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Category: ebay

Mon. Feb. 27, 2023 – and a new week gets started

Damp.   Warm.   Springtime for Houston.   Today should be just like yesterday with a bit more cloudiness and maybe more damp.   Even if the sun wasn’t burning the sky and the heat wasn’t tightening my skin, it was kinda uncomfortable outdoors yesterday.   Right on the edge where every movement brings sweating…

So I did some stuff outside, more than I did the day before, and then called it quits and came in and read.   No chance of whinging on about not having time for what I need to do when I don’t use the time I am given.

For reasons I’m not going to go into, this past week has been loaded up with stress, which was suddenly relieved, but I’m feeling some whiplash.  Add to that today would have been my dad’s 90th birthday, and I’m feeling a bit out of sorts.  It’s leaving me filled with a certain lassitude that isn’t helping things.

Still, have to keep moving and push on through.

This week I am UN-stacking things and piling them up to sell at the hamfest.   Do I need to be able to equip a neighborhood with 2 way radios?   Do I need to be able to equip more than one neighborhood?  There is probably a reasonable limit to the stuff I really need to have on hand, and I’ve crossed it in some categories.  Blister pack GPRS and FRS radios is one of those categories.    Motorola handie talkies is another.   I can’t program them, so do I need bins filled with them?  No.  I need radios I can program.   I can use the money to buy those radios, or to improve some other area of preps.

It’s a bit like the guys who bought 22LR as “trade goods” or to “sell when the price goes up”.   Only they never do sell.   They never sell the cheap ARs or the Pelican cases of pistols they bought just to sell later either.   It’s far too easy to hold on to them, thinking the time isn’t right or that now that the drought has come, they need them more than they need to sell them.

It’s and easy trap to fall into.

Anyway, I’m hoping to sell far  more this time than I normally would be ready to sell.

Which will let me stack something else… or improve my position elsewhere.  Which is ultimately the goal.

n

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Fri. Feb. 24, 2023 – in which our hero discovers another week has flown by…

Warm and humid.  No rain in the forecast but maybe some more overcast.   Yesterday was mostly overcast, but we didn’t get any rain in the places I visited.   I’ve got stuff in the back of my truck that I don’t really want to get wet before I can get it put away…

Did get pickups done.   Last pickup for the one auctioneer, who is calling it quits.   We may be at the same stage of returns and overstock reselling as house flipping was just before that collapsed.   New players with no experience are paying too much to buy in, thinking it’s easy money, while more experienced players are finding it hard to stay in the game, or no longer profitable.   A crash and consolidation seem to be headed this way for this nascent but quite large market activity.

It is actually a new version of an old business.   There have been resellers, wholesalers, surplus outlets, auctions, and fire sales for a long time.  Probably since the first failed product in the market.  But the old business model of insiders and somewhat disguised markets (Ross Dress for Less did pretty well selling the stock other retailers couldn’t move, ditto for Marshalls and the “outlet store” fiction) expanded and shifted and combined with online auctions, cottage industry, and the idea of the side hustle to spawn a whole new crop of reseller businesses.   There has been a huge increase in the size and scope of the market, as new sellers pop up and buyers become aware of what’s available.

Shakeout and consolidation is probably inevitable.

One consideration is that it has broken the traditional retail model, and opened people up to the idea that goods don’t have to come from a store (or a big company  — I mean selling platform– like Amazon).   As the general economy worsens, there will be an increase in bargain hunters, of necessity.  That means more person to person selling, more non-traditional venues (like swapmeets, black and grey markets, permanent yard sales, etc.)   If it happens it means I was right to advocate learning about this way to shop before it became a necessity 😛

Anyway, consider your own habits and routines for getting the stuff you need and use.   What if those options are not available, or not available at a price you can afford?   It’s always easier to learn a new skill while you still have the backup option of doing things the old way.

Get out there and start learning about the secondary economy, or the “informal” economy.   Use the practice to increase your stacks, and kill two birds with one stone.

