Hot and humid, probably clear. Mid 90s likely, both in temperature and humidity… summer is here in Houston.
Spent the afternoon doing a round of pickups. I realize it sounds like I’m doing nothing but buying stuff at auction. Well… that isn’t wrong, as such. What might be missing is that I buy almost nothing from stores or online anymore unless it is something very specific that I need quickly. For example, one of the stops yesterday was for cleaning supplies- two gallons of dish washing soap, 4 spray bottles of bleach/soap, and a couple of other things. Was it cheap enough to drive across town? Yes. Absolutely. Some flexibility was involved as the dishsoap was Joy lemon scent, when we prefer the blue stuff, but at only a buck or two a bottle, I’ll smell the lemon…
A stop at goodwill yielded a box of silver colored indoor door knobs because the universe still loves me. I wanted to change out the gold colored ones at the BOL, as most are very worn after 40 years, and they weren’t high quality to start with. I wish they were levers, but beggars blah blah… Flexibility. Anyway, not a priority, but doorknobs are something you touch every day and if they don’t work right, it’s frustrating.
A chat with another seller and he’ll send me advance pics of some of the stuff I’m looking for for the BOL before it hits the auction. People, networking, meatspace. Relationships are important. I’ve been saying it, and I’ll repeat and I’ll repeat and I’ll repeat that you need practice in the secondary economy, just like anything else. It could just be confirmation bias but I’m convinced that you or someone in your group of acquaintances will have to play the role of ‘scrounger’ or supply clerk, or whatever you want to call it, but someone will have to know where to get stuff, who to try getting it from, and what is worth trading.
A lot of preppers talk about stacking stuff ‘for barter’ but they’ve never dickered over a price, or shopped anywhere but a big box store. I don’t stack ‘for barter’ but I do have stuff that I think I’ll need later, and if I need it, probably other people will too. And since no one can go it alone, or stack every thing they might need, it might be that I end up trading or bartering or just plain selling some of that stuff. A HUGE amount of commerce is happening in the person to person space already. That is only going to increase. Get some practice. Hit some yardsales this weekend, and check out a thrift store… driving around your area will help you survey the current conditions near you too. Lots of benefits to getting out and looking around.
The best part of shopping in the secondary economy is saving money. Second best is getting something you couldn’t get otherwise. Leverage it to build your stacks…
nick