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Category: ebay

Thur. Oct. 7, 2021 – headlong rush…

Hot and humid, but less of both as we head into Fall. We don’t get a lot of Spring and Fall here in Houston, but what we do get is generally very nice.

It was very nice yesterday, bordering on HOT in the sun. Everywhere it wasn’t sunny was great weather though. I got a bunch of stuff sorted, and a coupe of bins dropped off at my auctioneer. Stopped by one of the other auctioneers to pick up my lots (med stuff), and he’s slammed with stuff. He won’t be taking any of my lots for a while as he deals with a massive influx of estate and storage cleanout items. The auctioneer who sold the Pokeman and men’s shoes (and a lot of other stuff) took the rest of the summer off, so I’m hoping she comes back to work soon and I can place some lots with her. I’ve got some watches and jewelry that are well suited to her buyers.

Today is going to be a lot of stuff crammed into a few hours. We fly out this afternoon, leaving for the airport from the kids’ schools. I haven’t packed, prepped the house, or done my normal stuff. That’s all probably down to not really wanting to go. It isn’t a long trip, the kids are aging out of a bunch of things and we’ll lose the ‘magical’ years soon so I don’t want to miss it, but I really don’t want to be away from home at all.

I’m not looking forward to any part of it, not the flight, nor the Parks, except seeing the kids’ eyes light up. And even that will be tempered by chinaflu, as the character meet and greets are cancelled, and when they do appear, no autographs are allowed (which made my younger one cry when she found out as she considers that the best part of the Parks.) Add my sense of dread and the look in peoples’ eyes as they seem desperate to get one last party, one last visit, one more whatever in. There is a lot of tension out there.

A few months ago, everywhere I went people would drop a sarcastic remark, kind of a ‘nudge and wink’ thing, a shared black humor… This last week has been very different. Everywhere I go people look more focused, more intense, and very much more ‘not joking’. No ‘I don’t know what’s going on but we’re in it together’ kinda vibe. Now it’s ‘I’m filling my cart.’ There’s a sort of selfishness and self-interested-ness coming out. I think people are ‘hunkering down’ mentally.

I will often drop a comment when shopping or out, just to see. I’ve been saying stuff like ‘I’m just getting my Christmas shopping started early’ and almost everyone that responds says something like “Me too, might not be stuff here for Christmas.” It’s also weird how many people are getting started on Halloween early this year. There have been celebrities in the tabloids going to parties, dressing up, and I see it in my neighborhood too. There seem to be more, and more elaborate, and earlier displays this year than any I can remember. (and I’m going to be LATE with mine since I’m gone this weekend.)

I better get busy. 2pm is going to come very quickly.

Get out and survey your area. See if you see what I’m seeing. Share with the group.

Do it while you are buying some more preps 🙂 and keep stacking.

nick

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Tues. Oct. 5, 2021 – lots happening today

Hot and slightly less humid, chance of rain, although yesterday was really awesome weather. A bit on the hot side in the 90s but nice in the shade. Clear blue sky with only occasional dark clouds. I’ve got a lot to do so I could use the same, maybe cooler, today.

I got some stuff done yesterday, although like usual, not all that I wanted to. I did get paint on the shelves with d2. We’re not done, but we’ve got primer on them. I’m think I’m going to regret using regular primer and not something specifically for plastic though. Paint is barely sticking.

Couldn’t find whatever is dead in my driveway. Didn’t find the third kitten today either, so I have my suspicion about WHAT is making the stink, just can’t find what it’s under.

After dropping the two ebay sales at the Post Office, I got two more sales and one lowball offer. Four items sold in one day. It’s like old times all of a sudden. Unfortunately the sale price is averaging $30-40 with about 50% markup. That might be WHY the items are selling, smalls do better than big items when times are tough. I’m going to test that by listing a pair of Martin Logan Motion SLM flat panel speakers. I should be able to get $400-500 for the pair. I still need to test them, they are ‘barn fresh’. I paid up for them, about $200, which I should be able to get back “AS-IS for parts” if there is an issue. If they do well, I’ve got some other expensive stuff to list, along with the staple smalls. The expensive stuff takes a lot longer to list as more testing is involved and there is more risk too. At least these speakers are light and small-ish.

