Lynn’s eBay eZine Nov 24th, 2016 Volume XII, Issue 09

Hi!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a wonderful day today. I want to express how extremely thankful I am for all of you….my loyal ezine readers! Here’s to a happy and prosperous Holiday season both on and off eBay!

The Queen’s Court challenge for October, was to pick your own personal challenge and OWN October. Well, my personal challenge was to empty my storage unit. I completed this challenge on Sunday, October 30th, just in the nick of time!

One of the items that got listed from that storage unit was a CD from a HUGE collection of CDs that my brother had sent out from LA with all the furniture. Remember, I had a Roadie deliver a rotating bookcase and a ton of boxes. Well, in those tons of boxes are tons of CDs. I have been trying to list at least 10 per week as they are super easy to list, easy to store and easy to ship. When Houston was in town, I paid him $1 per CD to list and you would not believe how fast that kid could list 25 CDs. He would knock that out in about an hour. Unbelievable!

Here is one of the CDs that he listed that sold for over $50 at auction. Another unbelievable moment!

Click here to see this auction.

Here is a photo of the one and only “Hous the Goose” (can you tell I am missing him?) kicking back in that same storage unit before we got it cleared out. It was a HUGE job. Trust me!

Here is one of the furniture pieces from that storage unit that I got listed on eBay. Notice how I recommend www.roadie.com as a shipping option in the description.

Click here to see this auction.

Speaking of Roadie, I was recently on eBay Radio with Griff and Lee talking about shipping large items using this service. It was one of our very fun interviews where afterwards Griff actually said that “Having Lynn Dralle on eBay radio is just like human Xanax. She cures my depression.” LOL. I love Griff and Lee!

If you missed that interview you can listen to it here.

Here is my final reveal of that empty storage unit! Voila!

And here is an update from Houston’s adventures in Germany. I love this post he put on Instagram of him chasing the Geese! LOL.

Now for a very special adventure of Indiana’s. She was honored to be chosen as a Kairos retreat leader and was one of the five leaders for this year’s October K20. It takes a lot of preparation to lead this Senior year retreat and Indy rose to the occasion. It took weeks and weeks of prep in addition to missing a week of school. Here she is with the other leaders.

Because of that, she wasn’t able to take advantage of her first opportunity to be a cast member in an MTU (Musical Theatre University) production. I am very proud of her for making the “adult” decision to know that she would be spread too thin if she tried to do both.

After K20 wrapped up, it was time for her to think about the upcoming Homecoming dance. She wanted to go with one of her really good guy friends, Patrick (nickname Trick…don’t you love that?) who was a fellow K20 leader. She decided to invite him with a super cool “Sweet Caroline” theme. It was one of the songs he chose as a Kairos leader.

Here she is asking him to go with an awesome sign! And a Boston Red Sox Jersey.

He said Yes (of course) and it was so darling when he came to pick her up. I asked them to “jump” for some pictures. Always my favorite way to get kids to crack up.

Check out this photo.

Then Indy and Trick headed off to meet some friends at a local country club for dinner. LOVE this Instagram shot Indy posted of her fixing his bow tie.

Right after Indiana’s Homecoming dance (which she says was the best dance she ever attended!) I took a best offer on this amazing lamp. Check it out!

Click here to see this auction.

I had it priced at $699.99 and took a best offer of $400. Would you have done the same thing? I wonder…

Speaking of best offers…it becomes a huge debate among my Queen’s Court members. Do you price high and take lower offers? Do you price right where you want it to sell and offer no best offer? Do you price it in between high and low and add best offer? I personally (and those of you who know me best) believe in option #1. Price it high and watch it fly! That slogan I learned as a buyer at the May Company back in 1985. The higher you price it…the higher the perceived value.

BUT, another question arises…how low of a best offer are you willing to take? Here is a great example of a debate we had on a recent Queen’s Court call. I paid $10 for this graduation robe. Pretty great sourcing. Remember, you make your money in the buying….not the selling. Anyway, I got an offer of $125 and turned it down. Coco (QC member and friend) said on the call…you are nuts! You should have taken it.

