€ Dr. Artaud € wrote:

running dogg wrote in :

I haven't done them, but estate sales are probably the best way to garner
interesting items. Older people, upon passing, may have kept items
hoarded away, either for their keepsake value, or simply since people
from harder times valued their possessions more, even if they fell into
disuse. Also, as a telling sign to modern quality, things made years ago
tended to last a long time. Manufacturers actually believed that people
wanted quality.

I've done a few small estate sales, and mostly the old people gave away
the really good stuff during their lifetimes and kept all the
knickknacks. It's true that most Depression children valued treasured
items more than the generations who came after them, but some had
strange (to us) notions of what they treasured. My grandparents have a
beautiful Art Deco cake mixer made by Montgomery Ward still on their
counter and neatly covered and dusted even though it likely hasn't been
used since my mother was a girl. They hardly have anything else old and
interesting left. My grandfather once had sheds full of radios (he
repaired them) but gave them away the year before I was born (1974). Yet
he kept tons of nonprecious rock used to make tourist jewelry for 35
years. A man down the street had a 1950s console TV/radio (AM-FM)/phono
in decent shape in a shed. His kids threw it out in the street. By the
time I got to it, it had been gutted of electronics and the cabinet
left. Later I saw a Mexican hacking up the cabinet with an ax for
firewood.

As soon as anyone gets hold of an item that they realize will sell on e-
bay for a good sum, there is little chance of seeing these items locally.
Near the area that I live, as little as 15 years ago, a friend was
walking down the sidewalk early one morning. Protruding from the curbside
garbage can from a residence was a rifle. My friend removed the rifle,
knocked, and an old woman came to the door. She had thrown the gun away,
apparently it was her now deceased husband's, she had no use for it. He
asked permission to take it, even though it was officially trash anyway,
and she readily agreed. It's not like it was an AR-15 or something like
that, it was a 30-30. But it was worth something, especially more so than
scrap. (never mind the implications of a child getting hold of the rifle,
she was old and probably didn't understand the ramifications of what she
had done).

See above.

Every once in a while, I see someone at work that gets a fantastic deal
on a car from a widow or simply a neighbor that wants to get rid of their
car, perhaps they are in bad health. The amount that they pay is
ludicrously low compared to what the car is really worth. Certainly there
are HAMs and SWLers wives out their that don't know what to do with their
departed hubby's equipment. If I were buying the item for myself, even if
the price is below market, I wouldn't feel too guilty, but I would be
guilt ridden if I habitually bought items for resale at significantly
greater prices. I do realize that business is business, perhaps that is
why I am not a lawyer or businessman.

Hell, I know people who buy rundown homes from people in distress and
then turn around and resell them to fixer uppers who pay much, much more
than the house is worth in its current shape, and then fix it and sell
it to an investor who turns around and rents it to a bunch of lowlifes
who trash it. I tried doing that, and even though I was assured by the
"investors" that it was fine, it still left a bad taste in my mouth.
Maybe that's why I'm learning a trade and plan to start a business by
providing a service instead of trying to buy low and sell high. I've
bought radios from old people who say "I can't take this treasured
keepsake to the pearly gates" and I was fine with it because I was
buying it for my own personal enjoyment. But I wouldn't turn around and
sell it on ebay.


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