I loved aluminum. This was before the internet
and so I knew you could get mercury poisoning
and lead poisoning but aluminum poisoning was
off my radar. Besides the world was full of
aluminum. It is in tons of products, baking
soda, toothpaste, underarm antiperspirant~!
I had airplane aluminum furniture, I used
Magnalite aluminum cookware, and had those
old vintage aluminum bowls, glasses, cups
and even flatware. I used aluminum pie pans,
baking sheets, and the cannisters which held
my coffe, sugar, flower and tea all were made
of spun aluminum.
I drank my beer, soda and V-8 juice out of
aluminum cans...
Needless to say, when I was checked, I had the
worst case of aluminum poisoning the doctor
had ever seen. It was OFF the chart.
Stay away from mercury, unknown liquids, asbestos,
items with lead paint, anything that smells funky,
or has an unknown residue. Often, over time, the
composition of things can degrade and it is difficult
to know what it is now. Someone did find an old fruit
cake once in an attic. It was over 30 years old and
looked as fresh as the day it was received. Scary~!
I do stay away from aluminum as much as possible. You are right about the internet informing people nowadays. More power to the common folk.
Feel free to add more stories Zoe! I don't have reliable internet access now but I do enjoy reading your posts when I can. Maybe we could have a forum for "stuff" like someone mentioned earlier. Maybe a "materialism" forum. I think we have a simplicity or minimalism forum....
A "reduce/reuse/recycle" forum? That might cover most of it lol...
The number one thing in collecting, for any reason, I believe, is space.
That's why folks get rid of things...not enough room. So, it is best to find your room early in your collecting career...for it truly is a career.
The second thing you'll need is the ability, and the space, to sort.
When Zoe spoke of the three piles she sorted from estates they had purchased, for sale in her store; for giving away; and for their annual garage sale; she knew they had ability and space to manage each group.
Part of that ability was the physical strength to lift and carry the goods, and the time to do the job. Another part of it was the space to store and/or display the items, at the appropriate time.
Many, many people become bogged down in their own homes because the stuff they have saved for 'someday' use or display is scattered willy-nilly everywhere and can't be found when they have the time and inclination to get at it. The whole becomes an insurmountable mountain...a burden...an obligation. And a fine dust-collector.
I have sometimes wondered how many people have run away from their 'stuff'.
Before you head out for garage sales, take a look around you. Where do you have, or can create, room for a stash? And how will you use your collection?
Do you want to form a club, where people will come to you to discuss and work with a particular type of goods? If so, you will have to prepare for hospitality, seating, a bathroom, easy entry, and a dozen or so other things.
If you want to sell, and ship, you will have to prepare to do that, in the way you have chosen, promptly, and with good record-keeping.
If you will store for a while you need to plan your storage containers and how you will find what you want when you want it.
Garage sellers will tell you that an annual sale is a LOT of work, and it is very likely you won't have all the dry space you need to show your stuff, particularly if your goods are mixed kinds of things.
Do you know that the biggest obstacle the elderly face is plain exhaustion in dealing with belongings? A senior may have chosen to 'downsize' and move to a smaller home, but there is little help for them in sorting and assigning new homes to thousands of pieces they have collected over the years. Then there is the question of sentimental value vs. antique/collectible value vs. 'new' value, and so on, and the cost of handling...or even finding people to do the job fairly.
So many seniors save things for the young, only to find that the young don't want them, not out of callousness, but because they don't relate to the times when those things were popular...they are busy collecting their own things.
We were given a lovely 'old master' type of painting...at a garage sale. But it had fallen and had a tiny slit in the canvas. The original frame had chips falling out of the plaster that decorated the edge, on two sides.
We searched the Internet, and consulted art dealers. Properly repaired (and that wouldn't cost a lot), at the right art auction, this painting would bring $2,000...IF the market hadn't enough of this artist's work already.
In other words, this free painting is a keeper, until such time as the market for it picks up.
So, we are looking for a person with the space and understanding of art to buy it for $500. Do you know how few people out there would buy it?
Meanwhile, we have moved to a smaller house. And we are busy finding space for the rest of our stuff.