Click here to see this auction.

I waited about a month and I got a better offer of $200 so I took it. Immediately after I shipped it, I got an email from someone that had been watching it and they said “If you still have the graduate robe I will offer you $300.” Oops! Maybe I didn’t wait long enough?

Then four days later I got a text from the $200 buyer who said “It is too big for me and may I return it?” I text right back and said “Absolutely! In fact I just got an offer for $300 so would be more than happy to have you return it.” Two hours later I get another text…”I have decided to keep the robe.”

Maybe I shouldn’t have told the buyer about the $300 offer? But, in the meantime, I had emailed the $300 buyer to tell him that it was too big for the original buyer and that I would have it available if they would like it for the $300. I never heard back. “A bird in hand is worth two in the bush” as my grandmother used to say .

This saying simply means that it is better to have an advantage or opportunity that is certain than having one that is worth more but is not so certain. I don’t know…How big a risk taker are you?

The end of October found Mo, my mom and I on our way to Chicago for the ecom event. What an incredible conference it turned out to be. And what an adventure! On the plane ride from Palm Springs to Chicago, a crown on one of Mo’s teeth fell off. A great sign to start the week .

But there was internet on the plane and I was able to accept a best offer of $50 for this book. I had paid 50 cents.

Click here to see this auction.

Hot tip here…at many estate and garage sales the sellers believe that the hardcover books are worth the most money and often sell them for $1-$10 each. I have found that more often than not, it is the paperback books that will bring more cash on eBay. Of course, this is not a hard and fast rule but please remember to check the paperback book section and look for any unusual and unique subject books. They are usually priced between 10 and 50 cents at sales .

Upon landing in Chicago, we met up with my mom and took a shuttle to our hotel in Elk Grove Village. Mo and I walked across the street to the EZPantry to pick up some diet coke, snacks, bottled water and wine. The EZ Pantry became quite our favorite place during the week . Strangest store ever…Food & pop on one side and alcohol on the other. Only way you could get to either side was to go outside. Huh?

Oh, and right next door was a dentist that was open evenings. I told Mo she needed to get her tooth fixed immediately but against my advice she decided to wait and not get it fixed in a strip mall at 7 pm at night. Smart girl!

So we all headed next door to Jimmy’s (which would become our favorite restaurant) for dinner and to meet up with new friends and old, who had flown in early. Here we are with Rich and Nila.

Here I am with Tiki Jason and Nadine. So great to see them and Nadine looks awesome even after her tough battle with cancer!

I finally got to meet the “infamous” Chris Green and here we are discussing business strategies.

While at Jimmy’s I sold this darling vintage Dudley Do Right for asking price! How many of you remember Dudley Do Right? Or is he a Canadian Character?

Click here to see this auction.

The next day was all about finding a dentist to fix Mo’s tooth. Rich had offered to call his dentist the night before and his dentist could fit Mo in but we didn’t know how to get there. Sweet Rich and Nila lent us their car and off Mo and my mom went.

That afternoon we helped Rich, Nila, Robin and Mark set up for the event. Very impressive and there were about 250 people scheduled to attend.

After setup, Mo’s sister Mary Beth was going to drive in to have dinner with us. Mo has two sisters that live in Chicago. Mary Beth was about 20 minutes away from our hotel but unfortunately, her sister Ann was on a trial in New York and we didn’t get to see her.

Here are Mo and Mary Beth meeting up at Jimmy’s (our favorite restaurant ).

I took a best offer of $275.00 on this darling Santa Claus while we were having dinner! Awesome! Right? Nope, because the buyer NEVER paid. I am getting really tired of UPIs (Unpaid Items) and I am sure many of you are as well. I have sold this Santa Claus twice now and both times it has gone to UPI. The part of that which really makes me angry is that the item must remain out of your inventory for about 10 days (or however long it is) before you can relist it….just in case that buyer does pay. Seriously? Not cool!

Click here to see this auction.

The next day was the first day of the conference and the speakers were incredible! Such a fun day and we all learned so much.

