'Obsessive' hoarder to sell it all

WARWICK SMITH/The Manawatu Standard

CALLING ALL BIDS: After a 25-year obsession with collecting everything he could lay his hands on, Shannon man Dean Arnett is selling it all.

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It has taken an aeroplane, 150 cars and 30-odd chainsaws, but garage-sale addict Dean Arnett is ready to call it quits.

For 25 years, the self-confessed compulsive collector has spent every spare moment on the hunt for a bargain.

And while some stop at stamps, the Shannon man collected everything he could get his hands on – from aeroplanes to swing sets, vintage cars to dinner plates.

"I'd be garage-saling every weekend, I just loved doing it," Mr Arnett said.

"Someone said to me once I was plain crazy. Thousands of dollars, I just used to spend all my money all the time on garage sales."

Visitors to Mr Arnett's converted dairy factory in Shannon could be forgiven for thinking they had fallen through the rabbithole. Stacks of tyres spill across the garage floor, while cars and motorbikes line the walls. A model ship perches on the front seat of a vintage Worsley, while a Cessna 150 airplane sits winglessly beside.

"There's everything, from bloody pop rivets to airplanes," said Mr Arnett.

"People come round and go `have you got one of those?' and you can guarantee we've got it here."

But after years spent fossicking for the perfect find, the former aircraft engineer is planning to sell it all. This weekend he will hold his own garage sale – and he wants everything gone.

After a five-year struggle with osteoporosis slowed Mr Arnett's collecting down, it was a word from his young son that made him realise his obsession had to stop.

While Mr Arnett was pondering a purchase at yet another garage sale, his son piped up: "Don't need it, don't want it, don't buy it Dad.

"He's five years old and for him to think that up, that's quite a wise little saying isn't it," Mr Arnett said. "And he's right."

Material possessions mean nothing, he said.

"If you've got yourself, your health and your spirituality, you've got everything. I'm going to put my time into getting well and spending quality time with my children. Just living the simple life – it's taken me a while to learn that."

The new property owner plans to convert the site into a storage warehouse.

Garage sale magpies can head to 27 Stafford St, Shannon, on Saturday from 8am in search of a bargain.

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