Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter

One Less Box to Store

Last Sunday, my husband and I spent a totally entertaining day taking two albums of my great-grandmother’s postcards to an auction at the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York.

If you think that time is money, then it probably wasn’t worth my time. We got there around 10 a.m., spent $6 on admission and an hour and a half talking to various appraisers, getting an opening bid and entering the albums in the auction. With time to kill, we left and had a lovely brunch, returning at 1 p.m. for the auction. They went for a little over the minimum bid, and I walked out with $119 after the club took their 20 percent. Once you deduct the brunch and the admission, my net was $63. Not a very good return on four hours.

However, my husband and I are kind of New York nerds. So for us, nothing could be more entertaining than falling into this totally eccentric little slice of New York life. We met a woman who collects only postcards of Native American ceremonial masks: talk about specific! We watched, fascinated, as items dropped below the starting bid, and then worked their way back up and beyond, because everyone thinks stuff is more valuable when someone else wants it.

I’m glad my postcards aren’t in a landfill, and I’m glad they’re in the hands of people who appreciate them. If there’s one valuable post card in there, I’m glad it’s with someone who would know that and can benefit from it, because the time and energy I would have had to exert trying to evaluate and sell each individual postcard just wasn’t worth it to me.

An entertaining Sunday with my husband, a little cash in my pocket, and one less box on my shelf feels like success to me. For a lot of people, it was probably more hassle than it was worth. If you think you should sell something, but you aren’t sure of its value, ask yourself you are up for the effort. If you think you’ll enjoy the process, the learning curve, and the haggling, then go for it…. otherwise, let yourself off the hook and donate the item, because less stuff is always a win.