DEALERS NOT WELCOME

Now, if you are a dealer, note that before you get upset, keep reading! 

I always have to shake my head when I see ads for estate sales, garage sales, etc that read "NO DEALERS".

I think: What, are you INSANE? You WANT dealers there! THEY are the REAL buyers!

If you want a successful sale, and have loads of merchandise leaving, and piles of cash in your pocket, your ad should start with:

 "DEALERS WELCOME - FREE COFFEE & BEER!"

Well, ok, maybe not quite that whole phrase, but you get my drift....maybe leave out Coffee.

Thing is, I am a picker, dealer, wholesaler, collector, researcher, history buff, treasure hunter, artist, craftsman, restorer.....and these terms are only part of a long list.

I go on house calls, I have a shop, I go to auctions, I go on cold calls when I am picking, I attend estate sales, garage sales, flea markets, etc, etc...I will even "trash pick" if I spot something I can make a buck on. So add trash-picker/bin-diver/scrapper to the list...

oh, "writer" is another...

whoops, "blogger" better make its way on the list, also....
 
When people try to pigeon hole you into a "category" it tends to never quite fit. I love picking, it is what I started doing to finance my love of treasure hunting, and have never stopped...But, along the way I opened a shop, because the dealers I wholesaled to never bought it "all"..and, frankly, there was things they didn't want that I KNEW there was a market for.

When eBay came along, it provided me with solid proof that I did know what I was doing. Many dealers I sold to had a narrow view of the collecting world....their attitudes were like "You can't tell me that computer, those snowmobile suits and that cereal box are all collectible! Not a chance! You're crazy to buy that junk."

Turned out there were collectors out there paying good money for pretty much ALL the various things that other dealers had said were not of any value. Many of those same dealers then started to watch very carefully what I was buying....much to my chagrin.

I suppose I could just consider it a compliment...

The market has changed dramatically in the last 15 years, however. There are so many things that I do not buy anymore, or, when I do buy those items, they need to be dirt cheap, as the values have dropped dramatically. Other things I can pay more for than I have in the past.

Collecting habits change with various things....from the age of the collector, to events (like 9/11) that cause people to re-evaluate what is important in their lives. Things like recessions cause "collecting" to be the last thing people are spending money on.

The reasons go on and on. They are as varied as categories of collecting, though there are a few reasons that form the bulk of why people change (or eliminate) their collecting habits.

Reality TV has latched on to the "junk biz" as a vehicle to make some money.  But I have to wonder if that is really helping the business, in the current form the programs are taking?

Your time with Zoltar has ended.........insert 10 cents in the slot and all will be revealed. PayPal accepted!

Pickers, UFOs, and the AVRO project

You may not be aware of this fact, but we pickers come across many UFOs.

UFOs are abundant in this trade, we see them all the time.

Dealing with UFO's takes much time, study, patience.

Like many things in this business, it takes research, research, and more research to figure out what we are dealing with, where the object has come from, it's history, composition, past ownership, etc.

Taking into consideration the UFOs color, what colors it has been, it's surface texture, coloration, markings, etc, you may be able to identify exactly where it is from, when it was made, how long it has traveled through time & space to get to the present day.

I also tend to have UFOs stashed away, in the barn, the basement, etc, for future study.

Hang on folks, our dog has been barking for a little bit, and I'm pretty sure I just heard a knock at the door...might be a customer, so I better go see what they want. This blog is not something that is paying the bills, so I better see if I can sell 'em some stuff....

*************

Ok, I'm back.

I gotta tell you, that was really weird.

I went downstairs, and looked out the window to the driveway, and there was a big, black van parked behind my van.

The dog was still barking away, still freaking out, so I put him behind the baby gate we have in the hallway, so he wouldn't jump on who ever was at the door.

I opened the door, and there were 2 guys standing there. I thought at first they were lost or something, then I figured maybe they were dealers. They were driving a big, black van, and you could likely haul tons of stuff in it, one of those Mercedes Sprinters; like Mike & Frank of American Pickers drive. But, this van was awfully clean, super shiny and must have been this years model, as it was pretty new. It also looked like it must have had every option on it, from black running boards, tinted windows, an extra CB antenna, a little tiny dish for satellite radio, and some other things. No company name on the vehicle, which isn't all that unusual.