That night it was a karaoke party hosted by Rich, Nila, Robin and Mark. Sooooo much fun! The highlight was when Rich sang “Just a Gigolo” which he ALWAYS does. Here he is singing it and Nila dancing away. They are soooo cute!

The next day was the day I was to speak so we made it an early night. Back at the room, I realized that the shoes I wanted to wear had come unglued. I called EZPantry to make sure they had Super Glue and they said yes. So, I asked them to hold it for me and off Mo and I went across the street to the strange strip mall again .

We got there and the guys who own the store told us that they didn’t have any super glue. I was getting angry when Mo and I realized that they were just playing a joke on us since we had become such great customers…..LOL. Not! They ended up giving us the super glue and a bag of chips for free. Then we jumped behind the counter to get our photo taken. That is our Modus Operandus….We make friends everywhere we go!

That evening I took a best offer of over $120 on this Dansk Casserole.

Click here to see this auction.

I love eBay because you can still be making money, listing new items and selling while out of town. It is the perfect JOB. During the conference Mo listed about 35 things while listening to the speakers.

Actually, it is not a job but rather an adventure. We ended up hanging out with QC member Elizabeth and her husband Brian that evening for about ½ an hour because their room was right next to ours and I super glued my shoe in their room . My mom and I were telling them how we planned to tour South West Illinois after the conference to see old family homes and gravesites. Brian told us it was “Cow Country” and we wouldn’t like it. But I knew we would.

Here we are with Elizabeth and her husband Brian. Remember, they are the awesome couple who took me and Mo’s sister, Anne, to see James Taylor and Carole King in Chicago about eight years ago. Love these two!

The next day was my presentation on Antiques from A to Z. It was a small peek into my new eBook. For those of you who have pre-ordered, Volume 3 (the Letter C) will be out on December 1st. So excited to get this new volume to you!

You may still pre-order this eBook here.

Check out this nice email I just received from a reader….

“Read Volume 1 and about to read it again with note taking. It is AWESOME!” Michelle.

A question that I keep getting is this….”Hi Lynn, just checking…does the $97.00 for Antiques from A to Z include all the volumes you will be releasing? Thanks!”

YES of course it does but that price will be increasing soon because this eBook is going to be awesome! In fact, I had 143 subjects from my grandmother’s notes and had to cut it down to about 100. That may still be too many for one eBook. Volumes 1 and 2 are already over 200 pages and I anticipate volume 3 will be another 100 pages of great information! Thank you grandma .

After my presentation, we were able to grab a quick Queen’s Court photo. We are missing Elizabeth Summers and Terri Hendrix in this shot but we got Betsey and Lynn H. Yay to the Queen’s Court members. So great to see you and hang out with you!

After the conference ended on Saturday, we went to a group dinner at…guess where? Jimmy’s steakhouse. It was super fun and a lot of students and presenters attended. I grabbed a quick photo of Jason and his wife Staci with my mom and Mo before that meal.

During dinner that night I sold this bowl for full price! Happy Dance!

Click here to see this auction.

The next day, Mo would be going to her sister Mary Beth’s house for a longer visit and my mom and I would be heading to Abingdon, Illinois where my grandmother was born and also to Galesburg where her mother, Maybelle, was buried in the Hope Abbey Mausoleum. It had always been my dream to visit that to honor my grandmother.

Cheryl Leaf missed her mother every day of her life as her mother passed away due to complications from childbirth at age 34 when my grandma was just 15 months old.

Here is a photo of Maybelle with my grandma on her lap and my grandma’s brother Houston standing next to them.

My mom had been in touch with her second cousin, Clifford, who lives outside of Chicago and he had emailed us this information.

“When you go down to Galesburg, I would suggest that you find out ahead of time how you can get a key to get into the mausoleum. Even though I have always wanted to, I have never seen May Belle’s crypt, either, mainly because I didn’t know how to get into the mausoleum.

A relative (Robert) told me how your grandfather, George Sussex, purchased a casket for May Belle which had a glass window over the face so that the face could be seen when the casket was closed. The idea was that your grandfather someday wanted to have the casket pulled out so that he could show your mother, Cheryl Leaf, and Houston what their mother looked like.

