Casual Conversation

My wife found a giant sectional couch that's in "great condition" at an estate sale. She couldn't believe no one bought it for $900. She bid $500 on the last day of the sale and was shocked she won.

I sincerely doubt anyone else even bid on the thing. People with living rooms that large don't buy used couches. We have a relatively large living room and it still sticks out funny.

My wife is so excited. I don't have the heart to tell her that I hate it. So now I'm out $500, stuck with a behemoth of a couch with worn out cushions, and I have to give away the perfectly nice couch we already have.

So... that's interesting.

A small bag that fits my 'worlds tiniest usable bbq', so it wont get soot all over other things when I shove it in the bag.

that's the bbq. The bag is early 90s, all black thick double plastic, and has all different colored stitching. It was 1,- euro. I included a 0,50 metal bottle opener with minimal rust, so the bag is a complete kit bbq now, hahaha.

I found a Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster. That’s the one featured in an excellent video from Technology Connections. I can afford the $6 for toast that’s “Automatic Beyond Belief!”

I found a piece of medical quackery that gently electrocutes people while an operator twists and turns a dial until a piece of plastic feels not sticky.

I should probably make a post about it because it's pretty fucking cool even though it's completely and totally useless.

It runs on freaking tubes! And it has cool dials and shit! And a faux marble faceplate on top of bakelite that I'm 100% certain has asbestos in it.

An almost 100 year old analog clock that is still ticking. This thing was made during the Great Depression.

A really cute music box with a broken mechanism, but I was able to fix it and spruce it up with red suede linings and a mirror.

A really nice hammer that I cleaned and decorated for theatrical use. I named her Miss Scarlet.

My nicest furniture was found stooping. I found a set of antique bronze and inlayed are likely worth a few grand. All it cost was $20 of cleaning materials and two hours of labor.

I found some board games. I bought a Monopoly board game, and a Risk one for $2 each!

It hasn't been great since covid, but before covid I would frequently find stuff worth over $1000 for like $45. I built my entire home theater system with top level gear from the thrift store.

I found the Palm Portable Keyboard I'm pretty sure I donated 10 years ago, didn't buy it though gave it away for a reason even though it's really quite neat

Portable stadium seat cushions. I just use it at home anywhere I need to sit or kneel on the floor to do something. I was also surprised to see dumbbells and kettlebells for $5 each. Also saw Combos snacks, which is so hard to find in my city.

Sheet metal panels I put up in the kitchen for a backsplash, and 4 stamped stainless steel panels we used for our terrace railing (pic before we painted it black)

A treadle sewing machine from 1908. I've been slowly breaking it down and cleaning the internals but it's a slow process since it's not a Singer with tons of documentation.

I don't know why this exists.

I like to look at local estate auctions on hibid, the worse the pictures look the better. Although I get kind of depressed seeing all of the junk people have accumulated over the years and left for their kids to deal with. I find the best stuff the auctioneer doesn't even give a decent description.

I picked up a singer 501a, better known as the singer rocketeer for 12 bucks. I need a new front cone, top plate, and power cable but honestly I may just 3d print the chassis parts and I've already got the cable.

I bought some guitar stands dirt cheap in Maastricht...we were looking for art but most of it was moldy, cheap prints or very cheesy. Luckely the 20 km trip from our village wasn't in vain. We sometimes go to Heinsberg and find good stuff like candle holders or little pictures and frames. Also Maasmechelen has a good thrift store.

A life sized gordon freeman statue with a headcrab

A controller for my switch that looks like gengar

An Oculus Quest 2 headset with controllers.