I need to find what is selling and then pile on to that. Dump everything else locally, and concentrate on the easy money first.

I learned something new yesterday. D2 finally told me what she wants to be for Halloween, so we went by the Goodwill store on the way home from school to start looking for pieces to repurpose or use. While there I had a chat with one of the employees. She works at a variety of the stores, including the outlets. She doesn’t work directly for Goodwill, she works through an agency, which means she can shop there when she’s off the clock. So she does a bit of thrifting/reselling on the side. Had some good scores too. Anyway, she told me that stuff that piles up in the stores doesn’t go directly to the outlets when they clear it out. At least here in Houston, it goes to other stores that need stock. It could go to several stores before it ends up at the bins. Some stuff does go directly to the bins though. There is some airport lost property that goes directly to the outlet near the airport. And there is stuff that goes directly from the donate intake to the bins, when they get behind in processing it.

FWIW, the prices in the store were just under ebay prices. I asked her “Got a new store manager?” as my opening. She said yes, and I commented that I could tell by the increase in prices. That’s what kicked off our conversation. Prices go up when the new guy wants to capture more money after seeing all the resellers in the store. Then resellers stop buying. (They buy far more than an off the street customer does typically, especially in things like books, electronics, and small appliances that aren’t fast movers.) Stuff piles up. Stuff gets wholesaled out to the other stores or the outlet. Manager learns the lesson they all learn and lowers prices to MOVE the merch. There’s no shortage of stock for the Goodwill stores at the moment, so if they don’t move the merch they drown in an endless river of stuff.

I might have the same problem.

And that’s what I’m working on. Get rid of the sales stuff, buy more of the survival stuff.

Today is full. Orthodontist with D1 this morning, followed by the theater set pickup, then an auction pickup, and more auction dropoff, shipping dropoff, and all my normal stuff. Oh, and I need to get ready for WDW this weekend.

Stack it high (but be sure you’re stacking useful stuff, not just any old stuff.)

nick

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Thur. Sept. 30, 2021 – hard at work or hardly working, how could you tell?

Maybe some rain early, then sun and heat. Like yesterday. By the end of the day it was pretty nice. I’m hoping for more of that today.

I did my pickups, did some ebay listings. Even sold a book late at night. Moved some stuff out of the house to the patio. Naturally, I get a question about when THAT is moving. Oy vey, a simple “hey, I noticed that stuff is moving out. That’s great” wouldn’t be out of line would it? Moving goalposts, I got ’em.

Today should be more of the same. Start with cleanups and listing, get the shipping ready, move some stuff. I have to get to my secondary and move some stuff there, so I will get out of the house in the afternoon.

It’s really amazing how much inertia I’ve built up in my life over the last few years. I need to get it moving in a better direction, but it is a LARGE amount of inertia.

Many people also have a lot of inertia in their lives. That and normalcy bias often keep them from prepping. It’s normal to think things will be pretty much the same, they usually are. It’s also normal that bad things happen all the time, all over the place. We tend to see the first and discount the second.

It’s normal to have systems, habits, and a routine- that’s what humans do. And while those routines [mostly/probably/hopefully] work well when the situation is normal, they can be very counter productive when the situation changes away from normal. We will often cling to habits past the point where they become counter productive. I’ve mentioned it before when I get into the habit of buying or looking out for a particular thing, until I realize suddenly that I have many more of them than I need.

Don’t let your inertia or normalcy bias keep you from prepping for whatever is coming. We are living in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. ANYTHING can and does happen. Any preps are better than no preps. You still have time.

Stack all the things!

nick

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Tues. Sept. 28, 2021 – not as productive as I’d hoped

Hot and humid again. Not quite “still” but again. Some overcast and I’m sure there was rain somewhere but my house stayed dry. Got pretty warm by late afternoon, and it was still 80F at bedtime. Today I expect some more patchy rain, some heat and humidity, and I’ll be out driving around in it.

