Rain is a magical force........it can conjure up images of musicians on rooftops, umbrellas rushing past each other, cats and dogs......you get the idea! But for us, rain can be magical in other ways....for instance......some of our competition would be melting..........melting..............melting!
You see....rain can be a mysterious force that causes competition to rethink just how badly they want to play the game. And as we all know.........less can equal more!
This holds true sometimes....but sometimes, when you have stiff competition....they think the same thing you think......and then you end up with umbrellas crushed against each other while 20+ people are trying to look inside Pandora's Box as they are getting pelted by unending cats and dogs!
And so I arrive at the nexus of our story. So we were at an auction in New Orleans, on the Westbank, which means East of the city, but that is another story for another time. It was a rainy day....and we thought...well now....this should bleed off the bidders.....NOPE. There must have been 25+ people there. The usual suspects and a bunch of new faces. And just as the bidding was about to begin on the first unit.....Mother Nature announced herself. And this wasn't one of those gentle spring rains.....oh no.....this was one of those heavy thick droplets carrying pianos and small farm animals! And if that wasn't enough.....then the wind kicked up.......and we hadn't even started bidding yet! Luckily, this was one of those facilities that whenever you go to the auction, it has LOTS of units available. So bidding continued...unit to unit....in the rain....and people were bidding pretty well, sometimes way too much....but I guess they figured that they were there.....and wet.....so might as well have something to show for it!
It was about at the end of the units when it happened....one of those perfect moments....when luck and weather and hope and dreams and candy canes all come together.
Now remember....we tend to get cheaper prices on units that are upstairs...especially if there isn't an elevator because people don't want to have to lug stuff up and down stairs....which we don't mind.
We go upstairs....people are starting to trail off. You can see they are tired, wet....and some people who have already bought downstairs are definitely not "digging" the upstairs....(all pun intended!). So we go for it....and score two nice units. I can't remember the exact price....but it was cheap enough...and we made at least 5 times our money easily. All because we were willing to work a little bit harder.
I was thinking about this because this morning....i woke up to rain outside...and funny how I wished it was auction day! Moral of the story....a little hard work....can pay off.....and it's good exercise too....so don't let a set of stairs put you off....it can really work to your advantage in more ways than one! And in this business, when we are opening Pandora's boxes in the rain all the time, it pays to not mind putting on Pandora's raincoat when necessary!
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