Originally Posted by
Flying10uk
I use to know a chap, long since no longer with us, who served the whole of WW2 with Bomber Command, flying in aircraft such as Wellington bombers and amazingly survived the war. When he left the RAF at the end of the war all that he had was pretty much what he left the RAF with, after risking his life for over 5 years fighting for his country. After several salesman type jobs, living out of B&B's, for a few years, he started on his own going to MOD auctions buying ex MOD fire extinguishers reconditioning them and repainting them with Woolworths paint. He always used Woolworths paint because he considered that it was good value for money. Not many people go to MOD auctions, or they didn't when he attended years ago, to buy used fire extinguishers that may also need repair and reconditioning but he did and he made a good living out of it for many years. He would also bid on tools or anything else if it was going cheap if he thought that he could make something out of it. He told me that at one MOD auction he went to he thought that he had bid and won a small lot but after the auction was over he was asked to move a giant framework for holding an aircraft fuselage or wing that was located elsewhere because it was too big to get into where the auction was being held.
He had identified something that he could buy cheap, add value and then resell at a profit and for him this was mainly ex MOD fire extinguishers.