Koozies out the wazoo!

Beer koosies. Keychains. Magnetic Clips. Letter Openers. Envelopes. Plastic Shopping Bags. Lights. And a bunch of other stuff.....Saturday and Sunday there was an auction at the Brooke Corporation building in Pburg. I'm not entirely sure how it came to be that the Brooke Corporation was court ordered to sell all their stuff. The business closed its doors a couple of months ago. I had heard that the head guy or someone in the higher ups had embezzled like tons of money from the corporation and that was the reason for the closing of the business. My understanding is that Brooke Insurance is/was a national business...they had offices across the United States. Pburg, KS is a po-dunk little town in the middle of nowhere. Seems odd to me they would have even considered Pburg when they set up offices there. At any rate, there was an auction to sell the whole kit and kaboddle, right down to the fixtures in the building.
I spent roughly 45 dollars yesterday at the auction. I came home with a van load of goodies in the form of pristine cardboard panels - round 2 dozen or so, 14 cardboard tubes --- heavy duty ones about 5 foot long, a vinyl sign, and a boatload of small pcs of foamcore board and three good size pieces of foamcore board. I'm not sure what I brought home yesterday was indeed worth 45 dollars but what RJ brought home today more than made up for it! He spent roughly 80 dollars today. We filled the back of his truck and my van completely full earlier this evening and we will be going back tomorrow to get the rest of the stuff he bought. It will take the van and the truck to haul that home too.
What, you ask, did the boy buy? To those who don't know the boy, they are going to say that boy has lost his mind. But let me assure you, he hasn't. He got the packrat syndrome from his dad and me both! A double whammy if you will. That boy is a PACKRAT and ain't a woman on the face of the earth that change that about him.
He called me up around 3 and said, "Mom, you got to think of something to help me out!" I asked what he'd bought this time?
So, what did the boy buy?
Odds are you are sitting down. That is good! If you aren't. Please do so now cause you will probably need to sit down.
First off there are the 38 cases of beer koosies. That adds up to roughly 19,000 blue koosies with the Brooke logo blazened across the sides of them. He has decided he will hand out some of these at his wedding to Terah in October. Ok. That's cool. His buddies like to have a beer every now and then and a beer koosie will be useful to them. He, however, does not have 19,000 buddies, unfortnately. We could give one to every person we know and still not get rid of more than a few hundred of them!
I'm thinking there HAS TO BE something else we can make out these things! (If RJ had scored the 52 cases of mouse pads, we'd be designing a new couch! I actually saw that on the www. I thought it was really cool! But we got beer koosies...) So, what to make from them? I thought about sewing them together, they're made out of neoprene, and making a mat to take camping...put your sleeping bag atop of it. That is feasible, but what else can be made from them? Hotpot holders perhaps? (You could get a hell of a lot of blue hotpot holders out of 19,000 koosies!) Or how about bags of some sort. (You could make nice sturdy bags! And a bunch of them with that many koosies at hand!) I'll do some more thinking on this. If you have any ideas, don't hesitate to pass them along! I got 38 very large boxes of them sitting in the livingroom of the burned house and I really don't want any of them to stay there too awful long.
Now, you're wondering what price did the boy pay for the koosies? Well, if truth be known, and in this case it probably should be, he didn't want 19,000 beer koosies. He really didn't. He only wanted one box of 500. That was the fewest he could buy. There were 41 cases up for sale. The first two cases sold for 10 dollars each to 2 different bidders. The auctioneer then put the remainder of them up for sale and RJ thought he was still bidding on choice. The auctioneer wasn't expecting anyone to take any of that stuff with the logos on it off his hands, he told us later. When the auctioneer asked, "Anyone?" after trying to get a bid, RJ pipes up and says "I'll give you 5 dollars." The auctioneer says, "Great, they're all yours!" And he did indeed mean ALL!
Well, RJ being the packrat he is and knowing his mother has this half empty burned house that makes a wonderful storage shed, he decided he'd bring them all home and decide later what would be become of them. There isn't room at his own house for any of the stuff he brought home today.
RJ ended up paying a grand sum of zero dollars for these thousands of koosies. Shortly after having bought the whole shebang, a fellow took one case off his hands for 5 dollars.
Apparently the thrill of the hunt, the greater thrill of the catch caught hold. The boy was off and running on getting things in great numbers cause he brought home, I forget how many cases of plastic shopping bags...some of them are still at the auction site. Least the shopping bags have a potential future ahead of them, unlike the majority of the koosies. My sister, Kathy has a second hand shop. I think she will be interested in those for sure. It won't make her a bit of difference they are emblazoned with the Brooke logo. It's a SECOND HAND store!