In some papers written by your grandfather which Lynn copied, your grandfather mentioned that he someday wanted to take Cheryl and Houston to see what their mother looked like, so that would verify what Robert had told me.”

Is that crazy? And oh so sad!

My mom and I picked up our rental car on Sunday and headed down to Galesburg. I had arranged with the local Mausoleum to leave me a key to the Hope Abbey Mausoleum so we could go directly there. It was supposed to be in the mailbox at the cemetery.

Here is that mailbox.

Original plans to view the Mausoleum on Sunday were not going to happen. It was locked up tighter than a drum. We decided to tour Abingdon that afternoon instead. Abingdon is the birthplace of Abingdon pottery and my grandmother. The factory closed about 15 to 20 years ago and the town is very run down and in sad disrepair. It makes me really sad to think that this is happening to so many small American towns.

Here is a listing I currently have on eBay for an Abingdon pottery set of candle holders.

Click here to see this auction.

Here is a photo of the factory in its current state. Looks much more like a prison than a once thriving small town pottery.

We were able to find the spot of land where my grandmother was born during a home birth thanks to my mom’s second cousin Clifford who was on speaker phone the entire time helping us find it. Small town farm directions crack me up. Clifford was saying “Take the road going east towards Yates City. Once you cross the railroad tracks watch for the first four corners. At those four corners you will take a left and go past the old one room schoolhouse that is now a residence (you remember that don’t you Sharon?)” My mom was like no way! The original house had burned down and there is a replacement one standing on the same land so I took a photo of it.

Here is a page from a book I made from old letters that Maybelle had written. I found them all bundled up in the Snake Pit at my grandmother’s antique shop and my grandmother had carried this treasured tie to her mother with her for over 80 years.

For Christmas in 1990, I typed each and every letter into my first computer (a Mac SE30). Then I had them printed out and also photocopied photos to bind into a book. It was a surprise Christmas gift and when they were given out to my mom, my grandmother, Lee and Kiki we all sat around and read the book from cover to cover. Tears were streaming down everyone’s faces. It was an amazing gift and such a tribute to another mother that was taken too soon from this earth.

When my sister was dying of cancer, she kept saying “There is no way this can happen twice in one family. I can’t leave those little boys behind (ages 3 and 5 when she passed) just like grandma got left behind”.

When I look at the comparison between the two houses-one old and one new, I like to think that some of the same trees that my grandmother Cheryl, her brother Houston, her mother Maybelle and father George walked and played under still remain.

That was a long and sentimental day for me and my mom. After driving all the way from Chicago to Galesburg and then to Abingdon, it was time to check into our hotel in Galesburg and make plans for the next day.

I sold this Chicago, Illinois coffee mug that night for full asking price on eBay. Coincidence? I think not.

Click here to see this auction.

The next day, we called the Mausoleum and were able to swing by and finally pick up the key. Since it was Monday, I suggested that we take some fresh flowers to Maybelle’s Crypt since she probably hadn’t received any in over a century. My mom couldn’t agree more.

Before we entered the Hope Abbey Mausoleum (which we had been hearing about for many years) my mom and I took a selfie out in front of the grand front doors. The building has a monumental entrance with two matching pillars and the inside was done entirely in white marble. The ceilings are probably 25 feet high and it is a very impressive place.

We wandered around until we found her crypt. She is buried next to her father, Peter S. Nelson (a very famous Swede from Illinois 1835-1916) and below her mother Nellie Gibson Nelson (1842-1917). Peter S. used to call his wife “Nellie the Nag” we learned from all of those letters my grandmother saved. Not nice! But still very sad that both parents outlived their daughter. It is not the natural right of passage.

Here is May Belle’s beautiful resting place with the flowers on the ledge in front.

I think she was happy that we visited. As we were leaving, I turned around to see the sunlight directly hitting her crypt with the flowers barely visible from this long shot. But if you look closely to where the sunlight is reflecting from the floor to above, you will see her final resting place and the purple flowers.

