Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Monday, October 29, 2012

Monday Rambles

Brrr....chilly temps have moved in.  It's Fall at it's most lovely fallishness!  I love it! Yes, I do.

Haven't been hitting too many sales lately or thrifts either.  I'm awash in junk and desperately trying to get organized and ready to shift into Christmas mode later this week.  The five extra hours I was able to add to my work schedule is having an impact on my junk schedule, and I have yet to fully adjust.  It'll come in time, but I need to be more settled right now than I currently am.

I did go to the Fall Book Sale held by the library this weekend.  Of course, I went on Sunday, which was box day.  It was very odd this time.  For starters, there were about a third fewer books than normal, and less than a quarter of the normal Sunday crowd.  Not sure what that was about.

Then there was the organization of the books, or lack thereof.  Typically, everything is laid out Dewey Decimal style, which makes it very easy for me to hit topics that sell well for me (like Religion and History), avoid ones that will make me buy too much for my own use (like Mystery), and ignore everything else.  This time, however, there were a couple of tables of children's books, tables for Mystery, Sci Fi, and Romance, half a table of Biography, a couple tables of General Fiction, and everything else was dumped on a half dozen tables marked "Unsorted" or "Mixed."

I've never seen anything like it at this sale before.  I had to slog through everything to find useable books.  I still came up with my usual three boxes, but it was a lot more work than normal.  I wasn't really happy about that, for sure.  I'm kind of guessing (and hoping) that the act of condensing stock as things sold led to the creation of these jumbled tables.  I hope it's not the wave of the future.

Speaking of books, I've been re-reading some of the John Carter, Warlord of Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs.  There were some volumes of the series in a batch of books I bought a little while ago, and I decided to run through them before selling.  It's kind of like being 12 again.  I am enjoying them, although the almost 48 year old me is noticing things that the 12 year old me would have been oblivious too, like the overall datedness of the series, the stilted language and the repetitive nature of the stories.  It's been good as a lark, but I don't think I could do a steady diet of it any more.

I'm crazy busy this week, but I do have posts lined up.  They're a bit lighter than usual, but I'm laying the groundwork for an event of immense personal importance.  You'll understand what I mean tomorrow.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Spooky Special: Danse Macabre

And, finally, graveyard music meets high technology.  There's something soothing about this one.



I hope you enjoyed my Halloween treats for you this year!  Have a safe and fun time this year!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Literary Corner

A Poem What I Have Wrote

By Michael Edward Mitchell
Age 47

Hypotenuse!
You big recluse!
Why must you be so obtuse?
You still look better in chartreuse.

Oh my friend, Hypotenuse!
Stop being such a silly goose.
Cease your torrent of abuse!
Just go put on your silk charmeuse.

We're already late to the damn party.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The Monday Ramble That Wasn't

What a week last week was, and what a week this week will be.  I pick up extra hours at work starting this week, which I'm kind of looking forward to, but am not totally sure I am ready for.  I have a lot of ideas for what I want to do, but I've not had time to put anything to paper and actually plan it out.

I've also got another matter going on that's going to take some time this week.  I don't want to say anything about it just now, because there's still a lot that I don't know, but in a couple of weeks, I'll be able to fill you all in.

We went to dinner and a play Friday night for a birthday party for one of Keith's friends.  This was someone we both used to work with ages ago.  I looked around the table at all these people we've known for years, but haven't seen for a while, and couldn't help but think:  "Damn!  When did we all get so old?"  I'm planning on going to my 25th (!) college reunion next month.  I wonder what that's going to be like?

Sales were up and down all week.  The up's were waaaay up and the down's were equally so.  Sigh.  I'm starting to think Louisville is at a saturation point of re-sale vendor's malls and it's starting to effect sales.  I can think of like two dozen off-hand.  I'm thinking more here of the flea market-type malls, as opposed the the more secondhand store kind of place like YesterNook. 

There were special events at both stores on Saturday.  I went and helped out at the YesterNook event, which was fun.  It was kind of Halloween-themed, so I went in costume as the Mad Monk of Schnitzelburg!  (Schnitzelburg is the name of the neighborhood where the store is located.)

Flee the Mad Monk!

