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A few months ago, I sold a pair of boots to someone in the biggest town in my rural county (about 25 miles away). I thought that was cool, and not just because of the $42 gross profit. I had purchased the boots at a tag sale that was much closer to the buyer’s home than to mine. 🙂
Today at a garage sale even further from my house, another female shopper asks me if I happen to be from the little town that I live in. Since my town is so little (doesn’t even have its own police force), it’s not really well known, so I’m a bit stunned. Turns out she is that buyer, and not only remembers that her boots were shipped from my town, but also remembers seeing me (an unknown person) at a thrift store buying a vintage dress that she later spotted in my (her seller’s) ebay store (I guess buyers sometimes do check out what else you have in your store). So she took a gamble and introduced herself. Luckily she really really liked the boots she got. Unluckily, she outed me as a reseller to the garage sale lady, but it was okay, b/c I didn’t want much there anyway. Anyway, it was cool to meet somebody new in this way!
Just my fun little scavenger story of the day. Something like the “Metropolitan Diary” tidbits in the New York Times.
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Several years ago I had an older man approach me at our little county office where everyone pays their property taxes. He said “You sell on eBay right?” I told him I did and asked how he knew tat. He said “Thats a secret”. Wasn’t quite sure what exactly he wanted.
Im glad we all share our lives here, but its nice to have privacy in small towns.
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Sounds like that guy wanted his privacy, too. At the last rummage sale in my town, the lady who lives right next door to the post office (and sees me there frequently) was at the sale and saw me purchase a vintage 90s neon ski jacket, and said “Wow, we’re sure going to see you coming from far away when you come down to the post office during the winter.” I’m like – “errrr… mm-hm, oh yeah, ha-ha.” Maybe by the winter I will have “discovered that it didn’t fit” or something. 🙂
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Argh, I hear ya about being outed at a garage sale as a reseller. People sometimes get bent out of shape. I don’t understand it myself, as I am willing to pay the same price as anyone else, and a sale should be a sale should be a sale.
In August I went to a hoarder sale out in the countryside. Big two story house with four outbuildings. They’d already had an estate sale and there was still tons left and they had to be out of there in five days so they were desperate. It was a down and dirty sale, mouse droppings and dodging rusty nails but man, were there still treasures everywhere, even though lots of digging was involved. It was two sisters handling their aunt’s estate and they said to just make a big pile out front and we’d negotiate a price. A buddy and I were both there, each of us with our own vehicle. She went one direction and I went another. It was 100 degrees and we were dripping sweat but man was it fun!!! THREE HOURS later we each had a massive pile of finds. One of the sisters had asked me at one point if I was a dealer and I said yes. I am always honest when asked directly. So when the time came to negotiate, she poked through my pile and noticed some 1970s Holly Hobbie items and said…oh you are going to make good money on that. I groaned inside because I knew she was going to ask more! However, all’s well that ends well. She asked me to make an offer. I said how about $30 for all of it. She said $40. I said let’s meet in the middle at $35. She said yes. My friend negotiated her huge pile for $25. So I paid a ten dollar premium for being honest…but I didn’t really care. My minivan was filled to the brim for $35. You can’t beat that. It’s easily about 2 thousand dollars worth of stuff. By far the best buy this year.
Thanks for letting me share my story!
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Hello,
Buying from a hoarder’s house, especially when the environment has not been sanitized (i.e. rat droppings), can come with health risks and some finds may even have bugs, mildew, and/ or critter droppings of some sort. I was just wondering what you found to be of benefit in way of protecting yourself from possible disease either while there and/or once you brought the items home.
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