Let's just call it "Eddie's Folly"

In which your Eddie-tor decides to become a junk peddler.

It's no secret that I like to shop. You don't become a collector of anything without at least a tiny bit of longing for the thrill of the hunt. Of course, I've taken it several steps farther than that. Basically, as long as it's not groceries, I love a good shopping trip.

It's not that I'm necessarily super-materialistic, per se. I don't make a ton of money, and I'm not into having tons of stuff, or the latest and greatest of everything, but I've always liked to see what's out there. And if I find something cool that I can afford, so much the better.

Still, I do try not to be wasteful. I'll hang on to stuff until it literally falls apart. For that reason, I've always been big into second hand retail--thrifts, yard sales, etc. In fact, my birthday celebration each year is a mad orgy of thrifting, as we hit every store in town that sells second-hand.

A few years ago, a friend of ours expanded her eBay business into one of the local second-hand shops. She's been coasting through, making a pretty good go at it. She tried to talk me into taking the plunge a while back, noting that I'm running out of space in the house for stuff. We explored the idea, but let it fall by the wayside.

Until a couple of weeks ago, that is. One of the Peddler's Malls in Louisville moved to a new location this month. I went out there over the 4th of July weekend and saw that they had a ton of booth space available. After talking it over with Keith for a while, I took out a contract for a booth yesterday.

I know it's not going to be easy. Our friend works at hers every weekend and evening--going to auctions, attending yard sales, etc. I'm not looking to make a living at it, though. I'm just hoping for a past time that kind of pays for itself.
And, if I clear out some of my excess, so much the better. I'm hoping to bring the kind of focus to a couple of my collections that I brought to my comics when I sold off 3/4 of the lot a couple of years ago. (Best yard sale we ever had!)

Yesterday, we did the first round of yard sale hunting as junk dealers. It was kind of fun being able to buy interesting stuff I would have always thought was kind of cool, but nover bought because I didn't have a use or space for it.

My goal is to kind of deal in quantity. I want to keep the prices low as I can and sell a variety of interesting stuff. You can still find some great bargains at yard sales, and occasionally from other dealers as well. I'm hoping it's a pricing strategy that will work in a down economy for someone dealing in definite non-essentials.

I've been pulling my first batch of inventory together tonight. Tomorrow night, I'm going over to set up. It's going to be a lot of work, but I hope it will keep my mind off a lot of the unsavory things happening around me lately.

So, if you're in the area, drop by Eddie's Attic (Keith came up with the name): Booth 62 in the Shively Center Peddler's Mall on Dixie Highway.