Junkers
Sometimes you try something new that looks and feels right at first, but eventually turns out to be a mistake. One such endeavor for us was trying to make money by purchasing and reselling old “treasures” in an antique mall.
Junkers
In 2002, I retired from my career job and we had a lot of time on our hands. Pam and I started spending our time as Junkers. We would map us out a route and hit all the flea markets, antique stores, second hand stores, junk stores, etc along the route and make a day out of it. After a while, we accumulated a lot of treasures that were starting to pile up. Pam got to looking around and decided to rent a booth at Gan’s Antique Mall in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and try to make some money by selling off some of our accumulated treasures. So she stocked the booth and she officially became a junk dealer. She enjoyed working the booth and soon became one of the best sellers in the Mall. We were having fun, but we were having trouble finding enough stuff to keep her booth stocked. At that time we decided to start going to local estate auctions to secure stock for her booth. We both loved attending the auctions, but at first had a tendency to buy too much crapola instead of things that would sell good.
Pam was asked to work part time at Gan’s Mall for free booth rent and she accepted. She continued working there a couple of days per week for about five years during which time she expanded to three booths for selling our “junk treasures” and we continued to enjoy auctions along the way.
We never really made any money in our junking adventure, but at least it gave us something to do. Here’s why it was not profitable for us.
- I have always been a collector, so when we ran across guns, Hummel characters, head mugs, fancy wine decanter sets, crystal whiskey decanters, carnival glass items, western memorabilia, western art, old pottery (Weller, Frankoma, Van Bringle, Roseville, McCoy), and old pocket watches, we purchased them and set them on our shelves at home. They are still there.
- We traveled a lot which required a lot of gasoline and automobile expenses.
- There are a lot of expenses such as tags, breakage loss, booth theft, shelves for display, booth rent, taxes, and so on.
- Some things we bought just never sold.
In our rummaging effort, we did manage to find a few golden goose items that may be of some interest. A few examples are listed below.
- I bought a ‘Chocolate Watch Band’ 45 rpm record at the Salvation Army Store in Borger, Texas for 5 cents and sold it on eBay for $80.
- I bought an ‘Elvis Presley’ Sun Label 45 rpm record at Gan’s Mall in Bartlesville, Oklahoma’ for $0.50 and sold it on eBay for $250.
- I bought a silver belt buckle that belonged to one of Earnest Tubb’s Texas Troubadours Band members at an antique store in Dewey, Oklahoma for $20 and sold it on eBay for $250.
- I bought some framed World War II army metals at an auction for $20, and sold them at Gan’s Mall for $200.
- I bought a hardback copy of the book ” Mullendore Murder” at the Salvaton Army in Bartlesville for 5 cents and sold it at Gan’s Mall for $50.
Unless you seniors out there just need something to do, I don’t recommend junking and reselling as a retirement pastime. It’s a lot of work and you tend to buy a lot of things you really don’t need.
One batch of treasures we collected
Another batch of treasures on the shelves.
One more batch of treasures we put on the shelves
Thanks for reading Junkers,
Hawg Jaw Bill