Thrift Shop

Get that out of your mouth!

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Get that out of your mouth! As a mother of a 3.5 and 1.5 year old, this is a phrase I say often.  You would think I would remember to do that myself.

This week, I went through more silver scrap.  As a reseller, my favorite thing I get to do is go through buckets of silver jewelry that is heading to the refinery.   I get to see all sorts of things, all different pieces of jewelry.

I saw these “items” in my last “picking”.

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I love unusual things.  Anything that grabs my eye, I have to grab.  The item to the right is hollow, and I thought “This is a strange whistle” and I put it to my mouth to see if it worked.  DUMB.  I am dumb.  In my defense, these two items were not together when I pulled them out.  I didn’t see there was a tiny spoon to go with this “tube”.

As soon as I did it, the woman who works at the shop where I do some picking said, That is a coke straw!  Now I have no ideas how many nostrils touched this item, but it went in my mouth. YUCK!  I learn lessons everyday, and this one I will not forget 😉

Corporate Communications

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I worked for my family’s business for a while. It is a communications company, installing phone systems for businesses. Some of the best saying in business I learned from working there.  One of my favorites was from my Dad.  I’m not sure where he got this gem, but he would say  “The ass you kick on the way up the latter is the same ass you will kiss on the way down .”  My dad is great at saying, he has a great Irish wit.  He actually used that ass kick/kiss line in a corporate letter to one of his suppliers.

His business letters were epic.  One time I was going out to Arizona for training.  The class was a two week certification course, and many of the technicians went to the class before I did.  I can’t remember what happened, but the my father was upset with the school and wrote them a letter.  In the letter he complained about the cost of the class, and he closed the letter with “All this money spent for a school that doesn’t even have a football team!”  He sent that letter out before I attended the class, and when I got there plenty of employees told me they passed that letter around the office.  He was sort of a legend.

About a month ago I got a call from a marketing company, All Points Media.  They asked me if I wanted to use their envelopes for when I pay people in cash.  I wasn’t interested, but the man said “What if I pay you $50 or $100” so I said yes.  He took my information and said he would send me $50, so I said “Send me the $100, why would I take $50 when you said $50 or $100” so he laughed and sent me the envelopes.

When I got the envelopes, he asked me to send him photos of the display.  He emailed me this…cash jacket sample pic

And followed up with this text….

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I was thinking about my Dad’s letters, so this is what I sent back.

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I thought it was funny to send a “Hit the Dab” picture with the envelopes taped to my chest.  I figured he would get a laugh.IMG_9784

I am glad to have made someone laugh, and pass the communications through out his office.  I guess I am following that Hurley tradition of non traditional corporate communications 🙂

Hoarders House

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This week I got to buy out a hoarders house.  I go into many houses, but this was one of the most impressive collections I have ever seen.

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There was not one spot on any walls that were uncovered. The man who owned the home was placed in a nursing home because he had started to show signs of dementia.

I have gone to the home two times, filled up a pickup truck both times and my SUV one time, and still haven’t made a dent in the collection.

I deal with a good amount of collectors, and it is interesting to see how people display the items they collect.  One toy dealer who visits my store weekly, puts everything in plastic bins and keeps them hermetically sealed in storage.  Not much fun if you ask me. Sure, his collection will hold value, but I don’t think you get much enjoyment out of your items if you are hiding them away.

The man who owned this home, he displayed everything.  Sure, his items lost value not being in the original packing, but he got to enjoy them.  By the time it came to sell the stuff, he was in a nursing home any way, so did it really matter?

I got a ton of books for Amazon, and 13 boxes of comics.  It is going to take forever to go through everything.  What is interesting was when I got the house, within 5 minutes I thought there was no chance I was going to buy anything because it was so overwhelming.  But after spending a while going through things, I was able to buy some stuff.  It was hard, back breaking work, carrying 200 pounds of books out, but my father alway told me you can make money doing what others refuse to do.  I think the majority of people who would walk into the house would have walked out just due to the smell.  Hopefully the patience will pay off, I am sure it will.

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These pictures are from the cleanest and most organized part of the home, the owners office, where he would customize many of the action figures.

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