MY wife Sandi, tells me I am the King of hyperbole, but in this case I am not exaggerating I honestly sold many items for hundreds of dollars that I paid a mere 25 cents to a dollar for, you know like the big fish that did not get away. When you find a great item you paid $1.00 for and sold for hundreds of dollars it is like catching that ten pound bass that fights you with everything in its power but you win; the big one did not get away. 

Making money buying and selling valuable things is a huge part of modern day society, thus, the popularity of Sotheby's, Christie's and a host of companies that make huge amounts of money selling items to collectors. Collectors are the life blood of the modern day merchant who goes to every estate sale, garage sale and scours the internet for that special item  someone is looking for to add to their collection. 

You can  be a modern day merchant in your spare time selling your  items or things you find at sales to millions of people. or to just a few in your local area, it takes time and tenacity; or as Sandi says, "You have to kiss a lot of frogs (before you find that one good sale or that one item with great value).

I will tell you the short version of how my wife and I started the thrill of selling something you purchased for $10 and sold for $550.  I know from reading many books on how someone made money, they drag it out until the end and instead of giving you the information you thought was in the book they ask you to go to a website and become a member for $39.95

This is not that book.  I am going to give you our 20 years of knowledge on how to be a modern day merchant, by turning your hobby of going to garage sales, estate sales and flea markets into profit.  In the pages of this book, you'll discover  how to make money at your hobby and get to read our crazy story of living and outside the box at no extra charge. 

Before I get into our extraordinary story, I would like to give you the overview of the modern day merchants television shows that prove our experiences are just as relevant today as they were 20 years ago when we started.  As you flip through your televisions stations it is obvious by the plethora of programs in America and around the World, people  are mesmerized by making money buying and selling junk.

Antiques Roadshow, the original, began airing in 1979.    By watching this show for research you will know what to buy and what has gone out of style for collectors.  You will be able to see the trends of collectors. Not only is it important to look at something and believe it is valuable but you must know that it is the genuine article and that it is something collectors are looking to buy and if it is the right item that they will pay a high price for.

American Pickers, Mike & Frank,  have become millionaires buying and selling junk across America. Watching their show is a great resource for items collectors are yammering for making those items your gold mine.. You don't need a brick and mortar building with an advertising budget and employees to be a modern day merchant, you just need persistence, research and tenacity to search relentlessly to find and to sell your found items. Modern day merchant hobby is not for the weak at heart.  

Don't be like Bill, an old man we encountered many times in Portland, Oregon.  Bill ripped a really valuable piece from an old woman breaking her arm.  Sales are quite competitive in Portland and Bill was at all of them.  The first time we saw him, the Estate Sale opened, he was behind Sandi, as she walked into the living room to her left was a steep staircase to the basement, Bill shoved her so he could be one of the first in the room knocking her down the stairs. Fortunately, she grabbed the stair rail and hung on for dear life as she pulled herself back to her feet.  

I know this will sound unreal to you, but while waiting in line at a sale a year or so later, Bill had a heart attack and died and the others in line did not help him they clapped and cheered.  Sadly, that is no hyperbole either. So, I repeat, don't be like Bill, be kind there is always something for you to buy, you do not have to fret or fight over anything, there will always be another day, another sale.

As I stated, there are hundreds of television shows that prove my point when I say that there are more buyers than sellers. The stock market DOW would be at 50,000 to 100,000 if it were in the same realm as the collecting desire of the world. People have many reasons to collect, but the biggest one is nostalgia, "that's the same one I had when I was a kid," or "my dad had one of these..." or sometimes because this will look cool in my space. 

The more you pay attention to trends and the more research you do on what people are looking for, the easier it gets to spot the money maker.  The sources I use on a daily basis are: eBay, the shows mentioned above, internet searches and just observing people at sales, watch, look and listen to what they are buying, especially at estate sales.

The money maker is that item that you find and pay a nominal amount then turn into huge profits.  To put this into perspective, almost all business are successfully run on a very low margin 3, 4 or 5 percent profit, but your fun and interesting hobby can yield 30, 40, 50, 150 even 1000 percent profit, and that ain't bad.

In the rambling words of the next couple chapters, I will give you the secret to a fun money making hobby and a story of life lived outside the box. Our story seems to intrigue every one we tell. Every time we tell our story most all listeners say, "You should write a book."  So here we go.

After doing the expected normal life path of going to college and getting a job. Myself an A&P Mechanic working on airplanes for a major airline and my wife with a Bachelor's, Master's and working on her PHD, while working for FEMA ; tells me she wants me to quit my job of ten years and find something we could do together.