Didn’t get as much done yesterday as I’d hoped. It’s a short work day because of picking up youngest daughter. She had a test she had to take online when she got home too, so we didn’t even get to do any work on our project. (She didn’t finish, and needed to be online proctored to finish. She’s up one grade and virtual for math rather than traveling to the middle school for the one class. For some reason on the teacher’s side, she needed more time outside of the day.) So that sucked but I did get more ebay stuff done.

I went through about 200 45 rpm records. They were jukebox records and they are almost all stuff I’d listen to at a bar. There were a couple dozen or more in the $1-3 range, most were in the $5-8 range, and a few were more than $10 sold on ebay. I’m sending them to local auction, and I’ll let him lot them. I didn’t want to miss a diamond, and I sorted them so he knows how much effort to put into each lot.

Cleaned a couple more small appliances. Listed a few items as I was going through the stuff. The phone app does make it easy to list. I have to catch myself just ID’ing stuff and putting it aside, and instead just take the pics and list it.

Today I’ve got a couple of pickups that I didn’t get to yesterday, and I’m dropping off at my local auction too. Getting stuff off the patio gets me more room for storing preps and stuff like gennies out of the direct weather. It helps me with domestic bliss, and with getting the cash I picked the stuff up for in the first place. Inventory for sales does me no good. I’m not stocking a store. I need the stuff listed and available for sale. Sounds pretty basic, but at some point I lost sight of that for a lot of the stuff. It’s a bit humbling to see stuff I put aside so long ago and didn’t do anything with it.

Time is getting short. Rhetoric on both sides is getting more threatening. Something bad will happen and there is no telling when.

Stack stuff, but make it good and useful stuff. And then stack it high.

nick

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Mon. Sept. 27, 2021 – another sad anniversary

This date marks three years since Dave Hardy, aka OFD, and long time friend of the blog passed away. He was old school church folk, so if the spirit moves you, say a prayer for the repose of his soul, and the health and safety of his loved ones. If it’s spirits that move you, raise a glass to Absent Friends.

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The weather in Houston this week is supposed to be reverting to normal, with more rain and more heat on the way. I guess we’ll see. Yesterday was still gorgeous. I did get some stuff done outside, but not as much as I could have. I moved stuff, found some more to send to auction, and cleaned up. It was pretty dang hot by the time I got out there which limited me.

One thing I did get done was to apply the Home Defense Max to the perimeter of the house. We’ll be seeing live and dead bugs for a week as it does its magic. I got a couple extra gallons stacked up for later too. I need to reapply about every 6 months, when I get tired of hearing the shrieks from the others in the house.

Pest control. It’s gonna be a thing when stuff goes pear shaped.

Plan for today is more ebay stuff, grocery shopping, including Costco, and more cleaning. If the weather holds, there will be painting with my youngest to move our daddy/daughter project along. If it is raining, we’ll do something else. I really hope it doesn’t rain.

Oh, and I’ve got a couple of pickups to do. Mostly household stuff, but also one or two needful things to add to the stack, and one cheap item for resale.

We’ll see what the grocery stores look like today.

Use this time, stack the things.

nick

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Sun. Sept. 26, 2021 – another sunny day

Forecast calls for another great day just like yesterday. It started at 68F and got into the high 90s, and then below 70F again at night. It was sunny and clear with the most cloudless sky I’ve seen in a long time. I’m hoping for today to be the same, if maybe a little bit cooler. Then I can really get some work done!

I did get some stuff done, although I didn’t start the day with pressure washing in mind. I started attacking a pile in the driveway so I could get to part of the house and spray for insects. Dead leaves, damp earth, and darkness do provide habitat for the local fauna… had to relocate two toads and a pair of earthworms. Once I had the stuff out of the way and saw the filth, I had to do some additional cleanup. And when it got hot, I decided to keep cleaning. As a plus, the area I started with will need to be clear when the plumber puts in the whole house instant hot water heater, if we can find anyone to do the work. At least I have a jump on that.

