Hobby Thread - February 15, 2025 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread.

We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) a spin. Turns out, the Wheel is always looking for a bargain. It said BARGAIN HUNTING. Happy hunting!

Do you haunt estate sales, garage sales, and rummage sales looking for bargains?
Do you float through flea markets, attend auctions, tinker with tag sales or sweep through swap meets? Are you unable to pass by an antique mall without stopping?

Are you on the hunt for specific things or just a bargain? Is the search and the thrill of the bargain more compelling than the thing itself? Do you buy and keep or buy and then flip or sell? Do you shop for Christmas gifts or other gifts by spotting goodies at second hand sales?

It is said that one person's trash is another person's treasure. That poor, neglected item under a pile of junk just might be the very thing you are looking for.

Are you a seller in this space?

The online world of ebay, FB marketplace, online auctions, etc. has changed the game but there is no substitute for the experience of physically finding a treasure.

TRex is not wise in the ways of bargain hunting, but the Horde must have stories. Looking for help from the Gray Box friends.

What are you hobbying these days? As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. Your participation does not need to limited to the theme. All hobbying is welcome. However, politics, current events and religious debates can live in threads elsewhere. Play nice. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls. Pants, as always, are optional.

Where does one find estate sales? Apparently this website is an industry resource:
Estate Sales Looks like it covers the entire United States.

Anyone have other good resources?

Some people thrift full time. They scour yard sales and sell on ebay. There are many, many Youtube channels and videos showing people. It is amazing to think that thrifting is so popular that people will watch others do it, but the thrill of a potential find is an easy storyline that anyone can follow. Does anyone here do reselling as a job more than a hobby?

Everyone has a story of an amazing find. Could be because of the novelty of the item or the great deal or both. What is your story?

Similarly, everyone has a story of the one that got away. Could be something that you regret not taking home at the time or someone else nearby was faster.

Do you have a shopping strategy? Do you quickly walk around and scan everything and then come back for a more methodical look? or do you just pick a spot and start looking and walking?

Ever wonder how an auctioneer learns the technique of fast taking patter? There is a school for that:

Used books can be found in thrift stores, friends of the library sales, garage sales, and elsewhere. Did you know that there is an entire mini industry of people that use handheld scanners to quickly scan a used book barcode to compare purchase price with potential selling price to see if they can sell the book online for a profit.

We had not been to a friends of the library sale in a while and expected to casually browse through the piles and shelves. We were outnumbered by swarms of people with scanners. The scanners check online listings to see selling prices for the book and gives an audible chirp to tell the person whether to pull the book. They barely look at anything other than the bar code. They or someone else checks the books before they pay for condition issues.

It is brutally efficient and a long way from casually browsing the stacks as a reader. It completely ruined the experience for us but we could see how and why they did it. Anyone else see this or have experience doing it?

Woodworking is a subset of hobbying.
Turning is a subset of woodworking.
Amazing how much YouTube content is dedicated to fancy turning projects. Saw these two that make use of resin to prepare the block before turning:

Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week with a theme of Australia? The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.

Notable comments from last week:

Wallaroos? Tree kangaroos? Rat kangaroos? Yikes.

Words of wisdom:

"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).

If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, hijack the thread for your hobbying as you see fit. We will feature a different theme next time. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.

posted by Open Blogger at 05:30 PM

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