Now I can here the gasps of you reading this and saying to yourself who quits a job making $60,000 a year, a good income in middle America in 1998, with health insurance and retirement to "find something we can do together" well that would be me. At first I was, "are you crazy we have a mortgage, a car payment and a 12 year old child in the house, one in college and 2 children in the cold country living with their mom who depend on my child support payments.. 

Needless to say, after three  months wearing me down, she made me believe we could actually make good money, work together and that it might be fun. Moreover, I could get out of the chemicals that reek on my skin and in my breath every day from the hangar I worked in at the airlines. The shock of quitting a sure thing was wearing off and starting to sound like we could actually do this.. Apprehensive is an understatement, but Sandi found us a crazy job traveling around the country working for telecommunication companies burying fiber optic cable along pipeline and railroad right of ways and supervising the construction.

Talk about "out of the box thinking", this was it, the start of a story that is hard to believe for two semi middle-aged people. We traveled to remote places in America backpacking across the country side, living out of hotel/motel rooms for 6 months at a time and then come back to the house in Oklahoma where we had months off between jobs. We were working for a telecomunications company on a job between Toledo, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan locating sensitive telecommunications lines along the Conrail railroad tracks right of ways for a company that was installing fiber optic lines next to the existing lines. We were protecting both of there interests. so the lines would not be disturbed, broken or cut. We met early in the morning and got our assignments for the day, from there we dispersed to where construction commenced  to hopefully keep the workers from cutting the existing pipeline, hydrogen line, and fiber optic lines and preventing  a huge slowdown and saving millions of dollars.

 The equipment operators were always told to wait for us to arrive to locate the live wires before they started digging.,  We were paid very good money to do our job and there was huge amounts of money at stake for the companies that worked around the existing technology installing the new fiber. The lead gave us our assignments then we went to our places where they were digging that day. During the process Sandi and I started getting  phone calls from our employer at the main office asking us what was going on, we were calling each other trying to figure out the panic, there were several of us working as inspectors and locators not all from the same company so there was confusion to say the least.  A crew man that worked for the construction company drove his backhoe to a dig spot and without anybody there took it upon himself to start digging, the flags and the several different colors of paint locating the existing lines were everywhere but there accuracy was always questioned before moving dirt. The crew called Sandi to locate the cable, but when she arrived she discovered they had cut the fiber line before she arrived.  

Chaos broke out, the atmosphere was so thick you could cut it with a knife while they analyzed how this could possibly happen. The hole was at a bridge just outside of Toledo the young man was standing there in front of his backhoe looking down in the hole and people were driving up from every direction like a bank had been robbed.  A major fiber optic arteri that sent information to all of the industries between Detroit and Toledo was cut in half. You hear about fiber optic lines but you may be thinking a small line with a few strands of fiber optic glass in them like you buy for Christmas lighting. 

The line cut in half had thousands of strands of glass with an information stream that had every major telecommunicatin company converging on this construction site in helicopters, big black SUV's and anything you could think of that was important or official looking. The money lost from the cut was one million dollars per minute not the hour or the day. The blame game was in full effect because the construction company blamed the inspection/location company and the inspection/location company blamed the construction company and so on, you get the picture. Sandi was confused why they called her to locate since they already cut the line. Sandi  immediately called me to come because she knew something fishy was going on. I was standing back and watching all of the commotion with a bunch of suits standing at the hole looking down at it like they could fix it with there minds by osmosis when our onsite boss pulled up and asked if we were suppose to be here for this dig and we assured him that they did call Sandi but by the time she got there the line was already cut. Alot of CYA (cover you ass)was happening on that day. 

A fiber optic splice truck pulled up and one guy jumps out and runs to the hole with a very nervous dismayed look on his face gets yelled at by the suits to get in there and fix it. The difficulty of permentally splicing fiber optic glass together when it is not in use is hard enough but live wire splicing and getting the right miniscule glass tube spliced to the right other glass tube with helicopters flying over and every suit from every company effected with huge money at stake staring at him wasn't going to make him work harder, I was sure the poor guy was going to have a heart attack, his hands were shaking and he was sweating so bad down his face I am not sure how he could see what he was doing. 

The young guy that cut the fiber was trying to give a timeline in cahoots with one of the other inspection/location companies to get the blame off of him because the liability was going to be huge and some companies insurance would have to pay for the damage which could be in the milllions. Somehow, I intercepted a copy of the report they filled out and sure enough they blamed Sandi. They stated the time they called her on the form, but I knew the second a fiber line is cut the exact time was recorded via computer and every telecommunication company would have a record of that time. I compared the time they claimed they had called Sandi and when they went ahead and started digging with Sandi's phone records, and what do you know, the line was cut ten minutes before they called her.  I took the form to them and told them they might want to intercept the form they filled out and change the timeline before turning it in since I had the proof they were lying and so did every one of the companies who had info running through those lines.  I guess they changed the timeline because we never heard about it again, didn't get fired and kept getting good jobs.

