Long Time No Blog - "Why" you ask?

Sorry for the LONG wait in between blog postings.  This has been due to a number of things, and those of you following on "Hardcore Pickers" and/or are a Facebook friend you will realize why.

I've been busy PICKING...and, well, had a hospital stay for a week, a week recovery, then right away screwed up my left elbow/arm, had it in a sling for a week, etc, etc...

Yeah, I can hear the tiny violins playing...! 

No sympathy required, anyway.  Life happens.

 Problem is, as a self employed picker/dealer, my income tends to drop dramatically when I am "laid up."

You see, as someone who has been basically self employed since I was 20, there is no  real safety net....like "paid holidays", "sick leave," banked time", etc, etc.

I get sick, can't work, my income drops dramatically...sometimes all the way down to $0.00 a day.

If you are a picker, you want to remain healthy.  I'm getting older, being in my early 40s now...

(YIKES! Where has the time gone???)....

 ....and now I am finding I don't recover from illness or injuries as fast as when I was in my 20s, or even as fast as when I was in my 30s.

Pickers tend to end up with bad backs, clicking joints, many scars, etc; all from our day to day activities. You just HAVE to lift that old oak high-boy  into the truck by yourself, because the person you bought it from is unable to help due to their health/age/weather/etc.  Add to your troubles that you are barely breathing after taking an hour to manage to get it up the 65 degree incline of the stairs from the insanely dusty basement.

Just more mud in the lungs to hack up on the way home. Between each hack, snort, grimace, you try to remember what drawer at home the pain killers/muscle relaxants are...and if your back starts to complain before the 2 day drive home is done, will there be a small town drug store open tomorrow......on a Sunday?

Injuries, pain, and all the numerous things involved with those 2 things (and there are LOTS of things involved with those two innocuous words)  are part and parcel of this lifestyle. 

So, if you have a 9 to 5 job that includes a health plan, paid sick leave, dental care, etc, etc, etc, you might just want to stick to it and just do a little picking as a hobby. Making it your life's work is not as easy as shows on "Reality TV" makes it seem.

Pickin' for a living ain't easy.  (yes, yes, yes, I can hear the "whooshing" of English teachers vigorously waggling  pointer fingers...I know that "ain't" is a controversial "word" , but I was just going for a bit of drama...)

ANY WHO, picking is darn hard work, as well as risky financially and health wise....and those last two factors are also linked to each other more than we professional pickers would like.

One Plus One Equals $$$$!

Here is a quick tip.

Watch for PARTS.

Confused?

Yes, I know that happens a fair bit when folks read my blog!

Here are some photos with captions that might explain it better:

Bought the Art Deco lamp without shade (left) a few years ago at an antiques shop for $10.

Bought the grungy, rusty bed headboard art deco lamp on the right at a garage sale recently.

The thing about these headboard reading lamps is that they are actually part of a set of 3 matching pieces. The other 2 pieces usually consisted of a pair of Art Deco bedside table lamps.

 Most people assume the shade for the headboard lamp is open on both ends, thus unusable for anything other than a headboard reading lamp. You will now know better, as it is identical to the ones used on the bedside table lamps!

I will buy these all the time, as long as the glass in intact, just to scavenge the shades. There is also a style that uses a (usually) plain tubular shade (some have a marigold iridescent finish, some are plain milk glass, or clean with a frosted finish, and may possibly with a applied or etched decoration). That shade is open on both ends, but the shade is well worth grabbing, as it is even more often used on these Art Deco table lamps. It uses a wider diameter shade holder to accommodate its greater circumference.

After a bit of soap, water and a touch of bleach, the shade was ready to go on the Art Deco lamp.

 I spiffed up the base, and VOILA, a $75+ lamp is born of a $11 expenditure.

Granted, I have had the Art Deco lamp base for a few years, but that is because I misplaced it after moving.

 I have actually learned to not purposely hang on to parts, pieces and project too long, because that will actually start costing you money. Your time and storage space is money, after all.  If antiquing/junking isn't  your business, you might be able to wait for years for that "right" part for your treasure. Few (no one!) can truly afford to constantly buy items in need of work, and then hang on to those things for extreme periods, and not end up a potential candidate for appearing on one of the Hoarder reality shows. Be mindful of buying up items in need of work, partial items, parts, pieces, etc. 

That said, though, utilizing a keen picker's eye there is $$$ to be made from those "broken", incomplete, and damaged collectibles! But, that is a posting for another day!

  Let there be light!

 Turn out the lights after you are done here, ok?

TRASH TO CASH - Upcycle Your Dogs!

Ever since I started this blog, I have been meaning to write on "upcycling"  vintage (and not-so-vintage)"junk."  I have been doing this sort of thing for YEARS.


Long, long, long before the "Picker Chicks" even existed (or even thought about doing the things they do) I was creating many things from "junk".  As early as I can remember I was creating things from "trash".  Craft and art supplies are expensive. Why go out and buy them when you can get them for free or near free?

