Realcent.org

This may sound rather strange, but it is a serious question to ponder. Which is worth more:

1) The sum of all stuff sitting outside houses by the curb (Craigslist stuff plus furniture, etc.) in this country right now? or
2) The total value of Sears Holdings stores nationwide (Ticker: SHLD)?

Sears in 2007 was a $144 stock- today it closed at $1.24. Also, it currently has a market cap of $135 million. There is a really good chance they will declare bankruptcy in the near future.

Yes, the stuff by the curb (aka Curb Co.) is used for the most part, so you'd have to assign a fair market value based on it being used.

But I still think Curb Co. may actually be worth more than Sears. If true, that is a staggering thought!

Stuff by the curb does not have long term employee liabilities, no taxes due, no fixed or variable operating costs, is fully depreciated. There is little doubt you are right.

Unfamiliar with this... is there an angle to play?

Market Harmony wrote:Unfamiliar with this... is there an angle to play?

I would normally have said to sell short SHLD (or buy puts), but the fees to short and price of the puts makes it super difficult. You could literally bet on them going down, have them declare bankruptcy, and still lose money (as hard as that is to believe)!

Regarding stuff left by the curb, now that is a potential opportunity. Some people think "Oh no, that sofa is gonna have bedbugs." It very well might, so I don't pick up sofas.

But there are plenty of other things. Here is but a very very small percentage of the items I've gotten recently (many this summer), all for free:

Binoculars
Telescope
Wire shelving (the type used in custom closets)
8 lawn chairs (newer and stronger than the ones we had, so we rotate out our old stuff and upgrade for free)
Noise cancelling headphones (worth ~$200- virtually new and w/ original case) (only needed new battery)
A $10 bill in the pocket of a ladies bag that I found yesterday morning
Golf clubs (partial set) with Ping bag
Rakes, brooms and shovels
Seed spreader
Tools (including about 70 screwdrivers, wrenches, etc. all at one time)
Ice chests (like the Igloo type) (many of these out there)
Skis and poles
Humidor
Karaoke machine
Tower fans (lots of these out there)
Ceiling fans (lots of these too- one man got rid of 4 of them because he didn't like the color white, but they all worked)
Lots and lots of wire
Lots of electrical conduit
Furniture for my college age daughter (her roommates love it and have no idea where it came from)
Plenty of things that I've taken to Goodwill (office chairs, etc.)

Why would people get rid of perfectly good stuff? Plenty of reasons. Maybe someone died. Maybe the kids are gone and they are downsizing. Perhaps a divorce or bankruptcy.

What about this- a clean person has a relationship with a messy person and the messy person moves out, saying "I can't take it with me." The clean person FINALLY can have the house look the way they want it to look. Who knows...

The above stuff is but a very partial list of what I've found. And there have been plenty of things I've left behind as I don't have a truck and have limited space:

Bookcases (lots of them)
Appliances of all types (usually not working- so they need to be sold for scrap)
BBQ's (tons of them- pretty sure they weren't all broken)
Hot tubs

How about this? I saw a good looking 9-burner Grand Turbo brand BBQ sitting by the curb. Online I see that a 7-burner version from the same company costs $3,500. I imagine it might need 1-2 parts to get it working again. It made me sick to leave it behind, but there was nobody with a truck that I could call at 3am. Oh well...

A few points I need to make: If you are concerned that your spouse will get embarrassed if one of the neighbors sees you, then just go very late at night or to a different neighborhood.

Also, check the rules in your city to make sure that picking up this stuff is ok. In my area, I called someone at the city and he said flat out that they pay by the pound to drop this stuff off at the landfill, so the less they need to drop off the better. That is different from the recyclable trash cans, where the city GETS PAID for what is inside.

In areas where you have a long drive to a landfill, this may not be as worthwhile. Ditto for rural areas where people are more self-sufficient (for instance, there are probably lots of farmers who are also mechanics and can fix lots of things).

Also, before you go poking around, it is good to consider getting a tetanus shot.

I have to admit that scrapping can be a lot of fun (like going through coins for me). Sometimes I am tired, it is late or very hot outside or I just don't really feel like it. Then I think about the potential rewards and get up off my backside to get in the car.

Free stuff on craigslist is the only reason I ever wished I lived closer to a decent sized city. When we do go to the city I go through the listings and usually find something of value for free. lol Id probably make several trips every weekend if I was close to the people. Heck you can even get free livestock, and fencing and 80% of whatever you might need to homestead. Its pretty fun.

Treetop wrote:Free stuff on craigslist is the only reason I ever wished I lived closer to a decent sized city. When we do go to the city I go through the listings and usually find something of value for free. lol Id probably make several trips every weekend if I was close to the people. Heck you can even get free livestock, and fencing and 80% of whatever you might need to homestead. Its pretty fun.

