Yes, it's gone a little bit quiet here!

Time out for the holidays. Time out for wintery (as wintery as it gets around here, at least) weather; time out for some regrouping, even. Anyone who knows me well would be gobsmacked if they discovered I'd made anything resembling resolutions for the new year. Let's just call it some business planning and be done with it, eh?

The plan for 2011 is to get more of our inventory put on to the website, as the local shows are fewer and farther between. We even decided to forgo the January Sunshine City show in St. Petersburg altogether as we assessed the cost and benefits. Its proximity to home just couldn't trump the low sales this show realizes for us. Another major factor impacting our decision is the increased travel that Bob's day job entails. Working at such a pace Monday through Friday doesn't leave much time for preparation, loading and unloading - and definitely leaves Bob without the restorative down time on the weekends that is more necessary than ever for him.

I can't say that I'm saddened by this decision. The fact is that for myself, I have struggled with the shows this past year, finding them difficult as issues with my mental health just wouldn't Go Away as any of us who know, wished they would. I'm sure that things will change again, and we remain ready to adjust when the time is right for that. But economically, and personally, this shift is the way for Time Travelers to go for now.

I'm excited at the prospect of opening the doors wide on the eCrater store. I'll also be creating more jewelry and exploring more creative expression in that area.

eCrater still kicking!

Incredible, and a bit eerie, how when I stopped working in the store, sales online started to pick up. Not one to ignore a celestial dope slap to the forehead, I have been plodding along in adding items to the inventory there and padding out some of the categories.

Not to be outdone, our cat Psycho decided to get in on the action. Here's one of her special poses.

Patty and Friends Antiques and what I'm doing there

I have the pleasure to be a part of the staff of Patty and Friends Antiques in St. Petersburg, where Bob and I have booth space. It is so rare in this life to be able to work in a field that is also your passion - I can say that this is the first time it's happened to me.

It's a dynamic place, with many recent changes as the mall absorbed dealers from a store that closed elsewhere in St. Pete; it's those additions that necessitated the extra staffing that allowed me to come aboard as a member. I find that every single day that I work I get the opportunity to learn about another aspect of collectibles and what people find desirable and valuable. Whether it's Depression glass, celluloid animals, restored furniture, or vintage designer jewelry, I get to go to school every day that I show up to work.

I took the initiative to create a Facebook page for Patty and Friends, and slowly I'm learning about how to manage it as an informational and promotional tool for the store. Just as I learned about the building of my own website and store on eCrater; this very blog, and those darn Squidoo pages, I am determined to make the Facebook page yet another destination for Patty and Friends' fans and customers.

More Bunnykins hopping into the eCrater store

I put an evening aside and put a bunny generation's worth of Royal Doulton tableware on to the eCrater site this evening. I do like doing it once I get in a groove - not too many items at a time (to photograph); items all cleaned, researched and camera-ready before I start; and I have a storage destination at the ready so I know exactly where I put the bunnies once I've entered the items.

(Can you tell I'm on my own this evening? I have a difficult time doing this intensive type of work with company, besides the cat, in the house. I keep the CD's playing, I keep a cup of tea at my elbow, and I crank away.

Here's the link to the category in the store. I even put a BONUS item in the mix - a teacup and saucer combination that would normally be sold separately. Since the saucer has a chip on the underside, I have bundled it together with a suitable cup in the most desirable "Casino" shape, and put it on the site at a special price.

(That's the photograph at the top of this post.)

Online world is waking up!

OK, now I know there is some voodoo hoodoo mojo going on with having a blog. No sooner do I write about the stone silence of the eCrater site, than it starts banging empty cans together, and I've started to receive orders again. Hmmm. Never mind that I tried that "is there an echo in here?" post, and had an email that negated my theory of emptiness :-)

And my first foray into the wacky (wacky? maybe not, but nail biting, at least, for me) world of eBay did result in a successful auction. Not wildly successful, oh no; and I understand that the ground of that world will shift again come the end of this month. But I am glad to get yet another "first" behind me - whew! - and have had an auction that had bids!

