Estate Sales and New Business Struggles

On today's episode, We briefly talk about reading, why we read, what we read, and how we got into it before getting sidetracked chatting about the thrill and love of the hunt. Hunting deals on Facebook Marketplace, Estate sales, and Thrift stores, we discuss some of the struggles in life and business that have led to a bonding experience that we have no plans on stopping. Tune in to the next episode for the continuation of our discussion on Books, reading, and some of our favorites. 

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Transcript

Channing: The businesses were struggling. Date Night was causing a whole lot of arguments because I wanted it to be a priority. You saw that it was pushing us a little or stretching us a little too thin budget-wise. And so we started going to estate sales as dates and just spending all day junking, essentially.

Ben: Welcome to Velvet Ventures.

Channing: Where we talk about life, marriage, and the pursuit of entrepreneurship.

Ben: I'm Ben.

Channing: And I'm Channing.

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Ben: What?

Channing: I would say first question, have we always been readers?

Ben: Absolutely not. No. I think I've always been a reader with short stories. I like reading captions. So I love captions, whether that's in a book, magazine, those kinds of things. But I would read stuff if it really pertained and was real. So there's a select few books as I got as an adult.

Channing: I read Love Does by Bob Goff almost every year.

Ben: Mine was Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain because I think that that resonated with me so much younger, being younger. And I just, I thought it was funny and smart, but I like those kinds of biography, you know, real books, non-fiction

Channing: Um, I still never remember which one's which

Ben: Yeah I mean it's it has been probably just maybe like five years or so that i've been and I mainly ingest audiobooks for the most part because i used to you know whether that was working in the kitchen or what not, like I could just throw a pair of earbuds in and just, I could knock out an eight hour book in two or three days. So that was the most convenient way for me to do it because typically I wouldn't really carve out time between kids and work and this and that. Like I wouldn't just come home and say, okay, I'm going to read for an hour.

Channing: And I'm not big on audio. Like I don't listen to podcasts really, other than like the ones that you send me, like specific episodes. I don't listen to audio books. Now I do listen to the Bible, but that's because this year, well I read through the Bible every year. This year I'm listening to it in German. And so... that is not one that I'd have the physical or I guess the mental diligence to read German, but I can listen to it. But outside of the Bible, that's pretty much the only like audio that I do.

Ben: Yeah. And I think part of mine is I've had to train myself and I'm still working on it because sometimes when I'm reading I'll catch myself especially if it's something that's not I don't find particularly interesting in that portion of the book where I will be reading just to get through it's like if you're you know you're you're walking through a dark building or something and you're just trying to get to the other side That's what I feel like I do during the boring parts

Channing: the "airbonies". That's from Modern Family, just in case you need the reference.

Ben: You can see my air quotes if you're not watching. And you're just listening. That's air quotes from Gloria. Um, but... That's what I catch myself doing, and I have to consciously stop doing that. Because... Then I just get in this mode where I'm like, I'm just reading to get... To turn the page. And I'm not... It's just like... Yeah, and after a certain point I'm like... Because I'm not the fastest reader, and that's a lot to do with the fact that I don't do it as often as I would like, and so I understand that I've gotten faster.

Channing: Also, I think everybody just learns different. It's like you fall asleep when you're physically reading a book most of the time

Ben: Yeah, especially if it's in the evening and I'm laying in bed and I start reading

Channing: Yeah and I would doze off if you ask me to listen to an audiobook and sit in a chair like I would fall asleep

Ben: Yeah, and so and and to you know with like with the reading side of things I will I Want to really process it? Store it and so I think that's also why I read slower sometimes especially if there's data or good information. Like I will really slow down but for some reason when people are talking a lot of times I retain that better than if I'm reading it. Because I think whenever I'm reading a lot of times my mind is elsewhere and I'm reading but whenever I'm listening to someone I'm more present So it's kind of weird. But I do enjoy physically reading. I just don't do it as much as I would like and with as large a variety as we have and that I would like to do. But yeah.

Channing: How many books do you think we own? So we've got this secondhand store that we go to almost every Saturday without fail for the last year, something like that. And on Saturdays they have five books for a dollar and every once in a while they have ten books for a dollar. And so every weekend we load up on books.