I got the costume last year at Halloween clearance sales.  The wig I got on sale this year.  It was 4 bucks.  (It looks it too!  But I felt a "mad monk" needed "mad hair.")  The crucifix I am wearing is an antique.  I felt that was in keeping with the nature of the store.  It was actually the first item I ever bought when I was beginning my collection of religious items.  It was five dollars in a now-defunct antique store on the same street as the auction guy.  That was in 1987.  How's that for a junkin' memory?

That hair drove me nuts, by the way.  It got in my eyes and face all the time, especially when I was trying to work on anything.  That cheapo polyester robe sure makes me look fat!  The wig was hot, hot, hot!  I cannot figure out how Dolly Parton does it.

I had the best one day sales ever during the event at the YesterNook, which is way cool.  I got rid of several large, pricey (for me) items.  I didn't do as well at the other event, but I've now sold all of the skulls, but one!  Yay! Skulls gone!  In fact, if I can move out the last skull and a couple of Halloween buckets, I'll be down to less than half a tub of stuff.  I'm at about 75% sell through now, which is what I did last year.  I'd like to bump that up to 85-90%.  We'll see.  

I hit the motherlode of furniture at an warehouse sale on Saturday.  I got a vintage office chair, two stools, two cool black chairs and a couple of industrial retro mail sorters for less than thirty bucks.  I've already flipped the black chairs for enough to pay for the whole load!

The sale was at an old printing firm that had gone out of business.  The people who bought the building didn't want to throw everything away, so they were trying to sell it.  Prices were just  kind of okay, but the guy started making deals on everything I was looking at and it turned into a festival of bargains!   

Here's a point to ponder:  Everybody I've ever known in my life named "Eddie" spelled it just like I do, with "ie" on the end.  I've never known, met or heard of anyone who spelled it "Eddy."  So why is it when I order something that requires my name to be written on a receipt, it always ends up as "Eddy"?  Seriously, people!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Spooky Special: Danse Macabre

And now the Johnny Depp version!  Enjoy!



Fun Fact:  Depp was my first major post-coming out, same-sex celebrity crush!  And he's still quite fine, even after all this time!

Friday, October 19, 2012

Don't Forget!

I'll be there.  In costume even!  It'll be fun.  Everything in my booth is 20% off all day long.  Other vendors will be having sales too.  Plus, there will be candy.  You know you like candy!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Comic Buy

Eddie-tor's Note:  I have been trying to write a Junkin' Memories post about comics for a while now, but I can't seem to keep it from being four or five parts.  They've been just so intertwined in my life for so long that it's hard to be brief when I talk about them.  While I wrestle with that issue, another opportunity to talk about comics popped up for me.  Let's see if I can do this one in just one post.

A couple of weeks ago, the best local comic shop was having a sidewalk sale, which they do every so often.  It's the kind of thing I never miss, if I can help it.  It used to be that I was looking for finds for my own collection.  Now, I go looking for stuff to sell.  When the comics are a quarter or less, I can usually find it, too.  I sell a lot of comics, you know.

My relationship to comics has changed over the years, but this store is still kind of special to me.  It's the first comic shop I ever visited, way back in my senior year of high school.  My best friend and I came up right after Christmas that year.  It was an amazing experience for me.  So many comics in one little spot.

That was 30 years ago, and when you consider that the store has been open for 35 years, that means that I have been shopping there, in one form or another, for most of its existence.  Most of mine too, now that I think about it.  Even though I am not a regular any more, one of the managers still knows me by name.  It's that kind of place.

Anyway, back to the sidewalk sale.  Usually, these sales are about clearing out overstock of titles from the past couple of years that didn't sell through as expected.  I'm looking for these "event" issues that were hyped up and sought out then, but have cooled waaaay off now.  If I can pick several up in the 25 cent range, I can make decent money reselling them at a fraction of the cover price.  It's a strategy that seems to work.  With prices of comics these days, not everyone can afford to run out and buy every issue of the big crossover story any more.

When I was digging around in the boxes, though, something else happened.  I found memories.  For some of us, the nostalgic aspect of junking is a motivating factor.  It's just that instead of striking the nostalgia chord  by buying something to keep, we buy it to pass on and strike someone else's nostalgia chord.  I've found that it's just as satisfying to own something for as long as it takes to sell it, as it is to hang onto it for life.

