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I go out every day hunting for things that I can resell or reuse. While driving to stores, I’ve been known to trash pick items along the way and then donate them for a 20% off coupon when I arrive at the store. Any legal way to make/save a buck.

Sometimes I buy things knowing they’re good but not knowing exactly how good. Gold and silver, I can just put on a scale and know to the dollar how much it’s worth. But a painting has to wait for months before going up and selling at auction. By then, I’ve forgotten where I got it from and how much I paid for it.

I had a painting sell last night at auction that I can’t remember buying at all. I’m sure I paid less than $10 for it. The painting sold for $380. The auction lasted five days and this painting almost tripled in price on the last day.

Yesterday, at one of my stops, the regular jewelry person called in sick. So, her manager took over the pricing duties. She was just shoveling jewelry into large vases and pricing them $20 each. She put out three vases while I was there and I bought the two most promising looking ones. And I used my 20% off coupon.

I looked through them at home and found five ounces of sterling silver and a quarter ounce of 14K gold. That’s $235 total. Not bad. No heavy lifting either.

My Legos didn’t fare too well at auction. I sold about 120 pounds of mixed Legos and only got back my original purchase price. Oh well, at least I didn’t lose anything on them. Next time I come across a box of them, I’ll leave them for the next dealer.

Bob Adams has been in Somerville 27 years but was a frequent visitor prior to moving here. He worked as a jeweler in a few shops in his younger years, owned his own shop for a bit, sold real estate for 10 years and is always hunting for his next treasure. He has been an antique and collectibles dealer for 30 years. He can be reached at 27winter@gmail.com. Visit his website at www.Somerville.com.