My Animals

The last two weeks have been an expensive emotional roller coaster with regard to my pets!  Actually, it has been longer than that, but I digress...  Between aging issues, surgery and allergies, my three dogs and I have had a rough two weeks.

Looking back, I realize that I have only mentioned my animals in a very brief way.  My second blog post included pictures of everyone, but no back story and  at the beginning of this year I blogged about my barn kitties.  

I am a huge animal lover and for years have had multiple dogs in my house.  Currently, I have three roommates, Lempe who is 13, Augie who is about 6 and Moses (Mosey) who is 2.

Mosey Augie Lempe - freshly shaved for summer.

But let me go back.  I love to reminisce about all of my beloved animals.  Just the other day, I had lunch with a few friends and that was all we talked about.  Our animals.  

Anyway, when I was a kid, we had a couple of standard sized Dachshunds, Rommel and Gretchen.  Both were mean, I still have scars from Rommel bites and Gretchen hated neighborhood kids.  She was very overweight and always had a dirty stomach and for some reason couldn't run in a straight line, so when she chased kids, she ran diagonally across the yard.

Those were the only dogs we had growing up.  Ironically, when I was a kid, I fell in love with Great Danes after seeing the movie "The Ugly Dachshund" with Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette.  It was about a Great Dane puppy mixed in with a litter of Dachshund puppies and the hillarious things that happened as he started growing.  Anyway,  when I was 21 I got my first dane, Waldo.  He was a beautiful all black dane with uncropped ears that I got from a pet shop in the 1970's.  He was huge and very sweet.  He lived almost 12 years, which is very old for a dane!

When I was in my 20's I lived in apartments and moved around a lot for my job.  I had two indoor cats, Garp and Frigate, who were with me for years.  

When I moved into my first house in Atlanta, I got my second Great Dane, Cosmo.  He was a gorgeous brindle with cropped ears.  When he was a year old I went back to the breeder and adopted his sister, Sketch.  Cosmo was a dark brindle, tall and thin and rather high strung.  Sketch, on the other hand,  outweighed Cosmo by almost 40 pounds.  She wasn't as tall, but she was huge and stocky and a much lighter brindle and soooo sweet and laid back.  Here is a scanned picture of Cosmo.

Cosmo

He is very handsome, don't you think?  I have pictures of Sketch and Garp, Frigate, Rommel and Gretchen, but I haven't scanned them (this was before digital cameras). 

Cosmo and Sketch and the two cats and I moved up to Maryland (from Atlanta) and to the farm in 1995.  My sweet Stan joined us on the farm.  I talked about him in my blog post from last January.  He was a stray who started hanging around the farm.  He was just awesome!

Stan

My aunt's dog Skippy also came to live with us on the farm.  Skippy was Auntie Marilyn's beloved Jack Russel.  He weighed about twice as much as he was supposed to, my aunt used to say that was his conformation.  He was so spoiled.  An example, once he stepped over from the couch to the coffee table which was full of magazines and stuff and did his little quick-step happy dance, scattering paper everywhere.  Auntie Marilyn said "isn't that cute?"... and she meant it!  That dog could do no wrong!  But in time he crawled under my skin and with his big personality, kept up with the big dogs and was much loved!

Skippy

Sketch had bone cancer and died when she was 5 when we lived on the farm.  My two cats, Garp and Frigate died when we lived on the farm, as well.  Cosmo who lived to be 10, Stan, Skippy and I moved from the farm in Southern Maryland in 1998 to where I am now on the Eastern Shore.

New Year's Eve 1999 (the big millennium New Years) Lempe came prowling around the perimeter of my yard.  I coaxed her into the garage with a bowl of food.  The vet estimated her age to be about 2-3 years old at the time.  She and Stan were best friends. 

Lempe

 

I let Stan out one day in December of 2000 and he never came home.  That was the saddest time.  By then, Cosmo was gone and it was just Skippy and Lempe and me.  At the end of February 2001, I decided it was time to get another Great Dane.  I was still so sad about Stan and thought a new puppy would help us all.  

