30.MAY.00
Looking
For The Big Score
Summer
returns to the Midwest, bringing with it some wonderful sunny days,
the resurgence of trees and flowers, and best of all--the garage sale!
We anxiously
search the classifieds to try to decode what they are really selling.
Thousands of books! This one sounds good. Should we get up at 4:30 am
to go wait in line with the other early birds to get an early number,
or will it just be a waste of time? Are they telling it like it is or
will we go and only find a collection of a hundred or so moldy old Reader’s
Digest editions, and old National Geographics and encyclopedia sets
in the basement?
Lots of
great stuff from a 30 year collection! Could be ...or it could be 35
years of sewing scraps, kids toys, old Tupperware, and the Crate and
Barrel wedding gifts they got back in the ‘70’s. Sometimes it's hard
to keep in mind that thirty years ago, was not exactly ancient times.
Still it's possible they could have a first edition copy of Zen and
the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, or any number of other popular
titles from around that era, so it might be worth a try, anyway.
There is
no way to ever really know what they are selling, so we make our best
guesses and head off to the sales every Friday and Saturday.
Competition
for the best items is a lot tougher now than it used to be. Many more
people have computer access than before, and lots and lots of them are
now selling their “valuables” on line. Everyone's aunt and granny has
become an “antique” dealer. I can't say that I blame them for trying.
It sometimes makes for great bargains for the collectors. And the wiser,
and clever dealers can pick up some really good buys to resell.
But it also makes it a lot harder to find really good stuff out there
at the lowest level of the market-- garage sales and thrift stores.
Why do
we choose to do this each and every week? Partly it's just the thrill
of the hunt that calls. We've been doing it for years, as much for the
cheap bargains in usable stuff as anything. Practically my whole house
is furnished by garage sale finds, and it's nice stuff, not junk. And
there's no better place to find great buys on kitchen gadgets and cookware
and dishes. Why buy a Bodum coffee maker for $23.00 when you can get
one for $3.00 at a garage sale? Or how about a barely used Cuisinart
for $25.00? Frankly, I don't understand why everyone doesn't do it.
But now
it's really become a lot more important. Because now our livelihood
truly does depend on targeting and grabbing the right items at the right
price. Since we've been in the used book business and since we have
also been selling other collectibles on E-bay, it can mean a real difference
between poverty and momentary riches.
We've been
collectors for a long time and have bought and sold things on and off
over the years. But not until about five years ago did we go into it
seriously. My spouse wanted to try to make a living as a book dealer.
He has always loved books and collected them. I became really burnt
out and tired of designing and making jewelry for a living. We've been
partners in that business for over 20 years--I held up mostly the design,
production, and special commissions end; and he took on a lot of the
nitty gritty details of the business end, and has helped with many of
the most boring details of the production line. We're still doing that
business, but have been cutting way back in the last two years.
What I
hope to get out of all of this change, is to be able to put some of
my energies elsewhere. I am still working on exactly where that would
be. I’d like to get back into making what I call real “art” again. And
I have also seriously considered going back to school to either get
an MFA, or to learn how to do conservation of books and paper, which
really sounds fascinating and would fit nicely into the rare book business.
So far,
though, I have managed to successfully procrastinate on doing any of
those things. Instead, I took a part-time freelance job as coordinator
for an organization of Midwestern book dealers and as manager of two
big book fairs they sponsor twice a year.
The transition
to a different way of making a living is a little scary, but we've managed,
just barely, to make it work so far. We really do have to hustle to
look for opportunities to get books and collectibles wherever they may
appear. So regardless of what the real truth might be behind the words
in the garage sale ads, we have to try to be first in line in order
to have a chance to get those bargains. It makes for some nail biting
sometimes. And it has it's rewards...like the tiny aluminum anvil we
sold for over $1,000.00, which we might have paid .50 cents for at a
long forgotten garage sale.
We long
for the moment when we find someone who is unloading stuff in a down-sizing
moment, or getting rid of their parents estates. We hope it'll be just
a bunch of old stuff to them, and that they haven't kept abreast of
the collectibles market, and that everything will be cheap or reasonable,
with an astounding resale value in the collectibles market. And of course
we're first in line.
Oh yeah...that’s
the fantasy!
So off
we go each weekend looking for the possibility of the big score...the
accidental find...the sale of the century.
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