   Back in Oklahoma during the down time, Sandi wanted me to go to garage sales and estate sales with her, which of course, I was delighted. Well you could say not very excited,  I would just say no. Sandi says that my first answer is always, no.  I suppose she's right but when she wants something she's relentless.  However, she doesn't nag she just kills me with research and logic.  As you can tell, I am not the adventurous one I am the one that goes along kicking and screaming telling my wife how crazy her ideas are. I am sure there are none of you out there reading this and saying, oh ya that's me! However, she said something that made my mind reel, "Honey,  what if you could make money  going to sales, would you go with me?  

After her bringing things home from garage sales that we obviously did not need, and as it accumulated, she started painting furniture and sanding it down to make it look shabby chic for  our very white house. Oh, I forgot, this is all happening in the late 90's so you can get a perspective. Shabby Chic, she called it, was her style. She pointed out that we could buy furniture for a dollar or two, paint it and sell for $30 or $40 or more according to the item of furniture.  You said, "turn the junk into money?"  That's all it took, I'm in, making money is my new favorite hobby.

Before we get into the "how to," I will tell you our system of finding and going to sales of all kinds.  When we first started it was much more difficult than now.  We had to find sales in newspapers, find address on maps which took time and effort.  Today, you have it made, it is so much easier and more convenient with GPS and Craigslist, Nextdoor. and a number of other garage and estate sale finders on Google, like www.estatesales.com or garage sale finder, etc.

Sandi and I go through the "garage sale" section on craigslist primarily, it's easy and they have the most listed.  Moreover, they have a map view allowing you to list on your paper by proximity of closeness rather than driving all over the place, you have a system of writing down the addresses in order and the time it starts--very important so you don't miss a good one since it is always best to be the first ones there and so you don't go at 8:00 a.m. to one that doesn't start until 10:00 a.m.  

We had several booths at different antique malls and would take our money makers and distribute them throughout the small towns of Oklahoma. We made good money and were able to turn alot of junk into valuable items people wanted to decorate there houses with. You have to remember all good things have a cycle and you have to know when to get in and know when to get out,  I'm telling you this because what works great for a time always changes and antique malls are going by the wayside because of the internet, styles changing to clean lines and the older generation dying off.

Okay, back to the crazy life and times of the modern day merchants. In between fiber optic jobs, we were also day trading stocks.  We got up at 5 a.m. to read all the early business news via the AP news wire to prepare to trade stocks during the morning hours on news reports only. When the internet was in its early stages, anyone could day trade if you had the right software and were not scared of losing all your money. It was totally exciting, Sandi and I researched all morning because, back then, the AP news wire dispersed the news before the general public could get it. We had a white board where we listed the stocks with  news stories that day in our price range, discuss pros and cons and then decide which stock we were going to trade in and out of.  I did all the trading because it made Sandi so nervous she left the room until I was finished, only checking in if the stock was going up, if down she disappeared until the bleeding stopped.

 I would buy into a stock or stocks when the market opened via "limit buy" just like they did on the floor of the stock exchange,  then sell it on the bump when the rest of the world received the good news on the stock. The strategy worked well because there were only a few people using the power of the internet to daytrade and we traded in quarters then which made it most profitable. We traded like the specialist on the floor "the middleman" this is the power of buying and selling,  the middleman always makes money. 

It was a great lesson to learn trading stocks because no matter what you are buying and selling there is always money left on the table. Most of the stocks we traded were technology stocks because they were the hot ticket in the late 90's. One morning we researched a tech stock called Cisco, you all have heard of it now, but then it was new and the AP news had a very promising story on it; so Sandi left the room and I started in, I bought as many shares as I could waiting for the bump on the news getting out to the general public, the stock ticker started going crazy and we were up $40,000 I turned my head to yell at Sandi and ask her if she wanted to make $40,000 today but before she could answer it started the declines as I yelled do you want to make $20,000. You may not know, but in the late 90's you had to type all your commands on the keyboard as fast as you could and hit enter, the software was not as great as it is now where you can just point and click and voila, by the time I turned my head back to the screen I could see the down pressure on the bid and ask so the bump was over and I was chasing the stock down as fast as I could and finally was able to sell out at a $9,000 profit. 