I firmly believe that every home should have a studio, partly attached...with a bathroom. It could be used for so many different purposes...even rented out to nextdoor neighbors who have outgrown their own space. (Pay me in garden produce and snow-shovelling...and lawn-mowing, etc.)
F.
And, when you need help with a specific job, hire a teenager. Structure the job carefully for them, and they will give you enthusiasm.
Although, one man I talked to said that teenagers no longer care. I hope that isn't true.
I certainly agree the need for discipline is
paramount. It is easy to spot the people who
are compulsive buyers at an auction and no
surprise to later learn the person has been
taken from their home, or died, and piles of
purchases had never made it out of boxes or
bags and retained labels and original packaging
if bought new. These should be warning flags
to spouses and family members or friends.
As I have gotten older, I have downsized and
now have adopted my own criteria for buying
which I know will allow me the peace of mind
which is more valuable than the best junk or
treasure I could ever find. I enjoy giving
stuff away too. There are twinges when I see
something newly manufactured that is appealing
but I have found my control valve and use it
often to say no, over and over, to myself. I
do enjoy looking though.
When we were married, we were given lots of
things but, for example, when we had a child
and the old family baby buggy was dusted off
and passed to us, I just said NO. It was leather
and had isinglass windows and looked like
something Dracula and his wife might have strolled
about with. So, I really agree with you that the
more you can dispose of now, the easy it will be
for your family or children. Selling it at yard
sales or online are good options, as are taking
your items to antique stores or advertising
them in a local paper. Often you can sell a
large amount by consigning it all to an auction.
These ways are still feasible as there are many
people who find auctions and flea markets, farmers
markets and ebay fun places to look for and sell
their own *stuff*.
Space...when I was first out of college, I had
only a designated closet. My friends made fun of
me since it was crammed full of boxes and nothing
else. Once I had my annual yard sale though and
went on groovy vacation which were paid for spending
dimes and pennies on a dollar or less, then they
began to see the method to my madness. I liked the
challenge of making money on a shoestring. As an
artist, I would enjoy taking a piece of 75 cent
paper and turning it into hundreds of dollars.
I suppose it is in my nature from the way I grew
up. I liked watching my mom take a bar of baking
chocolate and turn it into money making chocolate
covered cherries and other yummy candies. My husband's
folks began their antique business when they inherited
the family homestead and all the contents. They opened
the house and made so much selling off what they did
not want to keep, they kept adding more and selling
more until they had a full fledged business and hobby,
born out of necessity. My husband also had his own
antique business when I met him and would truck
antiques from the midwest to California and then bring
back stuff from there which could not be found here
and wheeled and dealed it. I think it afforded us
a lifestyle which had less pressure than many others.
We appreciated not being in debt too. We slept great
and a good time was a beer on the front porch looking
over the newspaper at the weekly auctions and sales.
More than anything, my advice about collecting would
be to use it or enjoy it, and not just store it.
We can happily adjust to most any circumstances, and find our own comfortable balance.
One lady told me of when they were young, and saving for their future. The next-door neighbors were the same, and became good friends. Saturday nights they bought 6 beers, one each for the ladies and two for each man...and played cards.
Another couple started their married life in a rented attic, with apple boxes for furniture. In the dirty thirties she had walked across the city weekly, to pay fifty cents on a layaway plan for a woolen winter coat.
The shop-keeper was so grateful for her loyalty and determination that he gave her the matching hat when the coat was paid for...no small gift in those trying times.
Another tip for those who MUST raise substantial cash from their belongings...check out the marketplace. There are various ways of selling your best things. Some pay better than others. The more you know, the better off you are. Sometimes you can do better selling a particular item privately.
We have a British India carpet (completely pale yellow), for sale. We will consult with the expert carpet-cleaner guy who cleaned it a few years ago. He will know 'who's around'...who is looking for something like this, or who will want it in their second-hand shop.
Then there is a huge 12-drawer, curved front sideboard, in pristine condition. This may go by advertising in the classifieds, but we have already put the word out with a certain salesperson in our community's finest retail furniture store. He would mention it to a private acquaintance...not the store's customers.