This carries over into the world of antiques, collectibles and vintage items...and the business of selling those items.

One of the things a hardcore picker and a newbie picker have in common is:

Needing to sell that low-end merchandise....and in the process end up making some real money from it.

The newbie may have bought the items in error, and needs to re-coup some of their investment. The hardcore vet likely has accumulated the items as parts of bulk purchases, auction box lots, house clean-up contents, etc, etc, etc.

Hardcore vets, like myself, like to maximize our money. Combine that with the fact that this sort of low end, common stuff is impossible to sell to bulk to our regular dealer and decorator customers.  Plus, we are not afraid of doing work.

You CAN make lemonade out of those boxes and boxes (and boxes, etc....) of lemons.

 All you need is IMAGINATION...and a little hands-on effort.   "Upcycling" is a recent term, but antiques dealers have been doing it for YEARS. Human kind has been doing it for centuries, actually.

The concept is darn simple....taking low and/or "no value" junk and creating something of value by reworking it and/or combining it with other low/no-value items.

Here is a simple thing, that takes items with low and no value, all items you have lying around, or ready to go to the trash, recycling or thrift store, and makes something you can sell at a flea market, craft sale, and even in your antiques store.

Grab that box of round cookie tins you have been hesitating putting in the recycle bin. Dig in the boxes of old hardware you have in the back rooms, the ones you bought at the auction so you could get the antique door knobs and Eastlake drawer pulls from...oh, and snag that busted 1980s table lamp you scavenged a socket from...you can use some of the parts from it, too.

You can create an item that you can retail for $15 - $45...just from some of these tins, some short lengths of copper, brass, or chrome tubing, (or even rusty pipe!), maybe an old lamp part or 2 some washers,   and some elbow grease!

Below you will find a link to the article describing how to do it. With a little imagination and your own pile of "junk", you can now create some salable inventory from that trash you have been hoarding....!

----- Click here to go to what I call the Vintage Tin Tree Storage/Organizer article -----

After you sell a bunch of these creations, you can get back to pickin'!

HARDCORE PICKERS - Point #15 EXAPANDED!

Ok, point #15 in my last post was that:  Our clothing is more than likely mostly second hand, or in the least, bought at a discount type of outlet for drastically lower than retail prices. 

Well, here is the long winded explanation:

 Why second hand and/or discount outlet sourced? It is partly because we are, frankly, a thrifty bunch. Plus, our time is limited and our work days are long, thus we may well buy some of our wardrobe at the assorted thrift shops, garage sales, yard sales, rummage sales (etc) that make up parts of some of our picking day to day travels.

 Plus, frankly, we really get annoyed with all that new, boring, cheaply made crap in shopping malls. If we want or need to buy cheap crap why pay more than a couple bucks?

 Also, we tend to destroy our clothing while on many of our picking adventures.

Now, you really don't want to spill oil, smear rancid lard, 70 year old grease with encased insect carcasses, and assorted other substances on a designer T-shirt...that is, if you actually paid more than a $1 for it....I have ripped, torn, stained and shredded more Tommy Hilfiger brand shirts than I can count. Not one cost me more than $2.  I realize they are far from a super high end designer brand, but they are not exactly low end, Dollar Store type quality T-shirts, either.


 We also simply do not tend to wear high end, collectible, nor expensive vintage clothing on picks.

 That is correct, when we knock on your door, you will not open it to see us in some vintage Armani suit, nor will be wearing a valuable, historic, vintage hand painted pin-up emblazoned, horsehide leather, WW2 pilot's jacket worth $2000.

You'll be lucky if see us in an unstained denim work jacket. But you can bet the wear on it is actually from real work, and the stains legitimately obtained during said work.

We don't pay 3 figure sums for "designer" blue jeans that have been "given character" in a factory's production line by workers armed with sandpaper, razor blades, bleach while in the background the din of washers and dryers loaded with jeans and chunks of limestone bang about, quickly achieving a "fade" and "wear" effect.

  OUR jeans are made that way from our work.  They are torn, sliced and shredded by shards of tin, rusty steel, crooked nails. They are smeared and streaked by leaning and brushing against powdery house paint; 90 years oxidized in the sun on a lonely farmhouse's clapboards.

Our jeans sport spots and elliptical dots of varying shades of grey/black, painted with oily residue of unknown origins, possibly acquired from shifting & carrying pails. buckets, tins, crates and other assorted containers languishing for years in maintenance rooms of old warehouses and farm sheds.

They are whitened in polka-dot fashion by the hydrogen peroxide that we had splashed on them when our hand jerked a bit, and gritted teeth together,as a knee jerk reaction to the bubbling disinfectant's action in the fresh and thankfully-not-as-deep-as-we-initially-thought slice in our flesh from that damn, fly-speck covered, jagged piece of glass remaining in the dry rotted window pane.