This lesson has helped me through alot of split second decisions  we encountered and I hope it helps you, don't get distracted and leave $31,000 or $12,000 on someone else's table. We made a good sum of money and the technology was just getting better so we could make large sums of money because you traded in quarters back then but the big brokers lobbied congress to pass laws that stopped us little guys from making money by changing the trades from quarters to pennies, and making you have hundreds of thousands of dollars in a bank account that you would not use for day trading.  Stopping all the little day traders from taking crumbs from the table.

The fiber optic jobs slowed down and the day trading was taken away, but we still made money buying and selling stuff which got us by until my resourceful wife who prays about everything prayed we would find a job opening where we could work together and make good money, another out of the box thinking job came along when Sandi found an ad in our tiny town, Sand Springs, Oklahoma newspaper for a Estate Manager Couple. Remember this was 20 years ago we never heard of Estate Management, so as the skeptical one that I am I was more than apprehensive about working for a family and taking care of them and their properties. 

The position Sandi wanted us to interview for was something neither one of us had even known existed or if we would qualify for it. This is the part about out of the box thinking, if you think you can't do it, just marry someone who believes you can do anything.  Pretty soon you will believe her. That is when you should go head first into it and conquer all your fears, like writing this book, I am not a writer, well, I have written poetry since I was a young boy, but a book, no.  I wanted Sandi to write it because she is the one normally writing things for people and since so many people wanted us to write it, Sandi seemed like the logical one, she is compiling a book of quotes called, Things Our Dads Used To Say with her dad's funny quotes and just did not feel the urge to write our story, thus, I'm the one who said yes this time or somehow felt the urge to just do it.  Writing a book just seemed out of reach until Sandi found Tablo which made the task doable. I am thankful for Tablo for making it easier to get our story out so we can give hope and wisdom to people who have never tried something different.

The job Interview, the position was for both of us to work for a very wealthy family taking care of their  properties and their personal needs. We met with the husband at their 6 million dollar home they just built, for our first interview.  We gave him our resumes and waited for a few minutes and he just gave us a puzzled look and asked why we wanted a job that we were over qualified for. My wife tried to explain that we wanted to work together and that we are very resourceful and could accomplish anything. The prospective employer just looked at my wife and said that she would be bored and quit in a couple weeks because he saw on her resume that she was working on her Ph.D. and had graduated with honors on her other two degrees.  

He was not as worried about me because their house was built like a large commercial building with all the smart technology so they needed someone skilled in mechanics as well as computers to finish the programming and maintain the systems in the new house.  My wife calls me, Mr. Fixit Man, because she believes I can fix or run anything.  Regardless, we did not get the job and they hired someone else. We went back to our little house in Sand Springs and started brainstorming about our next adventure.  A job opportunity in the telecommunications industry came open and we were just about to contact them when the phone rang and the wealthy man asked if we were still interested in working for him because the other people did not work out. The start of the new out of the box thinking opportunities began as we accepted the job and started immediately But, it was really funny, Sandi did all the domestic work in the house but every once in a while, the wealthy man called her into his study to give her a sheet of mathematical problems pertaining to his industry so she wouldn't get bored as he had said she would.  Sandi said thank God, she had just studied algebra and calculus in college so she was able to work the problems, math normally was not her strong point.

Before I go any further, I have to tell you we have worked for many families of notable stature and we have signed several non-disclosure agreements so the vagueness will be very evident throughout the book 

One thing I do want to emphasize is you will be paid very well to mange wealthy peoples properties and there lives, the first job with the aforementioned family paid $120,000 a year and many perks, now you worked hard for it and you have to understand personalities of everyone involved or you will be frustrated. I think the biggest thing you will learn from this book is that you can never take anything personal you have to check yourself at the door and get the job done.

Out of the box thinking takes you to places you thought were not possible for yourself and your family and pushes you past your fears of venturing out in the world to see the vast opportunities available to you. Give up the thinking that you can not do something because, because has to be removed from your vocabulary and I am telling you this as the king of skepticism so you know I understand. 

The new job was the beginning of a lifestyle change that brought fun challanges and interesting learning experiences for the future endeavors we were about to embark on. With the first Estate Management job the Modern Day Merchant part of our life was harder to keep up but we did still buy and sell and there was a new platform on the internet you may of  heard about it, EBAY. eBay started in San Jose in 1995 but did not become a universal platform until the year 2000, I have been a member since then and have sold thousands of items on there site. eBay was great in the beginning because it was all auction style and that is the best way to get top dollar for any item I.E. Sotheby's, Christies, Ect. remember the collector is your best friend and pays the big money for that valuable item that you found. The collecting community is not getting smaller it is getting bigger and the economy creates new collectors every day. There will always be plenty of people with money to buy your great item that you found but for the next 6 years it will be "sweet pickins".

