Monday, March 15, 2010

Collection More Than Dust

Wow! I'm so happy. Today I recieved word that I have once again won the Irish Lottery! How could anyone get so lucky?


But seriously, I am sick of junk email. But until my computer gets smart enough to know the difference between what truly is junk and what I really want, I'll have to live with it. So live goes on.

Yesterday, I spent the entire day taking photos of "vintage" stuff I have inherited over the years from family, so that I can get rid of it. There are two main reasons to do this. 1. Lack of space for the stuff I want to keep. 2. Lack of funds. So, I'm not holding my breath for that lottery money to come rolling in.

After taking the pictures, I had to download them off the camera, mess around with them so that they would fit the requirements for eBay and then start loading each item into a program called Turbo Lister. This is supposed to be the fastest way to get stuff on eBay. Wow, I'm so glad I'm doing it that way and not the slow way. As of last night I seven items in the program and eight items left. Of course, the time spent also included, going back and forth to the laundry room to get that done. Stopping to make sure the grandchild and hubby were fed and lots of time researching what some of my items really were and whether or not there was any real money to be had from any of them.

As it turns out, I have one small Haviland Limoge jewelery tray and a piece of pre-1940s carnival glass that might actually bring something if I'm smart about how I list them. I also found that I have a real McCoy cookie jar. It's not one of the ones that is actually worth big money. But I is worth a little to collectors. Other than that, most of my little knick knacks are made in Japan--not occupied Japan which would mean some real money--just Japan pre-WWII and post-ocupation.

A few years ago, I made some good money on eBay, selling some 1950s John Deere toy tractors and other items like that. But I don't think I'll be making a career of selling this way. It's too much work for the money.

The fun part of all of this has been researching what is valuable. Did you know that there are magazines dedicated to almost everything that people collect? It's amazing. From ashtrays to post cards and more. There are corresponding websites for all of this. I actually found a website dedicated to collecting ashtrays used in advertising! Amazing!

I am not immune to this human phenomenon. I have a collection of pigs that ranges from figurines to children's books to socks and slippers. I have a collection of China with painted roses it ranges from antique pieces to miniatures. I also collect witch Barbies. I have Halloween Barbies and, of course, the Wicked Witch of the West Barbie.

But my largest collection has no real focus. I collect books--paperbacks to hardbacks--modern fiction to rare books on just about any subject. They surround me in my office and are stacked in piles by my chair in the living room and in a small bookcase by my bed. They come in electronic form on my mp3 and cd form for my car and computer. So I'm not immune to this strange and addictive pass time. I just have to find other people's weaknesses so that I can make room for my own.

As I travel this new and strange webverse of collecting, just to make room for my expanding collections, I'll update this blog.

In the meantime, tell Nandy and me what you collect.

2 comments:

Nandy Ekle said...

I have a 4-doll collection of Wizard of Oz Barbies, and, of course, books, which I weed through periodically. But deciding what to keep and what to get rid of is one of the hardest things in the world.

Karen & Gerard Zemek said...

I have stuff I still would like to post on eBay but haven't yet because it is just so time-consuming. I did sell quite a bit of stuff of my dad's on there after he died.

To answer your question, I guess you could say we have quite a collection of stuffed animals. Both my husband and I had a bunch before we were married so, of course, we combined our collections into one.