There is a shop locally which deals in gently-handled fine pieces. But they won't pick up or deliver, and they charge 56% of the selling price (which THEY determine), for their service. That's fine for those who are just changing their decor, and don't need the money...but it is no good for seniors needing to raise some cash.
Look around, and help seniors you love. Nothing is more rewarding, forever, than helping, with affection.
I heard a story about a doctor or dentist who had so many patients that his practice couldn't handle the patient load. So he doubled his prices. And he got more business instead of less. People thought that since he was more expensive, he was a better doctor.
I have gone to some dentists who price their initial consultations at very high prices, I imagine to weed out people who either can't afford extensive procedures that the office targets, and to attract people who won't mind over-spending thousands after over-spending hundreds on an initial consultation.
Setting prices for used stuff - some people have no idea what their stuff is worth, and have no other way of selling the items, so I think that leaves a lot of power in the hands of the business offering to buy it. I wonder where the line is crossed between negotiating and taking advantage of someone, especially someone older who doesn't know what they have... I wouldn't want to get into a bad karma business that thrived on the ignorance of others so I could make a buck. On the other hand, gotta make a profit and they might not have any other options so one offer is better than nothing sometimes.
In our store, if something was not moving,
we had much more luck raising the price.
Also with art, people will buy the same
piece of art at 100 bucks but not at 10.
If you value something more, the people
with money will too. Something like that.
You would not expect that, but it is a
real phenomenon...
We have a friend who has dealt in them for years. And another who gathers them now for charitable purposes.
There are industrial sources...where engineered projects have them as leftovers, and the sale of the leftovers is a part of the project cleanup...or a product of demolition. The money received from the sale of these materials pays for part of the project. It is built into the budget from the get-go.
Too, some people deal in the small bits of scrap metal that bulk dealers don't have time for. Those bits may be found almost anywhere.
Your very best course of action is to get information from the shop that BUYS, before sending the material to a smelter. They will only buy certain metals, and they pay given rates, depending on the condition of the metals.
For one example, they want real copper wire, but pay you for it according to whether or not it has covering. Copper wire still in its covering must be stripped before the smelter will take it. 'Stripping' wire is a long and laborious task...still some collectors will do it in order to get the higher price for their stash. (There are devices that are useful in stripping wire. Some people build their own.)
The last I heard, copper and aluminum (the most plentiful metal on Earth) are wanted, and there is bulk metal in old engines and the radiators.
Some dentists collect extracted gold fillings. I met a man who travels a regular route for his family's long-time business. They recycle precious metals from dentists...the gold, and silver from x-rays.
Right now there is good money to be made from recycled metals. In time, I feel they will have to buy back many more kinds of metals, and other stuff that is going into landfill, and oceans.
The manufacturers don't care, they just add the price of 'deposits' onto the retail.
They may prefer to do that if they can get recylclable material cheaper from collectors and gatherers.
One area that is going begging right now is glass. Liquor bottles bear 'deposits', did you know? But mayo bottles don't. You got any mayo or spaghetti sauce bottles in your back closet? How about salad dressing bottles? (Silly question!)
Actually those stray kitchen product bottles DO carry a 'deposit' of sorts. Glass-making companies will pay you 1/2 a cent each, or so much a ton. (Why, I don't know.) But who will travel to the depot for 3 cents? Or, even $3?
I read of one man in a Northern town who filled a truck full of broken throw-away glass (without any metal lids, caps, or labels), and drove it to a glass manufacturer in Vancouver.
He could have received the tonnage rate for it, except for one mistake...they had mixed the colors of glass.
Did you know that some holidayers come to gold country annually to clean out a certain crevice in a stream, when the water is low?
It is called 'placer mining' and nowadays you have to have an annual licence to do it...and gold-panning, etc...except where gold-panning is offered as an entertainment.
Some people use various forms of 'dowsing' to find valuable things...even 'dowsing' over maps on their kitchen tables. Others will find grandma's lost ring, with a metal detector, for you.