They were definitely not pickers...or if they were, they were pseudo pickers. Wanna-be's with lots of money made in some other profession, or perhaps even inherited; they were born into it, or maybe even fraudulently obtained...who knows. Frankly, I don't know many true and honest pickers who have lots of money to throw around. Most pickers live hand to mouth, though sometimes they seem rich at times. It is feast or famine for many of us. It is not due to a lack of talent, experience, etc that cash is tight at times.  Sometimes we do have big bucks to throw around. It comes from flipping a few big dollar items, after turning over some merchandise at a show or flea market, after holding an auction, etc. Other times it is a bankroll we've pulled out of our overdraft, line of credit or an advance on a credit card. You need to spend money to make money, to go picking, to buy items to turn over, to make some money to pay bills. If you have some decent amounts of spare cash, sometimes you upgrade to a newer (but usually used) vehicle, or at least get the old one fixed up a bit. Other times you try to catch up a bit on bills, take the other half out for supper at some place classier than the local fast food joint, that sort of thing. A picker flipping bills off of a wad of cash is no indication of financial wealth. Same goes for a fairly new vehicle. Reliability is something a picker needs in a vehicle. Sometimes the ugliest, junkiest looking vehicle is the choice for a picker.....but, it still needs to be reliable, and that beater that just won't die (or can be fixed while on the road) is the way to go. 

So, the fancy vehicle meant little to me. However, these guys were way too slick looking. The fact they were wearing black suits and sunglasses confused me, also. I'm 100% positive there are no high end antiques show going on anywhere in the area...and if there is one, it would be somewhere that is easily at least a day's drive away, so wearing a suit for the drive there is rather, well, bizarre. I thought that maybe they were selling something, pushing some religion, etc, so I was also preparing myself to respond to those things.

Anyway, I asked what they wanted. They wanted to see in the barn, and asked what I had stashed away.

I asked what sort of thing they were looking for; what the dealt in, so I could better decide what sort of stuff I should show them, and so they would not waste my time nor me waste their's. They asked if I had seen anything unusual in the area. I said, well, yeah, I have gotten all sorts of unusual things, but I really needed something more specific than that. Then they asked if I had seen or found any saucers in the area.  Saucers? I replied that I really don't deal in much china, especially dinnerware, but if they wanted to leave some sort of "want list" I'd call them if I found anything that fit their interests.

They just turned their heads and looked at each other. The one guy with the helmet of perfectly coiffed hair seemed to raise an eyebrow, but that is about the only evidence he gave of any sort of emotion. The bald guy was still nearly robot like in his stature. The coiffed hair dude handed me a card and asked me to call them if I came across any saucers. They then both turned, ans started walking back towards their van.

They were in perfect step together, almost soldier like. They even opened the doors of the van at the same moment, stepped into the van and slid into their seats at the same time. The only time they seemed to be out of sync was when the bald dude who took the driver's seat stiffly looked into his side mirror when he was backing up to turn around to leave.

They know nothing about picking, for sure...the card has some weird logo and a phone number, and that is it. Useless...I tossed it in the trash...if you want to get calls from people again, make sure you are descriptive of what you are looking for. "I buy signs" doesn't cut it. You need a list, a page of pictures, key words, etc. Try: old signs, pre-1980, made of metal, tin, wood, etc. These guys' cards are useless. Definitely wanna-be's playing with daddy's money.