I can't say the things the boy bought are useless things. They really aren't... unless you have thousands of them you can't do anything with. That's why I need a plan for the koosies, keyrings, letter openers and magnets. There are four cases of magnets. Strong, little house shaped, royal blue clips with a magnet on the backside. Useful little devils! That logo kinda turns you off from them though. I discovered one can remove that logo and leave only a ghost of a hint it was ever there. That improves them some, but they need to be prettied up some. I have ideas churning in the old brain where the clips and letter openers are concerned. There are three cases of letter openers I believe.
Then we come to the keychains that didn't cost anything. They were 'no sells' and would have gone to the landfill. There were a great many more than four cases of them. It was MY decision to take them. (Yes I am a PACKRAT too.)
You all have seen those letter openers...squarish with a long pointed stick across the bottom of them with a razor in the lefthand lower corner that the stick is attached to? I know you have! We have a boatload of those too and ain't a thing they can be turned into except what they already are. Though I suppose one could build a statue/sculpture out of them...I will have to think more on that!
We have well over 4000 keyrings. That's a hell of a boatload of keyrings. The all look alike. I plan on giving quite a few of them a make-over of sorts. I'll be experimenting on the keychains. I'll keep you all posted about the progress on this mass abundance of material the boy has acquired.
The best thing the boy bought, in my opinion is the 40 lights. Sure they all say Brooke Corporation on the front of them and they all look alike! But that logo is only vinyl and easily peels off to reveal a nice white pc of plastic that will take paints like a champ! The ideas started glowing when I laid eyes on them. They are actually lighted signs. Each with their own flourescent bulbs already intact. Mr. Packrat did good on this deal! REAL GOOD! $7.50 for all of them. I'm going into the lighted sign business.
RJ will tell you the best things he bought today were the 2 Coleman coolers for $12.50 each and the case of 4 camp chairs for $17.50. He did indeed do well on those items! These are the least of my favorite items he did buy.
I have to admit also that the 12 cases of promotional folders were my idea. They sold on Saturday. There were 129 cases up for sale. I was standing there when they were put up for bid but RJ was nowhere to be found! I really, really wanted some of these things! They are made of linen textured cream colored cardstock. PERFECT for artwork! PERFECT! 65 folders to a case. I didn't get any on Saturday. One guy bought one case. I'd of bid on them had RJ been there where I could have seen our number! I had no clue what our bidder # was! But it all worked out for the good in the long run. The folders didn't cost anything. FREEBIE ... I have a lifetime supply of cream colored linen textured cardstock for ATCs and the like. It was an excellent 'find'. We inquired about the lot of 'no sell' folders on Sunday afternoon when the auction was complete. The auctioneer said, "Just take whatever you want that didn't sell." I am a sucker for a good deal!
RJ had scored a box of misc. for 3 dollars early in the day. It was an excellent find also. Got a few more items with the Brooke logo on them in numbers much more managable! 2 ceramic coffee mugs, 14 nice pens, 8 rubber keychains (we had none of this variety of keychain, ours are nicer, thank God, cause we do have a few!), some books.... check this out! LOL One of the books is titled, "Death of a Salesman?" .... How appropriate! An auction for a defunct insurance company having such a book....we saw a couple cases of these books in one lot of stuff. There were afterdinner mints in that box as well... probably close to 100 individually wrapped ones. You know, like they hand out in resturants and places like that... these were so nicely labeled with the Brooke logo. Seems to be a theme LOL! My wall will be adorned with a nice lucite box made for brochures. Some cool stuff in this box.
It's a good thing we had Rooster along to do the heavy work. I brought the dolly along with me after RJ had called and said, "Help!" It has been a pretty good day! Without Devin's help, it would have been a very, very tiring day. I've no idea why RJ calls Devin, Rooster, but it fits the boy!
Poor Fred! He was devastated when I told him, for the second time in one day, he couldn't go with me to Pburg. I had gone to town earlier and told him the same thing. He couldn't go the first time cause there was no room for him. I still had a load on from Saturday's day at the auction. And he couldn't go the second time cause I was going after more stuff form the auction. Poor Fred!
He was quite happy to see me when I got home both times though. That's one thing I love about the dog. He's always happy to see me.
I have to get up early in the morning...round 8 so I can be in Pburg at 9, load the rest of the stuff from the auction in the van and truck and be back to Stockton by 11:30 for my vampire meeting. (I'm having blood drawn tomorrow at the dr's office...Isn't that a vampire meeting?)
I had to abandon the Inchie-a-thon in favor of the auction, unfortunately. I did make a few trades and happy to have done so. I don't have enough hours in the day.
Alright! I'm out of here for now. I need a shower. I need some sleep.
You all have a fantastic Monday! I won't let the vampires ruin mine! Get your hugs!!! You need them. You want them. You deserve them!
Peace
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