I am still on eBay and you can see what I am selling by going to pickersandgrinners on the site, I think the most important insight I can give you is be honest, package your item better than anyone else and block everyone from bidding on your site who is even a little bit contensious. Remember when you put something on ebay the opportunity for hundreds of millions of people all over the world to see it is available to you so blocking hundreds or thousands of people is a drop in the bucket to the collectors who are honest. There is always going to be scammers and being vigilant and listening to your gut is my best advise. eBay is almost old hat nowadays with the new sights popping up everyday the smartphone has changed the game but it also has become my best tool as a Modern Day Merchant. The app is king with the invention of apps you have Mercari, Poshmark, 5mile, LetGo, Tradsey ETC you get the idea opportunities are endless to sell your item. 

Once again I am getting way ahead of myself  thus the reason I call this Rambling's. My wife and I worked for this wealthy couple for 8 months but the man of the house passed away and with other family disturbances for us and them we parted ways but we learned alot about handling personalities. There are many stories I could tell about our experiences that we had in the 8 months we worked for this family but Sandi and I have always said if you do not have something good to say about someone than do not say anything at all, also we did sign a contract. 

Without getting to deep into my personal family life one of my sisters and brother in laws lived in North Dakota where I spent several years growing up from 14 to 20 something and we lived in the same house for awhile and I worked with my brother in law on jobs in different parts of the state. We were family and Leon was my brother in my eyes, unfortunately while playing softball, at a very young age, he passed away suddenly. We had just started this new job and I explained to our new employers that Sandi and I needed to drive to North Dakota to go to my brothers funeral and the woman of the house said you are not driving to North Dakota, she gave us her credit card and said buy a plane ticket and rent a car so you can get there now. Some things you never forget and generosity is always the one that sticks.

Full time Merchants again with our booth's at the antique malls and our ebay sales we made enough money to keep food on the table and pay all our bills, we also started buying old fence from fence companies and building furniture to sell in our booth's. It was fun and the people liked it enough to increase sales. I was just getting the hang of eBay and understanding the rules of auctions when they changed to also use the "Buy it Now" option and creating stores for users. I have never opened a store I just use my account, there are pro's and con's but it is easier to control and understand the costs for me with a simple account. Remember it cost money to make money and you are going to pay percentages to eBay, paypal and any selling platform you use, those are the costs of doing business but unlike brick and mortar stores which are folding under the weight of there own slow reaction to technology you are making 20, 30, 50 or 800 percent on your items so you can pay the percentages the platforms are asking and still come out way ahead. When I buy a book at a garage sale for 50 cents that I know for a fact will sell on eBay for $50 the percentage I pay to them is nominal to the profit I just made. 

How do I know for a fact that a book I buy for 50 cents will sell for $50? Research, technology and experience, research is easy you already watch to much tv just start watching the shows that give you the knowledge to make money, pickers, roadshow, pawn stars and many other shows, so many of the people we run into that go to sales are looking for a specific item, they are focused on one or two things, now that is well and good but to make alot of money you need to be knowledgeable on a large variety of things and have access to the best tool known to man, the smart phone.

You see when we started we did all the hard work and learned the hard way by trial and error, we were left with alot of things that we could only make a few percent on or break even that is when you take all the leftovers to the flea market and sell or have your own garage sale, someone always wants your stuff. We still do this and make good money at flea markets, when you have the best stuff and sell it for good prices you will only be at the flea market half the day and be sold out. You see the smart phone is the Modern Day Merchants best friend and I will explain how and why later, because at this time in our lives we had the cheesy flip phone and all you could do is call and text very slowly.

We had a very short stint as Estate Managers with another family about the time 911 happened, it was a very surreal experience that changed the happy go lucky lifestyles of many people in America. Our lives and our home life was also changing because we found out that agencies helped find positions for us in our new field of Estate Management so we flew to California and interviewed for a position at a Winery in Napa Valley, it was to manage the facilities and take care of guests and parties that were happening onsite. This was a private winery back in the hills on 290 acres and we would get a house on the property and a salary plus insurances etc. The out of the box thinking was going big time since we were relocating across the country to a completely different culture and landscape. How do you say no to a job that pays very well and the base of the palisade mountains are your backyard. Yes we moved to Napa, sold our house in Oklahoma and started a new chapter in the life and times of Robert and Sandi.

