billjustbill
Bronze Member
Went to an "estate" sale where a fellow is selling his departed parent's and family's 5 acres and older home. He and his dad had a motorcycle repair shop for almost 50 years....
Motorcycles of the 1960's & up: Honda, Sukiyaki, Yamaha, and assorted other brands. Old cycles outside under brush, trees, and laying in the grass. Inside a 30'x50' tin building with only an 18" wide pathway from the middle toward each end.... It's 3' to 5' of stuff between the pathway to the building walls.... Then the rafters and ceiling joists were loaded with gas tanks and loads of plastic airplane and ship kits by Monogram and Revell Models.... You can't see stuff for all the stuff being in the way....
It was an advertised sale, but because it was so close to the house, I went the afternoon before and bought three old hand saws and a rusty cast iron hand cranked saw tooth machine that puts the set into all the sharpened teeth any width blade up to 2" wide. He sold the rusty tooth-setter for $5. While there, against the back wall in the center of the building, I saw an old 3-drawer short, but deep, wooden cabinet with two of the drawers filled with ammo....
I came back on the official first day and quickly filled a 5 gallon bucket with original paper boxes of spent brass and live ammo. There were 5 boxes of 20 ga. shotgun shells, 300 rounds of target plus a box of "Wad cutters", and a sealed bag with 100 rounds of live blunt-bullet ammo all for a .38 Special, two boxes of live 308, &.25 rifle ammo. There are 20 boxes of empty brass for 8mm, 308, and 30-30.... Finally, sealed and open plastic boxes with 250 rounds of .22 shorts, and the same for longs, and 2,000 rounds of Federal and Winchester .22 long rifles in 4 bricks of 500. Three of the four bricks are still sealed and all are full of 10 boxes of 50 count long rifles. Also one sealed and two 7/8-full of one pound cans of "Military rifle" smokeless powder and 500 rifle primers. When I got home, the plastic paint bucket and contents weighed 42 pounds on the bathroom scales. Paid $15....
My real question here is about what price do I sell the various empty rifle cartridges and cans of dry smokeless powder for to those that reload their own?
Also, he had a small boat trailer with leaf springs, a tilting frame, and 12" hubs. He said he had some old wheels/tires that held air if I wanted to change them out to get it home. Then, we found that the trailer's coupling ball hitch was bad. So, he said, "I'll take $15 for it if you'll find yourself a new hitch." I need a small trailer for my new wood splitter because with the tilting frame and dual leaf spring suspension, I can load the trailer with splitter and go a lot smoother and faster down the highway at 60mph. Found a 2" Reese Class II hitch at Lowes for under $25....
Beginning on a Wednesday, it's been a good L O N G weekend...
Bill
Motorcycles of the 1960's & up: Honda, Sukiyaki, Yamaha, and assorted other brands. Old cycles outside under brush, trees, and laying in the grass. Inside a 30'x50' tin building with only an 18" wide pathway from the middle toward each end.... It's 3' to 5' of stuff between the pathway to the building walls.... Then the rafters and ceiling joists were loaded with gas tanks and loads of plastic airplane and ship kits by Monogram and Revell Models.... You can't see stuff for all the stuff being in the way....
It was an advertised sale, but because it was so close to the house, I went the afternoon before and bought three old hand saws and a rusty cast iron hand cranked saw tooth machine that puts the set into all the sharpened teeth any width blade up to 2" wide. He sold the rusty tooth-setter for $5. While there, against the back wall in the center of the building, I saw an old 3-drawer short, but deep, wooden cabinet with two of the drawers filled with ammo....
I came back on the official first day and quickly filled a 5 gallon bucket with original paper boxes of spent brass and live ammo. There were 5 boxes of 20 ga. shotgun shells, 300 rounds of target plus a box of "Wad cutters", and a sealed bag with 100 rounds of live blunt-bullet ammo all for a .38 Special, two boxes of live 308, &.25 rifle ammo. There are 20 boxes of empty brass for 8mm, 308, and 30-30.... Finally, sealed and open plastic boxes with 250 rounds of .22 shorts, and the same for longs, and 2,000 rounds of Federal and Winchester .22 long rifles in 4 bricks of 500. Three of the four bricks are still sealed and all are full of 10 boxes of 50 count long rifles. Also one sealed and two 7/8-full of one pound cans of "Military rifle" smokeless powder and 500 rifle primers. When I got home, the plastic paint bucket and contents weighed 42 pounds on the bathroom scales. Paid $15....
My real question here is about what price do I sell the various empty rifle cartridges and cans of dry smokeless powder for to those that reload their own?
Also, he had a small boat trailer with leaf springs, a tilting frame, and 12" hubs. He said he had some old wheels/tires that held air if I wanted to change them out to get it home. Then, we found that the trailer's coupling ball hitch was bad. So, he said, "I'll take $15 for it if you'll find yourself a new hitch." I need a small trailer for my new wood splitter because with the tilting frame and dual leaf spring suspension, I can load the trailer with splitter and go a lot smoother and faster down the highway at 60mph. Found a 2" Reese Class II hitch at Lowes for under $25....
Beginning on a Wednesday, it's been a good L O N G weekend...
Bill
Instead, we only have skeeters, skunks, groundhogs, gophers, bear, whitetail deer, squirrels, wolves, coyotes, foxes, badger, porcupine, bobcat, elk, and the occasional moose. 
...But then there's also all the wind, 17-months-per-year of winter, water table that stays within 3' of the surface year round, 20+ miles of gravel roads, 10' high snow drifts....oh, and did I mention the skunks and skeeters?? 
