This is from late April, and now it's playing out. Neiman Marcus, J.Crew, J.C. Penney's, and Hertz are the big names that we know have gone bankrupt, and are trying to restructure, buy time, and become viable businesses again. We'll see, eventually, who succeeds.
"There are tens of thousands of small and medium sized retailers, throughout the United States, that are closed, that are facing an existential liquidity crisis..."
-Mark Cohen, Former Sears Cananda CEO, in clip above
I've written this in several blog posts before. Recessions (or depressions, like this one) are when the whole world goes on sale, and almost no one wants to buy. That means deals on all kinds of stuff, including liquidation sales, bnakruptcy auctions, and other places.
As those of you who read my last blog know, I've been struggling to make a living selling my Sharpie art for the last few years. It's a long crazy story, but I was at a place in 2015, where I couldn't find ANY "real" job, and focusing on my artwork to earn money made sense. I didn't have many viable options.
As those of you who read my last blog know, I've been struggling to make a living selling my Sharpie art for the last few years. It's a long crazy story, but I was at a place in 2015, where I couldn't find ANY "real" job, and focusing on my artwork to earn money made sense. I didn't have many viable options.
Now I'm back in the L.A. metro, and the economic collapse I've been writing about for three years has finally begun. The artwork isn't going to make me a living in this environment. I'll keep drawing, and selling drawings. But I"m making a big pivot back to something I did as a side hustle back in the 2000's, mostly while I was a taxi driver. When I was a kid,my dad called it "wheelin' and dealin." These days, it's known as "flipping"... buying deals on houses, cars, and merchandise of all kinds, then reselling it for a higher price. I got into buying storage unit auctions in about 2004-2005, and bought and sold several, while working 70+ hours a week as a taxi driver. I actually tried to go full time into doing that, to escape taxi driving, but wasn't able to make it happen then. I made money on every deal except one (which I'll write about soon).
The point of this blog post is:
This drum kit is on a government surplus auction site. $10. No bids. OK, it's in Wyoming, a long way to travel for drums. But somebody in Wyoming likes to play drums.
The point of this blog post is:
Damn near everything is going on sale!
It's not a single blow out sale. There are several huge, long term, social and economic cycles and trends that are converging. This convergence is wreaking havoc on the business world, and especially brick and mortar retail stores right now. The Retail Apocalypse is hitting Ragnarok level. There will be bankruptcies and liquidation sales all over the place. That's on top of all the auctions and deals already happening in the world. The time to flip everyday items for cash has never been better. I'm writing a big zine on this idea, for people interested in flipping items as a side hustle or a business. Here are a some of the random deals I found yesterday, doing a bit of research for that project:
This Ford pickup truck is on a government surplus auction site right now. $50 minimum. No bids. It's somewhere in Arizona.
This boat is also on a government auction site, $25 minimum. No bids. I think it was in Louisiana, maybe Texas. Somewhere on the Gulf Coast. I know there are people in Louisiana that like to fish (or catch alligators).
This leather couch and chair were listed on Craigslist, FREE, in the L.A. area a couple days ago. My point is, thee are a lot of good deals out there on everyday stuff. I'm going to change my focus from trying to make a living off of artwork, to flipping stuff, like these items, to get back to making a decent living again (which will allow me to do other projects, like The Ultimate Weekend II video). With the economy collapsing, there's never been a better time to do this.
If you're looking for a good deal on something- pretty much ANYTHING- now, and the next 2-4 years, will be a great time to do that. Cool furniture, a great guitar, cars, trucks, real estate, whatever. If you like finding deals and reselling them for a little (or maybe a lot) of cash, it's a really good time for that, too.
Stay tuned to this blog for more ideas on finding deals, flipping used items, and other ways to start or build a small business in today's crazy world.