You have to understand that when I was a young lad trolling the quarter boxes at flea markets and in shops, they were treasure bins.  Classics from the late sixties and early seventies would fall into my hands.  Eighty page giants.  One hundred page specialsClassic stories.  Classic art.  I built an awesome collection a quarter at a time.

This was pre-eBay, pre-internet, when things were abundant and cheap and you never knew what you would find.  Quarter boxes haven't been like that for years, if you can even find them these days.  Mostly, they're fifty-cent boxes any more.  For a few moments that Saturday afternoon, things were almost like they used to be.  I was finding treasure scattered amongst the merchandise.

This was one of the first Marvel comics I can ever remember buying with my own money.  I got my copy at the old drug store on the square in my hometown, the one with the soda fountain where they cut your hot dog in half down the middle and fried it on the grill.  They never had very many comics, but they did have a few on their magazine rack.

What If?  (first series) #4


I was never that into Marvel as a kid. I just always preferred the color and wonder of DC's to Marvel's angst and bombast.  But I liked the Invaders.  Until I got into the X-men a few years later, it was the only Marvel comic I followed.

Superboy #208


This was a reminder of quarter boxes past.  You used to be able to find these old giants all the time.  You sure can't find them on eBay for that price!  I didn't get to the sale until about one o'clock, so I was surprised this was still there.  Kids these days don't know what they're missing.  I already have this one (and the Invaders above), so they'll go to the booth to be passed on to someone else.

My mom would go through these phases when she would try to "clean up" my comic collection.  Mind you, this was in the late seventies and early eighties.  Mainstream, newsstand comics were pretty tame in those days.  One year for my birthday, she got me a whole stack of Spire Christian comics.  Another time, it was a bunch of these literary adaptations.

Marvel Classics #18


After Wonder Woman and Teen Titans, this was my favorite title, drawn by one of my favorite artists.  I am pretty sure I have both of these, but I'm hanging onto them until I know fir sure.  I've been paring my collection way down over the years, but some things you keep.

Two more Superboys, for which I did not note the issue numbers.


Finally, a find I could not believe.  You never find these Classics Junior issues for a quarter, even when they're in rough shape.  These babies are keepers.  I've always loved the Classics Illustrated titles.  I read a ton of them when I was young and they were still being published.  I think my mother may have had a hand in that as well.

A gaggle of Classics Illustrated Juniors


One of the wonderful things about junking is that you just never know what waits for you when you set out.  This is true no matter what the reason you go out searching for junk.  Sometimes the unexpected find is tangible and will bring you dollars.  Other times, it's just a memory that makes you happy.  I'm not sure which I prefer more.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

The Challenge of Chiquito

You can sing the title of today's post to this tune.  Indeed, how does one solve the challenge of Chiquito?

It begins with trying to take a pic of some newly acquired merch.


It was six years ago that I announced his arrival into our household.  He was a cute little kitten and a hyper little bundle of energy.  At the time, I kept saying "Wait until he turns five or six.  He'll start slowing down and grow out of this manic energy."

Suddenly, the help appears!


Well, he's now six and he still runs through the house, climbs on everything, tries to pull pictures off the wall, incessantly demands attention, and just wreaks general havoc.  Keith keeps looking at me and saying:  "You said he would grow out of this."

I try to remind him that Kosh was quite the hell-raiser when we first got him, as well.  In fact, Kosh didn't calm down until he was about three, right after we brought Chiquito into the house.  Kosh seemed to mature and settle down all at once after that.  I suggest that we try the same approach with Chiquito, but Keith just doesn't seem to want to go for that approach.  I think he's afraid the newcomer and Chiquito would band together and gang up on the rest of us!  

Ooo, does that card have a tassel on it?  Why, I do believe it does!


Next year, he'll be considered a senior cat.  At seven, you have to start getting geriatric check ups for your kitties.  I'm wondering if he's going to be an old man swinging from the ceiling fan.  The answer to that scares me.  He may not be slowing down as he gets older, but the two people in this house certainly are!

Is this the face of a guilty culprit?


As I am writing this, Keith is in the kitchen yelling "Get down!"  That only means one thing. We have to keep dishes on top of the fridge and boxes on the cabinets to keep him off of them.  We've never been able to break him of jumping on top of them.  If he gets up there, he claws at the ceiling tiles.