That was an amazing experience and not much else could top our entire journey to the south of Illinois. As my mom and I headed back up to Chicago to spend the night before our flights out of O’Hare, we made plans to meet up with Clifford (my mom’s 2nd cousin) and his wife Alice at a restaurant the next day.

Here are my mom, Alice and Clifford catching up at a Panera restaurant. It was great to see them and talk about the things we had just witnessed and experienced.

After lunch, my mom and I hit a few thrift stores and a Goodwill. As I was walking out, I noticed out of the corner of my eye some Pottery Barn Christmas Stocking holders on a shelf. I pointed them out to my mom and then grabbed them to purchase. I can spot a Pottery Barn stocking holder from a mile away . They can sell for big bucks. I have sold them from $30.00 to up to $150.00 each! Yes that is correct.

As we were waiting in line to pay my mom mentioned that the letters I bought were just perfect to give Houston for Christmas. Here she is holding them.

I was like “What are you talking about? They are not just letters, but stocking holders and why would I give them to Houston when they sell for a small fortune?”

Then I noticed that they were an H and a W. LOL . H for Houston and W for Wilson. My bad! Sorry Goose. Just sold one today for a nice best offer. BTW, these are usually never signed. This is the first pair that I have purchased that have Pottery Barn on the base.

Click here to see this auction.

Enough about Houston as he is living the life chasing geese in Germany…while we are here slaving away…just kidding. I did find a screaming good deal on a plane ticket to bring him home for Christmas. $540 round trip from London to LAX on Virgin. Plus another $160 plane ticket to get him from Frankfurt to London and back and we will see him for Christmas! Yay! The Goose will be returning to the nest for three weeks. Can’t wait.

One last picture to give you an update and let you know that he is fitting in just fine over there. I finally saw a snapchat where he was actually in a classroom, so I am very relieved about that! I do know that Houston has been to Slovenia, Prague, Ireland, all over Germany and who knows where else. I am usually the last one to know.

Here he is at St. Patricks in Dublin, Ireland with his buddies. Such the life!

Now, let’s get to Indiana. There was no way I could leave her home alone for the week I was gone in Chicago, so my dad and his wife, Sue were awesome to agree to come down and make sure she was taken care of. I warned them that they would never see her and that was pretty much the case.

I got to see my dad and Sue for about 3 hours in the middle of the night when I returned home from my late flight and before I had to drive them to the airport the next day.

Here is proof that both my dad and Sue were here. Please come back soon! I need more light bulbs changed and tires replaced. Just kidding, but I do always leave my dad a “to do” list and he happily helps out. Thanks Papa!

Since Indiana has started MTU, Musical Theatre University and was chosen as one of twelve to be in Broadway’s Next Generation, I NEVER see her and neither did my dad and Sue.

She was hard at work preparing for her first ensemble role in a real MTU production of Beauty and the Beast.

My mom and I went on opening night and she plays a villager, a plate and a wolf. Here she is as a villager doing the clinking stein dance to the song Gaston. I love this dance!

Here she is looking afraid of Gaston who was played by actor, Joe Komara.

In fact, this production had 3 current and past Broadway actors that act alongside the kids. The other two were Loni Ackerman as Mrs. Potts and Sal Mistretta as Maurice. It is an incredible opportunity for Indiana to participate in MTU which was founded by David Green in Orange County, CA in 1999.

According to the program and director David Green…”This advanced and intensive professional training program is not offered at any other high school conservatory in the nation. It is designed for young people who believe they will pursue a career either on stage or behind the scenes in professional theatre, with a specific emphasis on musical theatre. For the record, these young performers have staged this entire production in a little less than three weeks–generally no more than three rehearsal hours per day AFTER academics-and, although we hope you enjoy the show, for us, the PROCESS is the most important part of the journey. We do not strive for perfection. We strive to create an educational environment that will nurture, inspire and challenge the MTU students to exceed their potential.”

Amazing! Here is a photo of Indiana as a Plate. I really must ask her what type of dinnerware brand she is portraying. I would guess something Royal…like Royal Doulton .

