You know some days when you shouldn't get out of bed? You are in a mood as soon as you fall out and everything seems turn to poop.
Well, this was last Saturday.
I was itching to visit my local op shop - I'd missed it my last two Saturdays because of a public holiday, and a tiler coming to fix my living room floor tiles that decides to do a tango.
Ebay sales had been absolute crap - only $30 made in 5 days. I was depressed and angry and generally should have been locked in a cupboard somewhere.
I was also a super-PMS monster, and had been alternately blubbing/getting rabid over the silliest things for a few days already.
My purse only had $10 in it. I was not happy looking in my empty purse. I had just enough petrol to get to my Mum & Dad's for lunch that day and back home again.
I was walking past the bric-a-brac shed, ready to spend my puny $10 on kids clothing to re-sell. As I passed, I saw there was two large trestle tables out the front with about 10 plastic bags of books on them. My tongue lolled, my eyes glowed like something unearthly. Books! (Completely ignoring my promise to myself, to buy less books).
I started rifling through the bags - there was lots of good titles there - but I only had $10, and I still wanted to buy a bag of clothes. Then a man working there approached me. I go to this op shop nearly every week and I'd never seen this man before.
I knew from his first words that he was one of those over-hearty annoying old-man types.
He followed me around the table babbling at me about "how GREAT these books were, and how EXPENSIVE these books had been to buy. How these were SO WONDERFUL and in SUCH GOOD CONDITION. "
*My fangs began to emerge from my gums*
I heard another lady look in a bag and say "ooh there's lots of good books in here!"
He bellowed at me "Get over here and look in this bag. There's lots of GOOD BOOKS in here!"
*My hands began to pop out into long claws. My breathing changed into something non-human.*
The bag was full of historical romance. "You read a lot of historical romance, do you?" I heard the animal within me say. ( Down, girl. )
"Ermmmm, oh no. My eyesight you know. Prefer to watch car racing on the telly."
I actually Harrumphed. I never thought I could do that. But STILL he didn't give up.
"Wonderful BOOKS. You'll never see any in this FANTASTIC CONDITION again!"
*A growl emerged from me, and my feet started to split in my shoes as they elongated into hairy paws.* I wisely ignored the sudden urge to see if my fist would fit in his mouth.
I finally threw about 10 books into a bag, and asked "How much?" around my fangs (i.e. ha mush).
"$5. How's that. That's a good price isn't it. That's FAIR."
I knew the books were sold for 50 cents each so I agreed, and handed him my precious $10 note.
He took it and went to get the change, then he stopped and turned back to me. "Do you want the change?"
"Ermmmm, yesh, " says me, ever-so-nicely (and very carefully, my teeth were VERY sharp by then).
"It's just that they're SUCH NICE books. And $10 is still a GRAND PRICE for all the ones you've chosen!"
I didn't think they were worth a life-sentence for murder.
I gave him my stink-eye, with a hint of extra feral. IT DIDN'T WORK!! The gormless twit stood there like a half-wit, resembling nothing more to me than a man-sized punching-bag.
*My bones began to pop and started to shape the rest of me into something not-quite-right. I think the tips of my ears grew hairy and pointy*
I opened my purse and showed him the empty interior. "That is all the money I have left. I need that $5," I managed to say.
He finally got the hint and brought me my change.
Being the spineless wonder that I am, I was overly-effuse in my thanks, even though he was in the wrong for suddenly doubling the price that we had agreed on.
I walked to my car, and put the bag of books in the boot. By then I had changed back to pathetic fully-human again. I pretended to re-organise the things in my boot whilst I shed a few boo-hoo tears at being forced to show my empty purse to a stranger. Is this what my life had come to?
Only two weeks until I can drink wine again. Hurrah!
Men ... I can do without them .....
Ooh, Professor Lupin. Lovely.
:-)
I started this blog entry over a week ago - it's time to send it into the ether.
Whilst the other side of the world is sighing over snow, here in Melbourne we have broken a weather record - the past 8+ days have been the hottest group of days since temperature started being recorded in Melbourne (early 1850s). I am so over it. I have got NO work done. It's been a week since my road trip described below, and I have done nothing but lie around the house, draped over furniture that I then have to peel myself off of - leaving a layer of skin attached.
Stinking hot nights where I get no sleep means I am super dopey all day.
Very few new listings for me, no op shopping for new stock at all, and a terrible week of sales. I've only really left the house to post my measly few sales.
