Cash in the attic or downsizing made easy.

Having walked away from my shop, with hardly a backward glance, I had plenty of things to fill my days. I had closed the company ebay account, so opened a personal one. The intention was to put half our attic on there, but I was stymied, when ebay would only let me put on a restricted number of items. That`s fine, I`m working round that. The big job was sorting out the attic. We are moving soon and not just across town to another house. No, we are moving many miles to a foreign country. We need to downsize. Plenty of time to sort stuff out and do boot sales and other stuff.
We have a large attic and quite a big shed, so we never really got rid of anything. Members of the family would die and we ended up with a lot of their stuff, that others didn`t want. We didn`t really want it either, but couldn`t get rid of it for sentimental reasons. Our family were collectors, especially my nanny Bennett. We had the space, why not store it. That seemed to be our mantra.
This picture was taken after most stuff had been removed, but it was absolutely packed to the rafters before then.

So, sometime around October 2013, we decided on the move, for definite. I started to sort out my stuff. I had more things I`d collected, than Jean. I started on my precious vinyl albums. I got very serious. I had several criteria for getting rid of them.
1. Will I ever listen to it again.
2. Do I have it on cd.
3. Is it in poor condition.
4. Am I only keeping it for one track.
5. Do I have a sentimental attachment.

Using these and other criteria, I sorted out several hundred albums. Some were given to my stepson and some to my daughter. The rest were sorted out into various price categories and taken to the shop for a couple of months of selling. The vinyl shop, next door had £60 worth off me. The rest brought in a few hundred pounds over a few months. That money was converted to dollars and is in saving, ready for my first trips to the record shop in our new home country. The final bunch was sent to a charity shop. That was reasonably easy, because I was always more of a singles guy than an album fan. More about the singles later on.
I also sold my Andy Capp book collection, all my 78rpm records and a record player. Various magazines and books. Various bits and pieces on ebay and at a table top sale in Walsall FC club house.
Most of the other sorting, involved keeping souvenir programmes, school work, tickets, anything with a relevant date and anything I just didn`t want to get rid of. A surprising amount of stuff ended up in the tip or the bins. Still a lot of boxes of ephemera, to be sorted again in the future. An archive of our life, so to speak.
All this time, I was filling a corner of the attic, with Jean stuff. She has now sorted that out and we have some more stuff for boot sales.
Then Jean went to Cyprus for a week, with her sisters.
A couple of times, in the past, when she has gone away, I have got out my entire singles collection. Thousands of 7" vinyl jewels, precious things, to be revered, looked at and occasionally played with.
They were all on the bed.

Now this photo doesn`t do them justice. There were more of them, in smaller containers, waiting to be filtered in to the main collection. After spending a couple of hours a day, for 6 days, they were finally sorted out and put back under the bed.

Apart from the very few that I decided I could release into the wild. There were some that were doubles. One Mary Hopkins record, I had got 3 copies of, for some reason. The first port of call for the records, was along with a bunch of more collectable fodder, that we took to Stafford Antique and Collectables fair. 

Unfortunately, we chose the hottest weekend of the year, so far. Very few people turned up and we didn`t do at all well. The yellow rimmed box on the left hand side of the table, as you look at it? That`s all the singles I released into the wild. Not many, I know that. I put some on ebay afterwards and have had some success. A Damned single has just sold for £31.00! Result.

We still have some time and as soon as we get a few days sunshine in a row, then we`ll do a couple of the big car boot sales. After that it`s a trip to a lucky charity shop somewhere. I need at least a month of not having this stuff hanging around, so that gives us about 4 weeks to get rid of it.

No more shop.

So, a week has gone by. I have had quite a lazy Saturday. Just over 12 years ago, I opened Bennetts, a books, toys and collectables shop in Walsall`s Victorian Arcade. I had been in the business for a few years. starting at Memorabilia, then on to a different fair every week. Then Walsall market on a Wednesday. After a couple of crappy Wednesdays, I looked for an alternative and found the Shopping Hall in the Quasar Centre, in Park Street, Walsall. Very happy there for nearly two years, before they chucked us all out to make way for Wilkinsons [boo, hiss]. 3 months later, I opened up the shop and never looked back. The first few years were great. We got busier and busier. My wife, Jean came to work with me and a little later, so did Pauline. We had a lot of fun, paid our bills, both business and personal. Then things started to get tighter. Retailers saw the recession way before the government. We all saw people spending less, especially in the run up to Christmas. We tightened our belts, hit the credit card, bought less stock and managed to stay open. Jean reached retirement age, but still helped at the shop.

However, there was always a certain feeling pulling us away. Our daughter, Sarah, had moved to America, got married and had two kids. We had had so much fun with our previous 3 grandkids, that we wanted to be with the new batch as often as possible. Everyone assumed, we would move there sooner or later.

Late in 2013 a couple of decisions were made. We would close the shop and spend more time travelling to the States. Then my stepson, Michael, came forward and asked if we would be open to selling the business, as he had someone in mind.

Well we got to mid March 2014 and I asked him to put a date on me handing over. I had originally said they would have to buy the business rather than me selling it to them. However, I had come to think of this as better than closing down. They would keep the name and the products going. Our legacy would continue. Also, we would not have to find buyers for everything and clear out all the stuff from the shop! 

So, at 5.00 p.m., on Saturday 5th April, I handed over my key and walked away for the last time, as the owner.

A week later. I have not missed it. We still have to deal with paperwork and payment, but that is in hand. I have not missed it. Today was an odd Saturday for me, spent at home. I have not missed it. One more time. I have not missed it.

It had become more of a chore to me than a pleasure. I wish the new owners all the luck in the world. They will make mistakes and they will screw things up. They will change things around and do things differently.

But, my mantra, these past couple of weeks has been;"not my problem"

In future blogs, I may reminisce about the place, the people and the stuff. But for now, my first week away from it has gone by and my conclusion is....

I have not missed it!