Bartering And Horse Trading (Part Duh)

[agnut]

Hi Zap. I can sure relate with your getting older; I have to think long and hard before taking on any more projects.

It is enough to be buying at garage and estate sales. And the season is just getting started.

I am not ready to hold a sale myself and don’t want to have loads of buyers showing up with parking problems and a long single lane road into my property. The last time I wanted to get rid of items I took them over to my sister’s house when she was holding a sale. Maybe you have a friend or family who could help you in this way.

Best wishes,

Agnut

[govcheetos]

I agree about the projects Agnut, I'm still fairly young, but have started to realize I can't fix up and keep every good deal I run across. My yard sometimes starts to look like the Beverly Hillbillies meets Sanford and Son.

Something I have a real soft spot for is old boats. I keep a look out for old derelict ones in peoples yards and on craigslist. I almost always get them for free. Keep in mind these are not seaworthy, but a project that may need a new transom or deck, almost always an engine, and the trailer almost always has flat and dry rotted tires. I have a stack of decent trailer wheels and tires to get them home on, though I have been known to drag them home on flats before for short distances. (Just so ya'll know the top recommended speed for flat trailer tires is 29 mph, over that they tend to disinigrate). When I get them home I shovel out the years of leaves and debris and strip them of any decent parts for sale on craigslist or to put in my stock pile of parts for use or trade for later. Depending on the condition of the trailer I may switch trailers to sell it with a cheaper trailer and keep the good one or sell it individually. Parts i strip are props, helms, engine controls, engines, stainless hardware and fittings etc. Again these get sold on craigslist. The old boat gets a good scrub and a bleach bath and parked in the yard for sale. I can usually get 200-300 for a boat and cheap trailer and usually get just about the same for a decent trailer by itself. Unless its a really desirable hull, its really hard to sell a boat without a trailer due to most people not having a spare trailer available, so I'm always on the lookout for cheap trailers to get rid of an old hull with. If I advertise on craigslist I can usually get rid of one in 24-48 hours, just parked in the yard may take a week. I don't have anything invested except some time to clean them up and to talk to tire kicker shoppers in the yard. I've run across some real deals. One old boat had a 15 hp Mariner engine laying in it the guy said was frozen up. Turns out in was just shifted in gear and had great compression. I let a friend of mine rebuild the carb and traded it to a neighbor for an old 21' Donzi with and aluminum trailer. My neighbor had been trying to sell the Donzi for years and it was in really bad shape, decks and stringers rotted out almost completely, missing the engine, had an old obsolete cobra outdrive on it ( Cobras aren't very desirable, but if you have one this was a gold mine of spareparts). It had Donzi written on the side so I knew someone would jump on it. Sold it to another boat trader guy like me off craigslist for 400 and kept the trailer. Used the 400 to fix up the trailer to be road worthy and use it if I ever need to drag an old hull out of the weeds that doesn't have a trailer with it. Most boats are a collossal waste of money in financial terms, but you can come out ahead at the bottom of the barrel with the ones I'm dealing with.

[govcheetos]

Garage sailing this week didn't yield any huge deals, but I still did pretty good price wise.

Here's what I came home with....

Pair of heavy duty 50 ft extension cords: $2 each

Cement rooster yard statue and cement donkey pulling a cart: $2 for all! This kind of stuff is getting pretty expensive due to china buying up cement. Not really a great SHTF item but I think they look cool.

2 Commercial grade lawn sprinklers: $1 each

Which reminds me, I put in a shallow well to water the lawn and garden. The pump I'm using is a 1 hp flo-tech model I got from a friend just for cutting his grass. This pump sells at walmart for $263!!!

Hope ya'll find some deals this weekend!

[govcheetos]

Did alright today at the sales, in fact, pretty good.

Picked up two desktop scanners,

First one is a Realistic pro-2006 400 channel model
Here's a link to some reviews on it (notice msrp )
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/861

Second one is a Radio Shack Pro 2035 1000 channel model.

Here's a youtube link I found for it:
http://youtu.be/IdS03gFkWP0

Both seem to me to be very similar with the Pro-2035 being an updated version of the highly regarded Pro-2006 model.

My price? Try $15 FOR BOTH! Not each, BOTH!

Next sale Had a bunch of stuff, Picked up two 5.70-8 trailer tires with galvinized rims and a 1500 lbs trailer tongue jack $10 for all. The tires are in great shape, no dry rot at all and don't seem like they've even been used. Usually these sell for 60-70 a piece or so and the jack goes for an easy $40-50 new. Went back and bought a galvinized boat trailer winch post and trailer leaf spring for $5 for both.