Roscoe was a harlequin/merle dane with cropped ears.  I think it was the day after I brought him home that he swelled up with what the vet called "puppy strangles".    

Puppy Roscoe

Deke - Roscoe - Lempe

Shortly after I brought Roscoe home, another stray found his way to my house, Deke.  What a sweet hound dog!  

Deke

When Roscoe got to be about a year old, he became aggressive and attacked Deke.  Luckily my sister took Deke and he lived a long and very pampered life with her family.  He died last year.


When Roscoe was about 18 months old he was diagnosed with meningitis.  That explained his sudden aggression towards Deke.  We tried steroids but it became apparent very quickly that he would not be cured and in the meantime he almost fatally attacked Skippy.  Roscoe died when he was only 18 months old.

Deke and Roscoe

Shortly after Roscoe died, I adopted my last Great Dane, Leo.  A very well bred fawn dane with cropped ears.   

Leo

 He was the so big and beautiful.  He had Addison's disease and wobblers.  He died at only 3 years old.

It is now 2010, my sweet Lempe has been my companion and has helped me train and been a great friend to 8 brothers!  She is having some serious health issues and we aren't sure how much longer she will be here but we are going to enjoy every minute we have with this very special girl. 

Our Lempe

 

Busy Week!

Just when I thought I had worked out a pretty good system...  This week caught me completely by surprise.  That sounds a little dramatic but I was seriously stressed and I felt exhausted from working really hard and accomplishing very little.

The last few weeks were very productive.  I was practicing the Dralle Method and successfully working like a little beaver writing up, taking pictures and listing on eBay.  I was listing 15 - 20 items at auction every day or so and easily accomplishing my goal of 25 to 50 and more auctions each week.

Last Saturday my family came over for a little pool party.   I had the nicest day!  When Monday came, I had nothing ready to list.  My existing auctions were ending almost every day.  On Monday night eBay announced a 10 cent auction listing sale for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Also on Monday, I got a call from TomCat Solutions asking if I would foster a couple of barn kittens for a week or so.


That was a no-brainer for me, I adopted two kittens last year and I am so glad that I did.  I was happy to help out!


On Tuesday a cage was set up in my barn and 5 kittens arrived.  Unfortunately, one or two of them had the sniffles so they all started on twice a day antibiotics.  There is one yellow stripe and 4 gray striped kittens and they all look the same.  Luckily my friend who lives down the street, and who is always so helpful, has agreed to help me with the medication that they need for a week.  We dose one and transfer it to a holding cage and so on.  Each day it is taking almost two hours between feedings and medication dosings.

Meanwhile, I had nothing to list on eBay.  I desperately (okay, a little dramatic) wanted to take advantage of the listing sale.  Since I hadn't been out yard saling on Saturday, I had nothing new.  Oh yes, I have plenty in the containers under Bijou's table but that is the stuff that I am saving for a cold winter day.  (it is also the stuff that is hard for me to motivate myself to get into)


So, I thought I would look in my own cabinets.  After all, why waste a 10 cent sale on $9.99 items that usually only cost 25 cents to list?  Wouldn't a better idea be to find some higher priced items?  In those cabinets I found a Waterford biscuit barrel, a Toby jug, an Atlantis crystal decanter, some sterling cork toppers, also some other items from earlier yard sales.  Plus ten more lots of postage stamps that I have had since I first started selling on eBay.  I ended up with only 33 new auctions but I saved a respectable amount on listing fees.

It took three days to pull together those 33 auctions.  I just couldn't seem to find time to work something through from start to finish.  It really sounds like a fairly ordinary week but while I was in it, I felt frustrated at all times!

There are only a handful of yard sales for tomorrow.  It is the Labor Day weekend so I wasn't expecting many.  Tomorrow starts a new week!  Let's hope it is a productive one!   

Yard sales...

This has been one hot summer.  There were at least two Saturdays that I just could not face the heat and did not go yard saling.  It seems a little less humid lately but it is nearing the end of the summer and the yard sales are less plentiful.  

