SecondMoonshot

Ok, I have come to a point where I can either move to the next level or stay where I am at. I knew the answer before I asked the question. I have to wait for 4 or 5 years for Zabrina to get to her spot (she’s actually way ahead of my spot financially, but she has her goals and will to support her in that). Since starting this venture, I have become attached to growing this new effort as a formal business, and I am having a blast, no doubt about it. Since we started, we have built an inventory of 1850 listings, learned the general landscape of estate sales, relationships, and operations. What I have ultimately come to the conclusion of is that an optimal shipping methodology will not linearly nor exponentially grow your business. For this type of business, almost all of the burden relies on you’re instinct, abilities, and fast learning on proper picking and product selection. Not saying we are great at this, because we are not, but I do believe that we are constantly improving at a very...

Every once in a while, our cat Sydney will get on the table where I am taking pictures and I can’t help but include her in a cameo in the eBay listing. Last night, she jumped in the bed and went to sleep, snoring like a Sherman Tank as I petted her. Got me thinking about Sydney and all the cats that have come before, and even my daughter’s current Trooper) and past pit bulls - and the joy they bring us. Sydney is probably the best cat I have ever had. She uses her litter box religiously, has ruined every couch and chair we have owned since we got her, nightly goes into each persons room to sleep with them for a few hours then moves on to the next. Oh, and the best part, she does not meow…nope. In its place, she just claws at whoever is near by or knocks her food or water bowl over to let us know she has needs; such as notifying us she wants to come inside, she will claw at the outside door molding (now the molding around every door is ruined). When Ali, our daughter now 18 years old, w...

 Latest moon shots by Zabrina.  John

The storage/warehouse unit is pretty much 90% filled up. Have some extra space if I need it on a top shelf on one side where I am keeping packing supplies. The boxes that are in the middle are a bunch that I got from a JMS estate sale for practically nothing and use them regularly for backing board, custom boxes, picture boxes, etc. and great as most are heavy duty double-wall. The roll of craft paper I got at a recent JMS estate sale as well for $5. I am actively looking for a real warehouse in the 30 mile radius, but its going to be tough to find something reasonable, actually thinking a loft apartment in downtown Wake Forest or surrounding small town might be equally as good. More to come. John

This is my office and photo location and staging for inventory….and craft storage for Zabrina. Turned it into my office and slowly coming into its own. About 2/3rds of the signed books reside in here and items I have yet to list (or determine they are worthless and put them in the attic for the next garage sale). Got the chair at an estate sale for $25, looks good, but damn uncomfortable, but pride won’t let me get rid of it. The sofa is a sleeper, so will be in trouble when the next relative comes to spend the night, then will have to take down the IKEA desk extension and finally pack up all the already posted listings and take them to storage. It’s my space, I like it. John

Steve Minor had a Thursday / Friday estate sale, so I thought I would go by a few minutes after it started. It kicked off at 8a and I came in around 8:10a due to another commitment. Turned out a little better than I though and found some items that should do well. Just picked books that looked interesting and 2 or 3 of them were signed, others were just interesting books or French cook books which do reasonably well. Poking around upstairs I found an empty box for boots, so went on the hunt to find the boots that fit and ended up finding them in excellent condition, so got a few other pairs…one antique pair and another Born Boots leather pair also in very good shape. We’ll see how they do. Relatively easy atmosphere today and crowd was generally well-behaved. So much nicer to just go right after they open and skip the chaos phase. John

Hoy Auction had a good auction with some items that I thought I would bid on. Ended up bidding on a number of items and ended up with 7 lots. Most notably is the 4 production art drawings and cels for 60s/70s/80s cartoon commercials (Cap’n Crunch, Nestle Quick Rabbit, Lucky Charms Leprechaun, and Charlie the Tuna / Starkist. 3 of the 4 have COAs but the rabbit does not…silly rabbit. Also got an artist proof of a sketch or engraving signed by artist probably from mid-60s or so is my guess, probably will reframe it and give to my daughter as a gift, she likes black and white art, so she should like this. Did get a large 23” vase, although probably will end up letting Zabrina use it as a plant stand, probably payed too much for it, but should make the money back on the cels. All in all, not a bad run and Hoy folks great as always, pleasure to do business with them. John

This comic just spoke volumes to me. Not necessarily false. From FlatSixes.com One of my favorite car pics. I thought I would hit my other passion.  About 5 years ago in August of 2016, I started to fulfill one of my childhood dreams, sports cars. It started (or re-emerged from childhood dreams) when I got a new 2016 Launch Edition MX-5 Miata (now sold). It was a great car. Later I bought my mother-in-laws 2012 Lexus IS250 when she lost her license (daughter now has it). I liked the space and quality of the Lexus, but didn’t have the sportiness of the Miata. Certainly there must be a car that is practical, sporty, and quality….turns out there is.  I went to visit the Leith Porsche dealer thinking this would be the perfect combination, but the Leith salesman wouldn’t give me the time of day - I guess I didn’t fit the profile of an actual customer.  After doing a lot of research, I knew that I wanted a 991 4S, as new as I could afford with the Performance Plus package. Afte...