In his defense, he is cute, sweet, cuddly, funny, silly and an excellent mouser.  How do you solve the challenge of Chiquito? 




Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Dorothy

This past Saturday, we pulled up at a sale, and I realized that I recognized the building.  I turned to Keith and said, "Honey, it's Dorothy's place!"  All of a sudden, we were both lost in memories.

Dorothy passed away about ten years ago, after a life of rabble-rousing and hell-raising.  She had lived in an apartment in that building for decades.  Back in the days when we were young and idealistic, she was one of the core members of a group called Honesty.  We were Southern Baptists.  We were gay and gay-friendly.  And we were determined to try and change our church.

Dorothy was in her late 70's when I met her, I think.  She smoked a couple of packs a day most of her life and had the loud, gravelly smoker's voice and cough to go with it.  She spoke her mind, no matter what the circumstances.  She also had two cats, a sweet long-hair named Gypsy and a stray tom that she took in and called Clyde.  He was huge and not very friendly.  Dorothy and Clyde had a running battle to see who would control the household.  Those cats were her family, and she turned one room in her apartment over to them.

I met Dorothy when I was in the process of coming out.  I was a young, active Southern Baptist raised in church, and I had dated several different women over the years.  I struggled for a long time to make the pieces fit together.  Eventually, I settled on bisexuality as kind of a temporary stopping point.  I identified as bi when I joined the group.  Dorothy told me later that she was thinking, "Poor thing.  He just doesn't realize he's gay."  It took me a few more weeks, but eventually I figured it out.
  
Dorothy and I kind of clicked right away, but ours was never an easy relationship.  I've always been bad with returning phone calls, and she would get mad at me for weeks over that.  Eventually, she would forget why she was mad and say something like: "You little shit, I can't remember what you did to make me mad, so I'm not mad anymore.  Get over here and give me a hug!"

We liked the same soap operas, so she would save her soap magazines for me.  We would look at them and argue about which actor was the cutest.  After we got our first cats, we would swap cat tales.  I had a few houseplants when we got ours, but could not keep the cats out of them, so I put them all on the porch.  I promptly forgot to water them and they died a slow, withering death.  One time when she was leaving our apartment after a meeting, Dorothy looked down at the pathetic, withered pots of plants and said, "Eddie, your flowers are looking lovely!"

She was truly a treasure, and we were privileged to know her.  Eventually, the group disbanded.  Slowly, but surely, we were all leaving the church and didn't see the need to keep fighting to change it.  Most of us realized it was a dysfunctional, abusive relationship, and the best thing for us was to get out of it.  Dorothy advocated strongly for keeping the group together.  I don't think any of us realized that we were her primary source for socialization.

We kept up for a while, but then slowly drifted apart.  A few years later, we got a call that she had passed away.

It was kind of odd to buy stuff out of that yard.  We ended up telling the kids that were having the sale all about her.  It turned out that two of them were living in her old apartment!  Yard sales are often about memories, but usually it is the memories of the people selling their stuff.  Sometimes, someone shopping will find something that they used to have and remember it.  This is the first time I can remember that I've gotten lost in memory over the place having the sale.

We're no longer quite so young.  We're no longer quite so idealistic.  We're no longer Southern Baptist.  We are, however, still gay!  One thing we'll always carry with us from those days is the memory of Dorothy and how she touched our lives.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Monday Rambles

I'm finishing this up on Sunday, as I usually do, but I may or may not be able to get it posted.  We've already had a brief power outage, which was preceded by several flickers, due to strong winds.  We'll just have to see.  It's kind of like Spring usually is around here.

There's only one thing worse than getting a sales email that says you only sold 59 cents at your booth. That would be not receiving one at all the next night.  Typically, that means that there was an email glitch, but coming after such a low night, you just can't say that for sure.  Happily, I got one (for 36 bucks) the night after the missing mail, and some quick math revealed I really did have sales, so it was just a glitch.

As you can guess from the 59 cent thing, it was kind of a low sales week, although I had a couple of good days at the Peddlers Mall.  Still no skull sales.  What do people have against skulls??

