Heavy...

It had been a pretty slow week for the project. Lots of family plans meant some great time spent enjoying the summer, but not much time to invest into making money. By last Monday, I had nearly sold out of everything from the previous auctions, and didn’t have a chance to replenish my stock. On top of that, the auctions scheduled throughout the week were either too far away or looked like a waste of time, and we were hosting some friends on Saturday, which meant I would miss the couple “big ones” around our town.

By Sunday, I was eager to get working again despite non-Saturday auctions tending to be smaller. I found one about 35 minutes away, a longer drive then I typically like to make, but I didn’t want to spend another week wasting time. I was really chomping at the bit, and ready to put in some time and effort to get progress moving again.

I learned some things at this sale. It was a smaller auction, and was clearly a couple of tradesmen consigners. There was a huge supply of Utility electrical tools and a large portion of the stock of a mechanic’s garage, with some random household type items thrown in. The crowd was smaller and older, the location was hot and uncomfortable, and most of the people there were in attendance for the tools that were advertised, which sold first.
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I hung around for a bit, buying a couple small random items that I thought were good deals (things under $5 I thought I could get $20+ for). As the tools all sold and the temperature rose, the crowd thinned out. Things started going pretty cheap, and I noticed that the especially heavy things that people didn’t want to or couldn’t move were going for very cheap. I thought of the old Thomas Edison quote, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work”… After a week of inactivity, I was certainly ready to work. 
 

So I focused on the bigger ticket, heavy items, and found a couple high-potential gems. The first was a pair of concrete bear statues, which I know can typically sell for $40-80 each, even at auctions. The issue with concrete statues is, (wait for it), they are made of concrete…. Heavy, hard, concrete. They looked like a lot of work sitting there on the ground, so nobody else bid and I grabbed them for $1 each! Then they sold a good-condition metal file cabinet, which routinely sell for $20-30, no one else bid on, so I got that for $1 too. 

Then I noticed the other auction ring (they had two auctioneers going at once to save time), they just finished selling an older boat motor, and I thought I heard the auctioneer say it went for $30, which is VERY low as these are typically worth hundreds of dollars. Not knowing if maybe that motor didn’t run or something, I ran over there, and they had one old motor left, lying on the ground looking very heavy. It was a Johnson brand, and I knew that was one known for rugged longevity, and it was a 28HP, a good size for pontoon boats/etc. It looked like it was in pretty good shape, had a newer propeller on it, and it was a newer model than the others they had just sold. I figured if I could get it for $50-100, I might be able to double or even triple my money quickly, and I was looking for a big ticket item to get progress rocking.
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The auctioneer started at $150, still a decent deal but not the steal I was looking for. But at $150, he couldn’t get a bid, so he dropped to $100… then 50, then 25, still no bids. I couldn’t believe it. I sat back to feel out the crowd, sometimes they go all the way down only to bid it all the way back up to a high price. Still getting no bites, someone finally yelled “two dollars”, and that’s where we started. I waited for a few seconds, seeing no one else jump in I waved in my bid, $5.  The original $2 bidder looked down at the intimidating motor, shook his head, and remained quiet. The auctioneer was in disbelief, and after trying again for any additional bids, laughed a little bit and pronounced the thing “sold” for $5. The ring of people migrated on, and I was left staring at the motor (dry weight of 120lbs, I later found out) I just stole for $5. 

I spent a very sweaty hour loading everything into my truck, settled up with the auctioneer for a total investment of $17, and drove home hot, dirty, and dead tired… but excited to see what things were worth. After some quick research, I think I could reasonably expect 200-300 bucks from my haul if I price things to sell quickly, not too shabby for a couple hours, $17, and a back that might require some ibuprofen. Most importantly, getting this investment to pay off puts my much closer to having enough cash to start some more real small-business type things, one of which is already in the works… 
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