Since my mom is flying back to Bellingham on Thanksgiving day, my brother came out last weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving early with us. Perfect timing as my brother was able to see the last performance of Beauty and the Beast. Mo was able to join us and she was going to give Lee a ride to the theatre but when he went to get into her car there were plates on the floor and he had to ride with us . Apparently, plates are a common theme in my life.

Here is the entire cast at the end of their production run of four shows.

Here is Indiana with my brother and Mor Mor after the final show.

As Lee was driving out to see us, I got an offer on a guitar that I had listed for him. Check it out. Would you have taken the $175 offer or not?

Click here to see this auction.

I asked Lee what he thought and explained that our usual deal is 20% for eBay and Paypal fees and then we split the remainder, so he would get $70 and I would have to deal with the horrible job of shipping the BEAST (Beauty and the Beast…get it?)! We took the money and ran like a wolf .

In addition to Indy working on this play, filming an hour Christmas special for local TV with MTU Broadway’s Next Gen and attending real school, she has also been applying to colleges. Seriously? I don’t know how she does it.

She has great grades, a 3.98 unweighted GPA and amazing test scores. She recently got a 34 out of 35 on the ACT and has a super score of 1490 out of 1600 on the SAT. I am soooooooo proud of her!

She just received her first two acceptance letters in the mail. One from APU (Azusa Pacific University) and one from Biola. They both offered her Presidential Scholarships. WOW!

Check out my Instagram post and please notice Houston’s comments. He rarely comments but this one struck a chord.

Here is a photo of what happened to the “Goose” on the APU campus during a baseball showcase.

It is ironic but I named Indy’s college acceptance photo “first” and Houston’s arm got broken while playing first base. His buddy Justin (the pitcher and the guy with ice on his arm in the photo) threw him a typically easy out to first base but the throw was wild and it pulled Goose way off the bag and the runner plowed into him. His arm snapped. Definitely not good memories.

But let’s make some good new memories! Check out this Gold QVC necklace that I sold for a best offer of $150! Yippeee. Thank you to Sherri Mertle for her keen advice to check out QVC jewelry.

Click here to see this auction.

My mom sold some plates recently and had a very bad experience with them. Oh crap, now I am back on bad memories but I will make this quick. She sold 9 of them and the lady asked if there was any utensil wear and my mom checked them in bright light and could find none.

The lady filed a claim with eBay as item not as described and said that they did in fact have a lot of utensil wear. She wanted to return them. Since the shipping one way was almost $50 I told my mom to ask her to destroy the plates, take a photo and then my mom could refund her. The lady refused and now my mom has defects from this. Here is one of the listings.

Click here to see this auction.

My mom has been talking about these plates a lot. She told me a few times, my brother once, Mo once, Lori once, etc. I am sick of hearing about these plates. Too many plate stories in my life. But now I totally understand why my mom is upset and I am going to call the Anchor store hotline for my mom tomorrow and get this taken care of correctly. There is no way that these lovely pottery plates could even show utensil wear.

Now it’s time for a good plate story. I was asked to be part of a focus group recently (Thank you J) and after the initial part was over they chose a few of the group to be filmed. I was chosen and a film crew would be coming out to my office soon. I knew I needed help to get it in tip top condition. Call out the Calvary! Coco and Lori showed up one morning and we tackled the front part of the office.

Here is a photo of them. Thanks gals!

Did you notice those killer Gold Mid Century Modern Candle Holders to the far left. I bought them a while ago and then put them in my storage unit. When I emptied that out I had to get them listed. Here is the listing. They rock!

Click here to see this auction.

So the film crew arrived to my super clean office (had the carpets shampooed also) and it went really well. Kate and the crew were awesome!

During filming we sold this Muppet Lamp and it was going to a mom who was surprising her son (who has severe autism) with it as he had recently broken his similar lamp. Here is an email I received from her.

Click here to see this auction.

