I've always loved the trill of the hunt. No, I'm not talking about deer, rabbits or any other wildlife. I'm talking about shopping! When I was a child, my daddy used to hang out with a much older gentleman, Mr. Horace Gregory, who was a junk dealer. He had a junk store that was even less organized than that of Fred Sanford, but I always loved going up and down the isles in that cement block building looking at all of the random stuff just waiting to be bought. There were radios, televisions and other electronic gadgets, clothes, Christmas lights and decorations and, well, you name it. I wound up with a few radios and even a white fake fur coat with pink lining from Mr. Gregory's store. I'm pretty sure that several of the console televisions my parents had originated from there, as well.
Mr. Gregory told my daddy that he never knew there was so much money to be made from junk! Well, fast forward thirty years. Add in the internet and eBay. Stir in my love of shopping and desire to make an income while being a stay-home mom. And, well, a business was born and I named it Fallen Leaf Books and More. There's no deep meaning to the name... It is named after the street I live on and the fact that I began by selling mainly books. It's not very original, but it works.
So, now, after the kids are dropped off at school, I spend my days trying to balance my domestic duties (aka housework) with my business. I will admit that, while I do enjoy doing the laundry and would absolutely love to have a sparkly clean house where everything is in its place at all times, I'd rather have a housekeeper do it all. But, I haven't gotten to that point just yet (But, hey, I'm working on it!!). Instead, a load of laundry goes into the washer as I head out the door to the local thrift stores and it dries while I'm taking individual photos of my stash to get ready to list on eBay. I try to get various household chores done while still getting all of last night's sales packaged up and ready for the post office. Fortunately, the post office is conveniently located between home and my daughter's high school. So, I do get to kill two "birds" with one stone, there.
Every day, I am reminded that there IS a buyer for everything. And, I am still amazed by this. Even that UGLY Christmas sweater that hung on the one dollar clearance rack at Goodwill had a buyer and he was happy to give me $30 for it. That glass microwave turntable that the Salvation Army only wanted $3 for is on its way to its new microwave home for $24.99 (I guess its new owner dropped the old one and is still finding shards of glass in his kitchen floor!). And, while grandma no longer needed that Wilton Thomas the Tank Engine cake pan (so, she donated it to Goodwill, who sold it to me for $2.50)... some child is getting a birthday cake baked in it after his mom bought it from me for $29.99.
That old saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure," very appropriately applies to the eBay situation. So, whether you call it trash, junk or just stuff... there is a buyer for it and there is money in it. Who knew?!
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