 

nick

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Thurs. Feb. 23, 2023 – 02232023 – wouldn’t be prudent…

Warm.  Damp.   Warm and damp.   Felt like we missed Spring and went right into Summer yesterday.   Once the rain stopped anyway.  Today is supposed to be similar but clear.   I hope so.

I’ve got stuff to pickup today and rain won’t help that.   It’s stuff I couldn’t pick up yesterday because of the morning ‘moisture from the sky.’

I was able to drop off a small bin of mostly Pokemon stuff at my auctioneer, and pick up a check for my profit on the last several auctions.    My big score was an antique book that brought $400.  The most I paid for it was 50c…  that’s good return on investment.  If I bought it on a day with more books, it might have been 33c…    There were some other good sellers too, with high multiples for ROI.    I need to focus on those type of items.    FWIW, they tend to be vintage, and unusual or even unique.

Books that have some local interest, a Texas subject, and are at least 75-100 years old do well for me at the local auction.  “Smalls” or small collectible items did very well in the last auction as well.   Bigger items, sports cards, and household things didn’t do well.   Old toys, even in bad condition, usually do well, and sometimes do VERY well.   It’s always  a crapshoot, and sometimes things I thought were a slam dunk barely sell at all.  The trick is to be there every time with a variety of stuff.  And don’t pay very much for your stock.

I’ve got some other running around to do today, and some maintenance stuff at home.   The wifi needs attention, as signal levels are very low in places.  My wife has moved dealing with that to the top of my list.  I’m going to add  two Asus nighthawk access points at opposite ends of the house.   That will probably be overkill, but we have a lot more wifi devices now than we did when I set everything up originally.   Getting the wifi off the att fiber router will allow me to specify my own DNS and use openDNS initially,  and set up a pi-hole later.   I’ve got a stack of wifi routers from the goodwill, some from client sites, and some from estates or yardsales.   I’ll use the asus at home for now, and save the ubiquiti for the BOL.   That’s the current plan…   Or I could just add a couple of ubiquiti UAC access points here and be done with it… I haven’t made a choice yet, which is why it hasn’t been DONE yet.

SWMBO has spoken though so I will be making a choice today.

External deadlines.  I needs ’em.

Other than DVDs ripped to my server, I haven’t done much stacking this week.   We’ll see what I can do later to improve my situation.

I will say that stacking food and money  probably isn’t a bad idea.  You should give it a try.

 

nick

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Wed. Feb. 22, 2023 – 02222023 – more silliness ensues, no blame attaches.

Warm and damp.   Back in Houston, so overcast too.  Hot and sunny at the BOL yesterday with a very steady wind.   Not for the first time I’m thinking about a VAWT or even a small wind generator.

Did a few more things, mainly cleaning and organizing, before heading home yesterday.  Didn’t get any more fishing in.   Didn’t even try to fly a kite.   I’ve got some big ones that really  need a strong steady wind, and it would be fun to try them at the BOL.  Not really enough space though.

Today I might head over to my remaining client’s house to do some updates and installs.   Or not, if it’s not convenient for them.  I do need to get over there this week though, and the week is half gone.

Gotta do a pickup today too, and maybe a drop off.    Should be some checks waiting… had a couple of nice surprises in the last couple of auctions.

I’m also looking at the pile o stuff here and thinking I need to jump on some of this before it gets completely out of hand.   Always something to do…

And stacking, there’s always stacking…

 

n

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Tues. Jan. 10, 2023 – All the news that’s fit to print.

Cool and damp.   That time of year.  Winter, I think you call it up north.  60F when I went to bed so ‘cool’ not ‘cold.’  It turned into a very nice day yesterday and I’m hoping for the same today.

Got my trailer rental returned.   They had the wrong trailer assigned to me, and that one got returned on time, which left me with a completed reservation, and nothing to turn in.    They got it straightened out.  Didn’t take long.

