Chapter 7
WHAT IF!!!!!
First considering the items I try to collect for resale are not plentiful in good condition and are not always located in certain areas of the country I find that
I am always thinking about lost opportunities. This happens in searching flea markets or yard sales and auctions.
I have a very limited amount of time to enjoy my hobby and the use of that time is very important to me. That is the reason I try to make out schedules, road routes,
select certain areas to work in one day, and keep a log of where I have been and where I want to go the next week. Everyone has failed to do something in their past
they regret to the very day they die.
Either it was not buying a certain stock that is now worth millions or not pursuing that one woman or man of a lifetime. I still find I will let an opportunity slip
by me if I stop to think to much about it. I have conditioned myself over the years to not think to long on whether or not I should take the time to make a short side
trip to another yard sale or check out more than one estate sale in one area. I will not think about the things I need to be doing on a Saturday other than pursuing
my hobby.
I may need to clean up my car which most of the time I do need to clean it up, the oil always needs to be changed in both cars, the wife may want to go shopping,
the grand kids may want to go fishing, I could continue on forever with the reasons for not taking the side trip when I see a yard sale sign on the side of the road,
or go to a goodwill store to search for collectibles. I found a few years ago the what if thoughts were popping up every time I went out on a Saturday morning,
should I waste time at this yard sale, should I make the twenty mile trip to a flea market that normally has lots of old books and records.
Well I realized I was out doing the one thing I really enjoy in life and I was contaminating my day with thoughts of pure responsibility which I live with
the other six days of the week.
I go to work everyday on time, I make sure I am doing a competent job in my classroom.
I give extra hours in the evening to my students and the needs of the school. I try to spend as much time with my wife as possible since we both
are working on different shifts. So now, I am a good person, I do the right thing so why am I trying to ruin my time spent with my hobby by worrying about being on
time at home. First there is no one there in the evenings and second I do not totally devote all my waking hours to my hobby so I have learned to enjoy my hobby
to its fullest. Here are a few examples of taking the lost opportunities and gaining by them.
After spending a futile day in the fall of 1996 to find anything of value to me searching yard sales I decided to head home, it was close to 4:30 and it was a very hot
day so off I went. I was close to forty miles away from home and traveling on two lane roads giving me a traveling time of just over one hour to finally get home. It was hot, the air
conditioner was on vacation again and I was hungry. To add to the day’s misery I had promised the wife to be home early to spend
some time with her and I was close to being late on that little issue.
I was in an area of the state with many small hills and the road I was traveling on apparently crossed every one of them all with steep curves and narrow roads
taking all of your attention not to cross the yellow line in the middle of a curve and met someone head on.
I had just started into one of those curves when I had a quick look at a large hand painted sign on a fence post YARD SALE ALL DAY. To say the least it was an
unusual sign considering the size and color which was solid black with white letters instead of the normal opposite. I was traveling to fast to make the turn into
the driveway and could not find a place to turn for a couple of miles.
During this time was I beating my brains out debating whether to go back down the mountain and check out the yard sale and as usual there was a car or two behind me
tailgating so I was watching my rear, trying to make up my mind and also looking for a place to turn. It always happens that way what ifs beating my brain and
looking for a place to turn before I got to far away and talk myself out of a possible treasure.
I finally made up my mind and turned around and found the turn off again and headed down the dirt lane. Five minutes later I was looking at a new two story house
setting on a point of one of the ridges with a huge driveway and a large building out to one side. It was late
in the evening and I figured it was to late but the homeowner was still setting on the porch and the yard was full of items for sale.
The house was new but the homeowners were old or I should say middle aged so maybe there would be something there worth the effort. At least I would satisfy
my what if urge. After parking and getting out of the car I walked over to the piles of clothes and whatnots scattered on the lawn around the front porch and
started looking around.
Well it appeared as if I had made a dry run until I got to the end of the pile of clothing and came upon a couple of tall boxes.
