Most people cruising through the sea of randomness that can sometimes be Craigslist.org might raise an eyebrow in curiosity and then skip on by when they see a listing offering every issue of Rolling Stones magazine from 1965 to present for immediate hauling away, but Rory Chadwick is not most people.

No, no.

This was a guy who knew, if nothing else, he can sell things. In fact, he loves to sell things. And so, one Zipcar and many hours later, he lugged over 50 boxes weighing about 50 pounds each out of a sixth-floor walkup in Queens and filled his Lower Manhattan apartment with music and entertainment history. That was 2005.

“Over the course of the next two weeks, I sold them for over $8,500,” Chadwick told me in our recent interview.

We were sitting in Midtown Authentic, a luxury consignment shop in Hoboken, N.J., with bright pink walls and a white fringed lamp hanging above the entry counter. The 34-year-old now spends his days immersed in goodies that make women woozy – glitzy high-end designer handbags, shoes and accessories.

This was definitely not where he pictured himself back when he was pulling up his grandmother’s begonias and selling them or while running a landscaping business with 26 clients out of his car when he was 17. And it was certainly not something he imagined while dealing with ADHD and Tourette’s Syndrome at a school for those with learning disabilities or when he was getting beat up on a regular basis. And, well, it goes without saying that it wasn’t at the forefront of his mind from ages 19 to 26 when all he could think about was doing drugs.

“I lived at home, an only child,” Chadwick said. “My parents sent me to multiple rehabs. At age 22 they had enough and threw me out. I had to resort to living in my car. After a week I got pneumonia and was near death, so my parents took me back home. But a week later I stole from them and they kicked me out again. I sold my car to get drugs. I slept on park benches. I panhandled at the train station and saw people I grew up with there. It was embarrassing.”

During one stretch he slept in a Ford Tempo that was kept unlocked.

“Looking back, my parents were crying every night,” Chadwick said. “They were just two good people who did their best.”

Another rehab stint finally woke him up to what he was missing – life. He knew college was not his thing. At first he was living paycheck to paycheck doing some telemarketing, but then was out of work and living with a woman with whom he had a serious relationship. It was then, while scouring Craigslist.org for “a job and a couch” that he came across the Rolling Stone magazines. The concierge of his building began to notice he was mailing a lot of packages and asked him what he was selling.

“He said he had some things to sell and he’d go 50-50 with me,” Chadwick said. “I went to his apartment and there were about 40 Louis Vuitton handbags.”

As it turns out, the concierge was a former executive with LVMH. The first bag Chadwick sold was a limited edition late 1990s metallic exotic python and it went for $4,200.

“At that point I knew what I wanted to do with my life,” he said.

And while he widened his wares to comic books, electronics, and figurines like Lladro and expanded his space from his apartment to offices to a part of a warehouse in DUMBO, Brooklyn, at one point he realized he needed to specialize.

“So many different things, but I wasn’t maximizing anything,” Chadwick said. “If I’m selling comic books or handbags, people can say, ‘What does this guy know about either?’ I knew I could do better and give better. I decided to stick to one thing. Women are always buying bags and shoes, always want the hot one.”

It made sense. Chadwick immersed himself in learning (he can now authenticate 22 brands of bags and shoes) and started becoming a trusted source. He shared a spot with someone in SoHo for a while and made a point of attending shows in New York. Then, one day while in Hoboken, he asked around if anyone was selling high-end bags. The answer was no.

“The town has a 30.6 median age,” he said, noting it was a perfect target for his business.

Chadwick is already in his second location, moving from one off the beaten path to one right in the middle of the town’s main drag. He sells for people all over the world and almost as if to punctuate that point, the mailman came in with a package from Japan during our interview. He currently employs six people, one fulltime; some sell online, some take pictures, some write descriptions, and some act as acquiring agents. While his male friends are reading Maxim, he’s keeping up with Cosmo to track buying patterns.

To boot, the nation’s ailing economy isn’t exactly bad for the consignment business.

“I see a lot of people bring in a lot of stuff,” he said. “It’s a double-edged sword. The good news is you don’t have to be super rich or super exclusive to get a great bag. A Louis Vuitton might be worn in the handles, but it’s still a great bag.”

In the spirit of the holiday week, I asked what makes him thankful.

“I should be dead,” Chadwick said. “I’m thankful for somebody that allowed me to go through overdoses and sicknesses. Whoever oversaw me, I guess some sort of higher power, showed me what I could be. This isn’t really a job. I love what I do every day. I feel I have an important role in society. This whole thing fell in my lap because I saw something online and I ran with it.”

Literally. Up and down six flights of stairs for over four hours.

Imagine that.