 Our pants may also be white streaked, and rotted through in spots, by diluted battery acid, bleach, and other substances spilled from unstable containers, many of which we tried to carefully move to gain access to other items on the shelves of the musty basement storage room.  Other containers no longer had any notation of their hazardous nature, having likely given up any paper or written note of their contents to the team of time, humidity & gravity.

So, Fashion TV, when will you feature REAL picker clothing on YOUR runways?

HARDCORE PICKERS Defined

Some of you may be aware of our HARDCORE PICKERS page on Facebook.

I have been asked a few times by non-antiques/junkers, as well as by some of my own peers as to what the definition of a Hardcore Picker really is.

SO, in preparation for a submission to Wikipedia (joking about Wikipedia...for now!) I will attempt to describe what I mean by the term.

I jotted down a bunch of one line aspects of what a Hardcore Picker is.....while driving to a show in Regina.  Saskatchewan is flat...well, not entirely, but on that route it is mighty flat. Plus, The Saskatchewan portion of the Trans Canada Highway on the route from our place to Regina is twinned...so, no oncoming traffic to worry about...except for maybe the odd blind Baba driving some old grain truck who hasn't been behind the road since 1952....

(What is a Baba, you ask? Well, in my neck of the woods, it has always meant a grandmotherly sort of woman...imagine a kerchiefed, wrinkled, elderly lady...of eastern European descent, popularly Ukrainian, Polish, etc. Apparently Wikipedia has never heard of that definition...!)

Now back to the definition at hand....

So, this is a rough draft of sorts...and a short list.

HEY, I heard that...! Yes, I know I am, um, well, I guess you could say "long winded".... and rarely can my writings be defined as "short".

Not to mention "sweet" ..well, ok, sometimes they are bitter....I AM a antiques dealer after all...we like to bitch a bit!

Here we go...and, by the way, these are not in any particular order, other than how I have them scrawled in barely legible form on that antique and obsolete stuff called "paper"...you know, they stuff they used in BOOKS?  And I mean REAL books...not "E-Books"....

Ahem...and off we go...Yes, REALLY!

(1) We blend among the every person...and sometimes we really stand out amongst them, too.

(2) We are not born into wealth, nor where we wealthy when we started picking for a living.  For the few among us who are wealthy, they did not start out that way.  Plus, it is highly likely that every penny that wealth is built upon has been hard earned.

(3) Our supper is likely to be along the lines of a sandwich of bologna, with a side of beans and a beer as the beverage. No lobster for us...except maybe for our east coast brethren, who buy their lobster direct from the fishermen at a "on the dock" price.  It will be a fisherman who, with a calloused, salt spray soaked hand will shake the picker's own calloused, scarred, dirt etched hand after the transaction is finalized.

(4) Our vehicles are at least 5 years old...if not older!

(5) Our vehicles are rarely clean, neat and organized....inside or out.

(6) We are usually the last owner of the vehicle...not counting the auto wrecker or scrap yard.

(7)  The males in our group  are not "pretty boys." We may well be handsome, attractive, etc, in our own ways, though. We blend well when we need to. Adapting, blending in, relating, making most people comfortable with us is what we have all developed a talent for.

(8) The picker chicks among us are not cobweb fearing, "AHMIGAWD, it's a mouse!!!" squeallin' "girly girls". They can be and are sexy, cute, attractive, hot, smokin', etc. Sure, they can act and seem like girly-girls sometimes, after all, they have learned to be chameleons, also!

(9) We pick to pay the rent or the mortgage, to pay the bills. We may collect some things, but it is more of a rainy day savings account, health plan, or retirement plan than a collection that our spouse, children and/or relatives will be stuck disposing of when we go to where ever you think a picker goes when he/she dies.

(10) We have record of our picks tattooed on and in our bodies. These tattoos are in the form of bruises, scars, aches, pains, and backs stretched past the limit of reason.  They also manifest themselves in the form of stories we tell, describing our adventures, scares, close-calls, near-misses, complete misses, and life experiences.

(11) We can tell you hours and hours worth of true stories of our experiences that will make you laugh out loud, cringe in visualized  pain, gasp in amazement, and shake your head in disbelief.

(12) Our minds consist of characteristics such as being keen, imaginative, creative, open, curious, and we harbor a thick, strong streak of tenacity.


(13) We are the pickers that other sorts of amateur pickers, hobbyist pickers and pseudo-pickers strive to emulate, and rarely are able to truly imitate. You need to go only as far as watching some of the "picking" based "reality" shows for proof. I won't name names.

(14)  We are the pickers that dealers and other pickers hover around, sometimes crowd and jostle for position around during set-up times at antique shows, flea markets, swap meets. All while, bleary eyed, coffee at hand, hacking up mud balls from attic dust inhaled the day previous, we unpack our dusty, freshly found treasures.

(15) Fashionista's, pay attention.....!  Our clothing is more than likely mostly second hand, or in the least, bought at a discount type of outlet for drastically lower than retail prices. Why? See my next blog for a detailed, and yes, a long winded, explanation.


