Monday, April 30, 2012

Monday Rambles

Still losing weeks to this schedule.  Still trying to catch up with it.  All work and no play makes Eddie a dull boy.  Seriously.  That's about all I got going on right now.  I'll try to be more fulfilling and entertaining in the very near future.

Still, I got a couple of points:

Hit a ton of yard sales Saturday, despite the Derby Marathon (yes it's time for that madness) closing streets all around just about everywhere I wanted to be.  Why do churches schedule their sales knowing customers are going to have a hard time getting to them? And two of these are among my favorites for the year!

Thankfully, we were able to use the freeways to get over the race course and where we needed to be.  At one sale, which was the second day of a two day sale, I was referred to Ducky to price me out, since I had so much.  She carefully went through my box, and then said those four words junkers live to hear:  "How about 10 bucks?"

I also ran into one of those rarities, a seller who knows how to counter-offer!  We were bartering over an unpriced wooden mask she had for sale.  She couldn't decide what she wanted for it, so I offered two dollars to break the ice.  She said:  "Oh I can't do that."  I thought the deal was dead, but then she said "How about four?"  I came back with three and she agreed.  Now, that's the way this game is played!  Win-win.

Junk set out is coming back to my neighborhood right after Derby, so I'll hopefully have some finds and stories to tell out of that.

For the first time ever, I am going to have to go in and actually pay rent on a space tomorrow.  I have not made rent this month at one site.  My perfect record is ruined.  But when you don't have any sales for fifteen days out of a month (I counted), what do you expect?  Something is missing in this formula, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what it is.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Monday Rambles

It would seem that I have not yet adjusted to my new schedule, even after a couple of weeks.  I promise that I will get into the groove of doing more than an abbreviated Monday Rambles soon!

In the meantime, here are some highlights:

Saturday was Keith's birthday.  To celebrate, we went camping.  Passed two church rummage sales that I could only wave at, because we had no room in the car for anything.  Sigh!  We had a good time, though.  It was a little on the cool side, but relaxing.  We actually had to chase wildlife out of the tent, which was a first for me.  A field mouse and a chipmunk both decided that they fancied our digs.

Saturday was also the kick-off to the Derby festival, which means that were are now in the two weeks of madness where everyone would rather do all kinds of activities instead of buying secondhand junk.  I ask you, where are people's priorities these days??

I'm going to finish out the month okay at Peddlers Mall--which means rent was made a while ago, and I'll get something over that.  Not a spectacular record-breaking month, but I'll make some money and that's okay by me.   Still working on the rent at the other place.  It's been a long slow climb there.  I've never been this close to the end of a month without rent made.  It's freaking me the hell out.

I'm needing to score some cheap comics in a hurry.  I've about sold through my stock and they keep selling.  The hunt is on!

Last week, I got into a grabbing match with another dealer at Goodwill.  They had this rack of vintage salt and pepper shakers and planters for a buck or less.  I was there first checking them out, when he just pops up and starts grabbing everything in sight.  Having no choice, I started grabbing too.  I prefer to conduct myself in a slightly more genteel fashion, but he started it!!!  I checked out right behind him, too.  It's a good thing I did, because I could tell that I got all the best ones. 

And, another week has begun.  I'll work on getting some more up here soon.

Friday, April 20, 2012

One of the saddest songs ever recorded

And also one of the most beautiful.



"Blue Umbrella" by the great John Prine.

I usually don't use vids shot in concerts by attendees because the quality is so crap, but it's rare to catch him doing this one live.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Monday Rambles

Well, the hypothesis that not actually having to go to classes for a week will lead to more posts has been soundly disproven.  Oh well!  Story of my blog, and no one should really be surprised.

Thing is, I'm not exactly sure what it was I did with the week.

I went to Peddlers Mall twice and put out a TON of stuff.  Seriously.  Like 6 tubs.  Sales have been strong there.  Even for Spring Break week, which is unusual.

Went to YesterNook and set up a new shelf.  i haven;t had as many sales there lately, so I needed to create some space for new stuff.  Spring Break hit there hard.

Priced a lot of inventory that I hadn't gotten to yet.  Organized said priced inventory for upcoming trips to the appropriate boothly destination.

Did a couple of Craigslistings.  Took some photos to do more.

Kind of half-heartedly thrifted.  There wasn't really anything to get excited about.  Ditto for yard sales.

I did get to a local junk shop I've not been able to hit for a while because of my schedule and bought a few things there.

Went to a meeting about the new gig that starts, well, tonight.

Did laundry.

And that was about it.  Not sure where the time went.  Or what I did with it.  Or how the hell I am supposed to work a week that was so wasted and boring into a Rambles post.

Sigh! 

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Monday Rambles (Tuesday Edition)

Boy, this new schedule is taking some getting used to, let me tell you.  I had gotten pretty used to something semi-regular, and now it's gone.  Pretty much sunk last week for me, as far as the blogging goes.  I've got about two weeks worth of stuff partially written, but no real time to finish anything.

