Bartering And Horse Trading (Part Duh)

Hi mick silver. These heavy duty trailers don’t come cheap. When I bought my Ford 550 backhoe, 13,500 pounds, a friend drove it to my place while I was along in my truck with the flashing lights. We went only 8 miles but it was no problem driving through the center of town. Even stopped to fill the diesel tank.

When you get your rig home, how much do you anticipate having to transport it beyond where you could drive it locally on the road instead ? In other words, do you really need this trailer or could you pay for someone to move it occasionally ?

I noticed something in your post; your consideration for your bud being busy for the next month. That is one mark of a true friend. I liked seeing that posted.

As gun driller wrote, trailers are seasonal. I agree but there is also a long term view here that we all need to keep in mind. Ponce has told me that in the future, those with the equipment to haul things from one town to another will be a profitable sideline or even a full time endeavor.

I think that a car hauler with winch and pockets on the sides for installing siding would be ideal for my uses. I could haul cars as well as bulk merchandise. I’ve bought out a couple of defunct companies’ inventory and it was very profitable. Such a multi purpose trailer would cost around $1,000 to $1,400 around here. The heavy axle capacity would be a must.

Best wishes,

Agnut

Hi govcheetos. Your post hit me with so many cool deals that I don’t know what to say except congratulations !

Seems that everyone is busy getting ready for winter and the attendant slowdown. I’m actually looking forward to it what with the hundreds of DVDs I haven’t had the time to watch. Besides going to estate sales and a few deals, I like to hole up in the winter, organize items recently bought, and watch movies.

I have read that people get depressed when it is cold, the daylight is short and there is extended rainy overcast. I believe that those who plan for such an environment will live happier lives. It works for me. Humans need to experience seasonal changes; they either roll with it or drag themselves through the winters. Another sign of higher intelligence.

Your warning about dealing with Craigslist was well taken. We once had a group of Russians come by for some car parts. They acted and looked like professional criminals. I had defensive items stashed around for quick response; gotta keep situational awareness at the highest level when dealing with strangers. I am familiar with dealing with some real characters, having worked with wrecking yards in some dangerous neighborhoods. Most Americans are the most wonderful people but it only takes that one in a thousand to muck up your life. If anything did happen to me and mine, the bail bondsmen and bounty hunters in my family would take it personal. Small consolation but wrongs need to be righted if we as a people are to enjoy the bounty of our American way of life.

Today we live lives beyond the luxury that kings couldn’t even dream of hundreds of years ago with one exception. We don’t have others to take care of our possessions and conveniences. There is no royal family jewel washer or vehicle driver. We have to do it all ourselves and yet we bitch about how it is so tedious. I don’t know where Americans get off complaining when they should be ecstatic in wonderment of all they have to be grateful for. I’ll step down off my soap box for now; I was getting a bit dizzy anyhow.

Those appliances you buy and sell remind me of something I recently wrote about but hadn’t posted :

Ever since WWII we Americans have been on a worldwide scavenger hunt for anything and everything that suited our fancy. And we had an enormous fancy wanting more and more and more. The world was happy to oblige since much of the world’s manufacturing had had the living crap bombed out of it and we were the last man-ufacturers left standing.

Problem was that keeping up with the Joneses cost more than we made and through the decades we fell to the siren song of credit and deepening debt levels. Well, we have finally arrived at our own Water-loo and are now up to our necks in the loo.

There is a point here; I’m not into condemnation but only an observer of human nature and weaknesses that cause folks to paint themselves into a corner. I’m also a problem solver and there is a solution to the “too much month left at the end of the money” syndrome.

Regarding the several decades of past overbuying, there is an enormous stockpile of good used items all over America. Millions of garages, barns, storage lockers full of “valuable items” that the owners didn’t know what to do with or want to throw away or haul to the dump.

Bartering and horse trading is a sort of rewind or reverse financial engineering of these several decades wherein we can now buy good used items for prices that are as close to highway robbery as you can get.

And what of the folks who “have to buy everything new” ? Well, they aren’t with the changing times and may never be able to swallow their mislabeled so called pride. Good for them; let me know how that works out for you.