On Fridays, I prepare my yard sale list by copying and pasting from the on-line classifieds.  Then I use MapQuest to plan out the most efficient route.  The last few weeks, the ads were not too exciting and neither were the sales.  Maybe everyone else is sick of this heat, too!

I may have mentioned before that I live on the Eastern Shore in Maryland but I have found that the best yard and estate sales are in Annapolis and beyond, which is about 40 miles away and across the Chesapeake Bay.  I always look to see what is happening over here, but very rarely do I stay on my side of the bay for yard sales.     

Last Saturday morning, I headed out with my uninspiring list (even Annapolis is losing steam).  I decided to make a big circle, heading straight to Bowie which is another 20 miles or so past Annapolis then up to Millersville, Glen Burnie, Pasadena, to Arnold, ending in Annapolis and then home.  I rarely have good luck in Bowie so it was a risky tactic, but boy did it pay off!

Here is how the Bowie ad read, "HUGE SALE- Antiques, clothing, vintage jewelry, HH items, something for everybody! All goes!".  I know, I have seen that a few thousand times, but something about it spoke to me that day.  

What a great sale!  It was out on a small driveway, just a few tables and some stuff hanging in the garage opening.  But on those few tables was a load (and I mean a load) of vintage jewelry!  Hanging in the garage were vintage dresses, and there were also boots, shoes, just neat stuff!  What a great way to start the day!  I bought a 1970's beaded mini dress, a leopard print vinyl skirt, an oriental dress, a neat house dress, a bunch of jewelry, some swizzle sticks, I can't even remember what I bought.  

The sale was run by a couple of 20 something year old girls and a woman who looked like their mother.  I asked about the items and probably indelicately asked if someone had died.  One of the girls said that this was her stuff, she said she was addicted to auctions.  Lucky me!

I stopped at about 5 or 6 more sales on the loop heading for an estate sale in Arnold that didn't start until 10AM.  I hate the late starting sales, they make it tricky to plan an efficient route.  But, with that said, I prefer going later to estate sales because the people running them are a little more likely to negotiate as they tire out from the early crowds.

Estate sales can be pricey, but I have a strategy for that!  I quickly scope out the dining rooms and living rooms and all the fancy china and artwork that I would love to buy but usually find a little out of my price range.  If there is a basement, all right!  A craft room, yes!  You get the picture, I look for things that others might walk right by.  

The basement at this sale in Arnold was just a regular basement that was used as a pottery studio.  Boxes of supplies, but better yet (for me) were old pottery and ceramic magazines!  I looove to sell magazines.  When all was said and done, I bought between 500 -600 really nice art type magazines for $100.  So easy to write up, photograph and ship!  I got about 18 lots up at auction this week, a bid on one (that is $10 back on my $100 investment) and watchers on about 10 other lots.  Plus I have a ton of magazines left to list!  I am going to do very well with these magazines!  

So, even though tomorrow's yard sale list is iffy, I have 11 stops on it, I might hit the jackpot again, you never know!

Changes...

My last post was about the blizzard of 2010. It has been a while, no excuses. Now we are nearing the end of the summer and it has been a hot one!

My helper left in June and I am not planning on hiring anyone else. I was so much more productive when Bijou was here even though she only came on Mondays. I don't think I could find a better person to work with.

I have cleared off my kitchen table, which is a huge development! A lot of the items made their way into my office (on and under Bijou's work table). Everything is organized and in Rubbermade tubs with lids, that way I can move it all out to the garage to be listed this winter when garage sales dry up.

My new plan is to take some pressure off myself. I had become just a tad "burned out". Cleaning out the kitchen was my first step. I have also become much more selective at yard sales so I am not bringing in nearly as much stuff.

I had been trying to have approximately 100 items at auction each week and rarely made that goal. While I think it is very important to always have auctions going on eBay to support your store and encourage traffic, a much more realistic goal for me is 25 - 50 items.

I recently signed up with Encidia.com which enables me to print my international first class shipping postage. The trip to the Post Office almost every single day was a big inconvenience! Now I can arrange for postal pickups and save myself a bunch of time.

