How About a Few Recent Finds?

I haven't shared anything I've picked up in a while, so here are some highlights from a couple of church sales, plus a Goodwill run or two.

The comic shop had a sale the other day.  The comic selection wasn't the hottest, although I did find quite a few things.  Mostly it was the fifty cent graphic novels and sets that made the bulk of my purchases.  I came out way under budget on this trip, which is probably good.  At the last sale, I went over budget, mainly on stuff for me.  There was very little of that this time.

One thing  I did get was DVD's.  I'm pretty well-stocked on movies right now, but they get people into the book booth, so I made some selective choices, namely multi disc packs of older movies:

Stuff still new in the unopened shrinkwrap:

And religious topics:

A most unexpected find was a small graphic novel by one of my favorite singer-songwriters.  You just never know what's out there.

If you don't know Hayes, here's a good example of his work.  The man do have a way with the words.



This one is my favorite.  (Admittedly, a hard pick to make.)







If I don't stop now, The focus of this post is going to change dramatically.  Do a YouTube search for Hayes Carll.  I promise it's worth the time you'll lose.

Now, where was I?  Oh, yes.  The comic shop sale.


Of course, some oddness just for me.  Santa vs Satan?  It's the battle of the anagrams!  I am so there.

I still pick up VHS from time to time as well, as long as I don't pay more than a quarter. Flea markets attract people who, for whatever reason, have not upgraded their media technology.  I have seen customers, particularly older men, with carts full of nothing but VHS tapes.

Since they do take up a lot of room, I don't go searching them out deliberately.  My rules are pretty much the same as for DVD's:  Disney, a few classic films, oddball stuff, and religious topics.

This is actually one that makes me wish I still had a VHS player.

Of course, I got something for myself.

Reusable Marvel super-heroes shopping bag for the win.  I can't wait for the next big flea to break it in!  Woo to the Hoo!

The only thing I really knew about this book was that it was published at $150, but was on sale for $5.  There's got to be some room to do something with that.  It's totally not my thing, but someone else may like it.  It's also signed and has a set of prints included.

Courtesy of the local Goodwill, I found more SUMO BUTT!  Which means I now have three of them.  Which means I am a Sumo Butt collector, I guess.  My mother would be so proud.

Aren't these just the sweetest Kokeshi dolls ever????  I have become quite infatuated with Kokeshi over the past couple of years.  If I had room (those Sumo Butts take up a LOT of space), I would probably be seriously collecting them.  Instead, I am quite content with owning them and admiring them in the booth until someone else comes along who will take them home.  Re-selling:  It's dealing with your hoarding issues by making them someone else's.

IT'S THE RETURN OF THE REALLY BIG BUGS!  (And I love it!)

Finally, this bassinet doesn't have the hood, but I got it for a song, so it doesn't matter.  I thought it would be a cute display piece for teddy bears.  Looks like I was right, although I might switch those out for Disney beanies, since I have a ton of them.

Oops.  One more.  I found this vintage Bakelite View Master at such a good price, I had to check to make sure I hadn't turned into Shara.

The reel that was with it?  Is it some lost, vintage classic? 

Uhm, no.

Monday Rambles

"LO!  THERE SHALL BE A BLOG RESURRECTION!"

Yes, I read way too many Marvel comics as a kid.  Why do you ask?

I am waaaaaaaaay overdue for a finds post, so look for at least one, but more likely two or three this week.  The "Mazda" posts from the weekend were just the start of it.  There's stuff inside those boxes too, you know.  I even actually recently bought some things that are just for me to keep!  (They're comics, don't you know!  But, oh what comics!  Aging Nerd Heaven, Baby!)

I might actually end up with extra time to post this week.  Turns out I'm in trouble at work for not completing some online training things.  I was informed Friday that there was to be a meeting to discuss the issue and that "There would be consequences!"  Fortunately, it's not just me.  One of my colleagues is also in the hot seat.

My boss tends toward the dramatic, so I have no way of knowing what's hyperbole and what's not.  Here's what I do know:  Said colleague and I are the most effective staff at our center.  We are well-liked and we get the desired results.  We meet our target goals over and over.  We are also the only two people there who work at multiple economic angles to make ends meet.  She has three regular jobs.  I have tons of little side efforts, plus the booths.  It's not that either one of us is being deliberately petulant about doing trainings.  It's that we both usually forget to do the durn things.

There's a lot about this system that I could gripe about (like the fact that these trainings are important enough for "consequences" but not important enough to pay our full hourly rate to do) but I won't.  I do know that they're not going to be able to have a summer morning session starting tomorrow without my tubby butt.

We'll see.  I guess.

How about some more pleasant thoughts?  I've done this booth thing long enough to know that May is a hard month for sales.  I've gone over that here quite a bit recently, so I'm not going to rehash it again.

Last night, however, my email yielded the wonderful news that:

1.  I had the best May ever in terms of total sales.

Not only that, but:

2.  I had my best month this year (so far) for total sales.

And, if that were not enough:

3.  I had my second-highest monthly total ever!

Due to my recent rent increase, it won't be my largest take home check ever, but I have a feeling that's coming.  My sales really did expand to fill my new expense void, and much more quickly than I ever would have thought possible.  Now I'm sure that the struggle I had last year to grow my sales with my expansion then was largley due to being sick and not able to keep up.

This small furniture groove is really working for me, as is my turn to more items in a higher price range than I've traditionally done.  Now, I just need to keep that momentum up.  Since I'm (hopefully still) only working half days in the June and July, I'll have a lot more time to spend at the Peddlers Mall.  I'm still not as stocked on the shelves as I would like to be, so that is the next big goal.  (Along with reorganizing my storage space and completely restocking my comic books.)

It's an exciting time to be reselling!  Yay!

Best of all, this Saturday is the hands-down largest church sale in town!  And the entire neighborhood surrounding it also has its annual sale.  This is the big ritzy house part of town, where the people have names like "Vandella" and "Davenport" and their house staff actually run the sales while they're off to the club with their kids, who are named "Skip" and Mitzi."

Okay, not really, but it would make a fun play, wouldn't it?

A couple of years ago, we got lost in one part of this neighborhood that had some serious, serious houses in it.  I kept telling Keith that there was undoubtedly some woman inside one of them looking out the window at us and screaming for her husband:

"Davenport!  Come quickly!  There are two strange men in a...a...a...Hyundai full of....USED ITEMS...driving past the house! Call security!" 

As if that weren't enough, junk set out starts again in this area on Friday!  Time to get out and battle the scrappers and the pickers and the cowboy angels!  (Bonus points if you get that last reference.  Here's a hint.)

It's a living, ya know?

And what a living it is!

See ya!