I'd say I did alright.

Hope ya'll find some quality goods for pennies on the dollar. Good Luck!

[agnut]

Hi govcheetos. You sure are active in bartering and horse trading. Those are some killer deals. I haven’t even gone out to any sales because there are so few lately but the most important reason is that I have so much to clear away on the property. Pruning the orchard, moving cars and previous deals have me tied up for now. But if a juicy sale appears I won’t be able to resist. Mae West once said that she could resist most anything but temptation.

In the process of organizing I have been uncovering boxes of items I bought long ago. Although it feels a bit like Christmas morning I have to face reality and get things put away and labeled where they are for future reference. I have over 100 boxes that Dole bananas came in and use them to store a lot of the items I have acquired. With a label on one end I can quickly find what I am looking for. Another way of using free things that are just laying around. You know, there is an overabundance of material just laying around here in America that we can get for simply asking and hauling it away. A friend told me about a pile of used bricks that were free. She loaded them up and took them over to another place that needed them and sold them for over a thousand dollars. We are limited by our imagination. More apropos is that we limit ourselves by our NOT using our imaginations.

By your posts I can see that you are using your imagination and surrounding resources. Many years ago I paid a retired Harvard business professor for some of his thoughts. What stuck with me was that he said to not think of dealing in your town or your county or state or country but to think worldwide and work backwards from there. And you know what ? I did that some years later and made a fortune in international deals.

Another lesson I never forgot was that a German parts dealer told me that is the same work to do a $100 deal as it is to do a $10,000 deal. I found this to be largely true. So some of you who are reading this may want to think of larger deals if you feel that you can handle it.

Hey, I’m just an old kid who started out with nothing and built from there. I had nowhere to go but up. I am fond of that saying “I’ve done so much with so little for so long that now I can do anything with nothing.” Just a way of laughing at myself in looking back through the decades and where I have traveled.

I wish I had your skills at boat deals. There’s lots of them in my local area. Your Donzi boat reminds me of the first time I went water skiing on the intercostals waterways in Miami. Must have been over 40 years ago and I hadn’t thought of it until just now. A couple of wild party hearty guys invited me and we went under bridges where I thought I would have to duck. But that was several decades ago. Good times. Oh, well, water under the bridge.

The more we get out there and do things the more our brains connect to the real world. And the more we can grow as sentient beings. Bartering and horse trading is one of the best ways to meet people; they are being themselves and watching them as they go through a sale tells a lot about them. Many times I will volunteer a comment about something they are looking at and will strike up a conversation. I know several people through this method. And who knows, you may find a lifetime friend or even a soul mate.

A couple of friends came by earlier today and invited my son and I to go fishing. I had met them through my dropping off veggies and now they are becoming closer to us. She is a gourmet chef and he is an independent buyer and seller of high end items. They are planning a garage sale this weekend and will call me when ready. Lots of old tools and a pair of Altec Lansing speakers for $50 which I told him I was interested in. I’ll let you know what happens.

Another couple I met at a garage sale and now they drop by often. Speaking of drop, I fell off the tailgate of my truck and he caught my head before it hit the concrete floor. My right knee to ankle was black and blue but has since recovered. You might say that we now have a bond of some sort. Also very interesting folks and good hearted.

Well, that’s enough for one post.

Best wishes,

Agnut

P.S. Thanks to GS-US website I have two close friends. One is Ponce and Randymatt I met years ago at the old GIM website. Ya never know…until ya try.

[govcheetos]

Went to several sales today. Bought a few things, but passed on a lot of stuff due to already having several of some items. Hopefully someone else who is in the know and can use them will snatch them up. Picked up a wire fence stretcher for $5. I know a few people with farms that could probably use it more than me, so it might be a Christmas gift. Got two 20lbs propane gas cylinders for $1 each. When buying these make sure they have the new style valve if that's the one you need. The places that trade them out for full ones a lot of times won't exchange the old style valves. If you are into coupons, my wife prints them off the computer and gets me $3 off an exchange at our grocery store. Also picked up a pair of the smaller coleman stove type cylinders for $1. If you need a coleman camp stove don't buy a new one, these can be had at a sale for $3-$5 usually. I had 5 or 6 at one point but scaled back to the two nicest ones and gave the others to friends.

