FUN oR NOT SO FUN IN THE SUN
With Summer time definitely here through more than a few 90 degree plus days, galleons, yes galleons of folks in our fair land routinely take advantage of blistering heat and torrential rains to unlock the treasure chests of moldy oldies found in the best place to store art and antiques, basements and attics and offer them for sale in the best way to go about selling them; garage sales, flea markets, estate sales, etc. Yes, I am being highly sarcastic.
Now normally estate sales run full year and for those of you in Wintery states, I can attest to the virtues instilled in ones judgement of waiting to get into an estate sale in mid-January. Burrrrrrr is the name here, but otherwise your stuck waiting until the hottest months to go looking through your neighbors stuff. Oh, Goodie goodie, or not.
People loveeeeee a bargain! That's the point of buyers going to garbage sales, opps, well you know what I mean and sellers may or may not have any idea what their stuff is worth. It's the opaqe notion of fair market value and what that actually means, I have no idea. I know the IRS guidelines and from a standpoint of institutional valuation however, try to convince a Madison Avenue antique dealer of what that term means and you will likely be sold goods of a bill or a bill of goods. Or you can visit eBay to get an idea and find plenty of grilled cheese sandwiches that look like good ol' Elvis for 1000's of dollars maybe even millions. You never know. That Elvis grilled cheese market could really heat up and melt all over your shirt, or it could end up in the can. Either way based on my observations, an objects value has more than one face and usually more than two in the way of it's value. A good example of this is you would probably not pay much for a bottle of water in the grocery store, but the man in the desert dying of thirst would give his life savings for a sip.
So, what are some summer survival tips for not melting your bank roll in the Garage sale nest o' treasure. Well the first is take your phone with you and hopefully it's smarter than you are. By that I mean figure out what you are looking at. Be it a vintage can of coffee or a poster, or a Return of the Jedi action figure still in the package and see what the information highyway has to say about it. Googling helps. It's not going to make you an overnight sensation in the art world, but it's going to make you smarter than Tom Joad and maybe that's all you need. Atleast for now.
Another more sinister tip that drives sellers crazy is to hold onto the item you are interested in and carry it around with you, be it the neighbors front yard or inside of their house or a prison yard for a few minutes. I say it drives them crazy because some sellers are afraid you will run off with it down the street, or they will miss selling it to someone else in the 5 minutes you have it, even if its been sitting there for 3 rainy weekends, but it is your money, they make it clear all sales are final, so make sure your decision is sound. Sometimes just holding something can give you a more objective view of the item. Is it broken? Is it junk? It is a Renessance masterpiece? Sometimes you don't have a lot of time to decide. It's a flash buy, so as much time as you can spend with the item before you buy it the better.
People always say I bought it because I liked it. It is hard to tell someone they can't be little kid when it comes to them blowing off emotional steam with some small impulse purchases, but over time it adds up and up and up and up, until your knee deep in 3 storage units of your small impulse purchases. I could tell you about the client that spent a million dollars on QVC or the droves of clients that have garages full of stuff they bought that got taken away by 1800 GOT RIPPED OFF. My only advice is try to be little bit responsible. In all likley hood you don't need that antique beer making equipment that your wife will hate and will end up in your basement. You probably also don't need that tiki lamp that your husband can't stand. Try to consider the long term relationship of owning the object. Is it something you will want to move again and again, is it something your mom would be proud of you buying? Ah, probably not.
I will refeign from the simple stupid advice of telling you to bargain or showing the seller the chipped corners of the item as a means to lower the price, even if you are the one that chipped the corners of it on the way over to their folding table. Think band-aid in my food cons, but I know of course you are all much better people than that and would never resort to such lowley tactics. Make sure your phone is charged, bring enough cash, and wear some sunglasses, being able to see actually improves your purchases also.
-Over and Out Art Blender.