The winery, that was an experience. We worked for family's and learned how to discern personalities but the winery was a company that had a lot of moving parts and California personalities. Needless to say, it was an adventure to put it very lightly. Sandi and I were the newbies so we were sent to all the wine tastings at the surrounding wineries and wine tasting classes. Never thought I would get tired of tasting wine, but it didn't take very long to figure out why they sent us. They were all wined out and we were getting there fast. We still were Modern Day Merchants just on a smaller scale we found a little shop in St Helena, LoLo's on Main Street, which is still there to this day. We stopped in today and talked to the owner; the little shop is exactly the same almost 20 years later. It is a consignment store where we took our merchant finds that we knew the locals would buy. We made money and LoLo's made money without having the overhead of a  brick and mortar store, If you're in St Helena stop by and say hi to the owner and buy some stuff, also go to our favorite Restaurant, Rutherfords, it is where the locals hang out,  its loud, fun and the food is great.

However, the winery was a wonderful learning experience and the lifestyle was casual and laid back.  We had the whole 290 acres to ourselves on the weekends so we would hike the Palisade mountains and explore the valley. But it seems all good things must come to an end. The private winery was purchased by Beringer Vineyards  and then Beringer was purchased by Wolf Blass, AKA Fosters Beer. The nice little private winery turned into a tenticle of a corporate behemouth.  It became clear that things were changing so after one and a half years in we called some agencies and started looking for a new adventure.

A new adventure, that sounds cliche, I guess I need to put some things into perspective for you, Sandi and I were married on a cruise ship, the Norway in the port of Miami, the old France. It was one of the last old wooden ships still commissioned to float across the vast waters. The last Titanic, one could say, owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines. As you now know, we started out with adventure in our veins. Our friends and relatives who have never lived outside the box are always enamored at our stories and lifestyle so adventure may be an under statement.  Sometimes when we talk about our history to people we just met, they all wish they could do it. If you are reading this, then you know you can do it because it has already been done. 

The winery was great fun and a great learning experience but it was time to move on out of the corporate world so Sandi was off to the races again to find another job in another state, as her dad said, "Moss does not grow under her feet."  After several months she found a position for Estate Managers in Portland, Oregon. Since we signed a non-disclosure with the gentleman in question I will try to give as much information as possible without stumbling into a trap of no return. We flew to Portland and sat down with an original technology genius who sold a company before the bubble. You can imagine the amount he sold it for. The interview went very well and we accepted the position. The only problem was that we would be living in the mansion in a apartment above the three car garage. This was his second residence so we had access to the whole house for the nine months he was not in residence, which made the close quarters of the apartment more tolerable. The house was on four acres on the top a hill above downtown Portland in a upscale historical  neighborhood,  His full time residence was in Miami.  Therefore, it was as if we were the owners, which is the way he liked it. He was very private so preferred no one knew him or where he lived.

Sandi and I love to walk for hours through the beautiful area surrounding the mansion and nearby subdivisions looking at architecture, (another one of our hobbies), talking to neighbors, dog walkers and anyone else out in the lovely surroundings. So, I have to tell you about one of our neighbors across the street who was always animated, waving, smiling and happy to say hello to us when we walked out of the mansion gates for our walks. She saw us coming out of the gates for a walk one evening, this had been about a year into living there, and was so excited to talk to us, "the rich owners."  She was planing a gathering of the local homeowners for a party and wanted to make sure we would attend since she assumed we lived in the mansion, which  was the biggest, most beautiful house in the area. She knew we must be multi-millionare's to buy, maintain and live in this house.

Remember we never told anyone outside of the gates that we worked for the owner. Sandi and I just looked at each other and knew that we were not going to lie to the woman, so Sandi explained we were the Estate Managers and we lived on the property taking care of it for the man that owned it. 

I do not remember the woman's name, but her eyes got wide and her mouth dropped open for a split second, she lifted her head back and it was a good thing it wasn't a normal Portland rainy day or she would have drowned from the rain filling her nasal cavity her nose was so high in the air. She abrubtly turned around and walked straight into her house without a word. I can remember laughing and feeling sorry for the poor woman for not understanding that she is just a human like you or me. It makes for a great memory and story but it ultimately teaches us how we should not be a respecter of persons but a respecter of humanity. We have a million stories from the families we worked for, some we can tell, but most we cannot. But I will say for the curious, we mostly worked for multi-billionaires and the things they have in common are they are all very nice, immaculate, scheduled, busy, in some ways generous and in some ways stingy like the rest of us, just more driven and energetic. 

