Cool Things I Sell - II

This is the second edition of cool things I sell. This next Item doesn't have as cool of a story as the last one but it is still a fairly enjoyable memory.

When I go to garage sales I often don't have a lot of time. But this particular week my responsibility for Saturday was to be a good father to Liam. Naturally I wanted to teach my son a thing or two about money since it seems to be a big deal in this life. What better way to show him the true buying and selling and bartering trade then to take him to some garage sales.

This Particular Saturday I wanted to hit up some obscure garage sales. I like the fast pace of city garage sales because you can visit a bunch of them in a short amount of time. but my favorite thing to do is go to garage sales that are off the beaten path and this was one of those garage sales.

As I followed the signs to this garage sale I got the feeling I had passed it. You know that feeling when you are following directions and you could swear that you should be at the next turn by now. Well that was the feeling I had. Only I decided not to give in to my fears of being stranded with my son in the middle of a Deliverance plot.

Finally we see the arrows pointing to the driveway where a lady sat in a rocking chair looking absolutely bored and hopeful for her new guests. As we looked around at the stuff Liam found a lightning McQueen slot car race track for $2 and various coloring books. I found some neat vintage Star Wars toys, A brand new toy box, A child size wet suit and something shiny black in a box. I asked what it was and the lady didnt even know. I offered her $10 on the spot and she said, "Sure". I did notice on top of the shiny black thing there was a big "L" that looked somewhat vintage.

When Liam and I got home I took out the shiny black thing with an "L" and could see that it was something for a model train set. I didnt know what it was at first, but after looking it up online I found that I had a very high-end Lionell ZW Transformer with four control throttles that retails for $300-$400 new.

Lionell ZW Transformer w/ power supplies

I was extatic! I took the transformer to the train shop to try and sell it and they already had a bunch of them that were new so they didnt buy it. But a bunch of guys in the shop were drooling a little bit as I walked this baby by. One of the store workers even offered to buy it from me but gave me too low of an offer. I decided to have it tested and most everything worked on it except for one throttle "ratcheted".

The facts:
Bought for: $10
Sold for: $175 (On Craigslist).

Driving out to the boonies can really pay off sometimes.