Ben: Yeah, and I think that that's important too to find, you know, if you can find you a place where they have quality and just even in the genre because like the one that we go to it's in, I don't want to say it's an uppity part, but I mean, it's in a nicer part of the city, state, whatever you want to call it. And so I feel like they have a lot more donations to their warehouse that are of probably people who have similar views, whether that was, you know, people just getting rid of their libraries or older people who have maybe passed and they had a lot of, you know, books on like finance and. Anyway, things that we find interesting because I feel like outside of their novels and their, some of their like medical books, like they have a very robust selection, especially if you can get there early. About every couple of weeks, like you can tell that they've turned over a lot and they'll just be some great books. Cause it's not like we're just getting there at the very beginning we were getting some books just for decor because we were just kind of starting out. We had this really cool hutch that we were trying to like just kind of fill the shelf up a little bit. And we didn't even realize how much we were going to enjoy book collecting. We weren't very novice at this, but I enjoy finding books.

Channing: We don't look for books of value. We like collecting books that hold value for us. So like we've got some really, really cool Semper Fi and some military... they were magazines that was all binded into a book and like value wise probably nothing but they are so cool and they're valuable to us. Then we've got a few books that we've didn't know that they were valuable or not and a few people have come over looked at them and looked them up and turns out it's you know a three four hundred dollar book that we paid a quarter for right. So, but we don't seek out collectible books.

Ben: Yeah, we're not book collectors in that sense. We are book collectors for ourselves. And I think one of the things that I really enjoy with these, which I like bargain hunting regardless. It could be a rug or a book or anything.

Channing: We shop almost exclusively secondhand like estate sales, warehouse sales, things of that nature, Goodwills.

Ben: But I think the fun for me is getting things that are just not really available or to my knowledge available now, even if it's not just for us, but for like the kids, like I found several U.S. history books from like the 60s, 70s, 80s, and it's interesting going and kind of thumbing through and seeing what is no longer being taught. And so I think that that's kind of fun and I like collecting a certain, I have a certain like shelf that is mainly books on not survival because we're not preppers by any stretch of the imagination. But they are very good that if someone ever wanted to kind of flex how to do something and not hop on Google, you can go look at like we keep, I have a whole encyclopedia thing. There's no reason to have a 30 volume encyclopedia set other than sometimes it's fun to just open a book and go find the answer to what you were wondering. And so I have that kind of same thing with some of the genres that I have where it could be whether that's history, it could be foreign affairs, it could be these different things that, no, I haven't read them yet, I've thumbed through them, but if that you know, itch were to ever come around, like I have resources and I have resources that are not going to be like, man, I had to sift through 14 different blogs. I had to go through, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, just to find.

Channing: Exit out a 15 pop-ups.

Ben: Right. And so. I like having some of that stuff around, but.

Channing: Well we also collect books, there's a few books that it doesn't matter that we already know we own multiple. If we see it, we will always buy it. For me, Love Does is one of those because I'm constantly giving them out. If we find Love Does at an estate sale or a Goodwill or at our secondhand store, like we are buying it and it's gonna come back home and the next person that I see a need or think that it would benefit, we're just gonna give it away. Like we've probably given close to 30 or 40 books this year away with no expectation of it coming back. But we do have a really cool stamp that says from the Gardner Library. So I stamped the book before.

Ben: Yeah, well I think it's one of those things that it's kind of we enjoy a certain level of old schoolness, obviously, from our decor and things. And I think that a lot of that for me, I grew up with this stuff and like this is how my grandparents and my parents, like this is, this is how I grew up. I think there's some nostalgia there, but also I think that there's just something to be said about, our house doesn't look like most people's.

Channing: No, especially not in their 30s.

Ben: Right. Yeah, we're the oldest 30-year-olds that you'll probably meet. And it's just from a simple fact of it's simple to us, I think. And it's like tried and true. It's not trendy. It's not going to go out of style.

Channing: Like we have a library in every room.

Ben: Yeah, it's not going to go out of style. And so I like the ornamental rugs. I like the the real wood furniture. It's all very eclectic and kind of mixed matched, but I like the fact that it's all unique. It's not in everybody's house. We didn't go to Target and pick it up. It's not going to fall apart in three years. I mean, it's already been around for 50 to 100 years. And it's just quality.

Channing: The money that they raise there goes to a clinic across the street that helps support mental health and family, like primary care services for families that can't pay for it. And maybe they're not on SoonerCare. They don't quite qualify for SoonerCare, but mental health is so important to me. And so I like that every dollar that we spend in that secondhand shop is going to a clinic in the community that supports a very similar value oriented mindset that we do.

Ben: Yeah. Well, and for me, the other thing about the secondhand stuff was, you know, some of it was out of a necessity during that time.