Craigslist is probably now a bit like eBay was 10+ years ago. Lots of stuff and lots of people competing for a few really legitimate worthwhile deals. I remember having to bid perhaps 10-20 times on eBay to actually get something at a decent price. Sometimes I'd find mistakes- one was a listing that said something was a quarter. You could clearly tell from the photos that it was a half (which made it a much better date). Also, there were those coins that had mintmarks that the seller wasn't aware of. Most people won't take the time to go digging though all the photos to find them. That kind of stuff is pretty cool, but was a lot of work to find.

With CL there are people who get updates on their cell phones as they are driving. And they have trucks or perhaps a lift gate vs. my SUV. That is hard to compete against. Also, another issue with CL is that there are old listings where the stuff has been gone for days and the listing on CL still shows as active. So CL occasionally has some decent stuff, but the odds of getting something really good are pretty slim. So you waste a trip to get a nothing burger.

Personally, I've had MUCH BETTER LUCK driving around late at night just before rubbish pick up time. Even my wife, who is very hard to please, marvels at all the free stuff I've found in just the last 3-4 months or so (when I started getting serious about curbside rubbish scavenging). I fully realize this will vary greatly from city to city and from big cities to rural areas. Without disclosing my exact hometown, suffice it to say I live in a metro area (MSA) that has at least 200k in population.

I am sure it differs by the area, but there are useful things up daily in the city closest to me.

Treetop wrote:I am sure it differs by the area, but there are useful things up daily in the city closest to me.

There are TONS of stale listings, so until you go and claim those things yourself you really don't know for sure.

I get a kick out of the CL listings for stuff like dirt, rocks and even fallen trees or tree branches.

So you want me to do your yard work for you for free?

I have to give them credit for trying to be creative to save $.

Recyclersteve wrote:I get a kick out of the CL listings for stuff like dirt, rocks and even fallen trees or tree branches.

So you want me to do your yard work for you for free?

I have to give them credit for trying to be creative to save $.

Gardening isnt for everyone but you can build some better soil then most anything you can buy from some of those materials. I still pick up leaves and manure from a few people in town close by from an ad I had up at the local feed store. Once I get a better trailer I will get more. A guy I know got into collecting various materials to sell as mulches and such recently and makes a modest amount from it. He has some nervous system disorder I forget the nme of that makes it hard to keep a steady job so its great for him. Any prepper minded person could cheaply amass a nice stash of future soil as well like that. So Im definitely glad people put up listings like that and have no doubt most of it is picked up.

Interesting perspective. Thanks.

And in late breaking news, Sears (stock ticker: SHLD) has officially declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This doesn't mean they are completely shutting down. It means they have too much debt and will be looking to cut way back on debt. In other words, many (such as owners of the common stock) will likely not get paid. Also, expect additional store closings and people to be laid off. This is the end of an era.

Definitely the end of an icon. I stopped going to the malls years ago. My last purchase was probably a toolbox.
It's actually a really good thing, mall owners will be spending billions to renovate the spaces big plus for a consumer driven economy.
Golden parachute time coming.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/27/sears-t ... wners.html

If I was looking to invest and my options were Sears or scraps by the curb. I would use my investment money for a trailer and start scrapping. While recently between jobs I built curb scrapping into my routine. I collected regular household things, scrap metal and firewood. I sell the wood and kindling on Craigslist the same place I find wood. For me the dividends from scrapping and curbside collecting far surpass those from Sears stock by far.

Changechecker wrote:If I was looking to invest and my options were Sears or scraps by the curb. I would use my investment money for a trailer and start scrapping. While recently between jobs I built curb scrapping into my routine. I collected regular household things, scrap metal and firewood. I sell the wood and kindling on Craigslist the same place I find wood. For me the dividends from scrapping and curbside collecting far surpass those from Sears stock by far.

I sure hope you don't own Sears stock. For anyone who is curious, it is down to 17 cents a share, even after Eddie Lampert's last minute rescue efforts. I think there is a really good chance this will go to zero. Even if they become wildly successful (not likely at all), they would likely create a new Sears stock (maybe even with a different name) to sell to the public. Since common stock shareholders are at the back of the line in the case of a bankruptcy (which Sears declared in October), they ultimately end up getting wiped out completely. That doesn't mean the common shareholders won't hold on for a few months or perhaps even more.

I imagine Lampert is aggressively trying to take his Christmas sales results and spin it into something positive.

For anyone who "invests" in Sears stock, it is just a pure gamble at this point. I prefer something more stable.

In Western NY I have watched them shutter, first the K marts and then all the Sears mall locations. I'm not sure how the independent outlets have fared. Eddie has been planning for this outcome and positioned himself to be Teflon.
If I were to invest in Sears paper it would be an old SEARS Catalogue- I think someday it will be worth a great amount.