We need a new home!
 We set out Saturday on a yard sale journey that we expected would last until about 1:00.  That's pretty typical.  Why were we dragging back home at 7:00 that night??  We are still wondering where the day went.  We did make some good finds for all that time out.  I also had a couple of strange life flashbacks that I'll be writing about later on.

Things to never, ever believe when a junker says them:  "I'm not really going to buy any more today.  I think we have enough and the car is getting full."  This is typically followed by emerging from a Goodwill with a vintage padded bench! It was six bucks. I couldn't leave it!  Keith just rolls his eyes at me any more.

Last week's Love Match has been made.  I have no idea how the happy couple is doing, but it left me with a good feeling in my heart and a nice jump in my sales report.

If you've been following my bargaining tips, I have a new one to add to the list of things not to do.  At a church sale on Saturday, a gentleman was trying to buy several pairs of socks and a pair of shoes.  I had a huge box of stuff that I was paying for at the same time.  When he was told that the socks were 50 cents a pair, he loudly exclaimed:  "I'd rather pay 25 cents!"  My immediate thought was that I would "rather" walk out with all this shit without paying for it, but it ain't gonna happen!  Needless to say, the women running the sale were not impressed.

I've got a lot to do this week.  Several irons that I've had in the fire are due to come out, and my work hours pick up just a tad.  Better to be busy than bored, I guess.  I should have posts every day, though.


Sunday, October 14, 2012

Maybe they were hiding in the closet?

Earlier this week, I was getting together my last little bits of Halloween stuff to take to the booth when I discovered something.

Somehow, I managed to overlook not one....


Not two.....



Not three.....



But FOUR SKELETONS!



And one of them is orange to boot!  How does that happen?  I have got to get organized.

Happily, they are all ensconced at the booth, ready for new homes.  And they are large and prominent enough they make for the many things I've sold out of the killer Halloween display.

Better late than ever, I guess.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Spooky Special: Danse Macabre

For my second Danse Macabre treat, I wanted to share my favorite video version.  There really isn't much animation, per se, but the artwork is nice.  It evokes the mood of the song really well.  I love that some of the skeletons have tattered clothing hanging off them.  It's also got just the right touch of sweetness and humor for a video about skeletons dancing, and some nice dramatic bits as well.






Friday, October 12, 2012

By the way...

If you are not busy on Oct 20, I have a suggestion for you.

I'll be there!  In costume, even!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Literary Corner

Eddie-torial Comments proudly presents:

A Poem What I Made Up Myself

by Michael Edward Mitchell, age 47

Dude.
Jude.
Crude.
Rude.

DUDE!

Monday, October 08, 2012

Monday Rambles

Well, I spent some time last week totally cleaning out and revamping my Blogger drafts.  I pitched some things that were never going to go anywhere and dated everything else for 12/31/12, so it will be at the top of my post list and I will remember to finish it.

I found more posts than I remembered having that were basically done, except for a little tweaking and a photo.  This week is a light work week for me, so I think I'll be able to work on some of those.  At the very least, I'll get some special Christmas things done and on the schedule.  That 200 post goal is really coming close.  (And, yes, I know you all are tired of hearing about that.)

Part of the problem I have with working in advance is that I never know how far is too far and when to stop.  I've also never figured out exactly how to make good use of the "cushion" once I've built it up.  I tend to get about a week ahead and then blow the intervening days by not writing at all until the posts are about to run out.  I wish I had a steadier pace.

It's good and fall-ish now here in the Ohio River valley.   I had to dig out a jacket last week.  I love this time of year, as the leaves turn and fall and the temps drop a bit!  It means my birthday is on the way!  I'm not sure how it happened, and it's probably totally my fault, but somehow my Facebook timeline said that my birthday was last week.  Actually, it's not until next month.  I appreciate the well-wishes from those who sent them, however.  I guess I will have to fix that, some day.  It's probably a good indicator of my attitude toward Facebook.  I'm only reluctantly on there. I really don't care for it that much.

We had a good weekend for yard sales Saturday and it resulted in some good buys.  I ended up making a dumpster dive at a church that was selling off its library books and equipment.  I realized that they had already been pitching stuff when I was checking out, so I headed to the dumpster to see what was what.  I salvaged a few items there, with the help of a pole from a tent Keith had  bought earlier.

Perhaps the best find of the day was another "love connection."