Channing: Yeah, that's the only reason why we really started is the businesses were struggling and we still wanted to shop, but we couldn't afford date night is really how it started. Date night was causing a whole lot of arguments because I wanted it to be a priority. You saw that it was pushing us a little or stretching us a little too thin budget wise. And so we started going to estate sales as dates and just spending all day junking, essentially and we happened upon the secondhand store and now we continue to go because we just love it.

Ben: Right well I think that that's so you know and again I grew up going antiquing.

Channing: Yeah my Nana owned an several antique booths and went antiquing.

Ben: Yes I mean we would travel on vacation and go antiquing and if we were indifferent you know visiting relatives and stuff it's oh we gotta go check out this antique mall. Yeah. And so and garage sale and other things and you know.

Channing: Yeah

Ben: I'm sure my parents were doing that also out of necessity during that time with as many kids as we had and or they had and whatnot, but for me now it's more about the thrill of the hunt because I'm perfectly fine if I went to five places and spent six hours of my Saturday going around and I didn't get anything.

Channing: Oh my gosh, it's disheartening.

Ben: Don't get me wrong But I can walk out of places just fine without purchasing and so that's not your forte.

Channing: We finally had to have a rule because we'd go window shopping on the weekends. And I was getting so irritable. And so there's this one weekend where we went to four shops. And then we go to the container store and you know, those department store hooks that help you grab like hangers from the top row because we had gotten a closet that has the three seasons, so there's a row that you can't reach. And I just remember Ben was saying like, oh, you know, I think we could use this. And he put it in the cart, because I was pushing a cart at all four places. And he put it in the cart and I went, oh, thank God.

Ben: You would have thought that I'd like won the touchdown or made the touchdown in like a Super Bowl or something. The way she cheered that something was getting purchased.

Channing: Yes, so we came to a decision. He was like, what is wrong with you? And I was like, I cannot tell you how pissed I am that we have not bought anything until now. Like, why come out and shop at all? Like this is just like going and looking at the ice cream through the window and calling it a trip to the ice cream shop. And so we just realized that like, I need to be able to purchase and like, I'm totally fine if that's a dollar worth of books. Like it doesn't have to be anything fancy. It could be a $5 candlestick. It doesn't matter, but I need to have the ability to spend.

Ben: She's like a child when you go into a store and she just needs to walk out with something.

Channing: I do.

Ben: It could be a piece of gum or a Barbie.

Channing: Not gum. Can't stand gum.

Ben: It has to be something. I was a kid referenced.

Channing: Yeah.

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Ben: But yeah, and I mean, I think that that was the other realization is because we hadn't done this together at all. Up until this point and it started because you went to that estate sale while you were going, so let's be going to a meeting. And really that's what started the whole estate sales and stuff was that one there off of um, Coltrane that one day when you went, we got the record player.

Channing: Oh yeah.

Ben: That was the first estate sale that we've ever gone.

Channing: Yeah. I was on my way back from a meeting and I happened upon this estate sale and we got an awesome, awesome.

Ben: Yeah, a ton of stuff from that house.

Channing: We went three days in a row and then took Mimi and Paul, which are Ben's parents.

Ben: So yeah, he was a home builder and stuff here in Oklahoma City. And so he had a barn full of tools, but also just a very well crafted house and very cool pieces. And I mean, obviously they'd been there since I think it was like the fifties or sixties. And so anyway, tons of really cool stuff. But that being said, when Channing stopped at that estate sale, and then she called, texted me or called me and said, Hey, I put a bid in for this raffle type thing for this record player. You can put bids in and win them. Um, you gotta come check this place out. And so we went back and literally that started. I was, it was kind of like the gateway drug, but also it was the you know, oh, okay, we can do this now, we both enjoy it.

Channing: Because I enjoyed, and I've always enjoyed, antique junk here. And I can window shop in an estate sale. For some reason, that's different to me. Because I think I like stepping in and being a part of their lives. And that's a totally different experience than going to a department store where the whole goal is just to shop. Within estate sale, I go to learn about their life or like look at all their collection that they've and there's a lot of art a lot of these women did like painting and sketching and I like looking through their art and so like it's just a completely different experience it's not shopping

Ben: Right it's like learning yeah you know and I think it's a museum that you can buy things right even better but I think also it's um to me, it's like a history lesson. I love that because I like seeing how other people lived I like seeing you know, how did they use their? their home or their things and because I think it also gives me ideas for either usage or when we go to build another house someday like I want to incorporate this because you know, this house that we were just in was built in the 20s or this one was built in the 50s or the 70s or 80s. And this is just a cool element that you just don't see anymore. And so I love that. And like, that's the best way to get into people's houses is wait for them to have a stay sale. And so that is, that's the only way that you typically that I know of that you can legally get permission to go snooping. And so that's, that's fun for me. But it just helped with, yeah, when the businesses were struggling, and not even necessarily, I mean, they were struggling, but struggling in the sense that

Channing: They were new.