They were weird....but, I have seen much weirder things. Maybe they were a couple, who knows. But, then again, 2 people of either sex, spending lots of time on the road together tend to pick up each other's mannerisms sometimes, kind of like an old married couple. So, I can't assume they were gay or anything, either. Never want to assume such things in this business. Stereotypes are not a good thing to go by, and are rarely ever accurate, nor applicable, anyway. You can really tick people off when you use stereotypes to assess them, even get yourself in trouble. You can screw-up a deal really fast. Yeah, so the guy who owns that farm property seems really feminine, or the woman behind the counter seems pretty darn "butch." They may be the nicest folks you could meet; and the guy's wife is an absolute pin-up girl, a real bombshell, and the "butch" woman's husband is even more rugged than she is. Besides, so what if the guy has a boyfriend and the woman has a wife. Everyone is just "people."  You'll meet all sorts of people in this business, so get used to the fact that there are LOTS of differences between people in this world.

If they offend you or your beliefs, put that aside, do your deal for the cool stuff you found, and go on. Let people live their lives, if they are not physically hurting you, don't bother them.
Live and let live. People think us pickers, antiquers, junkers (etc) are bizarre, weird, strange, etc, too. They really have no reason to think that, they just do not understand our lifestyle, interests, etc. So what? That is their problem, not yours. If you have a problem with someone else's lifestyle, then perhaps you should be thinking about what people think of your lifestyle. Besides, we all live in glass houses to a point, so why bother throwing stones at all?

Ooops, got off on one of my tangents again, didn't I?

So, where were we?

AH, yes....

Unidentified Found Objects.

Ok, what is with all the ahh-ing, people? Hey, the guy in the tin foil hat just got up and left, and by that stunned look he had on his face, I don't think he is coming back....so if you happen to be standing, there is now a seat available.

Now, back to UFOs.

There can be lots of confusion with the assorted series of letters, what appear to be "words", abbreviations, logos, etc, that you see on things when you are doing research.

For example, when you see the letters "RCA", what do you think of?

I think of Nipper, radios, etc, as in the Radio Corporation of America, which many of you likely thought of, also.

BUT, I also think of the Canadian military, as in the Royal Canadian Artillery.

Did you think of anything different from those 2? Depending on your background, location of residence, knowledge, etc, you might have had another thought or 2 about what RCA means or is an abbreviation for.

So, were they any of these?

Royal College of Art
Royal Canadian Academy Of Art
Rialto Center for the Arts
Right Coronary Artery
Republique Centrafricaine
Rural Cellular Association
Radio Club Argentino
Radio Club of America
Radio Collectors of America
Radio Communications Agency
Rodeo Cowboys of America
Radiological Control Area

And of course the list goes on and on. This is a handy place for research on abbreviations and acronyms, by the way: http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/RCA

Plus, there are more that aren't on that list, some are defunct, super obscure, foreign language based, etc.

Have you heard of AVRO? The AV Roe company? AVRO Canada? The infamous ARROW project? How about the USAF sponsored flying saucer-esque aircraft dubbed the AVROCAR?

Well, I picked up a piece a few months ago, silver plated, with an AVRO logo on it. At the moment I saw it, I initially thought was an early logo for the company, or maybe from the British parent company.

Here is a close-up of the logo:

I looked it over, and found some markings on the interior edge of the handle, and when I saw the markings were not Canadian, British, nor American, I paused, and almost put it back on the shelf.

But, it was not even two bucks, and I'd kick myself if I found out it was from the AV Roe company's offices, or was some special presentation piece, etc. On the same thrift store shelf I found a couple sterling silver dishes for under $2 each, so it wasn't like I was going to loose money on the handful of items I had in my hands.

I pick up lots of silver plate that have assorted abbreviations, logos, etc stamped on them. By those logos, etc, I don't mean the maker's marks on the backs, I mean on the fronts, sides, etc. Marks that indicate they were the property of some business, like a lodge, club, hotel, railway, airline, etc, and sometimes they are family monograms, also, which are usually not a big deal, unless it was of a family that were historically important. Some such items are quite collectible...but, many are pretty much "homemade wind chime" materials.

If you know the meanings of many abbreviations, and have some knowledge of the companies, groups, fields, etc, that used them, you can get some really good deals, and profit handsomely from those purchases. There are "sleepers" sitting in the inventories of other dealers at antiques shows, flea markets, stores, etc.

