FINALLY BACK IN THE EBAY GAME!

     A long, long time ago (when I can still remember...) when I was about 18 my love of vintage things came back to the surface. A woman I babysat for had old, colored bottles that glistened beautiful colors as they sat on the window sills in her farm house. (This was the original farm house, The Jones Farm, that our 7 acres were on) She would walk the stone wall to find the “dumping place” and there she would find these bottles. How exciting – treasure hunting for things from the past. So I found books on collecting old bottles learned a lot, started going to the local flea market, and mentioned to my mom how I'd like to sell antiques. She told me that there are people that have done that for years, and their families have been selling for years, so they have much more experience and knowledge than I do. I love my mom dearly, but my parents were definitely the realistic type. So I went to community college and became a secretary.

     Being a secretary did serve me well. I had a lot of great jobs, and built half a career in credit and collections for a large company until I became a stay at home mom when #3 arrived. I digress a lot...oooppss....anyways

     Somewhere along the line I got the bug to run a small business. Tried MLM's, direct sales, etc. and somehow I decided to sell vintage and collectible items on ebay and the flea market that just opened up in town. This led to doing a few house clean outs and going to auctions to find “stuff” to sell. That was it! I Had The Bug! I fell in love with being able to buy something at auction, or obtain it doing a house clean out and then selling it at a profit. I got to buy old “stuff”, admire it, hold it, wonder who it came from, and then make some money when I sold it. Could it get any better than that?

     We had an eclectic array of vintage items which our customers loved and each week they looked forward to seeing what new items we would bring in. Some things just had to be sold on ebay to get a better price. Along the way we met other seller's; some who were nice and taught me so much, others who were more leery in sharing their knowledge. I could spend hours going through books and researching items on line, without tiring from it (except my eyes!) Getting up each morning and being excited to get to work on my stuff was a great feeling. After three years, I found the balance of what to buy to sell, what expenses weren't needed, what Items to sell at the flea market, and which ones to sell on ebay; I had just broke even. At that time, “realistically”, I had to go back to work. Booooo!

     I never lost the yearning to go back, but with 5 kiddos, 2 grandkiddos (a husband) and working, it just wouldn't work. Now that I'm home with the Fibro, and missing my job, I'm just getting back into it. This is something that I absolutely LOVE and can do at my own pace. Even when the FM is kicking my butt, the fact that I love my “stuff”, I can push a bit to work on it, can do it at my own pace without letting anyone down, and it gives me great enjoyment and a feeling of accomplishment. Important things to a spoonie.

I Collect Mary's - She's a little chipped, but I love her colors

Blue Hamper to re-purpose

Pink Can to re-purpose

     So, back in October Shrek and I went to an estate sale. Found soooo much fun stuff! Some things for re-purposing like the vintage blue hamper, and this pink can that I have no idea what it was used for and a whole lota vintage Catholic medals, scapulars, funeral cards, statues and pictures. I Love going through the stuff. I don't usually find a strong desire to keep things; it's relatively easy for me to sell the items that I love. It took me till mid January to start writing the descriptions, and last week to take the pictures, and finally posted them on ebay last Sunday. It helps brighten my day to watch how things are going, and until I sell this stuff, I can't go to any estate sales, so even more incentive to get things rolling! Check out my “stuff” at http://www.ebay.com/sch/carms47/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25&_trksid=p3692 . Ebay ID Carms47

Great Vintage Fabric~

Do you collect anything? 

 What types of vintage, antique or collectible items do you like?

 Would love to hear from others who love the old “stuff” like me.