Just a few small changes made a world of difference!

Blizzard of 2010

This is the day after the record setting blizzard of 2010 here on the east coast. Just a few days ago we had another major snow storm that left us with about 2 feet of heavy snow which hadn't been completely dealt with and yesterday's additional 10 - 20 inches certainly didn't help.

I feel like I am living in a winter wonderland! Today the sun is out and everything is shining. It is hard to open your eyes out there but if you can, it is really pretty.


I am hoping that my neighbor with the tractor comes soon to do my lanes. The slog to the barn this morning was difficult, to say the least.

The boys are enjoying themselves!

And I must admit, I am enjoying the solitude.
Stay warm!

Thrift Store Finds!

The East Coast is expecting a big snow storm starting this afternoon (Friday) and continuing on until tomorrow night. 12 - 24 inches are expected. This has been quite a snowy winter here in Maryland. It might snow once or twice and melt right away but this will be the third snowfall this year and it will be snowing on top of snow that didn't melt from the first two. Not a big deal for most parts of the country but Maryland doesn't do well with snow. I am planning to be housebound until at least Monday.

Yesterday I hit a couple of nearby thrift stores and I am very pleased with my purchases! I bought 4 sets of dishes, a vintage Pyrex juice set, 3 printed needlepoint canvasses and a couple of neat painting pattern books.

I will have plenty to work on this snowy weekend!

Bunches

It has been a slow winter with respect to garage sales. I think the last one I went to was at the beginning of December. Thrift stores have been some help in filling the gaps with inventory to sell but I am running very low.

So...what I do when I am running low is to go into the box, or to the kitchen table where there are stacks of items that I either didn't want to deal with or on my first look at research showed that they may not be worth much. I tend to buy stacks or bunches of things; magazines, yarn, stamps, old model kits, music rolls, Smurfs, plastic army men, and the list goes on. Buying bunches or lots usually translates to low purchase prices for me, and that is good, but I tend to get blocked by these bunches and over-think how to list them. But with no new inventory coming in, I have had no choice but to tackle the bunches.

The idea is to break up the bunches up into mini lots that will sell for $9.99 each. That is my gauge - how many items should go together to equal $9.99 as a fair selling price.

A great example recently is the Smurfs that I bought at an estate sale a few months ago. I had a hunch that there may be Smurf collectors out there so I bought 4 baggies full for $30.00. Immediately after, I thought I had made a mistake and when I got home and took a peek at how Smurfs were selling on eBay, I was even more sure that I wouldn't make my money back. They sat on the kitchen table for a couple of months until I finally brought the baggies into my office and spent the better part of a Sunday afternoon researching. That research enabled me to name each Smurf and by immersing myself in Smurfland for an afternoon, I felt more confident about listing them. I grouped them into 16 lots, most with 5 Smurfs in each lot and a few with only 1 Smurf.



I didn't know what was going to happen but they were off the kitchen table! I need to be more trusting of my hunches... I sold 5 lots at auction, 4 for $9.99 each and one for $145.00!!! And then when they were relisted in my store, I sold 2 more lots for $9.99 each! That $30 investment turned into $205!

I recently ended 17 auctions of player piano music rolls that had been in a box under the table in my office for over a year. None sold but almost every auction had a watcher so they were immediately relisted into my store and I am still hopeful that some will sell. (if they aren't listed, they won't sell ;0) Even if they don't sell, I have a theory that the wide variety of inventory in my store attracts window shoppers.



I currently have plastic army men, cowboys, etc at auction in 10 separate lots for $9.99 each. Within one hour of listing them, I had bids on 4. How can that possible be true? Again, I had a hunch.



I have been been selling magazines like crazy these past few months. A huge amount of magazines were purchased a few months ago and have been selling consistantly ever since.

Bijou has been working on a basket full of needlepoint yarn that has been on the table and taking up a lot of room. That yarn should be listed at auction later this week.



I have to try to remember that $145 Smurf when I get blocked and let my kitchen table fill with the "hard to list" items.