Thrifting is a good way to learn, a cheap way to get an education in this business. Paying 25 cents for a silver plated piece of cutlery that has a logo on it, and finding out it is from a long gone railway is a good learning experience. Even if you only find out it is only from some little cafe in Europe, or it is just some unimportant family's monogram, and is of no real value, you have learned something that you will not forget...and it only cost you a quarter. Darn cheap education! And, once you get enough of those duds, you can make a wind chime...you might even be able to sell the wind chime for a hefty profit on your purchase prices and time! You got an education AND made money from it! You need to think way outside the box sometimes so you can make lemonade from those lemons.

So, back to AVRO. Well, I learned something. I'm now 99.9% sure it is not from AV Roe. As it turns out, AVRO is also an abbreviation for Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep.

Yeah, I know, it looks like I just hit the keyboard with my fist after the letters A,V & O. It is actually Dutch for what is essentially "General Association of Radio Broadcasting" of the Netherlands.

So, considering the markings on the silver plate are of that part of the world, the odds are that it is related to that group somehow. Is it of value? Mmmm, well, maybe to someone out there. Certainly not of the kind of value of what it would have if it was a piece from the offices of the AV Roe company, or a piece presented by AV Roe to an important person. It did briefly cross my mind that it might have been made as a prop in the movie "THE ARROW" (Starring Dan Akroyd) which was filmed not far from Winnipeg (where the thrift shop was) so the props department was likely located in Winnipeg. However, due to the dark grey, almost black tarnish on the piece (that certainly was from far more than a dozen years of not being polished) and the fact that it was of Netherlands origin, and the AVRO radio group connection, odds are it was just a fluke it was sitting on that thrift store's shelf, and had nothing to do with the AV Roe company in any way.

I still had a sliver of optimism based hope, but was definitely already aware that the odds of it being from AV Roe were not in my favour. The clues that I recognized didn't really add up to "big money" for a historical piece. I took a chance and bought it anyway, mainly out of curiosity as to what else AVRO could actually stand for. I learned something, and it cost very little.

Someone else might have gotten far more excited about it. They may have even offered it for sale at an antiques show, with a big price tag, and a claim it was from that infamous firm that built the Arrow.

"I've found it in Canada, AVRO was in Canada, so what else could it be? It HAS to be from AV ROE!"  they might think.

They'd be wrong, though.  If I had seen it at an antiques show, say, priced for $100, I'd have been curious, looked it over, and have left it sitting there. I might have gotten the sellers phone number, and maybe have later gotten online, and double checked on the Net to see if AVRO Canada used that style logo somewhere along the line, or if the British parent company used that logo in the past.  I wouldn't have gotten too excited, though.
I know it is likely a candy dish from the offices of a radio broadcasting group in Denmark. Might still even have some value as a result of that connection. That will require some more research, and delving into websites, books, etc that are likely in Danish....which I neither speak nor read. I guess it will sit on my shelf for awhile longer! We do have friend who as a child came from Denmark, so I will quiz her to see if she can assist in finding out anything. Might cost me a bottle of wine or good Tequila, though!

Aside from the Danish marks on the silver plate, I also already have a bit of background and knowledge about AVRO Canada, the Arrow, the "Avro Car", etc.

That education cost me somewhat more than the AVRO dish, however. All it will cost you is some time to read about it.  But, I'll leave that story for my next blog posting!

Collectors, Accumulators & Hoarders, Oh My.

***WARNING*** Those readers with sensitive dispositions/stomachs may wish to skip this particular entry.

As a picker scouting for "stuff," you tend to get into places that other people just do not regularly see.

In some of these cases, the owners of the stuff could be hoarders, or collectors or a combination of both.

There is a very fine line between collecting & hoarding. The human need to "acquire" things can go haywire, and show itself as a psychiatric illness. If a collector acquires those sorts of illnesses, their collecting can become very obsessive, beyond a normal level...and "normal" for nearly any collector could already be seen as "abnormal" for the "Joe on the street" as it is.