(16) Some of us do actually retain part time or even full time jobs to make ends meet, pay the bills, help save for our kid's university education. Then we work 10 times as hard after our jobs end for the day/week, picking to keep a grip on our hard fought for rung on the ladder of life.

(17) We are truly among the adventurers of today.

(18) We see treasure where others see only trash.

(19) We see potential in places that others pass.

(20) Our early backgrounds vary. We are former truckers, professors, teachers, laborers, clerks, secretaries, miners, postal workers,  students, artists, fishermen, bar tenders, waters, waitresses, and nearly any occupation you can imagine, as well as some you can not.... 

But, we are ALL:

HARDCORE PICKERS.

Canada's Highway is #1! - Article for The Country Register

The Dust And Dirt Column - As published in the April 2012 edition of the Country Register (Saskatchewan-Manitoba edition)

Canada’s Highway is #1!

As a traveler, the Trans Canada Highway is the route most will likely take as part of their journey.  Number 1, as area residents call it, is an integral part of any place I wish to drive, save for my own property. Well, there is the occasional summertime jaunt next door to neighboring campground’s convenience store, for that ever important ice cream cone!

This is an abbreviated rundown of stops potentially of interest to junkers, antiquers, history buffs, and others thus inclined, while travelling the eastern Saskatchewan/western Manitoba section of #1 from Whitewood, SK to Oak Lake, MB. Use it as a basic guide, and budget time for unplanned stops that make trips memorable! Small towns are full of them when you get looking and asking around!

Let's start at Whitewood, Saskatchewan, home of OLD GEO'S! This museum is entirely owned and operated by George Chopping himself!  George is an entertaining character,  and highly knowledgeable in many areas. I will leave your potential experience at this roadside attraction an intriguing mystery.  Look for Ol’George, usually sporting a beard, and long grey hair under a cowboy hat, to start your adventure!
If you have daylight left after spending the day wandering around Ol’ Geo’s, Moosomin is the next major town on the road. I have not had a chance time to check out their local sites in the last few years.  Make it a stop of discovery, and find its secrets on your own!

Eventually you will arrive at the village of Elkhorn, Manitoba.  Their Antique Auto Museum is a car buff’s drool-fest, featuring many classic, and early, ultra-rare vehicles.  Included under the same roof are other historical artifacts & oddities, including a two headed calf! As well, slip into  Elkhorn and check out "Past & Present Antiques & Gifts." Just the place for shoppers to get their fix!

Twenty minutes east, Virden holds sites including a restored railway station, now housing an art gallery & gift shop. Within a stone’s throw is a circa 1900 underground pedestrian tunnel! Make certain to see the Virden Pioneer Home Museum, plus arrange a tour of the historic Aud Theatre. Explore the town by car to discover many well preserved and restored field stone buildings, among other eye pleasing sights.  Treasure hunters/shoppers will want to stop at "Jam's Used Furniture" on Nelson Street. They carry an ever changing inventory of used furniture, some antique furniture, and a large section of mostly consigned antiques, collectibles and treasures of all sorts. Just across the street is the “Nearly New,” where you may find some good buys. Then, zip less than a block from there to Echo Books on 7^th Ave. Their inventory includes books (obviously!), vintage items, locally sourced crystals/stone, plus other oddities!

A ten minute drive east brings you to the Buzzing Bee Bed & Breakfast, as well as Fedora Antiques & Collectibles. Yes, our place! We hope to get the store (and a country flea market) open in early summer!
 I’ll conclude the list here, as I have tons of work to do before you arrive! As mentioned, this is an abbreviated  list, so my apologies to anyone along the route feeling left out. Know of a stop that fits a junker’s list of interests? Drop me a line!  Note that the editors do restrict my articles' lengths to only a small portion of a page...despite my ability to fill the entire paper!
Happy hunting, folks!

Takin' Care of Business - The Song of My Life!

Yes, I know, it has been awhile.... "long time no blog."

Been busy...well, MORE busy than in the winter, anyway.  Even as I write this, I really should be doing some paperwork I have been neglecting...and with that in mind, I will be keeping this short....

Yes, I know you have heard that from me before....and I still manage to write pages and pages...well, not today....trying to keep my word today.

Anyway, the title of today's post is connected to its contents in 2 ways.  As a "Hardcore Picker", I am working every day, every way. Even my "off time" is usually connected to "the business"..or I will connect it.

Last week, I had to attend a family member's funeral, about 2 hours from home. While driving to my parents through the town looking for the church, I spotted a sign nailed to someone's garden shed.

After the funeral, I took the same route back to the highway. I  stopped on the road where I noticed it,  so I could take a better look, and sure  enough, it turned out to be a 1930s Orange Crush sign.  Considering the emotionally draining nature of the day, I made a mental note of it, and I will go back in a week or two to see I can buy it, and follow up some other leads in that area.

My eyes never stop working. Sometimes they slow down, get tired, but if they are open, they notice things at times that I am not actively picking or scouting.

Ever see someone in a suit picking over the merchandise at a garage sale?