It was part of a set that included the play sink and stove, but the other pieces were missing parts.  This one needed a couple of wing nuts to steady the top half, but that was an easy fix.  The doors on the bottom don't meet evenly, and I cannot figure out why.  All of the hinges are tight and nothing is sagging.  That hits the limits of my abilities to fix things, so I'm hoping the rough room shopper who finds this gem will know how to fix it.

I also went to yet another sale at the local comic shop.  This time they had their 8 p.m. to Midnight special 50 cent comic sale.  I went looking for more expensive items I could turn around pretty easily.  Yes, I ventured back into the nerd herd for a second time in a week! I stayed until I had met my budget and my tolerance level for the herd, which happened at about the same time.  I did end up with some good stuff that will sell well for me.  I think I tend to get people who don't necessarily even know that there even are comics shops, but that are kind of interested in comics when they see them.  This makes comic shop sales a good place to look for stuff, without actually being my direct competition.

Sales were surprisingly slow everywhere last week, but picked up at the Peddlers Mall over the weekend.  I guess everyone was in a beginning of the month slump or something.  I am just about out of Halloween make up, party favors, and costume accessories at the killer Halloween display.  I have a few small things to put out today, and I'm going to condense it and move all the fall and Thanksgiving items over to one end of that table.  I need to move a few more costumes and decorations, but there's time.  Still very little in the way of skull sales. which puzzles me.  Has this town reached the Skull Saturation Point?

I was disappointed to learn last week that I could not put up a sign in my booth addressing customers who pull things out of bags as "fuckwits."  Maybe it was my anger at finding all the pieces from one of my more expensive costumes strewn all over the booth, but it seemed reasonable to me at the time.  Now, of course, I realize that those who do stuff like that are most likely not customers of mine, as I highly doubt they actually buy anything.  It's one of the hazards of selling in a large, indoor flea market, I guess.   But how am I going to sell a brand new costume that now looks like it was used because I cannot get it nicely in the bag like it was?  Grrrr......  Not happy!

The central lesson of the weekend was yet another manifestation of the cyclical nature of junking.  One year a sale can be seven kinds of fabulous, and the next, just the opposite.  One of my favorite sales of the whole year was such a bust that it almost wasn't worth going to.  Disappointment does not begin to describe my feelings.  It's only the sale where I made the most awesome religious buy of all time.  Sigh.










Saturday, October 06, 2012

Spooky Special: Danse Macabre

One of my favorite pieces of orchestral music is Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens.  It's one of those melodies that will pop into my head from time to time in a quiet moment.  I find it to be haunting and evocative, yet playful and fun at the same time.

Since October is the month for haunts and treats, I thought it would be cool to share with you all some of the ways different video makers have visualized this piece.  If you're a skeleton lover like me, you're in for a real treat!

I'll do one of these every Saturday, but if you want to see more, do a search on YouTube for "Danse Macabre."  There are several other vids out there.  For the first one, I'm going with one that could be subtitled "Skeletor Macarena."


Friday, October 05, 2012

Cat Philosophy

Cleanliness is next to catliness.



I think the face washing is one of the cutest things a cat can do.

Thursday, October 04, 2012

But wait! There's more!

I forgot one of the best parts of my post last Thursday.  I was in a hurry to get finished and catch the bus to work.  When I sat down at the bus and looked down at the bag I was carrying, I realized:  "Oh poot!  I forgot to talk about this!"

You see, when I bought those Stations pics, I also bought several other items, including two Fulton Sheen tapesets.  With all the pics and the large tapesets, the cashier was trying to figure out the best way to bag it all up, because the pics were probably going to just tear through the bags.  She wanted to give me a box, but I was on the bike, so that wouldn't work.  (I have almost no fear of buying lots of stuff when I'm on the bike.  I'll make it work.)

She thought for a couple of minutes, then went over to the wall where they have tote bags and purses.  She took a couple of sturdy bags off the wall, tore the tags off them, said "You can have these!" and then packed up all my stuff.

And it worked perfectly!  So I got all those cool pics, a bunch of other stuff, a good sturdy bag to use to carry stuff to work, and another one to sell because I don't need two of them.

Not bad.

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

September Sales

Well, September is certainly the month I've been waiting for all summer!  Cooler temps and better sales!  The fall bounce has begun!

