It had been a pretty slow week for the project. Lots of family plans meant some great time spent enjoying the summer, but not much time to invest into making money. By last Monday, I had nearly sold out of everything from the previous auctions, and didn’t have a chance to replenish my stock. On top of that, the auctions scheduled throughout the week were either too far away or looked like a waste of time, and we were hosting some friends on Saturday, which meant I would miss the couple “big ones” around our town.

By Sunday, I was eager to get working again despite non-Saturday auctions tending to be smaller. I found one about 35 minutes away, a longer drive then I typically like to make, but I didn’t want to spend another week wasting time. I was really chomping at the bit, and ready to put in some time and effort to get progress moving again.

I learned some things at this sale. It was a smaller auction, and was clearly a couple of tradesmen consigners. There was a huge supply of Utility electrical tools and a large portion of the stock of a mechanic’s garage, with some random household type items thrown in. The crowd was smaller and older, the location was hot and uncomfortable, and most of the people there were in attendance for the tools that were advertised, which sold first.
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I hung around for a bit, buying a couple small random items that I thought were good deals (things under $5 I thought I could get $20+ for). As the tools all sold and the temperature rose, the crowd thinned out. Things started going pretty cheap, and I noticed that the especially heavy things that people didn’t want to or couldn’t move were going for very cheap. I thought of the old Thomas Edison quote, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work”… After a week of inactivity, I was certainly ready to work. 
 

Then I noticed the other auction ring (they had two auctioneers going at once to save time), they just finished selling an older boat motor, and I thought I heard the auctioneer say it went for $30, which is VERY low as these are typically worth hundreds of dollars. Not knowing if maybe that motor didn’t run or something, I ran over there, and they had one old motor left, lying on the ground looking very heavy. It was a Johnson brand, and I knew that was one known for rugged longevity, and it was a 28HP, a good size for pontoon boats/etc. It looked like it was in pretty good shape, had a newer propeller on it, and it was a newer model than the others they had just sold. I figured if I could get it for $50-100, I might be able to double or even triple my money quickly, and I was looking for a big ticket item to get progress rocking.
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The auctioneer started at $150, still a decent deal but not the steal I was looking for. But at $150, he couldn’t get a bid, so he dropped to $100… then 50, then 25, still no bids. I couldn’t believe it. I sat back to feel out the crowd, sometimes they go all the way down only to bid it all the way back up to a high price. Still getting no bites, someone finally yelled “two dollars”, and that’s where we started. I waited for a few seconds, seeing no one else jump in I waved in my bid, $5.  The original $2 bidder looked down at the intimidating motor, shook his head, and remained quiet. The auctioneer was in disbelief, and after trying again for any additional bids, laughed a little bit and pronounced the thing “sold” for $5. The ring of people migrated on, and I was left staring at the motor (dry weight of 120lbs, I later found out) I just stole for $5. 

I spent a very sweaty hour loading everything into my truck, settled up with the auctioneer for a total investment of $17, and drove home hot, dirty, and dead tired… but excited to see what things were worth. After some quick research, I think I could reasonably expect 200-300 bucks from my haul if I price things to sell quickly, not too shabby for a couple hours, $17, and a back that might require some ibuprofen. Most importantly, getting this investment to pay off puts my much closer to having enough cash to start some more real small-business type things, one of which is already in the works… 
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More updates coming soon, big developments are in the works! follow us on facebook/twitter to stay up do date! 

WEEK 2 SUMMARY:
​This past week was an interesting one. While my mind was going full speed on future possibilities and opportunities, my large (relative) investment from the auction last week wasn’t selling. The bike rack I thought was a hit was recently discontinued; so many stores were selling brand new ones on sale for $150 (meaning my used one wasn’t getting anywhere near the $100 I was originally asking). The old mechanical pencils were made in the millions, so while very old and an overall neat find, not very valuable. And the chairs that I thought would be a huge hit were just sitting in my dining room, waiting for someone to call.

Finally, Thursday I got a little momentum and sold the old wooden ladder (picked $1, sold $25). Then Friday, the pencils sold on ebay for $10 (paid under $1). I told my brother (an avid mountain biker) about the bike rack, he said he needed one and thought around $50 was fair. Typically I would just give it to him, but we wanted to keep the project going so I looked up the last one sold on ebay and it was $60, so I told him I’d split it at $30, great deal for both of us. Then finally, Saturday evening I set up a time/place to meet Sunday morning (before Father’s Day plans!) to sell the set of 4 chairs. Price was lower than I wanted (picked $45, sold $120), but I was able to move them in about a week, and more than doubled my money.

So all in all, it turned out pretty good. I finally got some nice traction and made well over $100! I just needed to be patient (and maybe a bit less ambitious on my prices if I want things to sell fast/easy). I wasn’t able to spend too much time auctioning this weekend, instead we spend our days at family cookout events and taking the boys swimming, which we all loved! I’ll be back at it again this week though, excited to re-invest the new dollars and keep the momentum going. As I’m exploring future opportunities, I’m finding new motivation to get this $250 turned into a bigger pile quickly so that I can try bigger and better things. I think it’s going to get really good sooner than I thought!

​Thanks for reading/stopping in, and stay tuned for more project progress as we go!