Who else but a collector would dedicate a whole room in their house to one particular object or theme, be it lunchboxes, signs, tins, dolls, china plates, salt/pepper shakers, pickle castors, carnival glass, Smurfs, etc...and sometimes their whole house is consumed by collections of one kind of another.


Louie Anderson was (maybe still is, I am not sure) a big collector of Mission/Arts & Crafts era furniture, preferably Stickley. In one of his books, entitled "Goodbye Jumbo - Hello Cruel World" he analyzes his "need" for the items as trying to replace something missing in his life, similar to his habits of overeating/binging. He had amassed an impressive collection, but one that was grossly taking over his living space.

Collecting gone haywire, perhaps.

Hoarding?

I don't know, really, maybe more like trying to fill an empty hole, or pit, where something is "missing", or using it as a salve on the psyche, or to create a feeling of self-worth.

To me, and I am sure some (all?) psychiatrists out there will disagree, hoarding is something that relates more to an obsession with hoarding things that make little sense, except to that one person. Also, it conjures up visions of unhealthy situations, where insects, mice, rats, and assorted "germs" are the direct result of the hoarding.

Did I mention I am a picker, not a psychiatrist?

What does good old Wikipedia say about hoarding?

Ok, so according to Wikipedia, I am on the money..."Compulsive Hoarding" "is a mental disorder marked by an obsessive need to acquire and keep things, even if the items are worthless, hazardous, or unsanitary." and goes on to say similar things about "animal hoarding". I will leave animal hoarding for an animal activist blogger to discuss, seeing as it does not really relate to my field at all....I am not going around looking through piles of assorted animals for intrinsically valuable animals.

I have been in the homes of a few hoarders...and MANY homes of people who could well be on their way to becoming hoarders, as per the Wikipedia definition of adult hoarders, if they are not aware of their situations.

I got a call at my store one day, asking if I bought old wooden crates. Actually, they said they were told that I bought old wooden crates, by several dealers. Yes, between that find in the attic of that old general store, and my penchant for advertising items, the stacks of wooden soda crates I tended to pick up out of old drug store basements, the apple & other fruit crates I bought for the labels, and a few other cool wooden boxes, I guess I did buy lots of crates...and still do.

Anyway, she proceeded to tell me she had about 20 apple crates.

I wasn't overly keen on that, but I said I would come and take a look. You never know what the crates are, as people's descriptions can be way off from what they are describing....PLUS (TIP HERE!!!) it is a legitimate invitation, and invite to see inside the garage, attic, etc....and you never know what else is there that they may sell!

So, I made arrangements to go take a look.

What I walked into was a 1920s bungalow, with a narrow staircase to a small second floor set of 2 narrow rooms. The main floor had been cleaned out, and was pretty much bare. The second room of the second floor was lined with crates sitting stacked on their sides, on planks.

And they were all filled with books & magazines, every wall to a point where the ceiling slanted up, about 5' from the floor.

Turned out she wanted rid of the books, also, and we hammered out a price for everything.

We talked quite a bit, which seems to always happen with me...I guess I have a gift of gab. In our conversation, she revealed the whole back story of the owner of the house.

The owner of the house was a family friend, who her (the person I was talking with) family sort of kept an eye on. A former teacher, and a spinster, she (the owner of the house) had also inherited much of her brother's possessions, who had been an actor in Hollywood.

No, sorry, no one you would know.

She...I mean the person I was talking to...you know, for ease of understanding, let's call her "Joyce", ok?

SO, Joyce would call her once and awhile, and chat, see how she was doing. Never really visited her in person often, but kept tabs on her...(let's call the lady "Edna", ok?)

SO, over a few weeks, Joyce was away, and had told her son to keep tabs on Edna.

(ahhh...using names is SO much smoother, isn't it?)

So, the son (ok, he is "FRED!")....

Fred calls the house, and can not get a hold of Edna.

He calls again the next day, and the phone still goes unanswered.

Concerned, he goes over, and knocks, but gets no answer.

Knowing that Edna is a little "off", he contacts the police to be there when he goes in, to assure there are no mis-understandings.

