Monday Rambles

It's been a long time since I had to recover physically from a holiday weekend, but the 4th of July kind of did me in.  We went camping in a nearby forest.  For me, it was the first camping trip since before my surgery and chemo.  Keith goes frequently during the summer, but I can't usually go due to yard sales and such. I decided to go for one night this weekend, since there weren't many sales on tap for the holiday weekend.  Keith gave up most of his camping trips while I was sick, so I thought I should put in at least one night for him.

It was fun and very peaceful in the woods, but I got very little sleep that night.  Our air mattress started leaking!  One minute everything is fine, and the next, I'm thinking "My butt is touching the ground.  Now my back is touching the ground.  Now I'm on the freaking ground."

I couldn't deal with sleeping on the ground, so I tried to sleep in the van, with no luck.  Both situations just exacerbated the sleeping issues I was already having from not using my CPAP machine in the woods. 

I was going home after one night anyway, so I stayed up for most of the evening.  When I got home, I totally crashed out for hours!  I am such a wimp.

I'm heading back to work today for three days this week and thee days next week.  The week after that, my full regular schedule starts back, which is good.  I'm not used to being this tight on funds in the middle of yard sale season.  I am just about out of furniture at the booth and need to restock desperately.  I want another record month!  (I think this is how capitalist greed gets started.)

I went to the last day at the thrift store that was closing and was really disappointed.  They had been regularly putting out new stuff all this time, and then stopped for the last week.  It was all dregs and crap.  I did find a few things, but not as much as I really expected. 

I went to the big flea on Sunday.  To avoid the parking fee, I used a free Lyft ride to get there, then Keith picked me up at the end.  Usually Keith picks me up and drops me off, but he was still in the woods.  It screws with the prices of things too much when you start factoring in the parking costs, so I try to avoid it if I can.

The big buy there was a huge box of old religious books and pamphlets for seven bucks.  There is a regular dealer who sells the leftovers from his storage unit buy-outs for a buck a pop.  After the furniture and appliances and the like are sold off, there's almost always tons of small stuff left in a locker.  Most folks who buy lockers will sell that stuff cheap, knowing that they'll make a ton of money on sheer volume.  They've made their profit on the big stuff, and the little crap is just gravy.

There are a couple of locker buyers at the Peddlers Mall, and I shop from them all the time.  They have good stuff cheap, and I have plenty of room to turn it over and turn a profit.  So, I like this kind of deal.  You just have to be careful and inspect everything carefully. Most of it has not been packed really well, so there are lots of chips and cracks.

Anyway, I was not about to pay a buck a piece for the stuff in this box.  There was over 100 items in there!  So I asked him what his best price would be.  I was expecting him to say ten bucks and was planning to counter with five, so that we could end up at seven.  I kind of think he was thinking along the same lines, because he just said:  "How about seven bucks?"  I like it when we can cut the bullshit and get right to a price we can both live with!  I still need to go through the box all the way, but there are a few things I'm going to scan for the blog.

I also had a long talk with another dealer about the ins and outs of reading condition comics vs. collectible condition comics and made a nice score on some small items that might show up here this week, if I get a chance to take some pics/

I sold a table over the weekend at the booth, so that means it's time for a rearrange this afternoon.  This weekend is another sidewalk sale at the Peddlers Mall, in celebration of the store's 5th anniversary at its current location.  I've not decided what I'm going to do yet, but I'm leaning towards blowing out some old stock at 25 and 50 cents a throw.

I'm having a bit of a writer's block when it comes to larger posts right now.  I can throw together some things pretty quickly, but I have some ideas brewing for several longer posts that just can't seem to get off the starting point.  Everything is fine in my head, but when I sit down to put words on screen, nothing comes out.  I hope it's temporary.