This morning, for a few hours, I had the chance to go picking with my roommates. Now, I have found out in talking about picking that few people know what it is, though I have blogged about it before [1]. To summarize, there are more ways to pick than to pick locks or pockets (not something I do), but rather about recognizing value where others do not and taking advantage. I must say that speaking for myself I am not an expert at such matters, and I am quite a neophyte, but at the same time I hope I am a reasonably quick study at doing something the right way. So, with that said, I would like to comment a little bit about my picking experience today and my own observations on the experiences.

For one, Sunday looks like it may just be a great day for me to learn picking. For one, as someone who worships on the Sabbath day and who is looking for work on the weekdays, that is a most convenient time for me to pick. In addition, a lot of places have half-price Sundays, as Sunday is the last day of the weekend for estate sales to get rid of products before they have to take up shelf space in stores. And that does tend to make the bottom line look better as a buyer, even if many of the more desirable items would have been purchased already. Presumably, one ought to check out such sales at least twice, to get the most profitable items first and then shop for bargains at the end. But this is more advanced strategy than I know myself.

In the first location we went to, I did not find much of interest to me, but as the woman whose belongings were being sold was a depression-era woman without a great interest in books, that is not too much of a surprise. The best items there I thought were items that reminded me of the sort of plates and silverware that my maternal grandmother is fond of, but I did not buy any of them. In the second place, some of the items would have been much more desirable, except that their condition was lacking and the prices did not reflect that fact. The fact that the sale was located in a rather unappealing basement as well did not help matters. After a brief and mildly amusing stop at a flea market, where the items again appeared a bit pricy, we headed to the other side of town.

In the third sale, I found some items that combined quality and price. Five ties for a dollar as well as an inexpensive (and rather historically intriguing) slide rule put me in the picking game. The fact that there were cookies and friendly people at the place made it an enjoyable experience all around, even if finding good deals was quite a difficult trick. I managed to find some, so that is fine. In the last sale, I managed to find a couple of good books for 25 cents, which was quite nice, even though those were for reading and reviewing and not for resale. Then we returned to the third store so that one of my roommates could snag the rest of the ties for resale, which made me smile since I was the one who had snagged some good brand-name silk ties because of my slight knowledge and interest in men’s clothing. All in all, it was a successful mission. I feel like the conquering hero of an A&E reality tv show. And that is a good feeling.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/picking-and-grinning/