Thursday, June 4, 2009

Best in Show


We were sitting at one of our estate sales this afternoon and chatting with a friend of a friend who was helping us out at the sale. In his ‘real’ life he’s a documentary film maker, and the crowd and process struck him as something that might make an interesting documentary. We all kind of chuckled.

However he had a good point; it doesn’t really matter what the subject is, as long as there are interesting personalities – a good story is in there somewhere. And if there is one thing this industry has is it's ‘interesting personalities’. The conversation turned to Christopher Guest’s ‘Best in Show’ and well, you can imagine the laughs we had.

His observation got me thinking.

For as much as this business is centered around objects, it’s really the people that make it so compelling. Not only the cast of characters that chase after this stuff and sell it and horde it and seemingly worship it (myself included), but the people that touched it along the way, the person that created it, the one who loved it, first received it or gave it away. It’s really the history that we find as alluring as the object itself, sometimes even more so.

And I can’t let this go without giving a shout out to the people that work with me, Steve, Kay, John and the list goes on. For as much as our business is centered around objects, the people who you share it with also help bring it to life.

After all stuff is just stuff; and really we’re only renting it until the next owner takes possession. But it’s the people we meet along the way, the lives we touch and that touch us - that’s what brings this stuff to life.

No comments:

Post a Comment