Meanwhile, in the Real World of brewed coffee, sore backs and feet... Bob worked the Trash to Treasures show by himself because it was raindated to Sunday, and I was unable to assist him, because I was working. Yes, take that word in, you read it correctly. This Time Traveler was on her feet, indoors, in an antique mall, working for half a day. Is this the effect of the full moon, you may well ask? Is this the same madness that has turned on the machinations of the internet and its commerce in its suddenness? We must ponder and wonder, but all this Time Traveler knows is that she (that is, I) is a part time helper at Patty & Friends Antiques, and it's a fantastic place to find myself. Great co-workers, great bosses, great dealers (with the new ones coming in as the "red house" has been revamped to accommodate them). I'm feeling like some sponge, as I'm learning SO much each time I put in a shift. The other day it was about celluloid animals. (Hint: just ask the avid collector who is shopping for them about their passion, and BOY, will you learn a lot!)

Today's picture is of the Bunnykins Money Ball that sold yesterday at the eCrater store. What a sweetie!! I'd be putting my allowance in that for sure.

Laptop is Working for Adding Items to Store

So maybe I'm the only person excited about this - but I'm up and running with my new laptop computer and am starting to add items to the eCrater store with this new tool. First on was a piece of Bunnykins tableware, a Don mug of marching bunnies going to camp.

It was also my first experience uploading photographs from my camera to the laptop, which went well. Putting the photos into a folder was the most challenging part (I kept confusing "tags" with "folders", duh).

Nice cup.

I've been mighty quiet...

But it's been a mighty quiet season.


And I haven't been well. (Less said about that the better.)

There are fewer shows to do, so fewer opportunities to get out there and show our beautiful stuff. The folks are not as willing to part with their harder earned - and less valuable - dollars. We've seen a shift in what people are attracted to this season, as well. They are loving our single old photographs, loving the jewelry, and mostly price checking everything else we have on offer. (Personally I think they are looking to see what the items they own themselves are worth.) Foot traffic is also down compared to last year.

It's tough times.

The eCrater store, if I could pay more attention to it, would be tickling me pink. As it is, it's pickling me a very, very pale shade of pink, but only because I haven't been able to put the effort into it that it really needs. We've had sporadic sales there, and I do have a little pile of goodies waiting to be put onto the website. All in good time - I still have some healing to do, and my priorities, truth be told, are a little shuffled around at the present.

But I see that I'll be back at the shows shortly, ready to help Bob out. He's been such a trooper. I'll be able to work on the website soon too. Once I'm up and running, I'll be back up to speed pretty quickly.

I've missed my blog, this world, the newsiness of it all. It's waiting for me, patiently.

Adding more items to the store again

I think I needed an extended break. For whatever the reason, I feel my batteries are recharged finally and now I'm starting to add items again to the store on eCrater. This time I've decided to concentrate on glass - we have a wide variety of decorative and functional beauties.

One of the more whimsical lovelies is a cranberry glass basket. It's medium sized, about 7 inches tall, with a gorgeous shine and a deep ruffled edge. It's one of the inventory items that we acquired when we originally purchased the business. It gets a lot of admiring looks when we bring it to shows, but hasn't yet been scooped up. The right home is still waiting for it :-) I don't mind, really, as it's a joy for us to hang on to until such time as the correct buyer is matched up with it.

Isn't it a beaut, though?

I had a busy week!

Three sales this week - I am flush with success. Two teapots and a book, and I'm so happy that the eCrater store is truly bustling - and that the listings on Amazon have come back to life. Something having to do with the school year starting up again, I think.

I do hope that the customers are pleased with their purchases. That's the only suspense of shipping the items off - I don't get to see their happy faces when they open the boxes.

Bob came back from a business trip (er, that would be with his day job) with treasures that he found at an antique shop in Savannah that was having a moving sale. Some Wedgwood Jasperware - great! - and a pile of interesting photographs, which I'll take the time to sort through, slip into protective plastic sleeves, and leave for others to wonder just who the people in the pictures are...

First Sale at eCrater!