 En route to a wedding?

 Their OWN wedding?

 That is likely why my wife decided we should have a small private ceremony at home...She knows antiques dealers all too well.

Anyway, I promised to keep this short...and it ends here...pretty much.  However, you may want to bring up YouTube and put on Takin' Care Of Business by the iconic, Western Canadian rockers, BTO.

And (with apologies to Randy Bachman ,Fred Turner, and the other BTO members)......

NOW you can sing along, PICKER STYLE, using the lyrics below....(this is technically still a work in progress, BTW!)

----- INSERT IMAGINED DRUM ROLL HERE ------

    I present you with a tune I have titled:


Pickin' For A Livin'
 

I get up in mornin’

At the alarm clock’s warning.

Out drivin’ dirt roads rarely travelled

There’s an old farm up ahead

 I slow the van down

turn and drive up the rutted lane

And my heart skips a beat

Maybe I can pay my bill for heat

Cause I see tons o’ junk around the sheds

And then I see the ol’ boy

He says his name is Elroy

But just call him plain Roy

He used to go…

Pickin’ for a livin’, every day

Pickin’ for a livin’, every way

Oh yeah, I picked all this old stuff, it’s all fine

Pickin’ for a livin’, yeah all this stuff is mine.

Come on!

He showed me ‘round the yard and sheds,

Then showed me piles of cast iron beds

rusty shades of red, brown and yellow

Asked him "How Much?" And he replied

10 bucks a piece takes ‘em all, Clyde

Yeah, seems cheap, but he knew what he was doin’

He had made the huge piles

Over quite a long while,

Bought ‘em all at under scrap price, no foolin’

You see the ol’ boy was smart

He was a hard workin' ol’ fart

Told me: “I loved dealin’ in ol’ junk

But it is time to sell it all

I turned 90 late this fall

And now along comes you, this young punk

Who says he’s…

Pickin’ for a livin’, every day

Pickin’ for a livin’, every way

Oh yeah, I picked all this old stuff, it’s all fine

Pickin’ for a livin’, yeah all this stuff is mine.

He’s just like me

Spent his life

Pickin’ for a livin’, every day

Pickin’ for a livin’, every way

Oh yeah, I picked all this old stuff, it’s all fine

Pickin’ for a livin’, yeah all this stuff is mine.

Thrifting As A Professional Picker/Antiques Dealer

Yes, I am a picker, and yes I do go to thrift stores.

 I'm a hardcore picker...I do it all!

And why not?  Thrift shops are sort of like a daily garage sale, but indoors...and when it is -20C outside, shopping in a heated environment is welcome!

When I am out picking, and happen to be cruising through a little town, I keep my eyes open for such places, and take note of them for next time I am in the area. This includes second hand stores, consignment stores, etc, etc. I will stop in and check them out, if convenient, and they are open. If they are closed, I will check for a phone number posted in their window, which is usually an invitation to call and have the proprietor/proprietress open up. Usually, I do weigh the possibilities of the place, my schedule, and will pass of the store if other places in the area that may hold more potential at that moment.

I have done well from such places, especially in more rural areas where many/some/certain antiques & collectibles are/may not be recognized as having value, and not immediately snapped up left, right and center.

Last week, en route to pursue up a lead, I stopped in at one such country thrift store.  I suspect I spent about 3/4 of an hour there, as it was one I have never been in before, so I didn't have a set "search pattern" already in mind as I was looking around.  I left with 3 bags of items, as well as a a few bulky things.

 As part of the $42 (and change) that was spent I acquired some neat items, including:

2 bunches of 100+ year old, glass trade beads. 

 

 Yes, of the type that were used for trading for furs and such during the Fur Trade period in North America. What most people do not know, or not realize is that these were also used for the same sort of trade in Africa and other nations during that period. Being found here, though, their intended purpose was for trade with the native population here, over 100 years ago.

Cost? 

$1.00 for the lot.  (These I have already been sold, by the way...so you won't see them for sale in my inventory.)

These were a fun and cool find, and the oldest item from that buy, but not the most profitable.  I also bought a hand tinted photo, done by a noted, and heavily collected, Eastern Canadian Photographer.  It was $15. My retail price is $75.   Am thinking I may also be able to work a decent trade with a local collector of his works. If not, it will go with me to a show, or maybe it will end up sold at a wholesale price to an eastern Canadian dealer.  Also in the purchase was a painting that may turn out to be of decent value, but am still researching it. 

Also as part of the finds, I bought 2 large, heavy, well made, shallow, bowl like plates....which are actually collection plates.

 No, not "collector plates"... I do mean collection plates, from a church!  They are only from the mid/late 1950, but for $3 each I couldn't leave them there!  

Maybe I can use them in my new picker cult!

Wanna join? 

Toss your $50 bills in this plate please....'cause I need it to go pickin'!

Buying Old Junk - Business VS Hobby - Is That Item Truly A Bargain?

You are going to find that passing up on what you initially see as a bargain, and highly "profitable" inventory is a constant struggle.

