Just junk it
In a world full of useless junk, one student makes a living selling oddities to collectors online.
Nathan Walker
Issue date: 11/10/09 Section: Entertainment
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Instead of having work study or a job at a fast food joint to earn his money, Vaccaro travels around to various estate sales and thrift stores in the Twin Cities area looking for underpriced collectable items like rare books, vintage clothing, old radios and even vacuums that no longer come off the assembly line. Then, soon after buying them, he resells the goods to collectors over the Internet for many times their original price.
"It's typically very large‚ several hundred percent," Vaccaro said, speaking about his profit margin for each item. "Generally what they're asking at the thrift store is not of concern to me."
Vaccaro said his years of experience looking for collectables is a major reason for his success.
"I started doing this in high school and have developed a body of knowledge that makes finding suitable items relatively easy," he said. "It's really all about developing a knowledge of what collectables are sought."
For Vaccaro, reselling the items is essential, as it is his sole source of income.
"This is my job," he said.
He said he prefers it to more conventional employment.
"It's a great way to work if you're a student because you only work the hours you want to work," Vaccaro said.
Though the hours are convenient, and the profits from sales can be quite lucrative, Vaccaro also admitted that only a rather small sample of the population actually thinks the items he sells are worth anything. For most people, he said, it's all just junk.
"In all honesty, I would call myself a 'junker,'" Vaccaro said.
But for those people who are collectors, the allure of Vaccaro's items is powerful. These people, he said, want to own something they believe has historical value.
"We live in an era of instant nostalgia … we kind of used to wait to romanticize our culture, but now we do it instantly," he said. "Anything that was antique used to be 100 years old. Now that's not the case."
And sometimes, he added, this desire to possess something from the past will force people to make strange purchases, like the time Vaccoro's father, Phil, who is also a "junker," sold a woman a prosthetic leg which was purportedly turned into a lamp later.
Vaccaro said his knowledge of valuable items has been broadened by living in a family of collectors.
"I'm actually a third generation 'junker,'" he said.
His father became interested in different types of radios in college and his grandfather, Vince, was a pilot who made a habit of searching for junk during layovers.
"We've been doing it for a long time," he said.
Yet for himself, Vaccaro stressed he doesn't really understand the enjoyment people get out of owning objects like a fake leg. Instead, he enjoys the experience of searching for them.
"It's like a treasure hunt," he said. "I don't really derive any pleasure from owning the items. It's finding them that I find pleasurable."
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