We opened shop at eCrater on May 30th, and today we got our first sale. Processing the transaction through Google Checkout was a breeze - the address was verified without my having to do anything, and they automatically sent the customer a confirming email. Once I processed the transaction (again with a click of a button), had the item boxed up and ready to take to the post office, Google sent another email confirming the shipment to the customer. I fiddled a little bit with the eCrater screen in order to print out a packing slip to put in with the item - I just didn't want to send something out without any documentation. Google doesn't seem to have the option of printing out a packing slip, or it's possible in my excitement and rush to get the order to the post office before it closed (today's Saturday) I just couldn't find it.

Then I looked at Google Analytics to see exactly how the customer had found us - we had been Googled. So that stuff is all working well for us - we show up on targeted searches there and on Google Shopping, with a thumbnail photo right from the website. Every item in our inventory has Google attributes associated with it, basically descriptors that identify the brand, product type, material, and country of origin - this helps items get picked up by the search engines.

I also noticed that the message boards I've posted at, for collectors, have resulted in some hits. So that's nice so see, that some of the work I've been doing is starting to pay off. And all this, so far, without having to pay for advertising, or listing. It takes my time and effort - but it's so satisfying to now see the reward.

Mostly, I must say that I am impressed with the comprehensive help that's available at the online forum at eCrater. What a motherlode of information, ideas, guidelines, out-of-the-box and inventive bunch of individuals that have collected there. Although I found it mind-boggling at first, and overwhelming, if you tackle the building of the store according to the simple instructions available to dealers, it's pretty hard to go wrong.

Bits and Pieces

So the experiment with stopping the garage sale shopping hasn't exactly worked out. I think Bob was able to go 2 weekends without shopping, and both weekends were clearly torturous for him. Who am I to keep him from his bliss, then? The important thing is not to let his activities interfere with my own projects with the business - he has to be able to do the stuff that he's been handing off to me to take care of in order keep me smiling and complacent.

It's a bit of a struggle.

But, I've been able to work on my Expo 67 project, and it's coming along nicely. I have a nice little category started at the eCrater store devoted to the memorabilia from the world's fair. I do get a bit lost from time to time in doing my research bits - there are a few pages out there with audio files, and news archives from that year. I find that my fascination has not flagged - a true sign of a collector. Yet by putting these items into the store, I'm also releasing them from my closet, where they have been stored - and NOT been enjoyed, as they should be. At the very least, by photographing, researching and writing about all these souvenirs, I'm rediscovering my memories about that special year. But I'm also allowing others, for the first time, to share in my enjoyment of them.

My mom asked me whether I wasn't putting things up for sale that have sentimental value for me, and the answer is - everything that we have for sale has sentimental value. That's what makes them valuable. But sentiment is one thing, and a family heirloom is quite another. What thrills me in the selling process is seeing someone else identify the same qualities in an item that I have felt myself - the "I remember this!" moment, or "Look what I found!", or "I've been looking forever for this!"

I've realized that this antiques business is really a catch-and-release process. That we don't actually own any of these items forever. We capture them, we value them, enjoy them for a time - perhaps years - and then, we release them, on to their next home. The sentimental value for me is the recognition that someone else sees the same quality that I do in an object, and are as happy as I was when I "discovered" it.

The other thing that I have come to learn in these few short months of being an antiques and collectibles business owner is how easy it is to acquire more and different interesting objects. Over the course of the selling season, we found homes for some very special objects: a generously sized McCoy planter; an Alfred Meakin commemorative plate celebrating the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway; several lovely teacups and saucers; some glorious pieces of silver plate. Anyone could argue that these were sentimental pieces that we should have held on to because of their value, their beauty, their historical significance, or their desirability. Yet in each case, we were more than happy to send the item home with their new, thrilled owners. And, as Bob has shown in his weekly shopping sprees, there are treasures galore in the immediate area, just waiting to be discovered. More McCoy. Italian Murano glass ashtrays. Depression glass. Music boxes. Dolls. Wedgwood. Royal Winton. Clocks.

It really never ends, if you just keep looking. Sometimes, the treasures come to us, as when we were at the show on Treasure Island, and a customer approached us and we did a trade. Her box of things for a selection of things from our booth. It just goes on and on.