Ben: I was working at 9 to 5 but you weren't because you were fully in on the business.

Channing: But we still operated on the no follow-up and no manipulation and no pushing. Anytime that you take that stance, you just have to understand it's going to take longer to get to your goal.

Ben: So anyway, it was, we could not because it got to where it was on the weekends or something, we would go with the family or whatever and we would go to Target or we would go to Sam's or Costco and we'd go here and go there. And then it's like, we would come home and it's like, holy cow, we spent four, five, $600 today. On most of this we didn't need. It would be food and things, but even taking new grocery shopping is expensive because it's just, Oh, this looks good. And this looks good. It's not, well, that's not what we need and whatnot. And so anyway, we had to figure something out with, we both want to still shop because it's a good outlet. We like finding things and we like, you know, we like decorating the house for in essence. And so anyway, this was just a great outlet for us that we

Channing: We have a lot of conversational pieces now. Like a lot, most of the time when people come over to our house, there's something or several things that they point out and then we have a conversation about. And like when you have all newer things, that doesn't happen. I've never walked into somebody's house that was beautifully decorated by West Elm and had a conversation about their furniture.

Ben: Yeah. I guess it's not something that we've done.

Channing: But when you have pieces that are secondhand or from stuff, like we have this amazing hutch from Belgium with leaded glass that you got for free from a military family who was moving and couldn't take it with them.

Ben: No, I paid for that. I got all the barrister cabinets and the desk for basically free.

Channing: Yeah. And like my desk in my office is an old DOT desk. It still has the DOT tags on it. It's still got, there's little like paper, construction paper, homemade slots that they made to separate the middle of the desk out that are like duct taped into it. Like someone self-engineered a like- Their own container system.

Ben: Right. Using cardboard and tape.

Channing: Yeah.

Ben: Well, I think that-

Channing: We talk about a lot of our stuff.

Ben: Yeah. Well, I think that it's been interesting when I step back and really look at we have not been to a department store to buy any piece of outside of food, like medicine kind of stuff. We haven't really been to a department store in well over a year.

Channing: Even my clothes are all second hand.

Ben: Even half of our clothes. I typically don't find much outside of pants that I like or that fit me at a secondhand store. That's not like t-shirts. But I mean, I also, I kind of go in a little clothing spree, so I'll go buy five or six shirts from the store that I like. And then that's what I wear for the next two to three years. And so I don't rotate out a whole lot. I've had some shirts that I've had for 10 plus years. And then sometimes they mysteriously disappear.

Channing: Hmm.

Ben: So they just move into work shirts once they get stained. I don't get rid of them. If they're not holy and completely deteriorated they just move into workshirts

Channing: I've had to cut some of his clothing in half or rip it in half once it was holy because he would refuse to throw it away. So I just grabbed the hole and ripped the article and said well can't wear it now.

Ben: Yeah

Channing: He was so shocked cuz like he was wearing it. I gave no warning

Ben: But it was interesting because it really hit me the other day because I was looking for something specific and the store I would have gone to didn't have it, but the other store did and I hadn't been to Target in I don't know how long and they had what I needed and so I was like, I'm just going to go pick it up and just walking through there made me just realize like I'm not missing anything because I mean there's some interesting things there but I mean it was from Magnolia. It's not stuff that I would buy but it was nice to look at. But I think that that's where my disconnect has now been with even like kitchenware because used to I loved collecting kitchenware stuff but it was like from those kinds of stores. And then when you really step back and think about, you know, it's cool but there's also a hundred thousand people that probably have that exact same thing in their kitchen. And it's not that that's a bad thing, it's just not for me. You know, because I mean, I think about, you know, like Pioneer Woman. I'm not a fan of her color coordination stuff anyway, but a lot of people like how pretty and floral her stuff is. And you know, while it's fine for some people, like that's just stuff that I would never put in our home. And that's just because one is not our style but two it's like it's just mass produced and so i'm now in this place i used to be that person you know love me some William Sonoma love me some of that stuff but i'm like there are so it's just generic and so once we've kind of made that paradigm shift into second hand or thrifting or whatever you want to call it you know, I feel like our true style is kind of awakened.

