I flogged this load of broken glass for a tenner today. It’s beautiful, but totally fucked. The remains of Ben’s mum’s Victorian Venetian glass centerpiece. It’s been in a box for ages, ever since Emma fell over into it and broke it. Emma is the reason it came into my possession anyway, she’s the point of contact between Ben and I. It was a perfect storm when she came round my flat, got smashed, and even though it wasn’t in a thoroughfare, stumbled into it and absolutely ruined something already pretty fucked. Poetry to an extent. Anyone else doing that and I would have held it against them, Emma doing it and yeah fine, that’s like Ben doing it. All I’ve been trying to do anyway is find places for these things where they are loved.
The buyer for all this broken glass, she’s at Morley College. She’s learning to work with glass. She’s offered me a memento piece when she gets done working. I’m up for that, I’ll give it to Ben. This stuff is largely just taking up space now. I want it all shifted. And this is exactly what I’m trying to do, where my obsession meets reality, the movement of energetic things, the connection of once loved items to the people who will love them again, without the nasty mess of greedy resellers marking it up randomly based on their assessment of demand, to try and trick good people into overpaying for what they know that good person wants.
“My sister has been asking about her stuff, what you’ve still got.”
Ages ago on a terrible deal, I took a load of random shit my friend’s sister couldn’t sell and I offered to move it on. I did a nice job of some of it and then when it sold I gave her a vast proportion of what it had sold for. She had employed me over the years for odd jobs etc and at the time it did feel natural to help her, to give stuff back and move energy on. I avoided taking some of the things as she was absolutely convinced that some things she had were worth numbers I could never approach. Like my friend in Battersea I instinctively worried that if I sold it for less than what she thought it was worth it might end up coming back on me.
The stuff that’s left of hers is crap though. And the time it’ll take to list it, if I’m only taking like ten percent, it’s just not worth the hassle so … it sits in a corner and stares at me, reminding me to strike better deals with friends.
One of Rhys’ magic cards didn’t arrive at the buyer. Royal mail have lost it even though it’s tracked. I’m giving him 50% value before postage costs for everything of his I sell and actually with all the admin and rubbish attached that seems right going forward. He keeps telling me to give him 50% AFTER costs but no, I’m happy to meet him there. They are cards. Easy to send. My friend’s sister’s remaining stuff though, it is either big and awkward to post, or electronic and pretty much universally missing important parts without which I can’t assess if it works or not. For 50% going forward it’ll be worth it. I might tell her that’s the deal now or she can have it back, but then it’ll just be in storage forever.
I’m gonna go on a push tomorrow just to get this shit out of my house. eBay corner. I’ll drop her what it goes for and ask her advice about things in her world that she might be able to help me with. Why the hell not? She’s in PR. I’ve got 2 major films and one minor in the edit. Maybe that’s where the worlds align, if I can finally broker a story that gets me more work.
AlBarclay 