The last few days, inexplicably weird.
Running out to cars to drop off junk, a clarinet, good but needs work, the client, sitting in his van while he looks it over...me in my green woolen hoody looking for all like that dodgy guy buying coke, or selling it, only me, I'm selling junk...
Well, be kind, not junk, stuff I'm done with, stuff I don't need, I need a life and there's no space for one here.
A previous customer, in for a half dozen items. He stands at the door and calls me "sir", he was waiting, it seemed, until he had the minimum number of items to come in for. When critical mass was reached he messaged me and came. He reminds me of the other stuff he bought, I remember, he's got a big house he needs to fill, he still waits at the door and calls me "sir". For a big guy he's surprisingly polite.
Another one, for a vacuum cleaner and a Bible Stand. He trips on the stairs, breaks the vacuum cleaner, but he's fine, he's fine, and he talks about some artists mannequins I'd had, he'd wanted, sold to a man who wanted a microphone stand and stainless steel meshed glove, he would have liked to pose them on his desk in sharing and helping poses. The vacuum cleaner, an unexpected success, 3 people wanted it in 20 minutes, the things I value, they sit for weeks, months even, the shit I hate, the day to day mundanities of life, others' can't wait to snap up.
Someone messages about the fountain pen, nice condition, he comes, picks it up, I show him others I haven't listed, he's travelling broke and so will come again the next day to look at them...
He messages me later, like me he's cash poor, asset rich, and would like to swap some solid silver Canadian $5.00 coins, valued at $30 - $35 apiece, and I say sure, I think he means just one for a pen he had his eye on. And he's not happy with the pen he bought, it doesn't work like he'd hoped, and so I arrange a swap for that as well. He returns, sorts through, some cuff links, pens, exchanged, a pocket watch, for 6 Silver 5$ coins, these go to the daughter, I need nothing.
Now a lady for the round stone spheres, she takes them all, Filipino, I show her geodes and she doesn't understand, what they are, and I explain they're stones, and she's dubious, ...
Then, the final customer of the day, someone texting me that they're coming at noon to look at a planter. And she shows up, a beautiful Japanese Canadian girl, and I've a brief flash of embarrassment at the state of the place, boxes still everywhere, and she's not here just for the stands, she wants to poke through the boxes, piles of stuff, and so I resume what I was doing, wrapping up things to be sent off, she's in the bedroom, there should be cues to stay out of the closet, then in the living room, in the end she builds a pile, old books, prints, ephemera, takes it all for $400 - cheap at double the price, but it wasn't selling, let it go, let it go, the deal's made and done, she drove here in a Porsche, I help her load up. She's furnishing a house she bought in the South with her husband.
She perplexes me. Most of the people wanting my shit, they're the same age as me, going through a different sort of mid-life crisis, I'm going the opposite way, cutting strings and ties, and I get them, old guys interested in watches, rocks, fountain pens, cufflinks, we're talking about my generation, but this girl -
...I don't know. She's interested in a couple of other pieces as well, curious, it's not often that I meet people so out of my box. But this is how it's done...