"One mans trash is another mans treasure"
I can't count the amount of times my mother would say this to me as a child. You see, I had a problem. I lived by the motto 'finders, keepers' and thus I would always bring home junk... yes, junk. I was a kid, I didn't care if it was busted or dirty, if it was outside and abandoned, it was free game.
I thought the items were cool but my parents did not and so half of the time they would simply toss them back out to the curb. Oh well, I was a kid, they would buy me something 'new' and 'clean' and I was a happy camper again.
By 'new' and 'clean' I pretty much mean used and not filthy. My parents were much smarter than I was, arguably smarter than my friends and their parents as well, they would always drag me into thrift stores. Being young and not knowing any better I saw nothing strange about this, but I quickly learned that kids can be cruel and so I made damn sure that none of my schoolyard buddies knew where my clothes and toys came from.
Being introduced to second hand shops at such an early age allowed me to never feel uncomfortable or 'dirty' about them. Most of these stores carry a certain stigma that they are for the poor and are full of gross, unwanted items. Thinking back about it, one of the reasons that my family was not 'poor' was probably due to them utilizing these thrift stores.
For the longest time I still kept my love of thrifting a secret, was I ashamed or embarrassed? You betcha! I was young, those were very trying times. The high school crowd is a tough one if anything about you is 'different'. Growing up is a strange thing, gradually I realized that there was no shame in pursuing a hobby or passion, if others want to judge me, they can fuck right off!
It wasn't until very recently that I realized I could turn my love of digging and searching through unwanted items into something much more. I have to admit, if it wasn't for shows like Storage Wars, Auction Hunters, Thrift Hunters and to an extent Pawn Stars, I would never of thought to expand my passion into a business.
Remember folks, reality tv is never 'real' the producers have to spice things up for ratings but there is real money out there just waiting to be salvaged from that local thrift store. Now I'm not heading into this looking to quit my job and retire, but looking at it as a hobby. A hobby that makes money, how could you complain about that!
Since I was introduced at such a young age, I decided to drag my little bro around to various thrift stores. The kid loves it. I don't know how the schoolyard crowd is nowadays, so he may get some flack for it but you know what, those kids can fuck right off too! Wish I had learned that at his age.
and that right there is how TreasuresTnT was born.
-Tim and Tyler