The police arrive there, Fred unlocks the door, and they all try to enter the home....

And the stench makes them wretch.

Once they were in, they found Edna on the bed, no covers, unconscious, where she had likely been for possibly a couple days.

In the bedroom, Edna had been saving her cats' (note: more than ONE cat...but not a hoard) feces...yes, their crap, shit, whatever you want to call it, it was piled in a box by the bed.

But, that was not the worst part of the place, as the toilet had been stopped up long enough that the overflow of sewage had rotted out a significant section of the flooring.

Ah, that explained the new plywood floor in the hallway and part of the living room I had seen.

But, that still was not the worst part of the situation.

Perhaps it was that the basement had flooded, and had never been cleaned out, just more stuff added on top once the water receded?

Nope.

The oddities, such as two huge, orange garbage bags full of empty toilet paper rolls that were in the basement, or the fact she had no running hot water in the kitchen. Or that the old one car garage was full, to the rafters, front to back with just years and years of newspapers?

Nope.

Maybe the fact that there was only very narrow paths through the house, due to the piles of stuff everywhere?

Nope.

So, what was the worst part of the situation in the home?

AND, I do need to note, I do mean aside from the human issues, such as the obvious, severe mental illness Edna was suffering with. I want to make clear that I am not down-playing that, nor making light of it, as it is a serious, and very upsetting situation for families & friends of those suffering from such illnesses, and more importantly, absolutely horrible for those experiencing such emotional turmoil.

Specifically, for the intents and purposes as related to this blog, I mean the physical situation of the home...the "stuff".

Ok, now brace yourself....

Edna had "decorated" the walls with her own feces.

Yeah...I know....that's pretty bad.

Now, when this sort of severe mental illness comes to play, I tend to avoid getting involved in a business/buying situation with the individuals, for obvious reasons.

In this case, I arrived on the scene many months later, with the house cleared out, things already sanitized, etc. There was still an ever-so-faint odor about the place, despite fresh paint, refinished floors, etc.

In many ways I was happy I had arrived on the scene after the big clean-out had occurred...but, hearing that the person who cleaned it out had hauled ALL the stuff to the dump was a little heart wrenching.

To understand why I felt a pang of anguish, you should know that this story dates from the late 1990s, and Edna had pretty much blocked herself out of the walk-up 2nd floor in the very early 1980s, possibly even late 1970s, and she had been in the house since the 1950s, possibly earlier. Plus, the door to the attic had been closed tight since the early 80s. It seems to me it had also been her parent's home, but I can't recall for certain.

The rooms had been full (remember the garage?) not just with books and some magazines, but with vintage paper stuff galore.

From the few paper things I obtained that had somehow missed being tossed, it was obvious her brother had frequented the Hollywood thrift stores/used book stores, and collected that sort of memorabilia.

I found a few gems in the books I purchased, though between the purchase price and the work involved, I really only made a meagre profit, considering the work involved hauling apple crates of books out of the place in the dead of summer in stifling heat, down a stair case narrower than the length of each crate....which meant you had to hold the crates out in front of you the long way......and you know how heavy a box of books or magazines can be. Let's just say it was a real chore.

So, there had been an entire hoard of old Hollywood & Broadway paper items, all quite likely in near mint to mint condition, tossed out.

The attic crawl spaces in the eves on either side of the rooms had contained even older stuff, and it also had been tossed. Those crawl spaces were also bone dry...excellent for preserving paper stuff.

So, she had been on the trail to hoarding for some time, and got progressively worse.

Her brother, on the other hand, probably was a collector.

Was she collecting? Could you call her a "collector"?

No, not in the least.

Same goes with another situation I happened across.

Again, I came across it thankfully/sadly after the worst had been dealt with.

But, I will leave telling you about it for a little later...

I have seen many collections. One fellow liked to collect things he felt were weird and wonderful, and almost always vintage or antique, and also collected things he felt would have value in the future.

He didn't sell much of anything for many years, just collected.

He was one of his community's "characters". A bachelor, who frequented auctions regularly, picked up stuff at the dump, got things given to him, bought weird things, and eventually built 3 buildings totally about 3000 sqr feet to house his collection.