The older I get, the longer it seems to take me to adjust to life changes and switch-ups like this.  I was pretty much working everyday from 12-2:30, with a couple of nights thrown in.  Now, I've gotta be on the other side of town at 9 two days a week, plus four nights a week!

It's kind of frustrating, since I'm only a handful of posts away from hitting my 2005 total.

Anyway, sales are struggling to rebound from the NCAA tournament lull.  Last week was really good at Peddlers.  Not so much at YesterNook.  It's too early to tell if the move upstairs there will help me or not.  This is Spring Break week, which is traditionally slow in the re-sale biz, as lots of families head out of town.  Then, at the end of the month, we get hit with the beginning of the Derby festivities. which go through the first week in May.  April is a real hard month for us.

Actually, this is kind of the beginning of the slowest part of the sales year, which will last until about mid-June.  People abandon the indoor re-sale venues for the yard sales until it starts getting really hot, then the A/C wins out.

I worked all day at the Peddlers Mall yesterday.  It really needed it.  I was getting really low on stock.  Looks much better now.   I took out the Easter stuff and replaced that display with my "generic all-purpose" display. 

I have a table that I use for my seasonal displays.  In the "in between" times, I usually just pile it up with the few tools, household goods, and office supplies that I manage to accumulate through box lot purchases and the like.  Normally, I just keep this stuff under the table in a couple of bins.  It's not the kind of stuff that is worth taking up major display room.  I don't set out to acquire it.  It just happens.

Once or twice a year, when there is no other "theme" or "season" happening, I pull the bins out and put everything on the table for a few weeks.  Everything will sell down and I'll be rid of it.

There was a new family setting up a booth not far from mine yesterday.  That's always nice to see.  They kept going into other booths to see how other people did their price tags.  I gave them a little advice on foiling shoplifters.

Yard sales were interesting Saturday.  We went to an alley sale where two different people tried to charge me for a folk art stuffed chicken I'd bought at another house.  Really, folks!  If you had a black chicken with white polka dots all over it in your sale, don't you think you would remember it??

Then, there was the mother of all vintage paper-goods sales.  Apparently, this woman had been collecting old cards, notes, stickers and the like for years.  Everything was reasonably priced, too.  Everything was a dollar or less, with most items being a quarter.

Except for the small handful of unpriced items I found:  three packs of bridge tallies, a sticker book and a vintage Halloween card.  I was informed that she "had to" charge me three bucks for that, because the card had the original envelope and I could sell the sticker book for "five dollars."  I told her that I'd just pass on the handful and get the rest of the pile I had gathered.  "How about two dollars?  I have to get rid of this stuff.  You'll make five on those stickers."  I agreed to the two and paid and left.  It was just bizarre, given how reasonably everything else was priced and how much I was buying.

By the way, I looked those stickers up.  Not so much.  I really hate it when people tell me what I'll "make" when I sell stuff.  It's a desperation tactic to get you to pay their prices.  Who says I'm going to sell the stickers?  Maybe I'm going to paste them all over my body for bizarre naked moonlight rituals.  I should have said that.

Finally, here's a message from Chiquito:

+

I'm not sure what it means, but it's all he had time to type before I moved the keyboard.

Monday, April 02, 2012

Monday Rambles

Well, I started taking on a bit of a cold last week, so that really drug the end of the week down.  Unfortunately, I had to take the weekend to move the YesterNook booth and get it set up in its new spot, so I couldn't really rest and recover.  I'm so whiny when I'm sick, too.

Now, it's almost one in the morning on Monday and I cannot sleep.  I think I've been sleeping too much with too much cold medicine and it's messed me up.  I'm supposed to get up at 5!  Ack!

New daytime schedule starts this week, and it is completely different from what I have had previously.  Going to take some getting used to.  (Especially with no sleep.) No more leisurely mornings to spend on housework and booth stuff before heading off to teach at noon.  Sigh!  I miss those days already.

On the other hand, I get a break from evenings for a couple of weeks and then the new gig starts and those will get turned upside down.  Still trying to figure out what I am doing with that one.

Still, next week, I have no classes of any kind, so I can get some other work done.

Well, this weekend sucked as far as booth sales go.  The ballgame killed Saturday and apparently everyone is in mourning over Louisville's loss, so no one got out to shop on Sunday.  March went out like a lamb as far as sales go, for sure.  Having my YesterNook booth in shambles right now from the move hasn't helped either.

Kentucky's victory means that somewhere my mother and father are both smiling.  They probably watched the game together.  Of course, I always thought he was a Kentucky fan because she was.

At least my new schedule will allow for a lot of bike riding for the next few weeks.  I need the exercise.

We went to a yard sale Saturday that was cancelled because of the game (which didn't start until 6 pm...).  Trouble is, no one told some of the sellers who were coming to set up to sell, so they set up anyway!  I bought a pair of child-sized Adirondack chairs.

Insomnia makes the rambles really rambly, huh?

PS  Happy Birthday to a certain Goddess of Music:  The One and Only Emmylou Harris!