Channing: Right. Because now it's by choice.

Ben: Right. Like it started out of necessity and money wise.

Channing: Right.

Ben: But now, like it's totally by choice.

Channing: Yeah. Like this chair was $12. I love bragging about the deals and it's funny because sometimes he's like, why would you tell them that? Like these pants were 25 cents. He's like, why would you tell them that? I don't know because I'm super proud that like, oh, you thought these are like designer? Nope. This was less than a dollar.

Ben: Yeah. And just to be clear, like it's not that I'm ashamed that she paid that because I'm very proud.

Channing: It's that they didn't ask.

Ben: Literally she bought a pair of shoes and we went from that store

Channing: I put them on

Ben: to another store she put them on in the car we were walking in that store

Channing: It was another antique mall

Ben: Yeah weren't there for five minutes and some lady said oh I love your shoes and she goes thanks they were 25 cents and I'm like why do you talk that way

Channing: She appreciated the deal

Ben: She did. It's funny, but it's funny in the sense that you're like three years old and say, thanks, they light up.

Channing: Yeah, they make me run fast.

Ben: Right. So, yeah, but I think the other part of it is, with that not, it's by choice now, is I think in the beginning, a lot of times I remember going antiquing and things being like real expensive and they still are. I mean, we still come across, I mean, and some antique stores are just higher end and some estate sales are higher end. Um, but I think that that's what makes it kind of fun for me is that when I come across those things that I know are expensive and these people don't have it marked that way or don't know what they have or- Or they just don't value it the way that-

Channing: Right.

Ben: There are some people that they just don't obviously do the research to know what this brand of furniture is or that these Ray-Bans are worth a lot of money and they sell them for $2 and didn't spend five seconds on eBay seeing that they're going for $400, which is great for me because then I pay for months worth of thrifting or antiquing with one find. So, and I think that's the other joy for me is that I like when things can be an investment. And so...

Channing: I think you've taken a little bit of my philosophy on like the budgeting. I don't like budgeting. I really despise is a very strong word, but it's very close to there. And because in my mind, if we need X, we just need to go earn X. So money is not finite and it's not limited. It's only as limited as we believe that it is limited. And so I'm like, okay, we only have a third of what we need for bills. Perfect, how do we go find and create the other two thirds? So like when we're shopping, it's not, oh, we can't afford that, it's how do we afford that? I think you've kind of started to adopt that philosophy a little bit more because like we're about to go to Lindsborg, which is where my grandparents were raised for they have a Swedish festival every other year. And instead of trying to budget for this trip, you're like, well, we've got a bunch of stuff in the garage that we don't need and we haven't needed and it's literally just taking up space. So I'll just sell that and whatever we make can be our extra spending money outside of the food. And I'm like, perfect, that makes total sense to me. But for us to budget what we currently have for the future, my brain just really struggles with that.

Ben: Well, I think for me, it makes it a lot easier to more guilt-free buy things because I do enjoy purchasing. When I know that I'm purchasing under value and if we ever decided we no longer, because I mean, we, you know, I do that where I find this dresser, I like it. I put it in the kids room, I put it in our, wherever I put it. And then I find one I like better. Oh, well, I bought this one for a good price. I know I can get double what I paid for it. So I'll go ahead and buy the other one.

Channing: Yeah.

Ben: and then list the other one and then I ended up selling this one and it paid for not only paying me back for that one but it bought the new one. You know and so I enjoy that kind of hustle, that flipper, that flipper lifestyle and you know I try to be very conscious about making sure and it's also fun to learn because there's some things that's like these things just don't sell or these things do sell or I don't even have an interest in this but I'm going to buy it like those Ray-Bans like they don't even fit my face. So I bought them with zero intentions on keeping them and I bought them solely to sell and like I found that cast iron skillet the other day. I have zero intentions on using it. I bought it strictly to sell. You know and so there's certain things it's like I buy I'm not trying to inventory stuff but it just happens sometimes. But you know using those things to kind of feel that that i want to purchase something was like a purchase units fun but also under the very realization that i'm going to sell it because that's been going to find the next thing and like i want my coffee so i'm going to just sell stuff and use that to pay for coffee. But it's boy math.

Channing: It's gardener math.

Ben: Right. It didn't count if it came from flipping furniture or mirrors or speakers.