I looked into the boxes and they were full of women hats from the thirties and forties. I pulled out a few of them trying not to be obvious I was interested
in them and kept on looking around. I finally covered everything and walked over to the porch to talk to the couple and find out what they wanted for the two boxes
of old hats. After a few introductory words were spoken I ask what they wanted for the two boxes of old hats.
Since I knew there was a market for these items and would be willing to pay a good price for them I waited for the man and women to make up their mind about the price.
Considering the location of the house and the lateness of the hour I figured they would want to make a final sale so they would not have to pack up the boxes of hats
and in the end I was right. I bought both boxes of very good condition hats most union made and in excellent condition for only ten dollars.
The day ended up not being a total lose and once more the what if issue paid off for me. It can work for you to if you really work at it. Make your hobby the one
thing you do that does not take a backseat to anything on certain occasions and in some situations it will pay off for you. I can’t say it will be a situation that
will have a high percentage of successes, but it will have some. The thrill of finding that treasure even once in a while makes the ill will of the family worth it
some times.
The next example relates to estate sales and the failure on my part not to stick it out for
the full day of sales. I had been laying off estate sales for a few weeks considering I had purchased a lot items and had them stored around the house much to the
dismay of my wife so I had been trying to move some of the items on the net. I had made a good dent in the stock I had so I decided I would spend some time at a
local estate sale set for the following Saturday.
I had been there only a few minutes checking out the items going on the block and came across a box full of old 78 rpm records. Most were jazz and they were in
excellent condition. I knew it would be late in the day before they would be auctioned off as in most cases the records are not high value items and the auctioneer
saves them for the last group to be auctioned off.
I always run into some of my friends at these sales and that day was no exception. I saw one of the ladies I used to work with and walked over to talk to her and
made the mistake of asking her if there were any more auctions in the area that day. She said there was one in Morehead a small town I lived near. She happened to
have one of the one of the flyers from the auction, since I had not been working auctions lately I had missed that one.
In the flyer was a long list of the items to be sold that day. One item in particular was listed and I knew I would have to leave the auction I was at and hurry to
the one in Morehead. I always have good luck selling old cameras and there were three for sale at the auction. So off I go.
Well to make a short story shorter I drove over thirty miles to get to the auction and by the time I got there the cameras were gone so off I go back to the auction
I had just left. Another thirty miles and when I got back to the first auction, the records were gone. After thirty years I should have known better, but the What
if situation got the better of me.
Perhaps one of the worst problems I have with the What if situation is getting old and trying to work an estate sale. I get tired easier
than I use to so I normally leave an auction before it is over. As usual the best deals come at the end of an estate sale as the crowd has thinned out and the auctioneer
is tired and moving fast to end the auction. Last week My very pregnant daughter and grandson were with me at an estate sale and the sale was about three quarters over. My hips
were hurting, I was hungry and as usual there were a few more things I wanted to bid on. Since I knew one of the ringworkers well I ask him to put up a large box of
magazines I really wanted. Having a reputation of buying only good paper I knew I was being watched by other people who were going to bid against me.
The box had a 1946 Indianapolis 500 program in it plus over a hundred other magazines from the 1920-40s. The ringworker said he had a bid of fifty dollars from an absentee bidder
so I knew I was going to have to beat that so I started the bidding out at twenty dollars and soon had the fifty dollar bid overrun. at sixty dollars I was sure I had the
box of magazines when the gentleman beside of me started bidding. he took me to eighty-five dollars and I let him take the magazines. He didn't really want the magazines but
said since I was taking the bid so high they must have been worth a lot. Again the What if came into play on the way home. If I had stayed at the auction and waited until
the end of the auction or not shown so much interest in the magazines and let my daughter bid on them I wouuld have come away with the magazines at sixty dollars.
At the next auction I intend to take along one of those foldable chairs with the cup holders so I can outlast the johnny come latelys.
There have been many instance I have not taken the high road and moved on the instinct of What if and there have been many times I have not taken the What if instinct
seriously enough to act on it. For the most part I find if I act on it I usually come out ahead. So if you have a What if instinct pay attention to it sometimes and you just
might come out ahead of the game.
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