Burglars may bury their 'take' on wild land. That means it is there for any stray metal detector person who happens along. One wonders how an ancient Roman got the stash found on an English farm in recent times. Or, where a long-ago train robber or pirate hid his treasure. There are folks who scour antique ledgers for accounts of sunken ships, and legends of wild escapades.
There is a remarkable story on the net about a lost simple-minded teenager. A psychic used a map to help the distraught parents to find their boy.
At first, the psychic sent the parents to several points, only to learn that the young fellow had already left. Adjusting his intuition, the psychic sent them to a spot where the boy WILL be...and he was found, safe and sound.
The world is full of wondrous things.
Opportunity is everywhere, and it ISN'T a shameful thing to seek it. You only need to APPEAR socially acceptable, wherever you want to be, and the world becomes your oyster.
Travelling salesmen get nowhere when calling on farmers in a sportsjacket, white shirt and tie, and loafers. Farmers in overalls and gumboots don't trust them for some reason.
It all depends on the point-of-view.
(There are ladies reduced to living in their cars, who keep one nice suit of clothes, and get free makeup in department stores before going to tea with unsuspecting friends. Really.)
I have seen copper/aluminum pots and silver dining ware at Goodwill that I thought might be worth something as scrap. Almost bought a heavy copper plate that I knew would make me some cash but I didn't know where to take it at the time and someone else bought it. Maybe I'll tart a pile that will grow over the years and I could sell it all at once like an investment. Like you said need space though! I am trying to be a minimalist lol... Most of the stuff at Goodwill etc seems silver plated or copper plated, or priced above scrap value so might not be worth the time and gas money collecting it. Gas prices sure dig into the equation nowadays. Still, I keep my eyes open.
Now they have metal detectors that are pretty good at picking up the gold. With the high gold prices, becoming a prospector seems almost doable. I'm still young enough to rough it in the wilds and go to town once a month to sell my gold and restock supplies... sure would be reclusive though. I do like camping but maybe I'd end up like the Unibomber or Grizzly Adams. Yikes.
You are right, it is amazing what is out there to make money on if you just know what something is worth to someone else.
That's why I say, help people. Seniors are sitting ducks. I've seen so many just step in and help...like the neighbor who just mows the lawn on the day he is mowing his. Or, the lady who shares a bit of baking and stays for tea, regularly.
From there it is easy to take up a task or two..."I'll just give the fridge a wipe down, while you knit." "It will be easy to change the bed and do a load of laundry while we chat." "I could sort that closet, and maybe we'll find the book you remember." The idea being that you will help, where wanted. Use your best instincts.
Sometimes just the suggestion that you look for their lights at night, and therefore see that the yard looks safe, is enough to reassure a senior. A brightly colored card in the window in the morning is a fine way to signal to a neighbor that the senior is up and about.
Some places there is a law that a landlord or manager must SEE his tenant at least once every 24 hours.
A little Internet research and a telephone call or two, could indicate the value of an item, 'just for insurance purposes', or, investigate the services available to seniors, 'in case they may be needed someday'.
Still, a 'bad' guy could do the same. Maybe it's best if two or three neighbors drop in for tea, or a chat in the garden. Or, invite the senior to their house.
I know a lady who was raised that way in a tiny town in Mexico. She was always taking a dish or a plate of something she had 'extra' in her kitchen, to single neighbors on either side. Sometimes they didn't reciprocate, but she didn't really mind, that was how she wanted to live.
..............
Run a metal detector over a gold ring, sometime. You'll hear a double beep as it picks up the gold on one side, and the other...just as will a stray pull-tab.
Then imagine that the ring is standing on its side, in sand or dirt...just one quick beep.
Keep a strong, small magnet in your sand scoop. It won't pick up copper or gold or silver, but most coins of today stick to it.
I get all the bobby pins...and 1/2 inch pieces of wire that used to be twist ties. The most frustrating is the tiny piece of foil that I chase in sand for 10 or 15 minutes.
Two things I know...my detector and hunting methods are NOT missing much...and, I am picking up and putting all the trash in the can, so I won't find it again next time.
When our club seeds a section of the beach with nickels and tokens for prizes, ALL of the items are never found, though there be a dozen of us out there.