I’ll have to get stuff rearranged and put back today, ahead of any rain in next week’s forecast. It won’t hurt to find some more stuff for auction either.

All the stuff under tarps and plastic sheet needs new protective sheet. The sun breaks down all the plastics these days. Save the oceans I guess. I found one bucket, two translucent gallon jugs, some poly rope, and the plastic sheet were all either brittle or turning to dust. If you leave it in the sun, it will be destroyed. If you need it, you better have some put away for later.

Buckets, jugs, rope, plastic sheet and tarps, these are prepper staples. It might be a good idea, if your planning horizon is long, to have some that AREN’T plastic. The poly sheeting might be hard to substitute, but the other stuff has good material choices available. Canvas or nylon fabric might substitute. Cloth painter’s drop cloths are very sturdy. The stuff they make billboards out of is available as surplus online from billboard companies. It’s very durable and designed to resist the sun. It might be that a return to old materials like tar paper is called for. It’s certainly cheap enough to have a couple of rolls stuffed in an attic space or between ceiling joists.

If I had the room, I’d put a pallet of 3/4″ plywood, a pallet of 8ft 2x4s, and a couple hundred square feet of roofing shingles in a barn… Add a couple of boxes of appropriate fasteners too. If I lived on that sort of a property, a few rolls of chicken wire fencing would probably already be in the pile. Some stone, chicken wire, and actual pallets and you could improvise Hesco barriers. I’ve seen pics of small scale versions of the Hesco barrier used to define seating areas at a restaurant, and I’ve seen stone delivered to the jobsite packaged that way. Improvised bastions, delivered to your door! Of course, that’s something you are more likely to see in prepper fiction than real life.

One of the things you might be called upon to provide for yourself is shelter, and having the stuff to maintain your current situation is a good thing. It might also mean you can build small animal cages, window covers, or other useful things around your home.

Think about long term and worst case. Even if after considering it, you decide it’s not something you are worried about at this point, the exercise of ‘wargaming’ it will be good for you.

There are more things you can do when you have the supplies, than you can do without them. Stack up what you might need.

nick

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Sat. Sept. 25, 2021 – what did you do this week to prep

Cool and sunny, cold fronts are lovely. Spectacular weather on Friday. Hopefully more of the same today.

Got a bunch of stuff done yesterday. Posted some listings on ebay. Sorted some stuff. Picked up some stuff.

I’d been thinking about the difference between prepping and using your preps. I’ve also been thinking it was time to shift back into a “prepping” mindset. Aesop asked the question, “What have you done this week?” and I realized I’d stopped doing the quintessential prepping posts.

Opsec has become more of a concern than ever, so you might not want to say, or you might think it unwise to say. Mention that if you will.

If you share or not, keep stacking.

n

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Fri. Sept. 24, 2021 – feels like it should be a significant date

Should be cool and sunny today. It was gorgeous yesterday. AbFab weather. Hooray cold front.

I spent most of the day fixing things for ebay. I did 3 different coffee makers. They sell surprisingly well, and are fairly simple. One needed internal cleaning and ‘descaling’. One needed an O ring to stop a leak. One didn’t need anything but a good scrub. I got them listed this evening.

I also cleaned and listed a couple of other things too. Cut the grass in the back yard.

Set up a fitness tracker. I don’t care about how many steps I’ve taken, but there is supposed to be some insight available about sleep patterns. That I do have an interest in. Of course I need to wear the stupid thing in bed, which might be a deal breaker. I’ll give it a try for a while anyway.

D2 had a school open house which cut my afternoon short. Nice to see the teachers, and a couple of the kids recognized me. I miss my science volunteering. It was very gratifying to see the signs for “Bleeding Control Kit” next to the signs for the AEDs in the school. Every AED cabinet has the equivalent of an IFAK in it, district wide. They rolled that out just as covid hit. I’d been advocating for it for at least a year, maybe two and they did it.

