pie-and-jam primitive scouring for effluvia

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1026726

Oh my.

grasswire (37,445 posts)    Thu Aug 15, 2013, 02:26 PM

check in, kids!

What's happening in your neck of the woods?

I've been back on eBay for a few weeks now, and also trying out Etsy for a spin. They are SURE different! The slow pace of Etsy takes some getting used to.
 
EBay. I've sold about 40 percent of what I listed, on auctions. I used to sell about 70 percent, but that was in eBay's salad days before a Republican CEO ruined it.
 
And I have had to learn that watchers are not as indicative of a sell as previously. Back in yore, if I had two watchers on an item I could pretty much be assured of some good bidding back and forth. Now, two watchers or more can also mean that the item is not even going to get one bid! Why would people watch something that they have no intention of bidding on? Are they sellers keeping an eye on the competition?
 
Once again, I encourage you all to carefully review what you throw away in terms of paper items. The market is still out there for vintage paper stuff.
 
So now I'm doing one of the things I love best. Scouring thrift shops and estate sales for ephemera.

NRaleighLiberal (29,800 posts)    Thu Aug 15, 2013, 02:38 PM

1. thanks for the reminder...I built my old seed catalog collection up using ebay

early on, I could find great stuff at great prices because it was still new. Now things get bid up to ridiculous levels. I tend to go for seed catalogs that are pre-1900, and aim for Burpee, Maule, Livingston, Henderson, Isbell and Salzer companies. The really hard things to find are pre-1880, but I nabbed a few.
 
I think my collection is well over 200 catalogs now...hope to write some books using the info in the catalogs as a basis to start from.

grasswire (37,445 posts)    Thu Aug 15, 2013, 05:11 PM

4. I had some really good seed catalogs a few years ago.

Consigned them (and other good stuff) to a local store. She moved out of town without notice and took my stuff with her.

Too bad for Grandma Judy.   

safeinOhio (7,515 posts)    Thu Aug 15, 2013, 03:53 PM

2. At the mall, small figurines have been hot this week, like Gobles. Small tables and heavy bigger pieces, I'm the one that has to load them out. Sales are picking up, as usual this time of year.

I bought a coin collection yesterday for $400. thought I could turn it over for $600. To my surprise, my trusted coin dealer found a couple of good ones in there and gave me $886. for the lot. A buddy went to the worlds longest yard sale and picked up a metal sign. It was made in 1990, too new to put in the mall. He paid $20 for it and had his daughter put it on Ebay and about fell over when it ran up to $1,100.
 
Seems more folks are selling than buying at the moment. A lot of people are down sizing, moving to smaller places, like retirement homes and older family members are passing away.

grasswire (37,445 posts)   Thu Aug 15, 2013, 05:08 PM

3. ...plus the fact that everyone wants to be a PICKER these days!

Hey, what the heck kind of sign WAS that, for 1100 bucks?

^^^herself the queen of pickers, by the way.

safeinOhio (7,515 posts)    Thu Aug 15, 2013, 05:58 PM

5. Some designer like Ralf Lauren or Calvin Klein, can't remember the which one.

Can't imagine how many folks come into our retail store and try to make low-ball offers, like 50% off. We tell them that we will not call a dealer with that kind of offer. I asked one guy what kind of car he drove, he said a 2012 Chevy truck, I asked if he'd take 4 grand for it.

[Chris_]

grasswire (37,445 posts)   Thu Aug 15, 2013, 05:08 PM

3. ...plus the fact that everyone wants to be a PICKER these days!

Hey, what the heck kind of sign WAS that, for 1100 bucks?

[Celtic Rose]

I'm the type of person who will "watch" something on eBay, especially if it still has 5 or more days to go in the auction.  It gives me time to decide if I really want to buy it, and it makes it easy to find it again to compare it to other items. 

[franksolich]

Yes.

Absolutely she is.

[GOBUCKS]

I'm sure poor addled grasswipe Judy Smith gets lots of action on eBay.

She mutters along, bundled up in the heat, tugging her little red wagon heaped with other peoples' junk, saved from their devil strips.

That unintelligible mumbling and muttering is about all the money she's going to make from these treasures.

Hundreds for this old computer CRT, more hundreds for that torn ottoman, a fortune for that broken VCR, and all of it, all of it, will go toward finally opening the pie shop.

 

[obumazombie]

ebay is not a reliable source for value information.