Eight detectors could cover a beach, and still leave stuff. And who knows what is left?
I once found five $2 coins in one hole...under a children's play construction.
The detectors who go out often, and stay at it a long while, are the ones who find the diamond rings, and plenty of other stuff.
One beautiful diamond ring was found among rocks, in the edge of the lake...a very hard place to search. It was corroded, too. It must have been there a long time.
Then there is detecting in water...a specialized effort. One fellow offered to search the water for a man's gold and diamond pendant that had slipped off when the man had dived under.
The detector fellow zigged and zagged in a grid pattern for a long time, then decided to call it a day. Detecting as he made for shore, in a zig-zag path...he found it!
He was rewarded because the medallion was worth lots of money, and the owner was a generous person.
One lady lost a valuable diamond ring in her own back yard. She even bought a detector to look for it. But she had no luck.
She asked a club member what he would charge to look for her. The detector fellow said that two of them would come, just for gas money.
They did, and found the ring in five minutes. It was standing on its edge, leaning against a tree root, in grass.
The lady pressed a reward on the fellows, and gave them the detector she no longer needed. The ring had cost $15,000.
One of those detector fellows was spending a morning at the beach. A woman there was looking frantically for a Gucci watch she had bought from her grandmother.
Sure enough, the fellow was able to find it after searching for a while. It was nowhere near where she thought she had lost it.
He didn't expect to be rewarded because, in conversation, the lady had mentioned that she had been tree-planting for the Department of Forestry to earn her living.
That's a new way I have heard of folks helping seniors...buying things from them. A pal, recently widowed, bought her grandmother's house, so the elderly lady could go on living there, and the house would stay in the family. My friend has a good job, and the freedom to make her own choices of which side of the country to live on. She will stay with her grandmother when she visits family in her hometown.
Everyone benefits.
I would encourage anyone to go out on the beach early in the morning, 5 a.m. on a hot summer's day, and go with a friend, in case there are people sleeping there.
You will only be shy to be seen in your old clothes and pocket apron once, after that you will be seen as the 'expert', and joggers and walkers will ask you, "Find anything?"
You could show a few coins and bottle caps and a pocket full of trash, but you wouldn't want to show rings and things...just in case...unless they were crying and describing the very thing you found.
You also don't want to be 'searching' around sun bathers. They could get annoyed.
Little kids are the most fun. I let one six-year-old 'listen' and point the detector. Bingo! There was a penny. I gave it to him. His daddy was pleased.
My husband noted that the little fellow would remember all his life. I was pleased that my husband thought about that. A tiny event we will all remember warmly.
We never know where or when adventure will happen.
I buy books, board games, and items for the kitchen (especially glass), from time to time. Board games are a great find, I have gotten new ones or gently used games for $1, instead of $20 or $30 new! Hard wood, leather or metal furniture would certainly make sense, upholstered is a discretionary area. I haven't needed any so haven't bought any.
I don't have an objection to buying clothing, but I have a hard time finding anything, I think part of it is the area where I live. People have really frumpy, dowdy taste around here, and there certainly isn't anything "designer" floating around! Not that I'm a fashion queen or anything - I'm certainly not.
I did buy a little sundress years ago, that I still wear as my favorite nightgown.
I wouldn't buy used shoes, I am not sure about sterilization, fungus, etc. But the main thing is that when somebody wears shoes, the inside forms to their feet, and after that they would be all wrong for anyone else's feet, and consequently the spine.
I have a cousin who lives out in Montana, she is GREAT at yard sales. Apparently baby clothing is a good thing to buy at yard sales, because babies only wear their clothes a little while before they don't fit, so people can save big $$. I know she found lots of cute, new-looking designer baby clothes for her child.
Anything you can wash should be okay, except I certainly would draw the line at used underwear and swimsuits. For some things you should be able to tell by looking at it and smelling it.
But I will say, buying 2nd-hand things is a talent or an art that some people intrinsically have. Perhaps others of us can learn it but it will take some time.
I see that Zoe and fledgling have given you many things to learn from. Enjoy!
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What used products do you buy? 
Re: What used products do you buy? 