D1 has another GS sailing camp this weekend so she’ll be leaving for that late in the afternoon. I’m hoping my wife will take her, but I might be roped into the drive. We’re doing as much normal stuff as we can. Feels a bit frantic, but the world is getting ready for something.

China is flexing on Taiwan. They’ve got Hong Kong under the boot, so they can move on to the next target on the list.

At home, polls are showing regret and a growing unhappiness with Slow Joe.

Australia is going full jackboot.

The Towelie-ban is doing exactly what you’d expect them to do.

Invaders keep pouring over our border, and dispersing into the country.

Money people are still playing games with the money.

And people are angry, emotional, and lashing out.

I think it would be typical for the actual kickoff to come out of left field and surprise everyone. Something is coming. You can feel it building.

Stack. And stack some more.

nick

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Thur. Sept. 23, 2021 – tired, but the weather is great!

Chamber of Commerce weather yesterday, and more on the way. Please gnu, more like that. Hot in the sun but cooler than last week, with a nice breeze. It was down to 61F when I went to bed. That’s the lowest since spring.

I did my pickups yesterday. Got some test gear used by NASA. It’s pretty beat so I don’t expect much, but if it does work I’ll sell some and keep some for playing radio. The other was mostly poisons, fertilizer, and garden chemicals at a nice discount from “store bought”.

Since I was in a new area of town, I hit a smallish Goodwill Outlet, and a large Family Thrift (which is a regional chain.) I ended up with some decor for the house and Christmas presents, and some books and half a dozen Retrevis walkie talkies from the Goodwill. You never know what you will find.

Got home and did some more ebay cleaning and sorting. One of the coffee makers came down to soaking in bleach to get the coffee stain out of the pot. Even the diner trick of ice cubes and salt swirled around inside couldn’t get the last bit out. Dropped my one sale off at the post office on the way home.

It was strange and frustrating that one pickup location was one of those places that google can not get you to. Google kept directing me to go around, behind, and near my target address, but I had to call the guy to find out where they really were. When I finally used the feedback tool, the problem looked like the address pin in the map was at the back of the property, not at the front near the street. I did the “here’s where the entrance REALLY is” update feedback, but my guess it they stay un-routable for a while. Even as a human, an address like 10801 Busy St that ISN’T at the corner of 10800 Busy St, and 700 Smaller St. is confusing and hard to find.

So now I’ve got enough Raid Home Defense Max to keep the cockroaches at bay for a while, and kill the grubs that would infest my yard and gardens, and maybe even enough to ride through the coming unpleasantness. Not that the condition of my grass is crucial, unless it is in order to remain “grey man.” You don’t want to stand out, in a good or bad way. And for a couple of fiat bux, I’ve got one more person covered with Christmas gifts ahead of time.

Stack what you need, what you think you’ll need, and maybe a bit extra. If bankers are writing articles about collapse, maybe it’s time to pay attention.

nick

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Sun. Sept. 19, 2021 – girls coming home today, I better get crackin’

Hot and humid although less so than the peak of summer. We did get a sprinkle or two of rain during the day yesterday, but it didn’t really cool things off, instead it just made the day more humid.

I got a couple of things on my list accomplished. I slept in. And I got some organizing and stacking done at my secondary. Spent a few hours there moving stuff around and even throwing a bit of stuff out. Mostly just shifted the piles though to make room for auction stuff. I did get pics for the first three lots in my industrial auction. I need to get another 5 or six pallets set up then I can get that all in motion.

It is taking so long, but forward progress is being made.

I really need to stay home today and get the house ready for ‘the Return’…

Wife’s birthday is this week too, so I need to get that sorted.

Made one ebay sale yesterday, a book that I bought for $5 and sold for $32 and shipping. Baby steps. Rebuilding my ebay sales will apparently take a while but frequent listing and changing my product mix is having some early good results. I’m going to continue with this and see if it helps longer term.

Soon it will be fall garden planting time. I have to think about that too.

So much to do, so little motivation.

Needs must when the devil drives the cart…

Keep stacking.

nick

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