Ego's Journal

[chenda]

I do enjoy reading about your little finds Ego.

Now what are word seed phrases ? Is there anything on the memory stick ?

[Ego]

Working on it now. It is a crypto wallet. Seed phrases unlock it.

[Ego]

The phrase written on the back of the card had an extra entry that said "DOB 12/19/1994". So rather than type in the new seed phrase I tried to see if I could simply enter a PIN number. I tried 1219, nope. Then 121994, nope again. Finally 12191994 unlocked it. Hah!

Wallets for Bitcoin, ETH and Bitcoin Cash have all been installed. Sadly all are empty. I downloaded the account history and no deposits or withdraws have been made. Shoot!

Now I will have to reset the wallet and slowly click in the other seed phrase. Wish me luck!

[ertyu]

i'm not into crypto so the details escape me but i seem to remember one of the most common wallets was found to have a security flaw that makes it susceptible to hacks. might be this type, would explain why it was given away. good luck, it would be exciting if you find something on it!

[Ego]

This morning my friend who is a wholesale grocery vendor brought me this case of Vegan pasta sauces. He often buys mixed pallet loads and ends up with strange items like this. He always saves me the vegan stuff as I am the only one who buys it. 9 jars for $3. When I told him that was not enough, he insisted and said, "I just want to get rid of the dead weight."



I spent a half hour fiddling with the two buttons on the Ledger crypto wallet and eventually typed in the 24 word seed phrase. When I opened the wallet I realized that I would have to install the Ledger app for the correct cryptocurrencies. Since I did not originally create the wallet, I don't know which currencies the person bought so I don't know which apps to install.

So I guessed. I started with Bitcoin, of course. I installed the app and then synced the wallet. It took about 20 seconds for the app to reach out to the blockchain and check the address balance.

Bitcoin, zero
ETH, zero
Bitcoin Cash, zero

Oh well. The wallet itself costs about $40 second-hand on ebay so at least I will not lose money with the adventure.

@ertyu, I don't believe the Ledger devices have been hacked. Ledger the company was hacked and their customer info was revealed.

[Ego]

This morning I bought a nice small (easy to ship) painting for $20 (should sell for about $150) a very good Italian vintage road bike for $50 (should sell for $300-350) and a case of dried cherries from a guy who sells overstocked foods. Companies are paying people like him to empty out warehouses right now because there is so much stuff to store and not much warehouse space to store it. He was selling them at two-2lb bags for $5 but sold me the case of eight bags for $16. They expire in 2024. One dollar per pound for dried cherries to put on my oatmeal for the next year. Not bad. Someone on ebay is selling the exact same bags for 2 for $50.

[guitarplayer]

Splendid! I wonder if this is cultural and pertinent to the US, would it be able to pull something like this off in the UK.

[Ego]

@guitarplayer, I believe this is a consequence of the big retailers buying the distribution networks. In the past this kind of stuff would have found its way to mom and pop grocery stores but those are virtually dead here in SoCal. Those that remain cannot soak up the sheer volume of waste generated by the larger distribution networks. So they auction it to people who take it to places like the swap meet where they can unload truckloads of inventory in hours. I haven't been to the UK in a long time so I do not know how things compare.

One thing I've been pondering lately is the fruit and veg markets. It seems that the price differential between unblemished produce and the second tier quality stuff has increased drastically. My theory is that large grocery stores and food delivery services are competing for perfect, unblemished produce. They lured the most profitable customers away from the markets that sell the less-than-perfect apples and odd sized sweet potatoes. These markets have more supply but are selling to fewer customers so prices drop. Or at least they do not rise at the same rate as everywhere else.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that I've gotten some unbelieve deals on blemished produce lately and it confused me enough to think about what is going on behind the curtain.

[7Wannabe5]

I used to attend monthly food auctions back in the days I had 4 mouths to feed and a chest freezer to fill. They draw an "interesting" crowd.

[davtheram12]

One thing I've been pondering lately is the fruit and veg markets. My theory is that large grocery stores and food delivery services are competing for perfect, unblemished produce. They lured the most profitable customers away from the markets that sell the less-than-perfect apples and odd sized sweet potatoes. These markets have more supply but are selling to fewer customers so prices drop. Or at least they do not rise at the same rate as everywhere else.

I've thought the same thing for years. I've been regularly shopping for vegetables and fruits from the 99 Cent Store. Organic produce that is nearing the end of it's shelf life, or is visually unappealing, usually gets packaged together with other counterparts that are in perfect shape. Think a bag of organic apples with 11 good examples and 1 lumpy example. Priced at 99¢/lb it comes out to a great deal. It seems the hoity toity grocery stores can't sell their produce before it expires. They sell it to the 99 Cent Store at a steep discount and in turn their customers get a discount on otherwise expensive items.

