I am an auction fanatic but the current trend of charging outrageous “buyer’s premiums” has really ruined the auction experience for me but…. in my area, this time of year the farm auctions get fired up.

 

You don’t go for comfort as you usually end up standing around outside in the heat and dust, unless you take your own lawn chair, which I do. You may be there until the sun goes down and if you can make it that long you will get some real bargains. You need to pack a lunch, snacks, wet washcloth and a couple of jugs of water just in case. Some of the local auctioneer’s do provide a food cart but the prices run a tad high. Be sure and put on sunscreen, wear a hat or take your umbrella too. All that said you are bound to have a blast. These are the auctions I love.

 

We also take more shopping trips when the weather is warm. I don’t know what the best part it, going shopping or just getting away from the routine. I usually end up finding enough goodies to make the trip worthwhile. My nephew is graduating high school in a couple of months and we will shop our way down there and do the same back home.

 

I do some garage sales but not many, anymore they are mostly children’s clothes and items I don’t have much interest in.

 

Get out there and shop…..

I don’t often buy items from “stranger’s” on eBay anymore it has just become too much of a hassle. I do have a few folks that I purchase from on a regular basis such as the people that I buy my packing peanuts from. There is a shop that I like to purchase clothes from, and at one time there was a pawn shop in Louisiana that I bought quite a few items from but it seems like they have shut down… at least online.

 

But, my daughter’s car was broken into and the punks took all of her cosmetology school equipment so I thought that I would look around on eBay and see what I could find. Finding items that she needed was not a problem. Finding items that I was not going to pay through the nose for shipping was a huge issue. I was interested in a Cosmetologist’s Apron, an item that can be shipped via Priority Mail for $4.05 but they were charging $11.00 for shipping and they were going to ship it Parcel Post.

 

I don’t have a problem with someone charging a SMALL handling fee for packing supplies such as bubble wrap and peanuts, if they use them. But a $7.00 overcharge for shipping shows a lack of integrity and this makes me question the quality of the item when I have to question the integrity of the seller.

 

I was also surprised at the number of seller’s who stated that they only “got on their computer once a week” or “only mailed parcels twice a month.” This is ridiculous! I know that they are selling these items because they want the money but why would they not have respect for the buyer or potential buyer and respond to emails in a timely manner and mail purchases quickly. I’m sorry but I am not going to wait 3 weeks to get something when I have been instructed by them that if I don’t pay for my winning auction within 3 days they will report me as a non-payor but then they will sit on, what is now MY property until it suits them to mail it.

 

FYI: You can print you shipping label and postage out online using your printer. Then, the United States Post Office will pick packages up at your home if they are being shippied via Priority Mail. You can have some Parcel Post packages picked up as well if there are atleast 3 Priority packages.

This photo is a Balinese shadow puppet. I have a couple of small ones that I acquired in the mid-1970’s when I lived in Singapore that I will be posting in the shop to sell soon. They are fabulous works of art, great decorative pieces and don’t take up much room. I think that I even have the original box for atleast one of them.

At a recent sale I purchased some vintage books and tucked away inside were some ephemeral pieces from the old Fred Harvey House Restaurants. I have 2 original bookmarks and a piece that might have been letterhead, it shows a Harvey House Restaurant and has the Santa Fe RR logo.

If you aren’t familiar with Fred Harvey, when he was only 15 years-old he came to New York from England. The time was the late 1800’s. He began working in a restaurant but along came the Civil War and this hit the restaurants pretty hard but was a boom for the railroads. Mr. Harvey began working for the railroads and quickly climbed the ladder. He saw a need for drastic improvement in the food department.

Upon his arrival in Kansas in 1870, Mr. Harvey met Charlie Morse, President of the fledgling Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway. For the next near century, Fred Harvey’s company would bring good food at reasonable prices in clean, elegant restaurants, to the travelling public throughout the Southwest. They also brought civilizaton, community, and industry to the Wild West.

Mr. Harvey hired only young women to work in his restaurants, the Harvey Girls. They wore uniforms, he gave them a place to live and paid them relatively well for the time.

There were many ups and downs for the Fred Harvey Houses. Mr. Harvey died in 1901 and his sons took over the business. By the 1950’s railroad travel had slowed, all the Harvey’s had passed away and for all intents and purposes the company was defunct.

I believe that there is one Harvey House Restaurant still around that is in operation and here in Kansas City there is talk of redoing the old Harvey House space.

Anyway, be sure to check out all the new inventory coming into the shop. I have taken 2 wonderful consignments filled with many amazing items including vintage costume jewelry.

TaTa….

The days of selling stolen goods to pawn shops and fences is coming to an end. The new way to sell hot goods is online at the auction sites, preferably eBay.

The Tiffany Co. filed a lawsuit against eBay sometime ago to stop the sale of reproduction Tiffany items and this lawsuit brought to light just how lax eBay is in their monitoring of the posting and sales of items that should not be allowed to be listed in the first place. But along the same vein, they are quick to pull items for what they term “keyword spamming” and other nonsense things that don’t bring harm to anyone.

Back to the sale of stolen goods….. Folks are stealing things such as giftcards, clothes, razor blades, teeth whitening systems and other small items then selling these things on eBay. The innocent buyer doesn’t know that the items are stolen so they bid their hearts out and life is good. But when they receive their giftcard in the mail and try to use it, guess what, it is worthless.

Several of the large retail stores are stating that eBay needs to be held somewhat accountable, I agree. They can monitor new accounts for a period of time and the items that these folks are selling. After all eBay is aiding and abetting in the commission of a crime by allowing the sale of these items on their website so I think that they do need to assume some responsibility.

If they can shut down an auction because of the words a person picks to use then they can monitor for illicit activity. They certainly have the $$$ and they can get the manpower. Hey for $45.00 per hour I will monitor the auctions for them.

So once again it is buyer beware.

Garage sale season is here in full force… YIPEE. Even though I don’t need to add to any of my personal collections, I am always on the lookout for that one missing item. 

You learn how to drive by a house and from the street tell if it is a sale worth stopping at or not. In general, I avoid the new high dollar homes filled with young families. They will sell baby items, clothes and cheap junk at high prices.

I head for the older neighborhoods and the wealthy… extremely rich should I say. This is where you will find the real treasures.

Since I do tend to have the “itis” I can’t throw anything away, I have had quite a few garage sales of my own over the years, and very successful ones I might add. So here are a few tips if you want to attract a large crowd of people ready to spend money.

• Put a price on everything, yes it takes some time but folks don’t like to ask how much an item is. This is a personal pet peeve.
• If it isn’t for sale…. get it out of the sale area or cover it up.
• Put a variety of nice large items close to the street to looky-lous (like me) can see them when the cruise slowly by.
• Be willing to bargain just a little, I never expect to get a great item for nothing but I don’t want to pay antique shop prices at a garage sale either.
• Donate your clothes to a charity, or atleast only put out the best. I personally will not dig through dirty old clothes…. and I have run across some rank stuff.
• Baby clothes are great to sell.
• Have newspaper or tissue for wrapping fragile items and bags or boxes for putting purchases in.
• Let the kids sell lemonade or sodas, especially if the weather is really hot. I always have a few extra lawn chairs scattered around for folks to have a seat and rest (or the men while the women shop) this keeps folks around longer… and the longer they are there the more they will buy.
• When your sale is over please remove your signs from the area. How many times have your driven around and around looking for a sale that ended 3 weeks prior.
• Have a free bin of toys for the kids, one toy per child.
• Have fun and make you sale fun

Maybe I will stop by this garage sale season.