So, many people ask you about life after cancer. You know my take on “The Rock” and the devastating consequences of relapse. Having CML for over seventeen years, I don’t really know about life after cancer. I know life in remission while the cancer dwells below waiting to offer some cruel attempt to disrupt my world again. Right now Gleevec is my savior. A force field surrounding the bad proteins that lie in wait. I know now that the way that I live with cancer is to live, love and expand my horizons. Well, somewhat expand them. Nothing dangerous you know. My next expansion would be for fun. No more stress. An adventure. A distraction. I’ve had Leukemia for seventeen years but I’ve been self employed for twenty five. Diversions were needed. Ie: The Hoagie diversion. It was short, sweet and a ton of hard work. The next one had to be fun, not overly time consuming. Still had to run my business. What about…treasure hunting?
My favorite TV show at the moment was Storage Wars. I mean c’mon! Who didn’t love that show. Modern day treasure hunters, jousting and bidding and chirping each other to win a ten by ten corrugated steel box full of stuff. Yep…stuff! Multiple personalities affixed on getting in the winning bid to earn the chance to strike it rich! I was all in. All in.
My first auction was in Elkins Park, PA. A large storage facility that held their auctions once a month and open to the public. Cash only, registered bidders only, gates open at 10 am and all winning bids needed to remove the contents of the locker within 24 hours. There were so many unique individuals at these events. Thrift store owners, treasure hunters, curiosity seekers and eBay sellers. Or guys like me. Greenhorns with no clue of what we were getting into. I didn’t know that you needed a flashlight! When they cut the lock off of the storage unit and lift the gate, you have a few minutes to make your way through the crowd to peak in at all the goodies that were hiding in the unit. The dark unit. You can’t cross the doorway line or be aggressive in any way or you got booted from the auction. Flashlights were key. Big strong ones especially. I sat back and watched as the auctioneer rattled off his bids while hands flew all around me. You had to be quick. Raise your hand, nod your head, let out a yup or wave your hand high if you were in the back. There were at least 40 plus bidders jammed into a tight hallway. It was mayhem. But it was glorious! This was great! “I hear $300…do I hear $325? $300 going once..going twice….SOLD to the man with the Phillies cap”. Amazing!
As we moved from locker to locker, I was ready to go. The door rolled up and there she was. A 10 x 10 unit packed to the gills. Not a lot of room to see everything that was packed in there. What the hell. I’m going for it. The bidding was fast and furious but in the end my $500 bid held firm. “Sold to the new guy! Congrats!” I also had no clue that you had to have your own Master locks to secure your winning unit. Rookie. The next morning, I met a friend with a large truck at the facility and we began to unload my treasure. A refrigerator, a washer and dryer, living room furniture, beds, mattresses, clothes, books, lamps…etc. There was a whole house packed in there. You name it. Kitchen appliances, tools, personal items, jewelry, holiday decorations and so much more. Funny thing is that you unwrap someones whole life. And it can be sad too. You decipher the situation at hand. This family, the father, got deported to Central America and packed up their life’s belongings until things could be straightened out with Immigration. Apparently, this took way too long and the family stopped paying on their storage unit. Hence, the forfeiture and auction. We emptied the locker and transported the booty to my huge empty basement for evaluation. The next weekend I held a garage sale and turned a nice profit. Success and a lot of fun. I learned to gather all of the most personal items left like photos, important paperwork and items that were familial in nature. Boxed up, I would return them to the facilities to be returned to the owners. Purchasers information was always kept confidential so I wasn’t worried about anything coming back to me.
The worst buy I ever made was a unit in Huntington Valley, PA. I payed a thousand dollars for a unit that held the contents of a former television repair shop. There were showcases, cash registers, display equipment and the hook…20 plus big screen TV’s! I hit the jackpot! Not! NONE of them worked! 20 plus, various sized, big screen flops. And I had to unload the unit. Big loss. Ouch! That’s how I learned. I also learned the game. I never bid. As the auctioneer belted out his shpiel, I realized that every time I would bid and got countered, if I kept bidding I was just raising the price. Stupid! So, I waited. If I wanted the locker, I waited. When the bidding reached the end and the auctioneer called out his last…going once…going twice………..YUUUP! I jumped in! If someone countered, I countered back right away. Intimidating eh? I got really good. The circuit was well traveled, well attended and well acquainted. They Hated Me! All of the bidders were anxious when I arrived. They never knew when I was going to jump in and ruin their day. I was winning so many auctions that I needed my own storage facility. Joey’s friends would help me load and unload my treasure. Some of the cooler items that I won were…three classic restored motorcycles, a 72 Harley Davidson Sportster, a cell phone store of 10 beautiful glass showcases with boxes of cell phone accessories and cases of inexpensive quartz watches. Forty five ounces of pure .999 silver bars. Tons of appliances, furniture, tools, Cd’s and records, wedding dresses, golf clubs, money, clothes galore, musical instruments and mounds of books. You name it. And it all sold. Well most of it. I did buy several blind units that went from unit to dumpster. I never hit it big though. Nobody was getting rich quick. Trust me. But I had fun. Enormous fun. A diversion from the stress of the real world. I was lucky to have my staff at the store fill in for my flights of fancy. And my wife to just put up with me. Thanks, Lor.
Next Up: Bullseye