; this month I've only broken five dollars in sales on two days, so far. It's going ot be a long, slow, up and down month, I fear. I'm taking another load of Halloween and fall-themed merch over today, including a couple of cute vintage straw cowboy hats. Hopefully, that will help. I may add some fall-colored decorations to the booth to make it stand out a bit.

Addenda and Updates and stuff

Thanks for your patience and forbearance with last week's "Yard Sale Week" extravaganza. I was looking on an old flash drive and found those pics. I had originally taken them to make a blog post about yard sale finds from several weekends. That was at least two years ago.

What is most interesting about them is that they all date from a time well before I ever thought about renting a booth. Okay, well, I was kind of thinking about it, but had not yet gotten to the point of taking any definite steps. In other words, I was out yard saling for fun and not profit.

The little globe things all came from the same house. There were a ton of them there and I bought them all. I think they were a buck a piece. They all used to hold water, like snow globes. You can see some left in one of the Mary globes. I remember this weekend really well because Keith and I were out on our bikes as a part of Worldwide Car Free Day. It's difficult to yard sale by bike, but not impossible! I've done it more than a few times since.

At one point, I was thinking about doing regular blog posts about my finds, hence the photos. I ultimately decided against it as being a little self-indulgent. Even the few such posts I've done recently really don't strike me as anything anyone would want to read, even from the point of view of the booth. I think instead, I'll stick with focusing on the most interesting/unique/fun items I find. So expect more of that in the future.

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Speaking of the booth, I'm well over 500 in gross sales this month, so every day is like a new record for me. I'd love to top 600, but we'll still have to wait and see on that. I'm cautiously optimistic. Another month or two like these past two and I'll start feeling like this is something I can consistently do and not just some sort of fluke. My new wild-eyed dream is to gross enough over 600 that I can take home 400 after the rent for the next month is deducted. We'll see. If nothing else, it's a new goal.

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Since I haven't been blogging for so long, it's been ages since I've done any kind of linking to anything in literally forever, so it's time to make up for that a little.

One of the women behind the always excellent Yard Sale Bloodbath went to Europe this summer and presented this report on what it's like to shop second-hand overseas. It's fun reading.

Meanwhile, at Yard Sale Queen, Her Majesty recently encountered some questionable decorating choices.

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I'm realizing that I need to overhaul my links and such, and maybe even my template. I'm adding that to my list of things to do over the next few weeks.

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Among other things I want to do:

A photo tour of the booth(s) these days
Something about what I look for when I go out merch-hunting
Something about camping
And (finally) some stuff about Mom's passing

It's actually been about three weeks, and I'm still keeping up with this thing. It's only taken five years, but I may have finally become a blogger.

And now that I've said that, this will turn out to be the last thing I post for six months. Just you watch. I have now tempted fate. And fate hates me.