Speaking of Christmas, My family started a new tradition last year with a thing called Second Hand Christmas. The idea is everything you get for someone must be from garage sales, Goodwill/Salvation Army, re-gifted items you no longer need, but someone else does, or my personal favorite: Found on the side of the road! This last year was a great start and everyone enjoyed it. You keep an eye out year long for possible items that remind you of different family members. Everyone saves a bundle vs buying some new made in china crap, and everyone avoids the Christmas rush with all the commercial materialism. I bet I didn't spend more than $50 for my entire family last year and everyone had a blast. Everyone seemed more into finding out what everyone else received and hearing the story about where it came from too. If you do receive something you're not really crazy about it's no big deal and you don't have to return it and nobody is really offended. So far my sister has told she has two things for me already, "Found on the side of the road". I can't wait.

Hope ya'll find some deals!

[agnut]

Hi govcheetos, some good buys there and also some good down to earth advice. I have about 10 propane cylinders picked up through garage sales. Also have four or five Coleman camp stoves, some of which I had bought new for Y2K (remember that fiasco ?). When we had a local power outage I was able to loan an elderly neighbor a Coleman stove, a propane heater and a Coleman lantern. They were all spares and I was the only one in the neighborhood with a generator for saving our freezer contents. The outage lasted for almost a week.

I recently learned a new angle for acquiring items. I need well over 400 “T” posts for fencing off our acreage and I have been looking for them for a long time. A friend who also has acreage and cattle has a lot of these T posts stacked around. I asked him where he got his and he told me that looking in the local paper or Craigslist could yield some results but the best way he found was to keep an eye for what he needed as he drove around. He would stop at various farms and ranches that either had material laying around OR if the place looked neglected like the owner had no need for the fencing material.

What struck me was that he said that looking in the papers or internet was nowhere as good as directly dealing with neighbors and the surrounding community. He said that the fence posts he had bought for 25 to 50 cents each; this is much better than the $1 apiece I had been buying them. By the way, new T posts are about $5 to $6. So spending $2,000 to $2,400 on T posts is out of the question. It doesn’t matter whether someone is rich or not but whether these posts can be found for under a dollar. In fact, every purchase can be thought of like this. Sometimes I feel that people think I have a lot of money but since I buy most everything for 5 to 10 cents on the dollar, I have 10 to 20 times the items had I been foolish to have bought them new. Not to denigrate the masses of new buyers because without their buying I wouldn’t have the opportunities to buy their used items. For a song, of course.

The other day a previous neighbor called me and asked if I or someone I knew would be interested in 5 sliding windows with frames, storm windows and screens. At first I didn’t know what to do with them; if I had a place to store them for a long while. I later called him back and will be picking them up in a few days. I may want them for a greenhouse I have been accumulating material for. So some items can be for free. Ya never know.

I had a conversation with Ponce this morning and he advised me to sell what art and non necessities as soon as feasible. I agree that art and other dust collectors will probably be hard if not impossible to get rid of in the future and the cash now could be thought of as working capital for more deals or items that I may need in the coming years. Say I found a spectacular piece of art for $100 and it was worth $300 or more. Will I at some future time regret not having sold it and bought something that I would absolutely need in the Brave New World ? Or would the pleasure of viewing it outweigh the lost opportunities ? I could rationalize and say to myself that I paid only $100 rather than thinking clearly regarding what I may have done with the $300 or more. Items that have sentimental value are another matter. They have to be weighed partially with the emotional attachment.

A member at Timebomb2000 stated that he was collecting all the shovels, rakes, axes, hoes and any other gardening tools that he could find. This may prove to be a very wise investment but only time will tell. Personally, I collect any tools or materials like drills, chain, saws, fencing, barb wire, plywood, 2x4s, nails and so on. The key is to find quality items; American or European manufactured in most cases.

Not much around here in garage or estate sales. I’m just organizing before the spring/summer/fall buying season. I may sell some bigger ticket items and have just purchased a Nikon digital camera for photographing for Ebay and Craigslist ads.

Gotta go now to pick up another truckload of free fruits and veggies.

Best wishes,

Agnut

No one has to change, but if they don't, they must be willing to accept that things will pass them by.

Nature - the first tell a vision

[Spectrism]

Thanks Agnut.... I will need to pick up more yard tools. I have a large collection of cast iron pans. They store easy and may be a good barter item.

I like how you buy things for a few pennies on the dollar. It makes great sense. It leverages your buying power.

I saw a video on YouTube about making a welder from your old microwave. I wish I had seen it before I threw out the remaining parts of my microwave. I did not know how to access the transformer or the ring magnets. Now I am on the look-out for throw-away microwaves. And I will buy up any welding rods I can find. Need some welding goggles too.

