I used to work for a large office supplies company. Like a lot of companies, there would be
dreaded annual event of stock taking to look forward to. It was a time of “all hands on deck”. It made no difference what your position was, we all had a part to play in counting out and recording each item of stock held in warehouse. People would be found in dark corners counting everything from thermal sealing devices to staples.From time to time, a quantity of certain items would be discovered as either not on original list or simply obsolete. For bargain hunter, this was good because it meant they were no longer required by company and were to be tossed out. Many a worker would go home with their pockets stuffed with pens or cars loaded with printer paper! All perfectly legitimate I would add!
Have you noticed how people love bargains? Everywhere you go, you find events like clearance sales, summer sales, January sales, clearouts, garage sales, jumble sales, second-hand stores (thrift stores in U.S.)., etc., etc., Why is that? Why are some of us quite prepared to queue for hours, “fight” for a good position, jostle with others over “bargain of day”? It could of course, be simply to do with saving money, but perhaps a better concept would be that within hope of identifying something of value, you have to give little in return.
Gambling is a similar concept. People place their money in a position where they feel they will get something for nothing (or little outlay). We seem to be a world of “treasure hunters” each seeking for our gold reward.
An interesting thing though, regarding treasure hunting, is that there is a considerable amount of work involved. Let`s give some simple modern day examples of that:
Jumble Sales/Bazaars/Garage Sales/conventional shop/store sales and fetes all have similar requirements – If you want treasures or bargains, you need to be somewhere up front in queue. You need re-enforcements too! The way to play it is that chief buyer of group has to take point (as they say in military), with ideally at least two assistants that cover rear. Why? So that minute those doors open, those guarding rear can ensure they block way of others coming up from back of queue cannot get past! Once through doors, it is a similar tactic. The chief buyer goes to table or stall where “treasures” are to be found, whilst rear guard (three are better for this), form a semi circle around buyer from behind, to make sure they are not jostled out of position by use of pushing, elbows, and carefully positioned umbrella points! All this after having been queuing to get in (in all weathers) for up to an hour before it starts! In fact, for some store/shop sales, it is not at all unusual for a small camping site queue to develop right outside front of store a day or two in advance!
Secondhand or thrift stores are different. This is more about tactics than almost all out warefare of previous treasure hunting variety. You could be well rewarded if you could work out when main delivery days are from store`s distribution base. Some deliveries are made straight to store of course. If you are really keen to be first to sift through latest load, then you too might find yourself queuing before store opens. Once inside, occasionally, point/flank tactics can be useful.
Other kinds of treasure hunting include walking around with something akin to a walking stick pointing at an angle toward ground and a handleless frying pan attached to bottom of it. The owner can be seen trundling along beaches and muddy fields in hope of seeking some long lost artefact or at least some small change that was once lost content of a child`s pocket money. Or if they are really lucky, a £1000 watch that had fallen from a beach towel! I have always rather fancied trying it myself to see what I might discover in my local park! (It`s around 100 miles to nearest beach!)
What had to be undergone however, before that stage of “freedom” to help themselves to things that they perceived to be of value could occur? Effort. All in all, “treasure hunting” or seeking something of value, of any kind takes effort. A lot of that effort involves stress and anxiety, some is just plain persistence, motivation and energy. Somewhere in there from time to time, you will also find that not so good ingredient – disappointment.
To get back to title of this article (“6 Steps To Your Personal Treasure” – in case you have forgotten!), let`s take a quick look at what a good offer or bargain would consist of. How about this description: “A bargain offer would be presentation of an item that required less expenditure without loss of quality”. How does that sound? Fair? I want to break that down a little further. As potential buyer of such an offer, what would it take for item to be important to you and worth pursuing? Here is a short list of random things I feel might be valid. Please feel free to make your own list if you like:
1.I must see it as having value to me or to a person I wish to give it to. 2.It must not require as much expenditure as normal. 3.In must not require any more effort to obtain than I am prepared or able to apply.
Okay, so we have identified what a clearance offer might consist of, now let`s take a look at what might prevent us from winning such a prize:
1.Someone else might beat us to prize. 2.It might require more effort from us than we are prepared to apply. 3.We might make a mistake in perceiving its value to us or to person you wish to give it to. 4.The quality may not be that which we perceived it to be.
How would you feel if you could have all opposition removed i.e. if all those potential problems did not exist? Relieved? Excited? Something similar? Of course you would, and you would have your valuable item – your treasure. If that is what you want – what you truly want, you can do it. You can start collecting your treasures together. I suppose you would like to know how now? Okay, here are steps to direct access to your identified treasures:
