THE BEST DEAL OF THE DAY - SHOW HOW CHEAP YOU CAN GET STUFF

I really scored today. I need lots of camping equipment for my new camping bus business. There will be times when I need to provide equipment for up to 50 people. I shopped around at the usual spots that carry camping stuff, including Wal Mart, Canadian Tire, Mountain Equipment Co-op and Capital Iron. Finally, I ended up at Sears. It is in an older mall that has lost ground to newer developments and the clientelle tend to be older. They don't have much of an outdoor section. This mall is currently being upgraded so parking is difficult. All of this makes it a poor place to sell outdoor equipment.

When I got to the camping section, there was a big 50% off everything sign. To the naive this would mean that it was time to buy before the great deals were snapped up. But there were no others looking for this stuff. Sales were terrible this year and the stuff was religated to an out of way area. The sales guy from tools was in charge of this area and he needed the space for tools. I asked him if he was keen to move all of this stuff and if I could get it for half of the mark down price. He thought about it for a minute and then he agreed. No counter offer. I didn't even have to pull any of my best tricks out of the bag. This made it a 75% off sale.

I got two 10 man tents, an eight man tent, seven 6 man tents, two four man tents, a big picnic tent and two outhouse/changeroom tents. There is also some propane equipment, 8 air mattresses with pumps and some other stuff.

At the regular prices, this stuff would have cost $3000. I got it all for $ 750

1. This one cost me $45

2. The guy who brought this cart to the loading bay piled it a foot taller than himself and he dragged the big one on wheels with one hand. He did this in order to avoid the indignity of being forced to make two trips. I brought down 6 items in a shopping cart.

3. There is lots more unseen stuff closer to the front of the van. Last week I picked up 5 sleeping bags on a 60% off sale. The Coleman sleeping bags pictured here were bought at Canadian Tire on a 55% off sale. That is the closest to paying full retail that I have come so far in setting up the bus for camping.

Nice score Dale.

Probably one of my best scores in recent times was a machine to making moulding that is very popular here (think wainscotting). It had been pretty much abandoned but the motors were good and most of it was in good shape. I replaced the planing heads with helix ones, tuned the speed and did a lot of adjustments, mods, etc - now it probably makes the best product in the country since it has the special heads.

I bought it for 2,000 dollars, put probably another 1,000 into in time and materials - new they go for 12,000 dollars - but with standard heads.

with the new heads, it yields at least 30 percent more, which is priceless.

Good morning Fred.(noon your time) I'm always amazed at how cheaply milling equipment can go if it is even slightly obsolete. As large mills go in for the latest technology they sell off or scrap items that have decades of service life remaining.

This is the bus that will contain the campers and equipment. The aluminum body is in perfect shape except for a couple of small areas. The rear door that accesses the storage area has little pock marks over about 7 sq. ft. and there is corrosion on the little doors for accessing the batteries and fuse pannel. It would cost a few hundred dollars to have these fixed professionally with bondo and paint that matches. I have decided to do a Rudimentary body job myself with a coating of Tremclad rust paint only. All supplies cost about $20. Good quality vehicle wrap signs cost between $8 and $10 per sq ft. installed. These signs totally obscure the vehicle beneath and they are weather tight.

The total area of these defects and the surrounding borders that would work for small signs leading to YouTube videos and to the web site is about 30 sq ft, most of it being the large cargo door. So, it will cost about $325 to repair the only unsightly spots on an otherwise very well preserved vehicle. It will take 2 hours for me to do my part of it. The big pannels beneath the windows will contain the company name, phone number and a description of what to expect from a trip on the bus. The body repair signs will blend with these.

I'll post some pictures of The finished job.

This well preserved 2000 Dodge Dorango will tow a trailer full of bikes, wake boards, inner tubes ,barbecues and other items needed on big group outings. It also gives me the flexibility to go from 24 passengers to 30 or to take only 7 if a trip doesn't generate enough bookings to warrant taking the bus. It has all of the toys including leather seats, air, power everything and a roof rack. $2700.00

I'm setting up an outdoor kitchen for my 24 passenger camping bus. It will be centered around a plywood table that clips to the rear bumper. Camping is hard on cookware so I'm not getting top end Italian cookware unless it comes up cheap. I went on Used Victoria and found a guy who is moving to Europe and selling everything.

1. This Braun food processor made in Germany set me back $20. It's a heavy 450 watt model. Three of the blades have never been used. I did a test run with carrots and potatoes. It took 40 seconds to run through enough stuff to fill the large container with thinly sliced vegtables. I looked at several light models at Wal Mart that were over $50.

2. Crown cookware is pretty decent stuff. This box contains a Dutch oven, frying pan, three sauce pans of varying sizes and a strainer, all with the right lid. There is also a stainless steel kettle. $20 for all of it.

3. All of this stuff cost $10.00 The knives are cheap but adequate. The ladles are high quality made in Italy. The stainless thermos is a nice model.

I need large cookware for some of my group outings. Pots this size were $60 at Cosctco. I paid $50 for both pots and a really nice stainless kettle. All of it was barely used. The seller bought them when she took in 4 ESL students and grossly overestimated the size of pots needed. These are both 16 litres. She needs 5 litre pots.

I also bought her $175 sleeping bag for $20.

Sometimes I run an ad asking for a particular product in a wanted ad. Often these ads produce good calls from those who are more interested in freeing up space than recouping money spent. As the only customer, I don't waste time on stuff that is already sold.

Starbucks is still having WiFi trouble and won't accept the photos right now.

I forgot to post the photo earlier.