[agnut]

Hi Spectrism. Your comment about cast iron pans made me laugh. I thought I was the only one collecting cast iron; well, like a madman anyway. I have several cooking pans, a Dutch oven and a cast iron double burner for cooking over a wood fire. The cast iron pans that have the words Erie or Wagner on the underside are desirable. Oh, I also have an antique wood stove that has a water heater on the side. Lots of cast iron in that sucker. Is there no end to this insanity ? Maybe my subconscious is beckoning me back to the future. My grandparents’ future, that is. I can still see my grandma’s washing machine; it was gas run and kick started like an old Harley.

Your microwave welder sounds like an interesting idea. I wonder how many amps it can put out and how much the amperage is variable. The YouTube I have been interested in lately is about wood gasification and being able to run an electric generator with wood. Additionally, one could use the heat generated to warm a house in the winter.

I have been wondering this seemingly simple question : what is rich ?

Is rich having more money than we need ? And what is enough for our needs ? Ponce says that there is need and there is greed. How true.

Is rich having power over others ? And to what extent ? And why ? Is it to be a servant for the people or a slave master ? And where does this power come from ? And if misused, how can it be taken away ?

Is rich being free from restrictions and interference ? And from whose restrictions and interferences ?

Is rich living a life of security and without want ? How secure ? And for how long ? And what are the wants anyway ?

Is rich having a loving family with all its twists and turns and interactions ?

Is rich living a life in helping others in their own journey through life ? Is this help financial, emotional or spiritual ? Is this help motivated by collecting accolades to oneself or is it done out of sharing the overwhelming appreciation for the gift of living in such a world as we do ?

It seems that human nature yearns for more even though people have what many would consider more than enough. What is enough anyway ?

We as Americans are inundated with marketing ploys to create demand for a cornucopia of “things” that will somehow satisfy our ego. My son and I watch TV and sometimes laugh when we realize that we rarely buy anything advertised. I think that we are literally immune from their influence. Perhaps this is why we have absolutely no hesitation in buying used items rather than new items. In fact, it is this “gotta have new” belief that allows us to pick up bargains all over the place. I was not kidding in my last post that buying used items at 5 to 10 percent of the new price allows us to live far beyond others who “gotta have new”. Yesterday I got a pair of JBL LXE990 speakers for $50. They are listed new at $860 for a pair (plus tax and possibly shipping). That’s 5.8% of the new price. Or what we call almost a 20 bagger.

Growth in a human is being willing to consider old beliefs and determine if they are working in their life. We too often become like automatons following early programming. Breaking from these false beliefs can be a freeing experience which, if done, can lead to more freeing up other aspect of ones life. Much like a frozen river breaks free in the spring and begins to flow.

I have owned hundreds of cars and have never owned a new car. When I was young the cost of a new car was out of reach but when I was older and had the funds to buy a new car I realized that there was nothing positive about losing thousands of dollars the minute I drove a new car off the dealership lot. I guess that Madison Avenue’s powerful marketing had failed, at least in my life. And so my way of looking at buying items stood me in good stead through the decades as the economy went through good times and bad. The only two times I financed a vehicle was when I bought a 1987 Ford pickup truck because I didn’t have enough for the cash price. I tired of the monthly bills and paid it off 6 months later. The other vehicle was a Ferrari 246GTS where my love for mechanical excellence got the best of me. It had no radio; the sound of the engine was my symphony. It was a sheer joy to drive but I didn’t like all the attention it received so I would take it out into the winding country roads where there were few people and I could experience its performance. Later, a wrist pin bushing began making noise and although I was a mechanic I took it to the local Ferrari dealer where they took it apart and it sat for several months, all the while as I was making payments. I later found out that the dealer was trying the old squeeze play and waiting for me to sell them the Ferrari in a basket. For a low price of course. I heard that they even had a buyer waiting to buy the Ferrari from them as soon as I sold it to the dealer. I had to threaten them with news exposure to get them to release the car. I later sold the car apart for 50% more than they had offered me and washed my hands of owning a car that I could not own by cash on the barrelhead. An expensive lesson learned.

I hope this little story helps readers to fully consider what they are getting into when they buy anything. It could even be something as small as a box of nails or a toaster. My old boss used to say “Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves”. This is why I write this thread, to share my good fortune and understanding. I realize that I am not perfect by any means but even with the mistakes I have made and personal shortcomings, I am still successful beyond my dreams. This fact alone says to me that there is room for making mistakes on the way to sharpening ones skills at bartering and horse trading.