Back to making money, Portland was the best buying and selling experience we encountered to date. Even when our employer was in residence, we could only be in the main house for a couple hours a day because of his privacy, so we went to estate sales, garage sales, and second hand shops all over the Portland area. Our new minivan was perfect for this because all the seats folded down into the floor and gave us a large area to pile our newest purchases that we took to our dealers at the end of every day we shopped.. 

The antique and vintage Shabby Chic stores were still very hot and had a very good turnover so our pickers mentality and entrepreneurship brought us together with 4 or 5 local stores. After we filled our van going to sales we drove our new purchases directly to the vendors stores where they picked their favorites for resale right out of the back of our van. 

Sandi and I bought furniture, shabby chic anything, antiques and anything and  everything  we new the stores would buy from us. we would spend a hundred or so dollars then sell the van full normally for $700 to $1,000 on a few occasions even more. We had one buyer who put us over the top many times. she was great.  We told her what we wanted for each table, chair, decor items, then sometimes she'd say, "No, I'm giving you a hundred dollars for that, fifty dollars isn't enough.  

This was a very profitable form of the Modern Day Merchant as the HGTV programs were getting more popular. One of the antique stores we sold to was run by a woman with the passion and fervor to have her own show, she took her antiques to the big antique shows  at convention centers and sold them for quite a profit. 

She was getting popular so Cottage Magazine did a story about her and put a shabby chic table and chair and other items from her store on the cover of the magazine. The dropleaf table and windsor chair and a few smaller pieces on the cover of that magazine came from the back of our van. We purchased them at garage sales for pennies on the dollar and sold to her at a high profit, she won, we won, everyone got what they wanted.. We kept that magazine for years but lost it in our many moves. She eventually got her own HGTV show she worked so hard on and became very successful. 

It is all about that money maker, we would pay $5 for a piece of furniture at a garage sale and sell it for $150 to $200 dollars, all without an over head or a brick and mortar store, only having to pay for gas in the van. Today, the antique stores are closing but the principle is the same, find the money maker that someone is looking for and willing to pay top dollar for and get in front of there eyes.

There are auction houses, websites and phone apps that make it so much easier to find that collector, business or enterprise that wants the money maker that you have for sale.. You hear the stories of the lucky person walking into Goodwill buying a painting for $12 and selling at Sotheby's for $250,000 or more. You may say that is extreme and you hope that happens to you in some shape or form, will it does happen every weekend we find something that is a money maker.

 Just last weekend we purchased a pair of cowboy spurs at a garage sale for $10 and sold them the same day on eBay for $110 I haven't even shipped them yet, you pay a small percentage to sell on eBay and a small percentage to use Paypal for receiving payment even if you are left with $90 after percentage taken out and initial purchase of $10 it still leaves you with an 800% increase on your money.

I am not sure if you heard me right but 800% increase, there are no stores, restaurants, bars or car dealerships any other  type of business other than the stock market in this capitalist system that is going to give you that return for a minimal amount of effort and money, none. That same weekend I purchased 3 books for 50 cents each, that is $1.50 total. I sold one book for $75 another for $63 and the third for $30 for a total of $168.  For the sake of argument let's say it cost $18 to sell leaving $150 profit that is 9900% profit. Yes you heard me right 9900%.  Remember you have to buy the things someone is willing to pay good money for, but that is the fun and exciting part, knowing you have something in your hand that you are going to sell and possibly make 10000%.

Sandi and I were filling our van up in Portland almost every weekend, Thursday through Sunday and selling our picken's for very good money, we called ourselves: Pickers and Grinners. If there was something that was easy to ship and would sell on eBay I would buy it. Estate sales in Portland were serious business. There was a lot of competition and people would line up early before they would open 40 to 50 people deep. You wanted to get there early because they would only let the first 20 or 25 in if it was a small place. Most estate sale companies would put a sign up sheet outside on the door the night before so you could go and sign up starting at number one and so forth which would normally end up missing and then you would have to start over the next morning, I told you it was serious business in Oregon. We would always say split up and conquer working as a team. We were not even as hardcore as this one couple who had headsets with microphones and who split up and would tell each other via walkie talkie what they saw in case the other was interested.

Not only does being a Modern Day Merchant make you very good money it is entertaining and you have great stories to tell your grandchildren. I guess I got a little off track, you know "squirrel".

