Okay, I'm not rich, rich, rich after the flea market, but I'm richer.
Got to the Community Center at 6:30, and there were already five or six cars being unloaded. My designated spot (inside; you had your choice) was pretty good and I flanked the rented table with my own two. Trudged back and forth hauling boxes, baskets, bags,and cartons, then spread tablecloths, arranged my wares in tasteful and enticing ways, and sat back to await the hordes of customers.
There weren't exactly "hordes," but considering the iffy weather--cloudy and some drizzling--attendance was okay. I didn't have any big ticket items, but sold a lot of two- to five-dollar stuff. The picture frames didn't sell as well as I thought they would, nor did the Halloween decorations, but a variety of other doodads made up the gap. Bottom line? I made eighty-two dollars, with which I was well satisfied.
Of course, if my time and effort is factored in, I would have done better begging on the street. I spent hours and days digging out, sorting, and boxing sale items, plus lots of energy moving them from garage to car, car to market, and reversing the process for leftovers.
But that's okay and I consider it well worth it. It's fun, for one thing. You make instant (if only day-long) friendships with other vendors, interact jocularly with buyers, see and chat with neighbors, and what's more, yesterday, sellers got a free hot dog and soda! Where else can you find all that PLUS make money in the bargain?
Also, a not-inconsiderable benefit is the exercise. Over the course of weeks and days, I worked muscles I rarely use and expended calories I don't need. Hey, it beats lying on the couch eating bon- bons, if only in a sense of satisfaction. In addition--a huge plus for me--it's ridding myself of some of my excess possessions which I need to do to clear my path to California .
Packed up about 2:00, unloaded what was left (the thrift stores were closed) into the garage, then drove to Manahawkin to pick up a few items. By that time, it was raining pretty hard, a bonus in my mind, as my car got washed. When I got home, there was a message from Rosalie; called her back and we had a nice chat.
Oh, and there's this: I took pictures of the furniture I want to sell, put them in a loose-leaf book and took it to with me. The idea is to have those interested write their first names and phone numbers on the page showing the item in which they're interested, then I call them. One couple did and they're coming today to see, and possibly buy, the maple bedside table from the guest room.
As an entrepreneur, Bill Gates has nothing on me!
WIDER: This seems an excellent analysis of that infamous date, which includes: The genius of 9/11 was to provoke the United States and its allies into behaving exactly like the monsters Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups had long argued they were. The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, brazenly embracing torture and mass kidnappings and opening a gulag archipelago of secret prisons everywhere from Eastern Europe to Guantánamo to jail ships floating in the Indian Ocean, as well as the brazen disregard for innocent civilians demonstrated by Bush and Obama’s willy-nilly drone program, convinced countless fence sitters and former moderates to join the militants, cut them a check, or at least look the other way. By the end of the Bush years, the United States was wildly unpopular, viewed as “violent” and “selfish” throughout the Muslim world.
The rest of the essay is here:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/node/58293
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