The Northwest Brewery Adventure

I am sorry for not posting for a while, but let me explain why.  I have still been picking on the regular, haven't found anything amazing but still making a profit.  I have been on super-hustle mode since my lovely girlfriend last minute decided to plan a road trip, that included stopping at a lot of breweries and tasting the beer.  Awesome girlfriend, I know.

So for now I am going to be posting about this experience and I will be picking on the road as well as drinking LOTS of beer.  Check on this blog and my youtube channel to get the latest scoops and updates on our trip.  I hope I can capture some amazing moments to share with you all.

This is the video and below is our "planned" Itinerary.  Feel free to leave comments on things we should do or if you want to meet up!

Northwest Road Trip Itinerary

Sunday, July 15

• Leave Fairfield, CA
• North Coast Brewing in Fort Bragg
• Arrive Arcata, CA
• Staying with Will- Already confirmed!
• Lost Coast Brewery
• Weather:  Sun; Partly cloudy, Hi-59, Lo-50.  Mon; Mostly sunny, Hi-57, Lo-51.  Tue; Partly cloudy, Hi-56, Lo-52.

Tuesday, July 17

• Leave Arcata, CA
• Arrive Crater Lake, OR
• Camping, fishing, hiking, swimming
• Mazama Campground- Already paid!
• Weather:  Tue; Mostly sunny, Hi-75, Lo-42.  Wed; Isolated T-Storms, Hi-76, Lo-40.  Thu; Sunny, H-79, L-41.

Thursday, July 19

• Leave Crater Lake, OR
• Arrive Bend, OR
• Couch surfing with Sue & Brian Wente- Already confirmed!
• Deschutes Brewery
• Weather:  Thu; Sunny, Hi-77, Lo-47.  Fri; Sunny, Hi-82, Lo-50.

Friday, July 20

• Leave Bend, OR
• Arrive Portland, OR
• Nordic Hotel- Already paid!
• Widmer Brewhouse
• Voodoo Donuts
• Portland International Beerfest
• Weather:  Fri; Sunny, Hi-79, Lo-61.  Sat; Mostly sunny, Hi-79, Lo-61.  Sun; Sunny, Hi-82, Lo-61.  Mon; Mostly sunny, Hi-82, Lo-60.

Monday, July 23

• Leave Portland, OR
• Arrive Seattle, WA
• Staying with Aunt Kathryn- Already confirmed!
• Space Needle
• Pike Place Market
• Weather:  Mon; Mostly sunny, Hi-76, Lo-56.  

Thursday, July 26

• Leave Seattle, WA
• Arrive Vancouver, BC, Canada
• The Cambie, Hostel- Deposit paid!
• Granville Island Public Market
• Capilano Suspension Bridge

Saturday, July 28

• Leave Vancouver, BC, Canada
• Start driving down Oregon Coast
• Arrive ??
• Need place to stay still (1 night, camping possibly?)

Sunday, July 29

• Leave ??
• Drive down the Oregon Coast

• Arrive Arcata, CA
• Staying with Will -Already confirmed!
• Six Rivers, or Eel River Brewing Co

Tuesday, July 31

• Leave Arcata, CA
• Stopping at Anderson Valley Brewery, in Boonville
• Arrive Fairfield, CA

The Importance of Smart Phones while Picking

There is in inherent need for knowledge on items which you plan to buy.  With the invention of the internet we have a treasure trove of this knowledge.  What is even better is that now we have this information available to us on the go.  This entry is going to be featuring some mobile apps that are available on the Android OS a lot of them as well on the iOS.

1.  The Official Ebay App; this is particularly good for pricing things on the go.  I would suggest not doing this in front of the person from whom your are buying your products.  This, of course, is also good for watching your treasures as they go up in price for auction on the interwebz.

Official EBay App

2.  Craigslist PRO; this app can also be used for pricing.  This is most useful for finding items you want to buy, finding garage or estate sales, and posting your finds on the go.  This makes it easy to find something at a garage sale, post it on craigslist, make the sale, and all in the same day.  One of the many options you have if you upgrade to the "pro edition" is that you can have a lot more "favorited" posts, meaning that all the garage sales you want to go to are more easily accessible.

Craigslist PRO

3.  Garage Sale Rover; the name says it all here.  It pulls information from numerous different sites and displays it on a map of your local area.  This is quite useful if you just plan to wake up and head to a garage sale, not to mention it also find estate sales.  Compared to similar apps, Garage Sale Rover seems like the best according to reviews.  Once I tried it I felt no need to take a look any further.

They also have a blog about garage sales here.

Garage Sale Rover

If there are any other apps you use when picking leave them in a comment!  Or you can simply send me an email. 

I will continue to add on to this list as I find more awesome mobile apps for your picking pleasure.