It has been said that we learn three ways. First by listening to others. Second by reading and studying. And third, that some have to pee on the electric barb wire fence to get the message. I have experienced all three ways and believe me, the third way is not anything but shocking and painful.

Well, the garage, moving and estate sales should be coming on strong as the weather warms up. This should be a most interesting year. Some more well off folks will be offering items that they need to sell in order to continue their lifestyles. I would be especially careful with high ticket items in this economy. Late model cars at below bluebook prices may seem a bargain now but what will they be in a year or two ? Expensive furniture is both large in size and cost. What will they be in a collapsed economy. Perhaps better to get items bought and sold quickly since we do not know just how soon the wheels may fall off the economy. I believe that any day the music can stop and if not careful, we can be left without a place to sit. What are you holding right now that you may regret still holding after a currency collapse or other catastrophe ? My art and a few mechanical machines are my focus to sell soon.

The world is going through a transition to a lower standard of living. Learning bartering and horse trading now will become a treasure. Here is a good article :

Changing Times
By Richard Russell
Dow Theory Letters

http://www.321gold.com/editorials/ru...ell041613.html

Best wishes,

Agnut

[govcheetos]

Agnut, Thank You for the truth and wisdom in your posts, especially the one above.

It's funny, while reading it I have several stories or personal experiences that can relate to many of your points. Like when you ask "What is Rich?". I actually prefer the term "Wealth" much more. I could have all the money and land in the world and wouldn't consider myself "Rich". It's funny riding in the truck with the wife while we're going garage sailing and saying "This next one should be good it's in the rich neighborhood." when in reality I'd put my own wealth up against many of the people we're buying from, although by looking at us you'd never know.

I like the point about watching the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves. This is very true, anything you can save a little on adds up to a much greater whole at the end of the month, year, decade, and especially lifetime. My grandfather passed away when I was 10, but I wish he and I could have known each other when I was more mature. My mom says she sees and hears a lot of him in me. He never owed anybody a dime. Worked hard and paid cash for everything including houses, never owned a credit card in his life, never drove a new car. I remember one Christmas when I was little I got my first wallet. He pulled me to the side in the other room after we were done opening presents and showed me how to keep the bills in order and properly faced and told me, "If you take care of your money, your money will take care of you." That has stuck with me ever since.

I've heard that Ferrari's spend more time in the shop than they do driving. They are beautiful cars though. I always compare women to cars. Ferrri's are red and racy and the only thing their really good for is going fast and showing off to other guys, kinda like some high maintainence women. I'd rather have a lower price woman and car that I can get more mileage, dependability, easy to work on, and one that might be able to help carry a load if I need her to. Speaking of new cars, you don't have to drive the car off the lot to depreciate it. The second it is titled it becomes a used car and worth less in the used market even if it's never been driven a foot. Some on here have some opinions on titles that I find very interesting. Something to study.

I book marked the link you shared, a lot of truth. The economy is kinda like an engine in many ways and both seem to run the best just before they lean out. The world is going through a change and it will be hard on many. Good or bad though I don't really mind because I feel confident in my abilities to weather the storms. I'm more worried about others who become jealous of my abilities and forethought or a regime who deems it to be "unfair".


Enough of all that feel good stuff though, here's some deals I ran across:

-Picked up a tupperware box full of screwdrivers, pliers, and a small crescent wrench for $4. Most are kinda cheap like stanley or popular mechanics brand, but one is an almost brand new craftsman. I have a ton of tools, but I will stash a few in more commonly needed locations instead of having to trek to the toolbox or truck to get one. Because they are kinda cheap and I have hardly anything in them If they get misplaced or a little rusty being out in a shed or something I won't feel so bad.

-Got another one pound coleman style propane cylinder for 25 cents. Can't go wrong there.

-Got yet another battery charger/starter for $5. This one goes up to 50 amps. I keep one in the garage, one in the shop, and now have one for just about all my vehicles!

-The wife picked up a pair of sterling silver earrings and a sterling silver necklace for 50 cents. These were from some "Rich" people LOL!

-I missed out by 30 minutes on a sweet deal on a 4' x5' utilility trailer with a spare for only $10! All I would have had to do is put on a new plywood deck, and I could use it to sell smaller items out in the yard and tow it back behind the gate at night with my garden tractor. You could even mount an engine stand to it to sell old outboards. Oh well, definantly pays to be early. Gave the guy my name and number in case the buyer didn't show to pick it up.

Hope everybody finds some deals!

Happiness isn't having what you want, but wanting what you have.