I didn't exactly set sale records, mind you, but they were up at both sites compared to previous months.  After a long, hot, somewhat discouraging August, that was most welcome.

At YesterNook, I was really surprised by some unexpected furniture sales. I'm talking pieces that had been there pretty much since the store opened.  And they are gone and I am happy.  I haven't been looking for furniture too much of late, because it just doesn't sell that well for me, but now I can keep an eye out for a couple of good pieces.

Meanwhile, at the Peddlers Mall, it was all about books, comics, religious items, and, of course, Halloween!  The killer Halloween display created a most welcome end of the month bump, and all indications seem to be that it will keep bumping for a few weeks yet. I've already sold all my tombstones, lots of the make up and fake blood, many of the party favors, but not that many skulls.

What it all adds up to this go around is a couple of good checks and one very happy vendor!  Let's see how it plays out for this month!

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

In case you were wondering...

My favorite Station of the Cross is number six.


That's Jesus meeting Veronica and her veil, in case you didn't know.

What?  Don't you have a favorite Station of the Cross?  Doesn't everyone?

Monday, October 01, 2012

Monday Rambles

Lots of rain last week.  Some of it made things cool.  Some of it made things muggy.  I prefer the cool things to the muggy things.

I managed to edge my post total up to 160 last month, so I've got three months to do 40 posts and make my 200 goal for the year.  It's looking more and more doable all the time.

Oh Lordy.  What have I done now?



And this is only a very small part of it.  I just grabbed a handful out of one of the boxes for a pic.  I have five boxes of this stuff, and innumerable bags.  I bought out the stock of a vendor who left and now I'm swamped with cards and nick nacks.

It's all Hallmark, though, so I'll make good money on it.  Sadly, no Xmas ornaments.  Still, I got this stuff mega-cheap!  Some of it will have to go into storage for the appropriate holiday, so I have got to get it all sorted and priced first.  It's a never-ending journey!

This is a crazy, crazy week.  My Tues-Thurs afternoon gig wants me in on Mon and Wed as well, so  I'll be there.  Extra hours mean more dollars but less time.  However, my Friday morning gig ain't happening this week, so I'll get a bit of a breather there.  I've got posts slated for most of the week, so be sure to check in here. 

I've been running low on books at the Peddler's Mall.  My new book table was half empty, and all of those were old books that I put on it so that it wouldn't be all empty!  I rectified that with a mass purchase of fifteen boxes of good stuff.  I'm going to be set for a while.  The best part is that I'll be able to put them out in "themes" for a while, since I have lots of books on certain topics now. I think the first theme will be hymnals.

I'm already having a pretty good run on the killer Halloween display.  Several pieces have sold already, including many costumes from the tub, which makes it less obnoxiously full.  I have a few last bits to put out this week and then I'll let it run.

I sold 73 dollars last Friday.  Wish I could have days like that all the time.  It was a bizarre combo of Halloween stuff and religious books that makes me wonder about the world.  Sometimes, I like to imagine that everything I sell in a given day was bought by one person.  Then I try to picture who that person is.  It's an interesting game.  This time around, I'm conjuring up a bizarre mix of Mother Teresa and Aleister Crowley.

I'm in a real good spot with stuff overall right now, so, other than some clearance gift items and small thrift runs, I've not done any heavy saling lately.  (Except, of course, for the big buys above.)  I did go to a sidewalk sale at my fave comic shop on Saturday.  I'll have more to say about that later, when I've got a chance to write it all out.  I do have to say right now, though, that it's been a long time since I've been a part of a nerd herd when it's converged on quarter comic boxes.  Thankfully, it's like falling off a bike. You pick it up pretty quickly, once you get thrust in the middle of things.

Ever notice how good a simple veggie burger with a slice of cheese on a nice whole wheat bun with a ripe slice of tomato and some leaf lettuce and a dab of spicy mustard tastes?  Mmmmmm....

And, finally, an open letter to an asshole:

Dear Asshole Who Thought It Would Be a Good Idea to Try and Rip Me Off at the Grocery While I Was in the Potty,

Do you really think I would leave my backpack in an unattended cart if it weren't empty, Dummy?  Seriously.  I had it there to put my damn groceries in.  Asshole.

Oh yeah, Fuck You!

Love, 

Me