flea market primitives discuss slim pickings

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1026854

Oh my.

grasswire (38,596 posts)    Mon Nov 25, 2013, 01:48 PM
CANDIDATE FOR TOP DUmmie OF 2013
CANDIDATE FOR THE "ROB"

anything going on in your neck of the woods?

What is the state of picking where you are? Better? Worse?

Do buyers totally shut down from now til spring?

How are things?

Any cool finds?

wyldwolf (34,874 posts)   Mon Nov 25, 2013, 01:54 PM

1. Late summer and fall was a bust for me

My fortunes changed two weeks ago when I picked up someone's personal Marilyn Monroe memorabilia collection very cheap. An older couple was moving and one of their friend GAVE the collection to them to sell.
 
The weekends since then have been eh! Making a little money.

<<<hopes the primitive remembers to claim his windfall profits to the IRS; the guy in the White House needs the money.

safeinOhio (7,666 posts)    Mon Nov 25, 2013, 02:10 PM

2. Easy to buy, hard to sell this time of year.

Started a pick today that will take a week or two. Person has 3 houses, two garages and two barns full. A family of hoarders.

grasswire (38,596 posts)    Mon Nov 25, 2013, 02:19 PM
CANDIDATE FOR TOP DUmmie OF 2013
CANDIDATE FOR THE "ROB"

3. man I am jealous

I would LUV that kind of a pick.

Situation here: not so easy to pick.

ebay is running about 35% sales for me.

I sold something yesterday on etsy that has been sitting there for more than three months.
 
Please let us know what you find in that pick. Some of us can only live vicariously. Ha!

safeinOhio (7,666 posts)   Fri Dec 6, 2013, 03:41 AM

9. Been over twice.

First time I just helped clear pathways in and around stuff and made trips to the dump. Yesterday I only bought 2 things and was given a load of things for my help and the owner thought most of it was little value. I was thinking very different. Some old fishing gear, advertising and some primitives. [franksolich:  ]
 
I did find some items that may be out of my league. I'll help them market some of those at major auction houses. Other large items, some industrial type stuff can go to local auctions.
 
I'm starting to think this will take a month or two. Hard, fun work. Come home tired, dirty and very excited.

Paper Roses (4,831 posts)    Mon Nov 25, 2013, 02:24 PM

4. Hi grasswire, Been waiting to hear from all of you!

Since I am no longer in the biz, I am not up to what is going on. By the looks of the posts lately, things are quiet.

I hope all of you have a great fall and winter season. I know things are slow. Friends still in the biz are complaining that there is no traffic.

Where are the people going to, Ikea?

Bad mistake on their part.

Would love to see more posts, things are they are, questions, bellyaches. Whatever.

Wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving.

Hope it is warmer where you are, 17 degrees here and the heat is blaring. Closed everything off that I can and it is still cold in this old house.

My winter will be spent in fleece and an extra robe. Fuzzy socks and a cold kitty on my lap.
 
Phooey on this weather. My oil heat provider is happy but he is the only one.

grasswire (38,596 posts)    Mon Nov 25, 2013, 02:32 PM
CANDIDATE FOR TOP DUmmie OF 2013
CANDIDATE FOR THE "ROB"

5. Happy holidays to you, PR!

Been waiting to hear from you too! LOL

I saw somewhere else on DU that you are volunteering at a thrift shop. At least you get to sort and price to keep touch with the trade.
 
Have you sold off most of what your kids don't want?

I wish we could all have a meet-up in your neck of the woods (in warmer weather). I've flown over the cape, but never actually toured the cape.
 
How old is your house?

Stay well! And warm.

Paper Roses (4,831 posts)   Tue Nov 26, 2013, 05:20 PM

8. Where is Vinca?

<<<hopes the vindictive primitive, who's a notorious re-seller ("you've got to be sharp; you've got to cheat the other guy before he can cheat you"), is somewhere where she's suffering a lot.

When the vindictive primitive was young, she worked for an abortion profiteer.  One day the abortionist laid a murdered infant out on a plate, and passed it around the office so his employees could see what it looked like.  The vindictive primitive, in a comment supportive of the bitter old Vermontese cali primitive, said, "I don't know what the big deal is [about abortion].  It didn't look human to me."

[Bad Dog]

The vindictive primitive, in a comment supportive of the bitter old Vermontese cali primitive, said, "I don't know what the big deal is [about abortion].  It didn't look human to me."

I pretty much feel the same way about most primitives.

[JohnnyReb]

Communist doing their capitalist thing and not paying their fair share.....I'm shocked....NO...not even surprised.

[BannedFromDU]

     These people are known by another name: hoarders.

[franksolich]

     These people are known by another name: hoarders.

They are.

The chronically-helpless primitive, the "PaperRoses" primitive, a couple of years ago was ordered by her adult kids to get the junk out of her house, and so she hired a professional eBayer to do it. 

Her dining room was finally usable again.....for about ten minutes.

Then she jammed it full again, and is whining about having no room.

[Delmar]

Paper Roses (4,831 posts)    Mon Nov 25, 2013, 02:24 PM

4. Hi grasswire, Been waiting to hear from all of you!

Since I am no longer in the biz, I am not up to what is going on. By the looks of the posts lately, things are quiet.

Supplementing welfare with under-the-table tax dodging junk scrounging = the biz.  Got it.

