Funemployment: Opening Day

I wrote this Sunday night and have been trying to get it to post since then.

What an amazing weekend! I would consider garage sale season officially open. I'm basing this solely on the number of sales listed on craigslist. I attended garage sales, yard sales and finally got over my fear of estate sales. I learned a few important things and am still in my mind the owner of my own vintage shop in 3-6 months. I got a ton accomplished this weekend., including drafting the outline of my business pland and snooping around some store fronts. I work harder now than ever before, but the major difference is it doesn't feel like work because I'm doing it for me instead of doing it for the bank. I quit that job five weeks ago and I have not looked back since. 11 years is too much to give to one company.

Who is kinda freaked out right now? Who has absolutely NO idea what I'm talking about? It's alright, my account has not been hacked, it's just been a really fucking long time since I've checked in with my myspace homies. Friends I talk to on the daily didn't even know I left the bank until after the fact. I've always said my life is an open book, well it turns out the really fucking painful shit isn't for public consumption. For now I'm going to ask that you trust me....trust me when I say that for the first time in a long time I'm happy.....trust me when I tell you I'd rather sleep in my car than continue working myself sick for nothing except a paycheck. And really really trust me when I say I will fill you in the best I can soon enough, but not today.

So yeah, back to weekend run down. Since I've been selling on eBay I have gone head first into making self employment a reality. The goal of never working for anyone ever again is lofty, but it's not out of reach. I'm in the acquiring phase of getting this business off the ground. I need inventory before I can even start looking for a store front. I need inventory AND I need fixturing. My mental list of purchases,. plans and questions I need to deal with is evolving every day. Now when I'm out treasure hunting I'm looking at second hand furniture as well. Some things are really cheap, others not so much.

I made my first big (literally not monetarily) purchase today. My sister and I went out to a place in Cottage Grove, about 20 mins from here called the Recycle Barn. It's two large barns loaded with treasures people bring out there. It's a crazy place, I've never seen anything like it. I got something for every genre of collectible I've studied and if you know anything about me you can imagine the amount of information I've absorbed these past few months. AND the best part, I spent about 13 dollars.

OH! So back to the big purchase I made today. This is going to be hard to enplane so we may have to wait until it's here tomorrow and I can take a picture of it.

Here is a photo of it in my sisters car.
It's on it's side, picture it standing up. It is a corner metal kitchen cabinet, it's 1/4 of a circle, she drives a Subaru forester if that makes the visual easier for size. The unit is made of tin and steal and painted off white, the paint is chipped up everywhere because it's pretty old and it's been living in a barn. Here is the magical part.....When you open it up you will lay your eyes on awesomeness. It's a three tiered lazy Susan. And it spins like it's been soaked in WD40 daily instead of living in that barn. It's fantastic. I sincerely hope you are on the same page as me recognizing the treasure that this chunk of metal really is. He took my offer of $20 and I couldn't be happier right now.

Shit, this is a really long blog. The tale of this weekend will have to be to be continued. In the next couple of days I'll do the follow up which will be my first estate sale that I happened to go to three days in a row. Until then I leave you with the photo & question section I would like to start including in my "Funemployment" blog.

HASO - Help A Sister Out: This is a very old baby dish set. It's not just the graphic that dates it, but it's that really hard plastic that you don't see anymore. Of course it is completely unmarked the only writing on it is below the baby and it says "American Molding Co. 1329 SO. Vandeventer Ave. St. Louis 10, Mo." If you've seen something like this before or have any information on it please share. Right now it's just another treasure to stash away until I know more about it or send it on to Goodwill.

ATW - Auctions To Watch: I pieced together this Franciscan set over the course of a weekend out of pure luck. I'm not even going to tell you how much I spent, but I will tell you I've spent more at Taco Bell then I did buying these dishes. I anticipate I'll net about 50 bucks out of these two auctions, that's low balling it. We shall see though, I've been fooled before.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=220358368700&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=220358784910&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT .

Information: I've retired the business name Tokus Pokus on eBay, long story for another day. All of my auctions can be found under EmmettOttersAttic. Tokus Pokus is being reserved for Etsy www.tokuspokus.etsy.com and more importantly for the actual store.

I desperately need help with web design, so if you know someone who can help me out for a reasonable fee I would be really happy.

xoxo
-G