Tag: value

September 24, 2024 – Things to Sell…

September 24, 2024 /

I find it much easier to buy things then to get rid of them. Much of the time I decide that I am ready to move on, I am willing to give stuff away. We usually have a garage sale every couple of years and I have a propensity to price to sell. Typically, after the garage sale, everything leftover goes to donation. These days, even the donation receipt is worthless because of the new tax deduction rules.

But, every now and then I end up with something that I know has value and would very much like to get better value or trade. The easiest trade is for cash, for sure. But I have some certain items that I would like to move. I have been pretty lazy on getting started but I am starting to feel the urge to get moving.

First of all, these chairs pictured above. After we sold everything to move back from South Carolina, these were the first pieces of furniture that we purchased here. Twenty years ago, we paid $800 each. I looked recently to see if the company was still and business, they are selling for $1500 per chair.

I am under no illusion to get my money back or make a profit. But at those prices, these have to be worth some money. I like the pictured chairs much better then the $150 chairs that replaced them but they didn’t fit in with the ‘décor’. To me, this is a poor way get rich, replace durable goods with lessor ones because they are not in fashion. But, less friction in my marriage is much better than being rich.

I have a rifle case that I bought in college. I have never used it because it is for a 46″ rifle and now I know that mine are 42″. It means that it is extremely floppy and oversized. What did I know that cases come in different lengths. I literally paid $10 for it; I suppose it could be garage sale fodder. After thirty years, I am sure that I will never use it but I would happily to trade it for a similar value shotgun case. With everyone in the family possibly shooting sporting clays, it would be nice to have enough cases.

When my oldest son started shooting trap, I bought a traditional length shotgun barrel that had screw-in chokes. It was cheap because it was an after market maker. What I found with it was that it was not the same quality as OEM (hence why it was cheap). It is not just ammunition finicky, but I have observed many, many misfires on all brands of ammunition. I would like to have an OEM barrel that I feel would be much more reliable. I know that I will never use this barrel again based on my testing.

I can list multiple other items that I think have value and/or would rather have something else. It is just so much easier to not do anything and find a place to stash forever. This is something that I think I want to change. I don’t want my kids to have to figure out what to do with and I don’t really want valuable things just thrown away because nobody wants to put out the effort to clean up after me.

As a result, I am thinking of doing something on eBay. There are better platforms for each specific item, even locally. But, if I had some sort of online account, it could be considered play money. When I sell this, I will do that. I haven’t fully decided yet on a platform but the most important thing is to have stuff that is used and not be owned by stuff.

I hesitate to write about something I am going to do. There is some history about saying something without a lot of follow through from me. But, I am feeling the urge to purge. Part of my ruse was for me to take pictures for this post while at the same time getting the pictures to list. I am crossing my fingers that this is win/win.

End Your Programming Routine: I heard a podcast recently that hoarders start by buying things and then just never doing something with it. Then they buy more and more and it becomes overwhelming. I am not a hoarder by any means but I certainly have things that are in my way or at least are sitting around with little chance of being used. When I have a list a mile long of things that I would like to do, like upgrading my hiking/camping equipment for my trip next year, it makes sense to me to try and wring the value out of things that I no longer want.

February 29, 2024 – It Has Been a Long Time Since I Have Been To the Range…

February 29, 2024 /

Happy leap day everyone. It may be that I am getting older and lazier but I haven’t been to the range since November. My renewal date is around the first of the year and I haven’t hardly even thought about going. It kind of makes me wonder if I should keep up my membership if I am not going to use it.

Another possible reason is that since I have setup my basement, pellet trap I use it multiple times a week. So, I feel less of the need to go to the range because I am always shooting without going anywhere. Recently I upgraded the scope on an air rifle so I am going to talk about the process today.

My son has a Crossman 760. It is a straight tube (non-rifled), multi-pump, bb/pellet combo. It is one of those classic bb guns. I can remember my cousin’s had the same one in the 1980s. My son’s looks exactly the same but today’s model has a sleeker, more updated design. It has a 3/8 rail for a scope addition.

When I purchased my first air-rifle, it also came with a very in-expensive 4×15 scope. It truly is better than nothing but for not much money you can do much better. But, the better part of my motivation was to put a scope on my son’s rifle. I figured I would upgrade the scope on my rifle and move the old scope to the 760.

Since the 760 is not rifled, it is not likely to be the most accurate of the bunch. By my reasoning, a significant scope upgrade would only marginally be of value on that rifle. The sights aren’t that great either and my groups are more like 2 inch groups with the 760. Additionally, I am noticing my eyesight is starting to degrade rapidly. Even this scope would help.

I took the old scope off and sighted the new scope on my rifle. It is shooting pretty good and I think the $40 investment was worth the cost and effort. I put the old scope on the 760 and the picture above represents how things went. Despite the fact that things were pretty dialed in my first shot was six inches to the left. As I kept working at it, I kept walking right and up. The final three shots above the center is where I left it.

Keep in mind that changing the number of pumps or the projectile will also change how things work. In my case eight (out of ten) pumps with a BB (5gr, one of the lightest projectiles) at ten yards will likely yield lower impact for heavier projectiles or less pumps. Given the same conditions, farther distance will likely have some drop as well. I think it is about perfect.

One other thing about inexpensive scopes is the adjustments are kind of poor. It is marked as on click per 1/4″ at 100 yards. So, at ten yards 1/4″ is supposed to be 10 clicks. But when it makes no clicks, you are not totally sure what the adjustment actually is. They also tend to act erratically sometimes by having different results the next day because something finally sprang into place. Some people actually tap on their scopes after adjustment to try and help them set in place.

End Your Programming Routine: I am happy to report that things were still in place the next day and I think this is an improvement over open sights. I do have a picture here somewhere with some previous testing I did but I couldn’t find it. And there is a real improvement in my rifle with the new scope on it. Win-win, I say.