Why pass up a 25 cent buy that you are pretty sure is worth $15 in a store?  Well, read on, and you will find out.

Some days resisting the urge to buy every "deal" you see will be far easier than others. If you are like myself, our addiction is the hunt and the big rush we get when we find some cool treasure, especially if it was CHEAP.

 After awhile, like any addiction, it takes something more and more spectacular to give us the same "rush" we crave.

But, when it is a significant part of our income/business, also, we need to temper that treasure hunting addiction with common sense and good business acumen. 

Yes, that ornament is only priced at 25 cents, and it is salable for $15 in a shop or online, but is it truly worth the time? And the cleaning? The supplies you use for cleaning? The time spent on cleaning? Time spent photographing it? Editing the photos?  Listing it online? Fees for listing it online? Emailing and answering questions? Invoicing a final buyer? Packing? An the packing materials? Time spent packing it? Mailing? And the gas to the post office? Time spent standing in line at the post office?  Emailing the buyer to say it is in the mail,and sending tracking info? Customer service after to make sure it arrived and they are happy with it?

A the markup on that item was a theoretical profit of $14.75.  But there is an argument to be made that it actually cost you money to deal with that item. 

So, that 25 cent purchase may well have turned into a loss when you factor into the equation all your other expenses.

I struggle with this daily. I have lots of "low end" inventory.

However, I don't buy that many low end items purposely for resale, anymore. Only the odd quarter from my pocket are spent on an item that is only worth $15.

I have lots of that sort of "shelf filler" already.  But, I still acquire that sort of merchandise for other reasons,  by other methods, an din other situations.

When I am out picking, sometimes spending $5 on a $20 item is what you need to do to get in the door.

Making a pile of quarter priced items at a second hand shop can show I am a serious bulk buyer. Might even eventually lead to the "good stuff" in the back room, and/or make a long time and good contact in that area. Perhaps end up with referrals to some of their sources, for items that are priced too high for them, but are bargain priced in your view.

Local thrift stores I go to, I do spend some of my quarters. Some places are run as money making enterprises in support of charities, and are worth supporting. I'll get my twenty five cents back, hopefully, and end up breaking even (once I factor in the $14.75 worth of expenses I have incurred by buying that item!)

For me, it is sort of the equivalent of any expenditure for items of "pleasure"...like buying a soda at the convenience store, a coffee & donut at the local Timmies (Tim Horton's) , popping it in a video game, dropping it in the coin slot of a slot machine, etc.  IN the case of "in support of such and such charity" thrift stores, it is akin to buying a overpriced giant chocolate bar from the local neighbor kids who are raising money for a new bunch of basketballs.

The difference is that I can write it off as a purchase of inventory.  I slaked a bit of  my thirst for a "score" and made the world a better place for only 25 cents!

That is how I rationalize it, anyway! 

That said, I now pass up more "bargains" than I buy. China and glass items are one of those things I pass up more and more, unless the potential resale value is significant, or it is something I am curious about, and/or  want to research it as part of my ongoing self-education in a variety of collecting areas.  I also do buy the odd thing just as a 3-D reminder of an event, place, etc. A souvenir of that stop, and a bookmark in my memory to stop by there again.

Plus, there are those items I buy solely for some of their "parts". A lamp I can cannibalize for a part or 2 to make another salable. The parts may be obsolete, but still are not intrinsically valuable. Even of they are still available new, it is cheaper and/or more convenient to buy the junk lamp than make a trip to the hardware store, or order it online. Plus, the "patina" of age is already there, and the replaced part of the repair/restoration doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.

I get plenty of the $5 to $25 items in box lots at auctions, etc. Even now that I strictly limit my garage sale purchase, thrift shop buys, etc, those $5 - $25 items still  pile up, and I still need to be careful as to how I deal with them.  My accumulated knowledge means I buy more than the newbie, as I recognize more of those 25 cent items as being worth far more than 25 cents. So, the struggle will be eternal. More you know, the more you can buy, because you see more bargains on the tables than the part-timer standing beside you at that garage sale.

I certainly still do not make tons of money when it is all said and done.  I'd be lucky to make $10 an hour.....which is less than minimum wage, here.   If it was ALL about money, I'd be able to do very, very well with a 9 to 5 job.  Heck, on the "oil patch" in this area, even a kid fresh out of high school can get a job with a starting wage of $25 an hour (+benefits)...PLUS they get a pretty new 4x4 company truck to drive.

However, I am "happy" with what I do.  One of these days my chosen profession and skill set I have created, honed, add to and constantly improve on, will all pay off big....

Or so I hope! 

And now it is time to get back at it. I have a stack of boxes to deal with, full of things with 25 cent price tags. 

Pass me that bottle of Goo-Gone, will ya?

Makin' Lemonade from Lemons - Vintage Reflections

You likely read about my mis-buy at the auction in the last post.