[BannedFromDU]

They are.

The chronically-helpless primitive, the "PaperRoses" primitive, a couple of years ago was ordered by her adult kids to get the junk out of her house, and so she hired a professional eBayer to do it. 

Her dining room was finally usable again.....for about ten minutes.

Then she jammed it full again, and is whining about having no room.

Once the flat surfaces are gone, it's all downhill and hopeless. First rule of professional organizing: reclaim the flat surfaces.

[GOBUCKS]

was given a load of things for my help and the owner thought most of it was little value. I was thinking very different.

I wonder if the DUmmy warned the guy that the stuff was valuable?

Or did he say nothing and take advantage of his friend?

[Bad Dog]

I wonder if the DUmmy warned the guy that the stuff was valuable?

Or did he say nothing and take advantage of his friend victim?

Fixed for ya.

[GOBUCKS]

I wonder how poor addled grasswipe Judy Smith hoards. She's homeless, squatting in an abandoned bodega up there in the edge of Portland, Oregon.

She totters up and down the sidewalks, bundled in multiple overcoats summer and winter, tugging a little red wagon heaped with treasures she finds in the devil strip on trash pickup days. She also collects hair clippings in little medicine bottles.

Now in her early 70s, she still mutters about the pie shop that never was, her fantasy from nearly three years ago. http://www.oregonlive.com/milwaukie/index.ssf/2011/03/pieandjam_shop_to_open_along_the_trolley_trail_aid_local_music_programs.html

As comically addled as she is, she tries mightily to sound normal, clued-in, authoritative, resulting in hilarity that embarrasses her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, and great-great-great grandchildren. (The Smith clan breeds like fruit flies.)

All that makes her a great candidate for the Rob McGrath Award.

[vesta111]

I wonder if the DUmmy warned the guy that the stuff was valuable?

Or did he say nothing and take advantage of his friend?

This business is cut throat from the bottom up.    A treasure hunt to find the goodies and anything over looked by others.    Biggest thieves in the business are the people in the auctioning business that come in to auction off a home goods or from a deceased relative.  They get first pick and can buy priceless goods from the Estate for penny's on the dollar.

I realized this when I found at auction a dagger in an animal skin sheath with hand sewn Masonic symbols on a table.    I figured this was a good 100 years old and picked it up to bring to the front to be auctioned off.  
I had only $500.00 bucks on me but I wanted this for my father.

A couple of workers came to me to tell me the knife had been already been bought by the Auction Company and was not up for bid.       So why was it still on the table of items to be auctioned off, did they not notice the significance of the item until I picked it up ??

[Freeper]

This business is cut throat from the bottom up.    A treasure hunt to find the goodies and anything over looked by others.    Biggest thieves in the business are the people in the auctioning business that come in to auction off a home goods or from a deceased relative.  They get first pick and can buy priceless goods from the Estate for penny's on the dollar.

I realized this when I found at auction a dagger in an animal skin sheath with hand sewn Masonic symbols on a table.    I figured this was a good 100 years old and picked it up to bring to the front to be auctioned off. 
I had only $500.00 bucks on me but I wanted this for my father.

A couple of workers came to me to tell me the knife had been already been bought by the Auction Company and was not up for bid.       So why was it still on the table of items to be auctioned off, did they not notice the significance of the item until I picked it up ??

To be fair, they probably were scared to allow you to have a sharp object.

[vesta111]

To be fair, they probably were scared to allow you to have a sharp object.

I think I like you Freeper, I only became crazy when I had 4 teenagers at the same time.    Something seems to happen to the brains of mothers and fathers when we try to run herd on children in their teen years.   A sense of impending doom,  and it never goes away as they become adults.   

[Freeper]

I think I like you Freeper, I only became crazy when I had 4 teenagers at the same time.    Something seems to happen to the brains of mothers and fathers when we try to run herd on children in their teen years.   A sense of impending doom,  and it never goes away as they become adults.

I'm as cuddly as a cactus.

[DefiantSix]

I'm as cuddly as a cactus.

And there I was thinking you might qualify as "charming as an eel", sir.

[Freeper]

And there I was thinking you might qualify as "charming as an eel", sir.

I'm a double decker toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce.

[BlueStateSaint]

I'm a double decker toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce.

And the three words that best describe you

Are as follows, and I quote,

STINK!

STANK!

STUUUUUNK!

[FiddyBeowulf]

OT but this stuck out to me.

Now in her early 70s, she still mutters about the pie shop that never was, her fantasy from nearly three years ago. http://www.oregonlive.com/milwaukie/index.ssf/2011/03/pieandjam_shop_to_open_along_the_trolley_trail_aid_local_music_programs.html

So, I clicked on the link and still cannot figure out why this business plan failed. 

She expects most of her customer base to come from the 6-mile trail, which is to connect Gladstone and Milwaukie.

Hikers, bikers and other trail users can expect brown-sugar peach, lemon icebox and deep-dish green apple pies, among other varieties, for $3. Unless they're teachers or public servants, because Smith will serve those customers at no cost.

Cafe profits will be donated to music programs at Oak Grove, Oregon City and Gladstone schools, according to Smith. "I wanted to start a place that would support community music and public schools," she said.

It is like if you asked a child how you would start a business and how to run it.