As we all know, Zjabs has a successful (duh) eBay business as Papergoy.
And for the past few years, I've toyed with blogging more about the business (without giving away any trade secrets). However, the time wasn't right.
Lately the site has moved away from being quite so political, and thus I feel it is now time.
So, my 'tiny readership' (perhaps I'm the number one read of dwarves?), expect to see more articles about junk in the future.
I obtain inventory through any number of channels (you can tell I'm a professional- amateurs would have said 'in many ways' but being a professional, I use 'channels.' Or perhaps that's because I'm pretentious?). I stop at garage sales, church sales, book sales and estate sales. I go to public auctions. There are a number of dealers who wholesale to me. I purchase items for resale from various on-line sites. I do house calls (I've sold for Albert, and also gotten a couple of leads from Jim). I go to shows (antique and paper). And finally, I buy from flea markets.
Out of all of them, I think flea markets are the most fun- as you never know what you're going to find. A lot of people swear by the house calls, but I always overpay (though I make money)- I'd rather buy from a dealer than from a civilian. If a dealer puts a price of $1 on something and I know it's worth $100, that's their loss as they're in the business of knowing the value. If a civilian has the same item, I'm certainly going to offer them more than a dollar!
So as I find things in the future, expect to see more articles about the treasures I find. Finally a reason to get up in the morning.
-Zjabs (Rochester's Official Columnist)
© 2012 Zjabs - 4/17/12