The remnants of the deal was a 1950s, faux-paint-textured cardboard print in a faux-antique frame. The thick cardboard these sorts of prints are made from is useful as stiffener when shipping paper collectibles and other thin items, to prevent bending in transit. So, off it went into the shipping room to be sliced up for that purpose.

I suspect in 50 years I'll be lamenting my destruction of 1000s of those things, cursing myself for not hoarding them...a potential million dollars destroyed. Then again, with inflation the way it is, "a million dollars" then might not be what it is today. So, I may only be loosing out on covering the cost of a meal at a good restaurant by not hoarding them...Ah heck, I'll probably be sucking my means through a straw by then anyway.

What to do with the frame....

It was sort of attractive...could paint it white, and distress it...

Toss a mirror into it...but, that means buying a mirror...

Or does it?

I had a broken mirror, removed from a cheap, paper/fibre-board dresser acquired from a clean-out I did. I smashed up the dresser itself, as it was beyond repair, and tossed it in the trash.  The mirror was intact, for awhile. My main storage space is, well, just that, space...outside.   It was in a frame that did a poor job of imitating real wood...other than being made of the industrial equivalent of laminated sheets of paper. That materials acts like a sponge for water...especially rain. Yes, it got wet,  warped in 5 directions, then the thin mirror fell out...and broke.  Never saw nor heard it break, so should I assume I missed out on the predicted 7 years of bad luck?

 Does a mirror make a sound when it falls, breaks and no one is around?

Anyway, there was a chunk that was big enough to cut to size to fit the frame!

VOILA, add a piece of "junk" mirror to a "junk" frame and you have a $35 - $45 hall mirror!

Two negatives DO make a positive!

Hmmm...might make some profit on my bad buy yet!

Yes, I am being melodramatic... it didn't quite happen with the "voila" with magician type flair. I already was thinking about how to make lemonade out of my lemon of a purchase, after I was done flogging myself for the stupid mistake.

The lesson here is that 2 pieces of junk can still make you MONEY. 

Combining things that are otherwise useless, have no value, etc is like creating gold with Alchemy...except in this case, using junk as your ingredients CAN create gold from combining other things, unlike using Alchemy to create gold...which is impossible...as far as anyone has revealed, anyway! And if you HAVE figured it out, let me know, I won't tell a soul! I promise!

Janet Picard, friend from years back, an artist, and the original owner/founder of Ragpickers Anti-Fashion Emporium of Winnipeg, created jewellery from found, salvaged objects. She created works of quality, long before the now commonly seen pieces with watch gears, brass buttons, bits of china, chain, etc, in a collage form. She created many wearable sculptures in the form of earrings, brooches, necklaces and assorted other jewellery.  She called her artistic enterprise "Salvage Alchemy".  After doing a quick online search, I see many others of a similar artistic bend, as well as folks in different areas of "salvage" have found/thought/adopted the use of the name as well.

To me, though, "salvage alchemy" a perfect term for what many of us in the junk business do...

Or rather, those of  us who can think "outside of the box."

That trash can be made into CA$H with a little effort, and it can pay you back in spades for that little bit of time and imagination.


If you wish to survive in the "junk biz", as a picker, antiques dealer, storage auction locker buyer, scrapper, flea market seller, swap meet seller, etc, etc, my advice is to embrace "salvage alchemy" as part of your business wholeheartedly.   

Ok, junk alchemists, now go dig into those piles of mis-buys, junk, trash and scrap and see what gold nuggets you can come up with!

COUNTRY AUCTION - PART 3 - There are no such things as "friends" at an auction!

They say there is no such thing as a "friend" at an auction. We all know what we will bid, what we want to pay, what we need to pay, the values, retail, wholesale, whatever.

However, that said, sometimes it is a good idea to make sure that if there are people at the sale you know well and are good friends, you may want to sit near enough to them to chat a bit.

A buddy and picker friend of mine just started back into the picking game after a bit of a hiatus.  He's hitting the road, auctions, yard sales, flea markets, cold calls, etc, and hitting them fairly hard, hoping to make it a full time living. He has picked for years prior to his hiatus, as a collector who was tired of not being able to find very many objects of his desire at antique shops and shows.  Apparently, my shop was one of the few stores where he always seemed to find something fresh for his collection.

I was always adding fresh picks to my  inventory, and my tastes were in line with his, where as many of the traditional, older dealers inventory tended to grow stagnant and/or was overflowing with glass, china, and what was then "traditional" fare.

Anyway, we have reconnected after several years, and he's back at it, and hoping to make it a living.  He is a guy with an advantage over most of the "newbies", as he is not "new" to picking....but he is new to making a living in the junk biz.  I hope it works out for him, I really do.  His horizons are expanding, the blinders are now almost off, and his focus has broadened, interests are widening in scope, and his brain is absorbing all it can.

Being in  Manitoba, it is not going to be easy, which I think he is well aware of. He's seen all sorts of folks come and go in this biz, and only a handful who are still at it after many years.  I guess my pickin' life could be one of those inspirations, tho my career could be a cautionary take on this, too!