The Beer Can Chronicles: The Find (Part1)

It all started one Saturday morning.  I planned to wake up earlier, but it didn't happen.  My hangover still lingering, I show up to the community garage sale with me lovely girlfriend.
All the same I walk around the first area not too much there, the usual garage sale junk, nothing I really wanted to buy.
I come across a lady selling an old steamer trunk.  She wanted $65 for a beat up trunk that was busted into (previously had the back hinges removed.  She was selling a bike for $25 but I waited too long and it was on someone's bike rack as soon as I turned back around.  The theme of the day started as, "A Bit to Late."
A man with a black truck seemed to be right in front of us the whole time, buying all the same things I would. I could see the items in his truck.  I had found my main competition, one step ahead the whole time.
I continued not buying a thing, damning the man in the black truck.  My girlfriend and I drove up to the next section of the neighborhood, and I saw the man in the black truck was there.  This time he was unloading his truck on the lawn.  He had stopped picking for the day, it had seemed.  I went over and started looking over his picks. He had some high ticket items, one of them being this cast iron magicians bank.  If he got the right price he would make a good bit on.
Enough with this man in the black truck! I had places I needed to pick, and pick I did!  I started to get my second wind off with a ugly Christmas sweater, it was a small step but I know I can flip it when it gets closer to the holiday season, some hipster will buy it for his Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.
I continued, mojo flowing, money burning a hole in my pocket.  I found two Seagrams Cooler signs, and a Dietz lantern from a very nice lady with lovely tastes and even better prices.  I began to pick up speed and my girlfriend was getting hungry.  Time was running out for us.  I luckily happened upon an old man with loads of stuff displayed.
I walked over to his house and it looked like a damn antique store.  He had old medicine bottles, tobacco tins, military items, and the topic of this chronicle, antique flat top beer cans.  The beer cans interested me mainly because I had discovered an old beer can underneath my girlfriends deck and found out it was worth $5.  I started see how much beer cans were worth, and a week later I find some really old ones at a garage sale.  I, not knowing there real value, feeling as though there was some fate that led me here, asked a price.
The old man said "$5 a piece."  I replied with "It looks like you got a lot of stuff here a lot of pretty cool stuff."  "Oh you know, odds, and ends" he said.  We both chuckled then he said "How about $3 a piece."
He picked up one of the Pabst Blue Ribbon cans and started telling me the story about how he acquired them.  He said that he found them in a wall(construction workers will put beer cans inside walls of places they are working on) in what was once a building that held P.O.W.s(prisoners of war).  He also mentioned they were military issue.  This was all well and good but I had no clue what these cans were worth, I took a gamble.  I told him I would think on it, but was going to get them, and set them aside.  I walked around looking for any kind of tobacco-related items and found an old Lucky Strike tin.

I then put the three Pabst Blue Ribon, a Regal Pale, Rainier Club cans and this tobacco tin together, asked for a $15 buying price.  The old man agreed.  We shook on it.  If only I knew how much the three Pabst Blue Ribbon cans were worth.

Community Garage Sales

I don't always pick garage sales, but when I do, I pick community garage sales...... Enough with me thinking i'm the most interesting man in the world, though sometimes I surprise myself.  Though this is a true statement, about picking garage sales.
The problem with garage sales is well.... the majority of stuff that you find is house hold junk that people don't want for example:

• broken or used appliances
• TVs that they should be just giving away
• kids toys(will get into that later)
• clothing(this as well)
• shitty holiday decor
• and much much more

Yes, sometimes another mans trash is just that.  On the other hand, some things you should be on the lookout for is:

• Tools (if that's your sort of thing)
• Antique toys, or any kind of toy that looks older than you(i'm not a toy guy myself)
• Vintage Clothes
• Ashtrays(Most places don't sell them anymore)
• Bikes
• Instruments
• etc

These rules pertain to individual Garage/Yard Sales, things that are listed as "Moving Sale" or "Divorce Sales" can be ripe picks.

A community Garage sale is just that, it's when all the houses in a particular area or neighborhood decide to do a garage sale on the same day.  This kind of changes the basic idea of hunting garages sales, because it kind of turns into a flea market situation.  There is competition, prices are low, and if they are not by the end of the day they will be.  Most people at these garage sales are not seasoned bargainers, so don't take to much advantage, but do keep in mind you can usually get a better price out of most people.

There is a wide array of goods that pop up at these kinds of events, and you better have your walking shoes on because you will be all over the place.  I suggest having a truck and maybe a wagon to walk around with, it can become very annoying trying to make a deal with someone while your holding a handful of antiques in your hands.  I'm not going to give you  a list of things to look for because it would be entirely to long, but that's the best part.  There is no limit to the things you can find by just walking to the next house.

 This is all from one day of picking a community garage sale.  I will list all ebay links as things become available to the public if you are interested in any item you can email me.

From this I would have to say my top pick would be.......

Three antique Pabst Blue Ribbon cans...  I payed $3 a piece for them, the last ebay auction that one of these cans was at sold for $700+..... If I would of know that I would of offered the man more.

P.S.

If anyone reading this has any tips or knows anyone in the Bay Area that knows how to clean vintage beer cans please shoot me an email.