Hit  the Goodwill on my way home and witnessed a full on scrum over some comic books.   They ended up wrinkling and ripping them as they fought to grab as many as they could.   Savages.   What value there might have been was lost in the fighting.   The one I spot checked was only 99c plus shipping, and after witnessing the fight, the cashiers were not inclined to discounts, so the comics would have been 3/99c.   Not much profit at that rate.   There might have been some valuable books in there, but I didn’t join in.    I did swoop in afterward and pick up a board game that is selling for $65 – 75 and a SCSI adapter in the box that should sell for about the same, maybe a bit less.   I’ll let them fight over pennies.

Came home and did some ‘domestic bliss’ stuff around the house.   More of that today and maybe some plumbing…  or head to my storage unit to take advantage of the clear weather.

Sold one of the freezers to my fisherman buddy.    That leaves the two with more damage to be sold.  Maybe I’ll pick those up today.  Or maybe I’ll do vehicle maintenance.   Or not.   We’ll see.  I’ve got to do a Costco run too.  A whole bunch of stuff I buy is on sale this month so it’s time to add to the stacks.

Had a good conversation with D1 about how the media lies, how they have been lying, and how to look at an article and a picture critically.     She also expressed some concern that with all the illegal invaders, maybe white people (us in particular) would get forced out, or made into the slaves this time around.   I told her that even if we had to die surrounded by piles of spent brass we’d never be slaves.  And to watch for them seizing the guns, because they take the guns when they want to do something to you that you would shoot them for trying…

Conversations are getting interesting.

Stack it high, sporty times will be very difficult to avoid.

nick

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Thur. Dec. 15, 2022 – visit to client today, if I can swing it…

Cold and wet.   It was 50F and dropping when I went to sleep.   Wed had the temp falling all day, with only a brief time when the sky was blue and the temp was stable.   But when the sky cleared, it was a beautiful day.

Took three bins of ‘smalls’ to my auctioneer.  Picked up my check and empty bins.   Missed the chance to get in the last auction before Christmas.   That’s unfortunate, but I knew it was likely last week.  Made some money on most of the stuff I sold.   Some lost a bit.  Some made good money.   Which is all normal.  There is no way to predict what will sell in any given auction, or how much it will sell for.  The biggest return was selling a bag of vintage Fisher Price “Little People” toys.   The gallon bag of figures and accessories went for $30 and it wasn’t even very full.  All of it went for less than ebay, but that’s normal too.

Today I am trying to get to my client’s house for a few hours.   I’ve got to sort out the port forwarding for the cameras, replace the burned up PoE switch,  and see what I got wrong setting up  the VPN access.  If I have time, I need to install the cell booster repeater too.

My sibling is in town for work this week and we have a tentative dinner date tonight.   S/he brought some gifts, and I’ve got birthday gifts for him/her.  I don’t think we have Christmas gifts ready to send back with her/him.  Time is marching on, but other stuff keeps moving to the front of the line.

This is a time to be strengthening relationships, not taking them for granted.

And for stacking up memories of the good times.

Stack stuff if you can’t stack memories, but definitely take the time to stack memories…

nick

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Fri. May 13, 2022 – Friday the 13th falls on a Friday this month

Hot and humid, probably clear.   Mid 90s likely, both in temperature and humidity… summer is here in Houston.

Spent the afternoon doing a round of pickups.   I realize it sounds like I’m doing nothing but buying stuff at auction.  Well… that isn’t wrong, as such.   What might be missing is that I buy almost nothing from stores or online anymore unless it is something very specific that I need quickly.  For example, one of the stops yesterday was for cleaning supplies- two gallons of dish washing soap, 4 spray bottles of bleach/soap, and a couple of other things.   Was it cheap enough to drive across town?  Yes.  Absolutely.  Some flexibility was involved as the dishsoap was Joy lemon scent, when we prefer the blue stuff, but at only a buck or two a bottle, I’ll smell the lemon…

A stop at goodwill yielded a box of silver colored indoor door knobs because the universe still loves me.  I wanted to change out the gold colored ones at the BOL, as most are very worn after 40 years, and they weren’t high quality to start with.    I wish they were levers, but beggars blah blah…  Flexibility.  Anyway, not a priority, but doorknobs are something you touch every day and if they don’t work right, it’s frustrating.