The tiles in my living room popped up overnight in the heat, and I had to fork out $300 to get them fixed, as I kept tripping over them.
The 3M hooks that I use to hang the classy black fabric on my back sliding door (which gets the afternoon heat), totally came away from the wall, and are hanging by a thread of useless gummy stuff.
Then I'm wrangling huge spiders that come into my house to get out of the heat.
Let me tell you, the panicky dance I do when I spot those hairy freaks certainly gets my temperature up !!!
Today it is currently 37 degrees.
I AM OVER IT. RAIN PLEASE. SOON. Any more of this and I will just be a puddle. My brain is boiled, my hands and feet are swollen.
So if you see a few eBay items from Melbourne appearing in the last week that have shiny reflective surfaces on them - don't be surprised if your eye is poked out by a nipple or a nasty body part. Clothing is just too much right now!!!!
And On To The Road trip ....
Now recently I've discovered a couple of shows - American Pickers & Salvage Hunters. In these shows two guys drive around and find stuff and sell it in their shops. Of course they fork out amazing amounts of money - such as forking out $500 to sell a toy for $600! Not for tight-wad me.
But it gave me itchy feet. I go to the same op shops on the same days of the week, and I got to thinking that I'd really like to get in more of the high profit items in my eBay store - for me this is usually Board Games and Videos.
In other people's minds - a road trip means hours of driving to far away places.
For me a road trip means driving half an hour away to somewhere I haven't been.
3 things spur me onto a road trip:
~ I need more stock, need to hit different stores to get it
~ The petrol gauge on my car is not nudging the "I'm thirsty, feed me!" red line (very rare occurrence)
~ I actually have more than $10 in my purse (another rare occurrence).
Ding, ding, ding! I loved the hit over the last couple of weeks when I sold some higher priced items. I wanted more of those! I really wanted to find some cool board games.
I was stoked! Off I chugged down the new freeway just opened near my house which would take me to my destination (Mornington) with less traffic lights. I had my GPS going because I always miss street turnoffs. As I drove down the freeway, sun shining brightly, lovely new road with little traffic - I looked at my GPS and it showed me as driving through nothingness. Had I entered the Twilight Zone? No, I just haven't updated the maps on my GPS for nearly 2 years because it's too friggin' expensive. Luckily, I didn't need to rely on it on the freeway.
I had planned on taking photos and making a whole blog out of my road trip. Then the temperature rose, there was roadworks on all my turn-offs and parking spaces were few and far between. I was foaming at the mouth like a feral dog by the time I reached the second op shop. I lost the urge to document my journey pictorially, and concentrated on not throttling anybody.
My first op shop is situated next to a garbage tip. Items are "reclaimed" and sold. There is some rusty old crap there - but lots of stuff is donated as well.
Board games were a loss. So I left with 30 video-tapes. At 10 cents a video, I couldn't say no.
The Salvos were next. I pounced on a game of Atmosfear DVD Board Game marked at $5, with a caw of delight. But shuffling through the innards, I noticed the DVD was missing. Snort! Honk! Left empty-handed.
St Vinnies was next - I got some videos at 50 cents each and a Compatibility Board Game for $1. (Board game has already sold sold for $14.99 - but I'm STILL waiting for payment).
A little church op shop was next. Their videos were 10 cents each too, so I got 30 more!!! And a board game at $2 (the game turned out to be a dud).
The final op shop I planned to visit had closed down so I drove home with a boot-load of videos and very few games.
A couple of days later, I visited the animal shelter op shop which is only open a few days of the week, and I never have the petrol to get there. They had lots of interesting board games.
I got all these for $9
My favourites among these are:
This gorgeous vintage game of Mix 'N' Match. I've never seen this before. The colours on the cards are so vibrant.
This one is dated 1962. Not all the sheets are left in it, but it was too cute to leave behind.
A cute Australian Board Game from 1985.
My favourite find - Squatter Board Game - *scream* - yes, they wrote the price in texta on the lid. What I did was put some Orange Power on a tissue and rub at the price. It fades the texta, and yes it also takes a layer of the print on the lid as well. Then I wrote a fictitious surname over the top in texta. It's better to have a name written on it, than a $2 price!!!!
Game has already sold for $24.99. I wish I could find more of these.
Whoah - that was too much effort! I'm off to flop uselessly around the house again, and hope that the supposed cool change will arrive sometime tomorrow afternoon.