Yesterday I bought a later model Whirlpool dishwasher for $30. Of course it isn’t new silly; $30 buys a new toaster, not a $400 new dishwasher. I also bought a Kohler toilet for $20. Yuck, you say. Yeah, butt I will be reading from my library of Bathroom Readers with the confidence that I won’t have to use the plunger all the time. That is worth a load of relief to me. TMD ?

By the way, the new (to us) dishwasher works so well that my sons call it nuclear powered.

What is stopping millions of Americans from becoming good barterers and horse traders ? Ignorance of the opportunities, habit and ego gratification. All extremely expensive to the bottom line.

Best wishes,

Agnut

"All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting."
- George Orwell

We should insist that an immigrant who comes in good faith and assimilates himself to us, shall be treated equally. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming an American, and nothing else. There can be no divided allegiance. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, one language and one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people. -T.Roosevelt

The deal with the tool chest ended up me helping her boyfriend move a pickup load of stuff to storage. The stuff consisted of a washer and dryer, my tool chest, two wing chairs and a coffee table. Had to drive the stuff 2 miles. I ended up buying the washer and dryer for $200 LOL. I usually would only spend 150 for the set, but these were friends, plus I made out like a bandit on the tool chest and lawnmower. I now have a backup set for when mine or family members goes down. They also threw in a 6 ft wooden step ladder which I gave to a friend of mine who paints on the side and always wants to borrow one of mine. Most of the "good" tools were removed as expected, but I now have all the peel and stick porter cable sanding discs I need for my orbital sander, several more stanley screw drivers, a couple more craftsman sockets and screwdrivers, brand new drywall sanding blocks and trowells, a couple un opened boxes of deck screws and nails, and a ton of other small misc stuff.

Garage sailing was decent. Picked up a sentry fireproof strong box for $10, an almost new quality pitchfork for $5, the wife got a few "new" clothes, she almost exclusivly wears garage sale and goodwill clothes, yet you wouldn't know it. Love that woman! Ran into an old acqauntance at a sale looking at a riding mower for $30. Was in alright shape and would crank and run, just needed new front tires and the belts adjusted. Traded him two tires I had in the shed collecting dust for a quality boat anchor I knew he had hanging on his fence from a boat he flipped on craigslist. Both of us were very pleased. One mans junk is anothers treasure like the saying goes.

Putting some multiple and un needed stuff on craigslist now that things are slowing up a bit with autumn coming on. Gonna change some things into bigger and better things I've had my eye on.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Things have been a little on the slow side lately. Can't hardly give stuff away on craigslist. Get a few calls on the stuff for sale, but no one actually coming out to see stuff. Sales have been mostly consumer grade junk from china lately. Bought three boat props and a set of old oars for $20. One of the props in in great shape which I will sell and the Oars I'm selling to a friend who has wanted a set to patina up and hang on the wall. I'll double my money and get a couple props for free to hang on the fence. Been going through the shop and boxing up tools that I have multiple multiples of. gonna sell off some stuff to fix up the good stuff that I have. Better to have a few quality functioning things than a yard full of stuff that's needs work. Also getting the shop into a more functional layout, making it easier to work on things as they come along. My goal is to turn things around faster instead of them sitting. Got another barrel connection so I'll have a slower, but consistent supply of them. Gave a few away to a friend needs them for ballast on a dock barge. He was very thankful.

Hope everyone is doing well. I know the cold weather is here now and a lot wont do much til spring. Always enjoy hearing about others deals and items they run across.

Reading what you've been up to got me thinking on an old safe I spied at a friends place. Well some one I know in the street. The story goes it is an old police gun safe. Apparently not super secure but have a decent fire rating. It's old rusted and almost all the paint is gone.

I would make a decent restoration piece. Something for displaying in the man cave. I looked around and found a guy who restores old safes. Does a halfway decent job.
http://www.bobbondart.com/oldsafes1.html

Glass a good friend of mine who has done well for himself has an old safe he got out of an old house he bought a long time ago for a rental. the thing is pretty big, maybe 30inches square or so and about 3 feet high. It's still locked, and he has no idea whats in it. Figures if he ever gets down and out he'll have it opened and maybe it will change his luck.