A chat with another seller and he’ll send me advance pics of some of the stuff I’m looking for for the BOL before it hits the auction.   People, networking, meatspace.  Relationships are important.   I’ve been saying it, and I’ll repeat and I’ll repeat and I’ll repeat that you need practice in the secondary economy, just like anything else.  It could just be confirmation bias but I’m convinced that you or someone in your group of acquaintances will have to play the role of ‘scrounger’ or supply clerk, or whatever you want to call it, but someone will have to know where to get stuff, who to try getting it from, and what is worth trading.

A lot of preppers talk about stacking stuff ‘for barter’ but they’ve never dickered over a price, or shopped anywhere but a big box store.  I don’t stack ‘for barter’ but I do have stuff that I think I’ll need later, and if I need it, probably other people will too.  And since no one can go it alone, or stack every thing they might need, it might be that I end up trading or bartering or just plain selling some of that stuff.  A HUGE amount of commerce is happening in the person to person space already.  That is only going to increase.   Get some practice.   Hit some yardsales this weekend, and check out a thrift store…  driving around your area will help you survey the current conditions near you too.   Lots of benefits to getting out and looking around.

 

The best part of shopping in the secondary economy is saving money.   Second best is getting something you couldn’t get otherwise.   Leverage it to build your stacks…

nick

 

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Fri. Apr. 29, 2022 – Lots of catching up today

Clear and pleasant again, with some clouds.   It sure was nice yesterday, with only an intermittent threat of rain from some cloudiness, and a bit of humidity later in the day.

Finished up my shade tree mechanic LARPing.  Got the Ranger running, and picked up a replacement wiper for the rear window of my Expedition.    I c’nae believe how hard it was to find the correct wiper, or why Ford went with a completely different attachment means for that one wiper.  AdvanceAutoParts, and Autozone had me running around, but O’Reilly had the parts I needed.  I’ll check with them first next time.  I bought a second wiper as a spare and it was the last one they had.  More reinforcement for the idea that if you think you might need it, you better stack it.

I also shipped my ebay sale and couple of other things I’ve been putting off for no good reason.

D1 had a play at school last night and tonight, so we went to see that.   Every kid was miked, ever mic was too loud.  I know I’ve got hearing issues, but I couldn’t get but one word in 10.   Daughter is following in the wife and my footsteps with her work backstage.  Mixed feelings about that.  It was a great learning experience, and it put us both where we are now, but times change, and I’m not sure I’d want to be working in the industry now.

I suppose that is true for most parents.

Today I’ve got a couple of pickups, and some driving to do.  Then I’ll have more sorting and stacking at my storage unit.   Wife and D1 are headed to GS camp for the weekend after the curtain comes down on the show tonight.   D2 and I are home alone.   Might just load up the truck and head to the lake after swim practice Saturday.  There’s plenty to do up there, if I get bored with all the stuff that needs doing here…

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WRT site issues here, please keep reporting them, but bear with us as Rick tries to sort it out.

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And for pete’s sake, stack some food.  Don’t forget fats.  Peanut oil stores well, and can be used in place of butter in most cooking.  Lard in sealed plastic buckets should last a long time too.   With the decrease in sunflower oil exports from Ukraine, people will have to buy other oils, which will put pressure on them as well.   Get some, even if you don’t use much now.  It’s relatively cheap, stores for a long time, and is an important prep.  Salt and vinegar too, in mass quantities, mainly for food preservation, and a few jars of ‘pickling spice’ wouldn’t be a bad idea.

