To List or Not To List That is the Question

This is Chip, those of you with small children may have recognized him. He's my mascot for this article. So why a mascot named Chip you ask?

Many times a seller will abandon listing an item because of damage. I'm here to tell ya - don't!
Well under the following circumstances that is.

1. What is the value of the piece without damage? If it is something that typically brings $40+ then by all means list it, I personally like a $9.95 starting bid, you'd be amazed where some of the pieces ending! If it a low selling item then I would probably redonate it back to the thrift store or if too bad just toss it. But remember one man's trash is another's treasure.

2. Value unknown? Can't find one like it? List it with a reasonable starting bid and see where it goes, again you may be pleasantly surprised. I just had a personal experience I can share with you. I picked up an interesting wall pocket at a local thrift store, It had a name and a date on the back so I thought what the heck. Research revealed very little about it, but did verify it was an artist who had been mentioned on Google at least once. it just so happened EBay was having their listing special so I started it at $79.95, something I wouldn't normally be prone to do. It received the opening bid almost immediately - ultimately it sold for $192!

In the above example this piece had a crack. I did not let this deter me, and what is important is that you take a close up photo and reveal to your potential customers the damage as best you can with complete honesty.

I can also tell you, as a collector of Early American Pressed Glass, I shop for pieces and overlook damage because I can't yet afford the mint condition pieces. I know many people who also do this, the items still display nicely and have some value - albeit not the same as with no damage but it is still nice to own them.

So How Do You Learn "The Eye"

I am writing these articles on research and I keep hearing, "but Danni you just have an eye for that stuff". I want to assure you it isn't something that just occurred, I have worked at it! And if you are serious about selling fine antiques and collectibles you can too! I am going to share my process... and believe me it is a continuing one! I am far from an expert on things.

Ok First, pick an area to work on, say glass or pottery, or primitives... whatever you think you have a good resource for in your area.

Now go out and get your hands on as many IDENTIFIED pieces as possible. Notice I sort of hollered that word, because this is key! You are not going out to buy right now, you are on a research mission. Visit your local antique mall as you are sure to find a lot of cool items already tagged and priced. Zone in on your expertise of the day, let's say American Pottery. This will include makers such as Roseville, Weller, McCoy, California Pottery... you name it! Pick up and handle and inspect those pieces. Look at the workmanship, feel the weight and the way the glaze appears on those quality pieces. Most of them will have a maker's mark, but some does not, this is why it's important to learn the attributes of good pottery.

Ok now that you've played with the good stuff - visit a thrift store (now not sayin' thrift stores don't have good stuff) you will have an abundance of cheaply made, low end pottery to now pick up and compare... and if you are real lucky you may hit a piece you now know something about and it's value!

To hone your skills and "your eye", consistently put your hands on good quality pieces, I know many tend to not even look their way knowing they are expensive, but if you don't scrutinize them, you won't learn the differences that only come from experiencing them with all senses (ok maybe you shouldn't taste them).

Do this with any area of niche you want to go into, glass is a real good one because most of it is unmarked and if you can learn a certain maker's trademarks, that is something a lot of people know nothing about and won't touch! Finding the items that a dealer may or may not know much about can often score you a nice resale.

More Tidbits on Researching - the Hard to Find!

Ok so you think you hit pay dirt and found that one of a kind masterpiece that is gonna rake in millions! or not... But something that you can't find on EBay either active or completed searches. Here's what I do. Now there are paid services out there such as Terapeak and Hammertap, I have used those but find that the best research is free.

Once I have exhausted my efforts trying to find the item on EBay, and that means using as broad of search criteria as I could to even find something similar, I move on to Google. I love Google! First put in the search keywords the same way you would on eBay, just now you are searching the entire world wide web. Ok first place I look is under the shopping tab, this shows me any that may be for sale in other venues... can't search completed here but you can search the same way I taught you to do on EBay.

Still nothing? now go to images... see if something similar to yours comes up, if it does then you can go to where the picture is hosted and hopefully find more information, if not there's one last place to look... regular web search. It's very rare that I can find absolutely nothing on an item. There are usually little hints at least to how I can expand my search criteria to find an item... either by artist name, place of origin, or just a color or shape of the item.

If you still just can't find a thing, here's what I would do. These are the items I utilize EBay auction format for the most! List it, but not at a small starting price since you have no idea of value, list it high say around $99 or so, one of two things will happen, you will get no interest at all, that means no watchers and very low hit count... OR you hit pay dirt and you watch the bids come in and the watchers flock to it like crazy! These are sooooo fun!

If your item sells great! If not pick a price that earns you a respectable profit margin, list it as fixed price with best offer and see what happens.

Oh one last thing, in your item listing be sure and request that your viewers email you if they do happen to know anything about the piece, you would be surprised how many knowledgeable people will share what they know!

Thoughts From a Chair

I feel like I have spent more time in the dentist chair in the last month than anywhere else! Ugh! Nothing like moving to a new place, knowing no one and boom having you jaw swell up like a cantaloupe! I ran for the yellow pages....uhhhhh errrrr..... Google search and found a local dentist, went in, got some xrays to find I had a severe abscess in my lower left molar... great.

They sent me off to a specialist, an endodontist, I guess that means someone more professionally trained in torture? Xrays showed I not only needed 1 root canal redone, but the tooth behind it was bad also - so 2 root canals now doesn't that sound fun?

Well first they needed to get the swelling down so had a nice round of two different antibiotics. It took a full week to start feeling and looking normal again. I went in for my dreaded appointment, it was two hours of drilling, drooling and suction and I came out thinking the worst was over.... wrong!