Well, I guess you could call it more of an "accumulation."

He also proudly called himself "The Accumulator", and had business cards printed up as such.

In the last 20 years of his life, he decided it was time to start selling some of his stuff.

He did ok, sold pretty much at a wholesale level, though achieved retail prices for some things. He did well selling items to the movies being filmed in Manitoba locations, to the props and set dec departments of various productions.

He had saved things like old advertising calendars...and had started back in the 50s, continued up into the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s. He sold most of the older ones into the early 70s fairly easily. He also had old hand made items, folk art/outsider art, catalogs galore, antique Bibles, Victorian photo albums, tobacco tins, taxidermy, antique deer antler furniture, mustache cups, and almost anything you can imagine...and lots you can not imagine. There were cabinets of files draers, all full of various items, sorted by subject...pens, keychains, bottle openers, bottle caps....hundreds and hundreds of items in the "small" category. From tiny things like tokens & bottle caps, to a 1880s pump organ, he had it all.

Actually, as I write this, my keyboard and screen are sitting on a folk art desk that I purchased from him several years ago.

His saving was orderly, with things well sorted, stashed away in boxes & crates for safe keeping.

His walk-up attic was full of a couple thousand trucker caps, hundreds of collector spoon racks, shelves of catalogs & calendars....as well as several hundred (empty) Texas Mickeys, as he had a penchant for big bottles, which I was well aware of, as I had sold and traded him many vintage oversize liquor & perfume display bottles. I am sure he acquired the Texas Mickeys empty, and I never saw him take a drink....though, one has to wonder how much whiskey a staunch, pretty "dry", Mennonite community actually consumed, considering how many of these huge bottles he had...I am sure it numbered around 40 or more....

He was a character, for certain. He had what some might consider a slight speech impediment, which gave him a bit of a drawl. However, it was no worse than trying to understand someone with an accent from a different part of the country.

He was an old bachelor who, frankly, didn't bathe much, or keep a very clean kitchen or washroom....a washroom which I think I used once in the about 15 years I knew him...that first sight of a black toilet, that was originally white, kept me out of there.

That said, he was actually pretty intelligent, had a wry sense of humor, and was a pretty kind soul.

He likely had some issues, no doubt. Considering that they say that 7 out of 10 people will suffer from some sort of mental illness sometime in their lives, that is no surprise...the odds are there....(And, in my opinion, the remaining 3 in of that 10 are compulsive liars.....)

So, he may have had some issues.

But, can we consider him a hoarder?

Not by the definition Wikipedia has.

True, his kitchen sported some mouse droppings and his washroom was pretty disgusting, and he had stuff stored everywhere....

BUT, the stuff was not stored in his kitchen, though there was various things there, a box or two dropped next to the kitchen table, as he was in the middle of sorting through the stuff from the auction he had just been to, a few fresh buys from the local thrift store, a stack of auction flyers, papers open to auction ads, etc.

But, nothing stored there, stacked up in a way so that you couldn't move.

His dated living room was consumed by an orderly amassing of Elvis memorabilia, the one collection from which he didn't sell much of anything from. But, if he wanted to use the couch, he could, as it was clear, and would not trip over anything to get to it.

When he wasn't at his 9 to 5 job, he was sorting his stuff, organizing, selling, wheeling & dealing, going to auctions, antique shows, antique shops, thrift shops, going to pickers' places to buy, picking stuff up at the local dumps, etc....

Sound familiar?

Ok, so maybe you don't do ALL of those things....but if you collect anything, you do at least a few of them....and more likely several.

That was pretty much his life. Pretty much his entire social life. He may have been an outcast in his community, but he did have friends that thought he was funny & intelligent, not some weirdo.

OH YEAH, he WAS a real character...but who in this business isn't, at least in some way?

A weirdo? No.

Had some issues? Yes, for certain...possibly related to the way he was treated by his family in the past.

A hoarder by definition? Nope.

A collector? Most certainly.