I LOVE Thrift stores.

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showt...hrift-stores.&

Great overview; note post #6 by Doc1.

Life changing stuff ? You betcha !

Best wishes,

Agnut

We have done so much, with so little, for so long....We can now do anything, with nothing, forever.

"Nobody knows when reality will overtake the rhetoric, lies, phony statistics, wishful thinking, fake prices and tiresome poseurs pretending to be world leaders. The situation is universal, a consequence of terrible leaders and careless (or clueless) citizenry."
-Paul Singer

Hi govcheetos. You got some nice deals there. Sounds like you are still busy this late in the season but are aware that things are going into hibernation till the spring. I agree but this may be time to change direction as well as downshift gears.

You wrote that you want to turn things around faster. I was recently advised to keep the for sale ads going continuously. Sales may be slow but having ads running all the time will be like a big drag net to catch fish even though they may be few and far between. Craigslist ads are free and the buy it now ads on eBay are free to list.

I read recently that it is becoming better to fix old well made equipment rather than to buy new Asian equipment. You would also save a lot of money. I’ve been doing this for years anyway.

I have been writing about how I focus on estate sales and moving sales. Why ? They both can be goldmines. Not so much the garage sales but I’ll go anyway to pick up odds and ends. Really, you never know; there are no hard and fast rules for where we will find a treasure. So keep an open mind as to the possibilities.

After the 2007-8 market crash I noted that I was beginning to see more garage sale interest and attendance from folks that had newer cars and were well dressed. And it is still this way. The what I call more financially set folks still miss many bargains, I think because they still have a mindset of looking for pristine items rather than items that may be serviceable but either need work or are scuffed here and there. They haven’t gotten the message that our world has transitioned from form to function. What is functional has always been the key. Probably has something to do with imagination too. Older equipment often sits there waiting for someone who knows its durability and potential.

This bartering and horse trading thread can sometimes be overwhelming what with the members posting so much of their own experiences. Please keep it up ! I will post as I can and hope that y’all will understand that I’m in the middle of organizing and setting up many of the items I have gotten in the past.

Buying and selling can be seasonal wherein we hole up until the spring when the sales come out of the woodworks or we can redouble our efforts to find as many estate sales as time permits. By doing this over the winter and spring we can have our estate sale connections ready as an additional source of deals when there is a lull in the garage and moving sale ads. Or perhaps better to focus only on estate sales if there is enough to keep you busy. People pass on and downsize throughout the year. You may have to travel farther but I believe that the rewards will be greater.

Gotta go and hook up the 5 channel stereo system. Ridiculous that I have 3,000 LP record albums and nothing to play them on.

Best wishes,

Agnut

P.S. I’m still changing from a Windows XP desktop to a Windows 7 laptop for my writing. Hard to get help out here in the boonies. No, that’s not really accurate. I don’t trust a stranger with my computer and therefore finding a friend or family member is the reason it is taking so long. This is something I have to do ASAP since XP is no longer supported by Microsoft. I guess XP and I had a good run for over 10 years. She is getting forgetful, can’t keep time, freezes up and is losing sight regarding YouTube and free movies. I hate to leave her but 7 is beckoning with a come hither wink and wiggle. Cold bastard that I am, I still wonder what to do with the XP after retiring her. Put her in the barn to gather dust and never again be fired up to travel worldwide via the body electric ?

"The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same." - Carlos Castaneda

dam you guys are doing good on sales . the stuff I am seeing is the left over of the left over . I need to go to more estate sales but the last few I have been to there guys an women who are there just to buy stuff for there second hand store and they have been driving the price up . one thing I have seen if there a lot of cover trailers there it's does folks so I just move on now . be safe and keep buying stuff when you can mick

p.s . be safe as you all travel there a lot of crazy stuff going on in this country . so be on your toes . be safe mick