I had bought at an auction a large box of plastic, children's lunch boxes, paying about $6.50 for the whole box, which contained about 100 lunch boxes. I was now at another auction selling the boxes. The auctioneer was selling them one at a time and I was getting about $1 a piece for them, so I was making a good profit. But when about half the boxes had been sold, the auctioneer began selling other items for someone else, and I was left with the remaining boxes. I thought the auctioneer would return to me and I would be able to sell the rest. Meanwhile a woman with me had gone to a small room in the front of the auction house where some things were set up for display to be sold. The woman came back and said some of the lunch boxes that had just been sold were now on sale for as much as $3.50 each.

Looking more closely at the lunch boxes I had left, I realized some also had another box inside them. I found four that way. Two of the inner boxes where shaped like hearts, and had some flower sculptures on their sides. They were quite pretty and I realized they should have been selling for more that $1 a piece.

The auctioneer (who was now a spindly woman) announced that the auction was over. I was surprised and indicated to her that I sill had things to sell. She looked disdainfully at my boxes and said it was just "stuff." What she meant was that it wasn't good enough for the auction.

I looked at the things again. Along with the lunch boxes were a few other items. I thought I might be able to just sell them right here. But people started leaving and no one seemed interested. No one even came to my table. I realized a lot of time people will buy things at auction which they wouldn't buy otherwise.