An ACCUMULATOR?

Yes!

So, he had foresight to save things. Some that later became of value..and possibly some that had value, and lost it...and others that didn't gain value.

Is that hoarding?

Naw.

That is collecting.

Now, if he had a cat and was saving the litter box scoopings, that would be another story.

And on to another story....

A hoarder, for certain, this fellow was.

I was introduced to a guy and his associate who were filling a large trash bin with items from an old, damp garage and a garden shed.

My first view of the place was driving up, a pile of stuff stretching into the back yard, a a couple crocks and crock lids on top of the pile, headed for the trash. I bought them, of course.

The fellow was a "scrapper"...

Not the fighting type, though by his stature I would want him on my side in a fight.

He picked up scrap metal for a living. This meant he picked up things like old water tanks, cast iron bathtubs etc, and often by himself. That is the kind of guy you want backing you in a fight...not some muscle bound weightlifter.

Over the weeks I got to know him, as I was salvaging some free stuff, and buying stuff from the piles of stuff he felt may have some value. He was a really nice guy....a character, but a nice guy.

The story of the place was thus:

He was contacted by the trustee involved with the property, as the old fellow who had owned it had also been a "scrapper"...so there was an accumulation of metals on the property.

In the end, he was "hired" by the daughter, who was in her late 30s to mid 40s at that time, to clean out the house, garage, sheds, and yards. The deal was that he could keep whatever he found, other than personal photos and such items.

There had been 16 large trash bins full hauled away by the time I arrived, and the large two story house was empty.

Again, I was both glad and sad that I didn't come across the place sooner.

"Bob" related the back story to me.

The old man had been found in bed, alive, but emaciated. He also had 3 dogs in the house, obviously to the point of starving, as one or all had been starting to chew on the old man.

There was also a 3" thick layer of dog feces over the floors.

Again, there were very narrow pathways throughout, with walls of accumulation piled on either side.

The stench was so bad, they had to punch out a huge hole in the back wall. Oddly enough, when they did, they punched through what turned out to be a false wall in the process, and found a 1930s china cabinet behind it.

While I was going through some of the stuff that was pulled from the garage (many items with 1960s/70s Salvation Army price tags), I came across a photo, which ended up back in the hands of the daughter, of course.

What the photo showed was the daughter, sitting on the family's couch, at about age 14 or so.

On both sides of her & behind her on the back of the couch, were hills of cascading & precariously balanced newspapers & magazines, obscuring the couch completely.

In front of her was a TV table (one of those tin folding things) with about a 7" high hill of what looked like rotting food.

Remember, at the point I came on the scene, I figured she was in her late 30s to mid 40s.

This sad state of affairs had been going on for many years.

A hoarder, for certain, and his wife may well have been the same. I hope the daughter is trying to get/is now mentally healthy.

In those two hoarding situations, I was at arms length from those involved, with a buffer, the person in charge of the situation, the clean-up.

In one, I was not entirely at arms length.

I got a call from a trustee one day, who was going "above and beyond" by trying to help a hoarding client with some of his accumulation.

The fellow picked the back lanes, going through people's trash, and kept anything he felt was usable...which meant more than what you or I would feel was usable, as he most certainly had a hoarding disorder, and judging by the amount of cat feces & stench of urine in his basement, he was possibly, and sadly, an animal hoarder as well.

The trustee was hoping there was something of value to an antiques dealer, that could be sold, thus removing the items, and getting the ill fellow some needed funds.

Sadly, anything that was "something" was in such poor condition that all of it held no value. Add to this that my presence, and my handling items made the fellow visibly upset, which made it all the harder for me to be there. He was having a hard time, and was obviously fighting impulses to want to "protect" his "treasures". My heart went out to the poor guy.

I did my best to try to find a diamond, but barely found usable coal.

Most definitely a classic hoarder by definition.

A collector he was not.

These are but a few of many "experiences" with "hoarder", "accumulators" and "collectors" I have had...and with which I will leave you to contemplate for now. I will blog about a few more of these always unique situations in the future....possibly the very near future!