FWIW I like multiple smaller containers, rather than one big one.   It lasts longer if you don’t have a giant container open, you can more easily share a smaller container, and if one is spoiled the rest will still be ok.  To me, multiples are better, even if the unit cost is higher.  The most expensive prep is one you have to throw out without using.    Had a rat (might have been the possum) gnaw a bottle of peanut oil this week, made a mess on the shelf.   That was just one liter damaged, not the whole supply.  I could have used what was left in the bottle for frying I suppose if desperate, or as lamp oil, but I just tossed it and replaced it.   That might not always be an option.  So….

Stack something.

nick

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Wed. Apr. 13, 2022 – ya put your right foot in, ya put your right foot out…

Warm and wet again.   It did rain on the plain in Spain yesterday, for values of ‘rain’ and ‘spain’ that are closer to ‘houston’ and ‘misty drizzle’.   Rounding error.  Yeah, that’s the ticket.   Today should be more of  the same, overcast, humid, rain in places.

Did my ‘south’ pickups.  Stuff for the BOL and gub accessories mostly.  “Why, no sir, I don’t have a single complete gub in the house….”   I might have a “few” parts in a box somewhere…

I’ve got my ‘north’ pickups to do today and tomorrow.   Looking at the map, I may not combine them with my trip to the BOL to meet the engineer.   One is WAY off the path.  It might make more sense to do the out of the way pickup today and just leave it all on the truck for the trip up tomorrow.  So many choices.

Americans are certainly used to an overabundance of choices.   We even have a branch of science* to study why having too many choices is bad in retail, and in life.   I’ve argued for a while that one of the main underlying and crucial differences between Americans and Europeans (well, really everyone else) is that we come from a culture of abundance and they come from a culture of scarcity.  It really does impact how you relate to almost everything.

With that in mind, the coming shortages and economic collapse are going to be very hard for Americans to accept and ‘deal with’.   I think there will be a lot of people whose brains just sort of vapor lock on the idea that there AREN’T any choices.  They are going to sputter, and deny, and b!tch, and fail to adapt to the new reality.

Don’t be one of them.  Get your head around the idea that things are not normal, won’t be normal, and it will be a long time before a new normal establishes itself.  This will free you to act accordingly.

Stacking up stuff so you personally still have choices might be a really good idea too.

nick

*well, not ‘science’ exactly, but SOCIAL science…

(and Friday the Thirteenth falls on a Wednesday this month)

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Tues. Apr. 12, 2022- lots of driving today

Warmish, but maybe clearer than yesterday.  Maybe not.  One forecast has rain over us for the next two days at least. As usual, we’ll see.

Spent the day doing indoor stuff.  Had some banking in the morning, and early pickup for D2 in the afternoon, so that pretty much precluded getting out and doing anything that would take more than a single hour.  The early rain meant I wasn’t going to work outside either.

Today I’ve got to do most of this week’s pickups.   Since I’m going up to the BOL on Thursday, I’ll get the stuff that is up that way then, but I have to get the rest before that.  And I’ve got to sort and box a few bins worth of stuff to drop off at one auctioneer today, so there is that as well.   It never rains but it pours.

Add the shopping, and prep for the Easter weekend (not going to the BOL, D2 wants another holiday here at home, and no septic system…)  and it’s going to be a busy couple of days.

And there must be some shopping.  I’ve let my stocking levels of some staples drop because we’re eating less of them, and because we got busy and were out of town last week.   The result is fewer eggs in the house than at any time during the last two years.  Milk is similarly low, and there are a couple of other things, like supplements, that I let run down.  Of course I need EXTRA eggs now for Easter too.

Speaking of Easter, I better get a lamb roast out of the freezer.

No guests for Easter this year though.

Life goes on, even with the threat of WWIII, during a worldwide pandemic, with runaway inflation and the prospect of famine on the horizon.

Preps smooth out the ups and downs, and provide a great deal of comfort.  When they run low, I get extra nervous though, so there is balance in the world 🙂

Go out and stock up.   There may come a day when “Prepping, it’s what’s for dinner” saves the day.

Stack it up.

n

 

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