Channing: So what do you think is your favorite find? And maybe let's limit it to this summer.

Ben: This summer. Hmm. I don't know, I would, I mean the rug we just got, it's a pretty good find the other day. It smelled, but just about got all that smell out now. But it's 100% wool, hand tufted.

Channing: Which I negotiated down to $20.

Ben: Yes, eight, yeah, eight and a half by 11.

Channing: It was probably like a $2,500 rug when I first bought.

Ben: Yeah, and it's beautiful.

Channing: It is beautiful. Well, and this rug.

Ben: Yeah, this rug. This rug. I don't know. There's a few smaller pieces that I'm just having trouble compartmentalizing when I got them. But I think overall some of my favorite pieces are, I mean, well, okay, I'd probably say our hutch in our bedroom. That was a heck of a deal. And then overall I would say probably one of my favorites is that Belgium hutch in the formal dining area. That and the record player console that's in the living room. Those are two that are just awesome, awesome finds. But yeah, I mean, there's so many little, some of the candlesticks that we found, some of the, yeah, all kinds of stuff.

Channing: I think one of my favorite newest pieces that we just brought in is the piano.

Ben: Oh yeah.

Channing: Which I didn't know if I was gonna like or hate because repetitive noises really bug me. So we ran the huge risk of like, the kids are literally just gonna dink, dink, dink, dink, dink all the time, which they don't really. And I didn't grow up having a piano, learning piano, I was a violinist. But I have really enjoyed piddling around on the piano because I learned how to play music by ear, not by music, like how to read music. And so it's challenging for me to take what I know in violin and try and transfer it into piano.

Ben: Take it from strings to keys.

Channing: Right, and I feel like it's a really good, like it works different muscles of my brain. And it was free. We literally rolled it down in the middle of the neighborhood.

Ben: Yeah, someone in the neighborhood posted that they are moving, an older couple, and they just could not. They did not want to take this piano to the next. They're moving back to California. And so...

Channing: They had a beautiful grandfather clock, too.

Ben: Yeah, but this beautiful, heavy, you know, oak piano and Yeah, they literally which is a formal dining room They literally were just here you can have this and then they helped us even he helped me put on the dolly and furniture dolly and roll it roll it down the hill down The street for the other neighbors are like what is going on? But yes, that was a very good one that I'm excited for I think you know Kirby wants to take lessons so I told her we could provide for her I've had you can start learning how to how to place the stuff but outside of that one I'd say my overall to I'd just happen to think about was my has been my Sonos speakers that I guess i'm going to have three, I guess he took them out, I say took, he was paid by, I guess he said he was. But he was paid to go, I guess, do some work at this guy's house and replace sound systems, anyway.

Channing: They were changing it out to some different...

Ben: Yeah, it was sitting in his garage or whatever, so I guess this guy just told him to get rid of them and this guy, again, either didn't do any research on what they were valued at and also I think he just wanted them gone. But literally sold me thousands of dollars worth of equipment for like 150 bucks.

Channing: And I can't operate them.

Ben: Right. But they all work. And it's just one of those things where I'm like, again, I mean, if we ever needed to, I could flip those things so fast.

Channin: Right.

Ben: And so I like having those things that are just increasing in value. Especially for whenever I pay pennies on the dollar, it only increases because the value doesn't really ever go down. But yeah, that and then whenever he texted me a month later and said, hey, I have this subwoofer and they run about 900 bucks and it's like, hey, give me 50 bucks for it and I'm like, sold. So yeah, a lot of my Sonos speakers have all been smoking good deals that either, again, I don't know why I'm not going to pretend like I know why people get rid of them for what they do, but I try to always hop on those deals whether I need them or not because they're typically pretty good flips because I flip them for a very reasonable price. I'm not one of those ones that's going to get it and then ask the highest market value because I would rather just sell. I don't want to just sit on stuff just to sit on it. So I'm like, if I can make little bit that's fine I'm not going to hold my price up here.

Channing: He just needed to pay for his coffee.

Ben: I just needed to pay for my coffee. Pay for my coffee and the next impulse investment. That is the story of the service.

Channing: Yeah, and I guess next time we'll actually talk about reading.

Ben: Oh yeah. Completely forgot about that.

Channing: Alright, well now y'all know how we got into reading. The story of why.

Ben: Yeah, I just got excited that we were talking about our adventures thrifting and totally spaced on what the topic today was.

Channing: So stay tuned. Alright, next time.

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