We worked in Portland for 1 1/2 years and brought many van fulls of money makers to our buyers and sold many money makers on ebay but our employer liked how well we took care of the house and how peaceful it was when he was in residence so he started staying for much longer intervals and decided to sell his Miami house and move fulltime to Portland. Remember when I told you we lived in a small apartment above the garage but we were able to use the big house like it was ours, we could pop popcorn and go into the attic movie theatre with its 20ft screen and super surround sound while sitting in luxury theatre seats and have our own private viewing, well that was over, along with our morning swims in the 85 degree heated pool and the solid teak hot-tub relax sessions. The apartment was 2 rooms and a small bathroom, our refrigerator was a commercial Kimchi cooker because it had a cooling setting after the Kimchi was done fermenting to preserve it, you would have to remove almost all the groceries to get to the milk on the bottom for cereal. The stove was one of those old school mini stoves that were in the original extended stay hotels, you could barely fit a chicken in  the oven.

 Our son Tanner and daughter Tara came for the summer and stayed with us for awhile and the walls in the apartment were slanted because we were in the attic and Tanner cranked his head on the corner of the dormer and got a full size egg knot on his head. He came in the kitchen and asked Sandi why does your head swell when you hit it, she just about fell out when she saw the knot, it was huge but he was just standing there calmly looking at her. I was laughing but that was my job, you know concerned father and all. Needless to say we started looking for a new adventure because the space was way to confining and it was time, we would miss all the great sales, extra money and crazy stories but we contacted some agencies and found a job that provided a two story house on 20 acres in upstate New York.

Two story house, it was like a mansion compared to the hovel that made us feel like the keebler elves making cookies in a tree. A new adventure began, we had alot more work especially Sandi she became the chef, maid, caretaker of the new puppy and all around everything in a large house on 290 acres. They had a hobbie farm with very expensive show horses and a full size polo field. The new employers were part of the super rich and hired us to take care of there house and the grounds which consumed most of the day and part of the night, Sandi had to create a new and different gourmet meal every night while taking care of all the other needs of the house and the couple. I had all the outside duties and the easier part of the job, our Modern Day Merchant activities were hampered alot but we did have weekends off.  

We went to as many garage/estate sales as we could and our only outlet for selling was the internet I.E. eBay. Sandi had gone to a garage sale without me because of our schedule while waiting for it to open she spotted an old steel pressed truck through the window along with two older gentelmen eyeing it and when they opened the doors, Sandi being the expert garage sale aficionado she is raced the two old guys to the truck and swooped in for the kill, victorious she paid $15 for the old green and red truck, not knowing the exact value she new from history it would be worth way more than $15 because it was obviously original, old, and totally sellable. She brought it home like her dad bringing home a pile of Crappie for dinner, smiling and excited to tell the fish story, only she would not exagerate as much as her dad would. 

The truck was a 1956 Tonka pressed steel truck without the original box, the value of everything is increased exponentially when it comes in the original box. We did the research and from our small amount of digging we found that it was pretty valuable. I took pictures and put it on eBay only to learn one of my most important lessons that everyone reading will be ble to use, make sure you describe the Money Maker you are selling properly and in context, also when researching on eBay for the value of something always go to the advanced settings and check off the completed and sold boxes to find out what that Money Maker sold for and when it sold for that much. This is the linchpin of research with your smartphone today, I will expound on that next Rambling.

I listed the truck with the description of a Toy in the Toy section of eBay and called it a Toy Tonka Truck, later to our dismay this was a $400 dollar mistake and a great lesson on properly entering the Money Maker your selling in the right section and in the right manner by doing the proper research and not only researching through eBay but the whole of your access of the internet. The Tonka sold for $356 minus the cost of selling, so lets say it was a $320 profit or a 2000% profit, pretty good by any standards but we found out by an email through eBay that a collector would have paid $700 and he thought the full value was closer to $1000. The $700 we should have sold it for if we had done the proper research and description would have been a 4500% profit. This proves two things, to get the full amount of sale from your Money Maker takes the proper knowledge and research but the most important lesson is even if you screw up the voracious collector, buyer and profiteer will find your Money Maker and you still get 2000% profit.

We have sold thousands of items on the internet and it is by far the best avenue in the world for resale of Money Makers known to man. Sandi and I have had a couple of small business on the internet with our own websites and sold items all over the world, the power of the internet is more vast then the normal population has realized and the opportunity for profit is immense. I could get into the website world and teach the SEO triangle but it would take a whole other book for all the techniques.  The power of the selling sites that are available to you and all of the world are easily navigatable and you would not be able to create your own way to sell on the net without many dollars invested and a massive amount of time. The percentage you pay for the ability to use them is nominal to the percentage you are making. 

Upstate New York is a beautiful place to live and Niagara Falls is a mandatory visit, all other so called famous tourist sites pale in comparison to the falls, it is awesome and you have to get in the boat that goes up to the falls, you will not regret it. We had a great place to live in our farm house but the fit with the new employers and there personalities did not work out so in 6 months we were moving to our new adventure.