Research!

I love to research and learn about new things, it is one of the more enjoyable aspects of selling on eBay. But I have to be careful that I don't get lost in the research because time is money!

This week I was explaining this strategy to a friend who recently opened an eBay store. He had sold an item at auction without researching. Our discussion about this subject gave me the idea for this post.

As far as I am concerned, there are different levels of research.

You should have a bit of knowlege before trying to sell either used books or vintage/collectible/antique books. Buyers need to know about a book's condition and you need to know how to describe it. Someone who specializes in books would do more than obtain "a bit of knowledge" but books are a small part of my inventory so I am speaking only for myself. I try to be very thorough and include pictures of damage or flaws but I do not do any other research. Here is a link to the books in my eBay store.

When it comes to dinnerware, flatware or even some glassware, I typically use a popular used dinnerware website to help identify the pattern name, I check their prices and I always start my auctions for less. I also use "Kovel's Dictionary of Marks" to help date older sets and I have a modest library of research books that I use for glassware. Typically my descriptions only include the pattern name, maker and condition but sometimes I will include a brief description with the color and design as well as the date it was produced (if I am able). Out of curiousity, I may also look to see who else on eBay is selling my pattern but that is the extent of the time spent researching dinnerware. Here is a link to the dinnerware and a link to the flatware I have for sale in my eBay store.

Some may recall my major score with the Cambridge Glass ice bucket or biscuit jar last year. Here is a link to that blog post. That score was a result of finding the pattern name in one of my books on glassware and then checking to see how much it was selling for on that used dinnerware/glassware/flatware website. Had I not taken the time to research it, I would have started it at $9.99 and listed it as a glass candy jar. The Cambridge Glass collectors out there never would have found it and I would have lost out on a $1300 sale!


Collectibles are where I spend the most amount of time with research. A few weeks ago I spent most of a Sunday afternoon perusing web sites about Smurfs. I had purchased several baggies of Smurfs at an estate sale several months ago. I knew that there are Smurf collectors and had no idea whether or not I had any "good ones" in those baggies. My research did little more than help me identify names for each character but by immersing myself in Smurfland I was able to get a feel for what may be important to collectors. I separated the Smurfs into 16 separate lots in a way that made sense to me and a few I listed singly. Four auctions sold, 3 for $9.99 each and 1 for $145.00! The lots that didn't sell are now in my eBay store, here is the link. There may have been a better way to do it, but I think the time I put into Smurf research paid off!

There are a lot of collectible categories. Research can be very random for most and many times your item may be so unique and collectible that there may not be any information. And that item may be just the very thing that a collector is looking for.

A simple "google" search is sometimes all you need to find out whether your item has value or not, an eBay comparison search of "completed listings" will tell you whether anyone is buying your item or what your competition is and replacements.com can help you with descriptions. It doesn't have to take a lot of time, and it shouldn't if you want to expand and grow your business. You may be spending so much time trying to find out about your specific item that you don't get anything listed! If you are not listing, you are not selling, and if you are not selling, you are not making money!

Happy eBaying...

New Kitties!

The day after Thanksgiving my two new barn kitties were delivered from the Humane Society and their custom crate was built.

The Talbot County Humane Society here in Easton, Md (and probably all over the country) has a barn/feral cat relocation program and since I have a barn, I decided to adopt.

I already have a barn cat who took up residence in my hay loft about two years ago. In the beginning I would see him out of the corner of my eye, maybe crossing the road at night or scooting out of the barn in the mornings when I went out to feed the horses. My barn is only about 100 yards from my house so I also caught sight of him just lurking around the barn. I started leaving out cat food the first time I saw him.

It wasn't long before he got bolder and when I went up in the hay loft I was a little intimidated by him as he sat high up on the stacked bales of hay watching me. I was afraid he was going to pounce! I always talk to my animals and he is no exception. I would say "kitty, kitty" as I climbed the stairs.