The business 'Imperfect Foods' seems to take advantage of this overabundance too. Clever marketing strategy + unwanted overabundant inventory + a self righteous customer base = profit.

[theanimal]

Where are you getting the blemished food? Near or at the swap meet?

At our local big box supermarket, they put blemished produce in bags on a stand on the edge of the produce section. Everything in the bags is $1. We have scored some big hauls this way, namely with bananas, apples and peppers but sometimes there are treats like avocados and sweet potatoes.

All of your finds are interesting, but I think I find the food hauls most incredible. You are able to eat like a king for basically nothing.

[Ego]

Where are you getting the blemished food? Near or at the swap meet?

At our local big box supermarket, they put blemished produce in bags on a stand on the edge of the produce section. Everything in the bags is $1. We have scored some big hauls this way, namely with bananas, apples and peppers but sometimes there are treats like avocados and sweet potatoes.

All of your finds are interesting, but I think I find the food hauls most incredible. You are able to eat like a king for basically nothing.

Cool. I thought maybe someone would find it interesting. I will post more about this as I get deals.

I get blemished fruit and vegetables like you. Our Middle East grocery store sells big bags full of blemished stuff on a rack in the back corner of the store for 99 cents a bag. Mrs. Ego laughs because the brown spotted bananas are Gringo-rotten but Mexican-perfect. Last week I bought a big bag full of juicy mangos that had brown spots but were delicious and kept well when refrigerated.

Mrs. Ego also likes the 99 Cents Only store for fruit but she's been grumpy the last few times because they are now charging more than 99 cents for almost everything.

This morning my scratch and dent grocery friend had 2 liter bottles of extra virgin olive oil from costco at 3 for $10. The cases were stacked high and one of the bottles up top had broken so the entire stack of boxes got saturated with oil. The bottles inside the boxes were dry. I didn't buy any because we still have some from the last time he got something similar.

I pay $5 to enter the swap meet an hour early. By the time it opened for regular customers the olive oil was gone.

He also had cases of these for $1 a bag.



I generally only buy this kind of stuff when we are having guests over.

[Ego]

I bought a painting with a few minor blemishes. Mrs. Ego has always been interested in art restoration and now gets to do it for real with children's paint from the 99 cent store.

[zbigi]

Wouldn't it be better to use pro-grade paints? The have the highest levels of durability (mostly in terms of resistance to being exposed to sun) and are often guaranteed to last centuries. Whereas I imagine paint from a 99c paint set may or may not last even a couple years.

[Ego]

Sure, but I would have to buy professional paint which costs an arm and a leg and would have to be matched to the painting. The 99cent store solution only works in a situation like this where two tiny specks of paint flaked off of a painting that is not valuable enough to justify the professional treatment and would have been trash otherwise.

In other words, there are situations in life that call for the perfect solution and situations where good enough is good enough.

[Ego]

One of my overstock grocery suppliers setting up at the swap meet yesterday.



He had these strange jars of organic blanched almond butter for $1. Blanched almonds are white so it looks like mayonnaise. Nobody bought them. Mrs. Ego likes almond butter so I bought one to try it. It is delicious. Sells for $22 a jar on amazon. I guess I will pick up more the next time I go.

[Ego]

One of my friends from the swap meet was recently featured in the WSJ for buying a pair of 1880s Levis at auction for $76,000. He will most certainly flip them to a Japanese buyer for a lot more.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/jeans-vint ... 1665444076

Tomorrow he will be at the swap meet digging though $1 piles of discarded clothing.

[davtheram12]

That was your friend?! I wonder how much he can get in return. Good on him for having that kind of liquid cash at age 23.

[Ego]

Yes, I've know him for a few years. He hustles. He sells at vintage/antique markets like the Rose Bowl Flea so I suspect it was largely a cash purchase. Will update when the jeans change hands.

Testament to the value of finding a way to make money without (having to do things that feel like) working.

[Ego]

This morning I talked with him for a while and got the backstory on the jeans.

Smart kid. He knew that if he bought them the news would be everything traditional and social media needs for a viral story. Trad media would entice Boomer eyerolls with the tale of a frivolous Gen Z spending $87k on a pair of Levi's. Social media would burn over the racist Levi's tag, “The only kind made by white labor”. Scroungers would get our shot of dopamine with the ultimate something-from-nothing story of Michael Harris who found the jeans. Harris's hobby is exploring abandoned gold mines looking for denim clothing that had been left behind by gold rush miners.

It didn't take much prodding on his part for the story of his purchase to go viral.

He told me that none of the regular Japanese buyers showed up because it was too far from their usual shopping grounds of SoCal and New York. He has already been talking with Sotheby's and believes the publicity will allow him flip them for $250K minimum.

When I saw him this morning he was digging through a 50¢/piece pile of clothing and was as happy as a pig in shit. You can't buy that kind of job.