 If you never make mistakes you are not learning a damn thing, in my opinion.  He may (and will) make some of the same mistakes I have made, and some uniquely his own. Being a friend, I am doing my best to steer him clear of many of the ones I made. Someone else might as well benefit!

Anyway, one mistake I made at the auction was sitting where my wife wanted to sit.

She likes the front row. I prefer the middle, back or standing at the sides, wandering around if I get bored, or need to get out of the line of sight of those folks who decide that just because a (knowledgeable) dealer is bidding, that they should bid, too.  If you are one of those folks, a word of caution...that really is a bad idea...which I've discussed in one of my previous posts.

Anyway, I sat with her, but did get that wandering itch, and did cruise around the hall a bit, re-examining things, looking deeper, taking a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th look at items I had only casually examined initially.

Bidding was strong, prices were going far higher than normal.  Thus, buying items that weren't quite what they appeared to be, were damaged, missing pieces, repaired, faked, etc, could have a negative effect on my finances that I'd regret.

Had I sat near my buddy, we'd both have saved some money.

One of the lots of note was 2 1950s prints....bad, bad, bad 1950s prints.  Both were those textured cardboard prints popular in the 50s,60s,70s, 80s, and even to date, of famous master's works. It is the sort of stuff that is sold for "cheap" prices to the masses by stores of the Woolworth's/Woolco/K-Mart/Wal-Mart  ilk.


The one I was after was a copy of one of a series of Van Gogh's Sunflowers.

Why the heck would I want one of those???

I know, you are thinking: "Surely it HAD to be temporary insanity!"

Nope.

A sharp eye, knowledge and experience made me want it.

Or, rather, what was HIDDEN in it!

You see, when I flipped it over, I could see a surface tear on the cardboard backing.

In the shape of the mark that an "easel back" piece had been fastened.

And I could see that the cardboard had some writing on the other side, via a spot where I could lift it ever so slightly.  But, if I got looking TOO close, or even yanking out some of the fasteners, and pulling it right out of the frame would make my observation and discovery too obvious....and potentially incur the wrath of a consignor, auctioneer, etc.

 Plus, old cardboard can be less than flexible...sometimes even so brittle it will crumble upon being lifted with any sort of strain on it.

So, I had to decide if I was going to gamble on it.

For $2 or $4, it is what I call a "lottery ticket"....a "sort of" a gamble....though, the odds are better due to the knowledge I have of its potential contents.  About all I could make out was some blue lettering, and what I recognized right away as the winged boot logo Goodyear uses.

I also had a strong feeling it had been trimmed, however, which will make the value plummet, if not eliminate it from being any more than a chunk of worthless cardboard. Upon close inspection, I recognized that one edge was not 100% straight, and had a few stray strands of cardboard on its edge, like small tails...tell-tale tails...of a not 100% steady hand, with a razor knife in it.

But, these sorts of pictures sell for next to nothing at auctions...shouldn't have to pay more than $5, TOPS.

The auctioneer, well aware of the fact they sell for little, put two pictures together as a lot. Both were as worthless as the other for what they were. One had a fancy "carved" frame that was semi-attractive, in an old, faux antique-ish sort of way.

Bidding started at $2...and ended with me owning them at $20.00.

Hmmm.....Seems that I lost control of my mind...maybe it WAS temporary insanity.

 Well,  not really...I let my curiosity overtake intelligence, knowledge, experience and gut. A rookie mistake, but one which long time vets will still make from time to time. Usually 4 beats 1, but curiosity is powerful.

Frankly, when it is under control, it is a good thing when picking...but sometimes it can be a bad thing at auctions.

Only one other bidder was bidding.....and I quickly figured out it may have been my buddy sitting in the back with his family.

Damn!

I couldn't figure out why he would bid...the odds were against it 1000 to 1....

I went right over with the 2 pieces, and as it turned out his wife wanted the Van Gogh print. What she wants she will get, which, being married, also, I understand. Good to keep the wife happy, especially after sitting in a hall of people, partly bored, and with a small baby to tend for. If she isn't kept happy, odds are he won't be attending many more auctions, with or without her!

Twenty bucks is a small price to pay for that....but I outbid him....unfortunately.

We made a deal to split the cost, and I would keep the cardboard backing of the Van Gogh and the other picture, which I really did not want. He'd get the Van Gogh and his wife would be happy.

I took it apart there, and he gained some knowledge that may serve him well in the future.

I gained a cut, and thus worthless, chunk of 1950s cardboard, that used to be a collectible, vintage sign. I gifted it back to him on the spot, as it was worth more as backing for that picture. It saved him the hassle of cutting a new piece.

 

I  took my other ugly, cheap print and tossed it on my pile of purchases, only having lost $10 for my curiosity getting out of control.

Let that be a lesson to you......actually, TWO lessons!  One will save you money the other will make you money.

Plus, I am going to toss in a THIRD lesson...but you will have to read the next post for that one.