And isn't that wonderful?

Expo 67 Nostalgia

Wow, I have just begun to go through the collection of souvenirs and memorabilia from Expo 67. That would be the World's Fair from 1967, which was held in Montreal, Canada - my hometown. I found out some totally neat factoids from Wikipedia ((((wikipedia)))) about it, of which I'm inordinately proud:

• It was considered to be the most successful World's Fair of the 20th century, with over 50 million visitors and 62 nations participating.
  
• It also set the single-day attendance record for a world's fair with 569,000 visitors on its third day.
• Expo 67 was Canada's main celebration during its centennial year.
  
• The fair was originally intended to be held in Moscow, to help the Soviet Union celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution but, for various reasons, the Soviets decided to cancel, and Canada was awarded it in the fall of 1962.

Since our family lived in Montreal North, we made several excursions to the fair over the course of the summer. It felt like all our relatives came to see us that year (probably just the ones with cameras, because we have loads of photographs from that year). I was very young - I turned 5 years old at the end of the summer - yet I retain many vivid memories of the sights and smells; the crowds, the fantastic architecture and cultural exposure of those months. From Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome of the United States pavilion to the austere, sail-like roof of the Germany pavilion; to the stoic concrete pillar of the Great Britain pavilion, to the exotic tent structure of the Ethiopia pavilion - these and so much more made huge impressions on my very young mind.

I do recall that my oldest brother Stephen performed with the Montreal Youth Symphony, dapper in his red and white striped jacket and towering over the other teenagers with his bass cello.

I remember the great logos of that year - the stylized maple leaf commemorating Canada's centennial - the signing of the nation into confederacy. The theme of the fair was "Man And His World" - and the accompanying logo was a circle of stick-figure people with arms outstretched towards each other - that's the image in the photograph of the lighter.

Even music played its role that summer:

• The song that most Canadians associate with Expo was written by Bobby Gimby, a veteran commercial jingle writer who composed the popular Centennial tune "Ca-na-da", which went on to sell over 500,000 copies. Gimby earned the name the "Pied Piper of Canada".
  

A few years after Expo 67, Bobby Gimby was still doing his schtick as the Pied Piper of Canada. I was one of the rats (um I mean, amongst a group of children) he led through a downtown building concourse, singing the Ca-na-da Song while he led us with his jeweled cape and oversized horn.

So, I'm having a lot of fun in going through the bits and pieces that have found their way into my hands over the years. As I get the items photographed and put into the eCrater store, I'll continue to throw up some links here for come of the totally cool stuff.

Internet store to live another day

First of all, wouldn't you know that we got an order on the TIAS site yesterday??!! Massive panic as we searched through multiple storage bins to find the item that was purchased - I knew this would happen! After months of packing and unpacking for show after show, never being able to pack a bin the same way twice, it's become complete chaos to try to find anything that we've listed on the website that is also something that we take to the shows.

Which is our complete internet store inventory.

And now approaches the end of the TIAS store, and an opportunity to start fresh someplace else. We are going to set up shop with eCrater, a free web store builder and a free online marketplace. With this new store will be different merchandise, however. I have seen (and did see, the entire time) the sheer folly of listing the same inventory in the old store that we were taking to the live shows. Keeping track of items sold was never a problem - I keep very detailed records - but that nightmare of actually putting my hands on something that's been carefully wrapped and packed away in a box that's buried 3 deep and 2 back in the spare room - well, that dream was realized and it wasn't pretty! The air was blue with the language coming out of my mouth, oh my!

And we never did set up our shipping rates properly at TIAS, which meant that we hadn't covered our expenses properly. So this time we'll be doing our homework more diligently, and also, having to weigh each item as we put it into the new store. The shipping rates will correspond to the postal service's Priority Mail rates, which is how we prefer to send items out.

My head is spinning at the work ahead of us. I've got the postal scale already, as I'd bought one months ago, then not used it when setting up shop at TIAS. Hopefully, this will dovetail nicely with the end of the live show season here. As we slow down with the shows, we'll be ramping up the new internet store.