When winter came I felt well padded enough to hold out my gloved hand to him, and what do you know? He started purring and rubbing his face on my fingers! We progressed slowly and soon he was following me around the barn as I did my chores. By then, I had no choice but to give him the unfortunate name of "Kitty". He is my barn buddy.



He is not the first stray animal to "adopt" me. When I lived on my horse farm in the mid 1990's, a super friendly black dog used to hang around. I would get so frustrated with my boarders when they brought him treats, I wanted him to go home! Eventually I arranged to foster him until the rescue was able to find him a home. I took him to the vet to be neutered and get whatever shots he might need. He tested positive for heartworm which made him un-adoptable. I had tried so hard to NOT bond with him but he came home with me that day, the heartworm was treated successfully and he became my farm buddy, "Stan", the best dog ever! (no offense to my current kids!)



I moved here to Easton in 1999. On New Year's Eve 2000, my Lempe came. When I was heading back to the house after feeding horses, I noticed movement around the wooded perimeter of my property. I got some dog food and she tentatively approached the bowl and gobbled every morsel. I confined her in the garage overnight and the next morning I brought her into the house, gave her a bath and she is still with me.



About two years later, a big old hound dog that I named Deke decided that my yard smelled good. I adopted him through the Humane Society when his owners relinquished their rights. Deke was with me for almost a year and then went to live with my sister. He passed away a few months ago. According to Janet, he was the best dog ever!



Not to forget my newest, Mosey. When a friend who is an equine dentist came by one day with a puppy, which was not unusual for her to have dogs with her as she rehabilitates and rescues dogs and horses, I said "cute puppy" and she said "do you want him?"... Of course I said "Yes!".



Back to the new kitties. They are currently in their cage in the barn where they should have stayed for only a few weeks. There is a fairly simple process of letting them out in a closed barn to explore during the night, then opening the doors in the morning and hoping that they return for the regular food they have become accustomed to during their confinement. We are having a particularly cold and snowy winter and I am not ready to let them out of their cage, yet.

There are two kittens, both are under a year old so they shouldn't be threatening to Kitty. A fuzzy little black male that I have named "Sweeny" who likes to play and flirt and a shy little tortoise shell female with white paws and face that I named "Junior". The ladies at the Humane Society got a good laugh talking about "Uncle Kitty" and his little nephew "Sweeny" and Sweeny's sister "Junior". They are very cute. Hopefully Kitty has gotten used to them through the cage and won't chase them away when the inevitable warm January week comes and I let them out.

Having an Assistant is Good!

There is an awesome bonus to having an assistant... a lot of extra stuff gets done! Today I pulled some items out of a box that have been packed up for over a year. Vintage greeting cards, player piano rolls, books of stamps... all items that seemed like a good idea at the time but as soon as I got home and started doing a little research, they were pushed aside. I don't know anything about stamps! How should I put together lots of old greeting cards? Those piano rolls are gross!

Since sales have slowed a bit since Christmas and there hasn't been that much to ship, I handed the piles to Bijou and asked her to deal with them. As she started sorting, she asked a lot of questions. I answered and then changed my mind and changed my mind again and again. I am pretty sure she stopped listening to me. Her list and sort of the player piano rolls helped me get them all written up, 12 lots. While I was working on the piano rolls, Bijou was sorting and writing up the greeting cards into about 16 different auctions! Outstanding! Next week she is going to tackle the stamps! If it's stashed in a box, it's not selling!

I have a bunch of teal green glass insulators that have been on top of the buffet in my kitchen for probably 2 years! Recently I bought a bunch of baggies full of little Smurf figures, little plastic cowboys and indians and army men. I also have a huge stack of sheet music from the 19-teens and 1920's and baggies full of needlepoint yarn. These are all things that will probably sell very nicely but how in the world do I put the lots together? One Smurf or five? Should I group the yarn in lots by color or sell lots of mixed colors? What about all of those cowboys and indians... by the pound?

These are the questions that go through my head and completely block me. Bijou has motivated me to plow through these stumbling blocks and get-stuff-listed! And you know what? I have been selling like crazy! Thank you, Bijou!