The two-word message on a cardboard sign enticed the motorist to slow from 60 mph to a crawl, and move to the Texas 199 shoulder in north Parker County: “YARD SALE.” The sign was crudely drawn, indicating amateurs were at work, rather than seasoned pros selling the same overpriced crap every weekend.
An arrow pointed to a gravel road that led to a ranch house, where a white-haired rancher in faded overalls and a woman who looked to be in her 60s were arranging junk on tables.
Ka-ching. The couple’s appearance screamed “suckers.” They were elderly, rural, and likely to sell something for a quarter that could be resold later for much more.
Yard bounty beckoned. A rusted pitchfork. Baseball bats. Metal lanterns. Old tools. Books. Fishing poles. The motorist felt a familiar pang of anticipation as he approached the clutter. He was a junker, buying pieces of potential trash and selling them as objects of potential treasure.
A weathered cowboy hat sat upside down on a stack of books, and the junker eased it onto his head. A perfect fit. He didn’t plan to resell the hat for profit; he just needed a wide-brimmed hat to wear outdoors.
“How much?’ he asked.
“Fifteen,” the woman said.
“How about $10?” he said, surprised that the woman had asked so much.
She looked at him. And then it came, the worldwide web war whoop, the high-tech battle cry that is redefining American consumerism. “I can sell it on eBay for more than that,” she said, waving her hand with finality.
She was one of a growing number of junk warriors who use eBay like a sword in the heat of barter, silencing foes in mid-dicker. The junker — who also sells online — doubted that the woman could sell the hat on eBay. Wouldn’t someone want to try on a hat before they bought it? But he liked the hat, and he forked over $15. Sometimes eBay works for you, sometimes agin ya, he thought.
Not many Parker County ranchers were surfing the internet and online auctions a few years ago. Then along came eBay, changing the rules and spreading the popularity of junking and computers to Baby Boomers.
Some things, however, don’t change. Suckers, for instance. Got to have them. Junkers make money by taking advantage of suckers. Paying a quarter for something that sells for $25 — or $250 — on the resale market requires finding somebody who is willing to sell something for much less than it is worth. A sucker.
Suckers might be born every minute, but the computer culture is thinning their ranks nonetheless.
“The internet ruined it,” said Tim Wooley, 41, a friendly, energetic, and longtime wheeler-dealer who bought, sold, and traded second-hand merchandise for years before anyone used computers for such matters. During the 1990s he owned Guitar Mart in Fort Worth and sold used guitars and collectibles. He paid someone to watch the store while he hit yard sales, thrift stores, auctions, and pawnshops, buying underpriced guitars and vintage kitsch for resale. Business was good.
By decade’s end, however, inventory had become difficult to find, and he closed his shop. He now sells cars full-time in south Fort Worth, although he continues to dabble in collectibles. “Before, you could go out and get deals,” he said. “Since the internet came out, people know exactly what they got and they ask top dollar for it. You can hardly do business anymore.”
Others consider eBay a junker’s savior.
“How could you hate it when you put something on there and make 50 times what you paid for it?” wondered Barry Clawson, 41, a flea-market dealer who discovered online auctions several years ago.
Some junkers don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on a computer, or they’re intimidated by high-tech gizmos, or they can’t stand to sit in front of monitors and peck on keyboards all day. But online auctions are shaping the resale market and becoming the definitive source of an item’s value. Junkers who don’t adapt might become the next generation of suckers.
As for the Parker County woman, she wasn’t so savvy after all. She didn’t research her junk’s value, despite her knowledge of eBay. The junker, after buying the cowboy hat, looked around a bit more and paid $1 for a Louisville Slugger baseball bat. He sold it for $26 a week later on eBay.  NEXT »

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