Since “retiring” several months ago, I have become increasingly addicted to estate sales. Unless something is urgent, that is where you will find me Friday mornings. I am generally in line before they open at 10 am, and even through there may be only 10-20 people in front of me, I worry every old guy in front of me is making a bee-line for the records. Truth is, most serious collectors search out collections well in advance and don’t need to dig through piles of soundtracks, Christmas music and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir albums (this is Utah remember) to stock their shelves or expand their personal collections, so the serious guys are elsewhere. I also keep a watchful eye out for anything interesting, of good quality and/or unusual (to me anyway). Since most sales have few (if any) records, I thought it made sense to expand my repertoire—or wander aimlessly. What does that encompass? On my radar of late is Dr. Seuss. I am interested primarily in his recently banned books that deal with non-white ethnicity in a non-politically correct manner. I don’t think I have ever seen the publications referenced by the news, but I look. I did find one that was fascinating—Dr, Seuss Goes To War. It is not a children’s book in any way. It offers his unique characters portraying everything from World War II, including Hitler which was chilling. I also watch for anything related to fly-fishing. At one of my first estate sales, the records were a bust (there weren’t any) so I kept killing time to allow Lisa to enjoy her search when I found some waders buried on a basement shelf. They were hidden behind articles of clothing and knick-knacks and difficult to see. After pulling them out and examining them, I decided to try them on. They seemed to fit ok and because they were Orvis and only $20, I scooped them up. Later, at several other sales, I’ve found great collections of fly-fishing books. Titles like “Fly Fishing for Dummies”, “Selecting the Trout” and “Presenting the Fly”, and each one only $1 or $2. The real challenge will be to fish. It is much easier to study and talk about it than to actually do it. So what else do I look for? That is kind of a moving target and varies depending on what is presented. The great part of being on a self-imposed budget is it forces me to qualify my purchase. Yesterday, I had mediocre luck with albums, picking up five, so I wandered. This home-owner had eclectic taste, with a real focus on art and travel and a bit of history. Not finding anything from my Seuss list, and with time to kill, I dug deeper into their books that were stacked everywhere. In a storage room off the basement, was yet another room filled with literature and again, as I had already discovered, mostly art related. As I kept scouring the room, I noticed an immense book on a top shelf. It took a few minutes to remove the books laying on top so I could reveal its contents. My interest was mainly due to its size. It was approximately 16″x20″ and easily weighed 25 lbs. It was a World Atlas and Financial guide from 1942. I laid it on top of a stack of books so I could crack the cover and explore. As I continued thumbing through it; glancing at different statistics, I felt a strange urge to buy it—mainly to save it from some estate sale indignity and offer it a good home. After lugging it upstairs, I sat down to wait for Lisa. As I showed her the book and explained (in my limited knowledge) what this book represented and why I thought it important to save. She didn’t questions me, even a little, only to ask where I planned on putting it. I assured her I would find it a home. She got up to stand in line to pay as I remained seated. I continued holding this massive book, determined it would not receive a cruel fate or indignity and get tossed because of its size. The more I cradled it, the more I appreciated the fact I had fallen under the estate sale spell.

As I sat there, slowly shifting my head to scan the crowd, I settled on watching the people stand in line to pay. Some, like Lisa, had a minimal number of items while others could barely balance all the shit in their arms. Estate sales are a fun learning experience. Aside from looking for interesting and under-priced gems, you get a front row seat into someones life. Were they collectors? Was is specialized or random? What is the quality of the furniture and pieces; high-end, or big box and mass produced? Generally there is a theme. The art lover yesterday had literally hundreds of very expensive art/artist books showing a deep love and appreciation of the work, yet souvenirs gathered from global travels were cheap and of moderate to poor quality. There were also random bits and pieces of artist supplies, showing a life dedicated to the practice of art as well as the enjoyment of it. There were also dozens and dozens of maps from around the world. My opinion was this couple had limited means but loved to travel, so the money was spent on the experience not necessarily the object. Good for them I thought! Every sale shows its own unique obsession. Dolls are another obsession. Some sales have hundreds along with all the required equipment to make all necessary clothing and repairs. Others were photographers with all the supportive workbooks and equipment; occasionally having 6 or more computers still in the boxes and printers, cameras and equipment. I had fallen under the spell at one of those sales, grabbing an Adobe Lightroom program to update my program that had long expired. As soon as I got home, I looked forward to using it (at a super-deal of course) and soon realized it was out of date and useless. Moral of this story—Buy what you know, not what you think. I prefer attending sales that have a lot of decent items and am disappointed when it appears that the selections are limited. Truthfully, they are likely limited because the family took the bulk of the available items which means the family wanted the stuff! For years I have felt bad for the heirs left with rooms full of QVC purchases and enough dishes and stemware to outfit a small army. I can understand the desire to keep those important mementos near by— if it brings you joy and happiness go for it, but to keep rooms filled with every souvenir you purchased or boxes you have never opened, why? I guess the reality is if you have the room, so what, the kids can deal with it when we’re gone. This is what went through my mind as I held this giant book from 1942. I had no connection to it at all. Zero. Why do I need this? Will it bring me joy? No, it will not. I slide it under the seat next to me and joined Lisa in line to purchase the albums I found for $10. Yes, they bring me joy.

Lisa and I made a conscious decision to get out and network more. Sure, we know plenty of people, but the real estate business is crowded and getting worse everyday. The more people you are in front of, the better your odds. Trouble is, it is far too easy to stay at home under the auspice of taking care of her mom than insert ourselves regularly into society. Crazy part is once we get out, we enjoy being engaged, it is just forcing ourselves to get out that takes the work. As we discussed options that made sense, the one that smacked me beside the head was car shows. Spending 30+ years in the car refinish business has allowed me countless opportunities to participate in these events. Our kids grew up doing car shows. Things changed over the last 10-15 years, and the involvement of my industry in these shows waned because of time and budgets. It was a lot of work too. Set up the booth, work the weekend, tear in down and go home. The variety of vehicles became stale too, so I just quit attending. In hindsight, I believe it was also due in part to the fact I love vehicles, but have no interest in throwing that amount of time and money after a fair-weather cruiser. Been there, done that. Fast forward to now. I reached out to a friend and former colleague to get the skinny on the car show schedule and he sent me the link and an invite to the Facebook groups (Utah Car Shows & Car Enthusiasts of Utah). Coincidentally, Lisa and I had been considering visiting some local places we hadn’t seen in a while. We both agreed that the little town (pop. 894) of Copperton might be fun. It had been as least 20-30 years since we visited and thought it serendipitous that the first car show on my new list was there.