The next morning I swelled back up again, oh yes find out this is common as they stirred up the bacteria - so onto the antibiotics again, just when I was getting my gut back to normal from the last time! This time I was in much worse pain though from the recent dental surgery, I actually took pain pills, those that know me know I don't take pain pills! So it was bad.

So then I had to go in yet again today and have the temporary medication pulled out and permanent root canal material put in, basically a root canal all over again! I left there numb and being told it would wear off in about an hour, 2 1/2 hours later I can finally feel my cheek again!

So you would think this is the end of it right? Nope I went to a regular dentist yesterday for a full exam to see what else is brewing, turns out I have to get 2 other crowns redone as well as crowns for the two root canals just done, So four crowns at about $1100 each, how special, and I need a few fillings and a good cleaning... there goes my new car!! I'll be sitting in the dentist chair for the next year I guess!

Now back to your regularly scheduled blog posting...

A Little Lesson in Researching

I think I have a bit of a knack for finding things that others seem not to, so i want to share my method and hope it helps someone else!

So let's say I have a pink widget to sell, hmmmm.... this particular widget has rhinestones and pearls and is on a base of Bakelite - ok so I like jewelry ;-)

First thing I do is go to an EBay search and type in pink rhinestone widget - I try to use as few words as possible at first, so this brought up 256 live listings - too many for my purposes! So I add pearl, brought it down to 184, better but not quite there... add Bakelite.... ahhhhh a manageable 43. ok So I look at those... and oh yes sort by highest first as I want to definitely look at the ones asking a higher price, then I go to completed listings - this will give me a very good idea what the very current market trend is since eBay's completed search only covers the last week. There are 25 ended listings - about half sold.

So I take this information and look for what is common between the successful listings as far as keywords in the title. I also examine did the higher priced ones sell in auction format or fixed price? There is so much valuable information you can gather very quickly using this method.
Just remember when putting in words to search less is more! You can pull up the listings which sold the highest based on the very basic information - then narrow it down from there.

Now if there are none of your item listed on eBay or completed.... well come back tomorrow for that lesson!

I love Purple Unless It is on THIS!

Now don't get me wrong I really do love the color purple, but this site today at a local antique show almost made me cry.
There seems to be a market for this "sun purpled" glass. Sure it's a pretty color but did you know that it is actually ruined? Well ruined for those of us who truly treasure this over 100 year old glass.

It was discovered that this old glass, usually early American pressed glass and old bottles, would turn purple when exposed to ultraviolet rays of the sun, this is due to the manganese used in the formulation of the glass in manufacturing. I'm not sure where or when it started but some people got into their minds that this must mean a true rare antique glass has been found - so they sought out purple glass. As the trend grew many dealers learned to artificially turn the glass purple using special ultra violet lamps.

It breaks my heart that so many people don't understand the importance of NOT turning this old glass purple but preserving the history that is an endangered species, after all it's glass and we all know how fragile it is, there are only so many pieces out there and many are rare sought after makers and patterns, when a dealer does this to them, they are lost forever to the true collector.

Now I'm not saying this to step on anyone's toes or make you feel guilty if you accidentally left a piece of EAPG in the window and it turned purple, I'm talking about those who purposefully ruin glass this way as I saw today on more than one table.

I borrowed this from another blog -

Jerry Greenblatt has well put the dastardly practice in perspective:
"People who change the color of glass objects must have had no regard for them, since they are no longer what they were. Making them purple is like painting them gold or adding attractive cracks. That old article uses glass chemistry to justify altering color, as if clear glass is like photographic film that must be developed to see what was within. Think of what might emerge by irradiating colored glass! Think of the abstract images that might emerge by using a blowtorch on the Mona Lisa!"

What's In a Name? Or Why Udderlygoodstuff

I meant to go to this post after talking about my aunt and got a bit sidetracked, so forgive me as I backtrack! While my aunt was a huge influence on my love of antiques and collectibles, she must have gotten it from somewhere! My grandmother, we called her Mimi, was the one who started it all.

Growing up I remember going to Mimi's house, she was usually in the kitchen cooking something yummy and her counters were filled with cookies, candy and all sorts of good things! Most of my most loved memories are in that house, it's where family all came together, where I felt nurtured, loved and safe.

Mimi had two main collections, Hummel figurines and cows. I learned a tremendous amount about Hummels growing up. Mimi had two large curio cabinets and several shelves full of Hummels. I guess she is the reason I can't collect just one or two of something I need every single one ever made! LOL! I'll go into Hummels more in another post - this one is about the name right? Oh what's that? You read Mimi's other collection was cows? Yep!

So now we aren't talking just a few cows around the house, we are talking cow everything! It was what you gave Mimi for birthdays and Christmas, everyone gave her cows! She had figurines of course, but also towels, pillows, hot pads, cookie jars, rugs, aprons, trinkets and gadgets and anything with a cow! Don't ask me how this came about, I don't remember a time she didn't have the cows!

As an adult I went through a spurt in my life where I raised and showed dairy goats, Nubians to be exact. This was about the same time I discovered ebay. Well at first my ebay id was my email address back when that was the thing to do! but when Ebay did away with this I had to come up with something clever and memorable. So it seemed only fitting that it would be something to do with udders, both to honor my favorite grandmother AND to go with what my life was all about... so Udderlygoodstuff is what happened!

While I no longer have the goats and Mimi is in a much better place, I still have the name and the good memories and the Good Stuff!