“Can you please ship ASAP? My son is home from the hospital now. I promised him a surprise and this is what he has wanted replaced or fixed. Please help me make his day!! Thank you so much for having this offering it is a true lifesaver!!”

Oh, wait…I forgot to tell you why this ties into plates. OK, I was paid for being a focus group participant so I decided to invest the money in some dishes… aka plates. I looked on Craig’s List and found some amazing Villeroy & Boch in La Quinta. Priced too high but I started negotiating with the seller. He was a tough negotiator but we finally landed at $900 for two full sets.

Here is John delivering the sets and getting his cash.

John had sold me 8 square dinner plates in one of his favorite V&B patterns and decided that he really wanted to keep two of them. He was quite the gentleman and said “Since a deal is a deal if you don’t want to sell me two of those plates or trade me for some other dishes, I will honor it”. Wow! Impressive.

I could care less about which plates I got as long as I got valuable plates! John had brought 2 William Sonoma Provence Dinner plates to trade for the 2 V&B dinner plates. He also brought a Provence platter and a small set of Bordallo Pinhero Pineapple. We settled on $100 extra and I would get the extra pieces he brought and he would get his 2 square dinner plates.

Interestingly enough, the only pieces that sold at auction were the William Sonoma Dinner Plate and the Pineapple. LOL! I sold about 5 pieces in the Pineapple for close to $200 and one of the WS dinner plates for $79.99.

Here is a listing for the 2nd William Sonoma Dinner plate I ended up selling at auction for $99.99.

Click here to see this auction.

In retrospect, I should have started the auctions for those Provence dinner plates far higher but cash is cash. Unfortunately, the first dinner plate that sold for $79.99 arrived broken while the second auction was ongoing. I text the very upset buyer that I would end that auction and ship her that replacement plate. When I went to end the auction, I could not end it because it had a bid with less than 4 hours to go. Oh crapola!

I text my new friend John (who I had bought everything from) because I knew he had a full set of WS Provence and asked if I could please buy another plate. He text me back and said that he had checked everywhere and the plates were super hard to find and he wanted to keep his service for 8. I text back “Totally Understand.”

What was I to do? Oh for goodness sakes! About an hour later he text and said “Call me, I may be able to help.” I called him and he said “I am a seller as well and have been in the same situation so what could you pay?” I offered $100 and explained that is what it had sold for. He hemmed and hawed and I said “In addition I will pick it up from you in La Quinta at Stuffed Pizza and my mom and I will buy you a drink during happy hour.” He said “Deal”. A happy ending to this tale. “Tale as old as time, true as it can be……Beauty and the Beast.”

Luckily, the day after buying that additional plate, I sold two bowls from one of the Villeroy & Boch sets I bought from him. LOVE DINNERWARE!

Click here to see this auction.

As you know, my mom flew into town for an early Thanksgiving and also to attend the annual Boys and Girls Grand Luncheon celebration. My friend, Kelly Flanagan, invited both of us last year and that was the year Kelly drove her F150 truck into the Esmeralda Hotel Ballroom and set up a tailgate party as her table. WOW! We knew this year would be just as spectacular!

Kflan (as I call her) called me and said “I am going to do a Hemmingway Sun Also Rises themed table. Paris in the 1920’s.” She was going to bring in real furniture etc. etc. We couldn’t wait. My mom and I both got flapper type outfits with headbands and feathers. We helped Kelly and her mom Kay set up the night before and it was a blast!

That night I text Houston the photos from the setup and the theme and he text back something hilarious….

“Wow that looks so good! Goodness gracious. Go Kelly! She is so talented OMG…FRICKING Kelly… That’s so fun and also one of my favorite books. Make sure you find a way to represent the rampant alcoholism, aimlessness and depression that ran rampant in The Sun Also Rises.”

I promised him we would do our best . Here is Kelly all dressed up in her Hemingway table area. When they announced the tables, they said that Kelly’s table was the most original they had seen in 19 years. Way to go Kflan!

Here we all are in our “outfits”. Crazy but fun! And we ate on the coffee table….check out the table place settings. Everyone wanted to be in our group. On top of that, Kelly was saying that she never won anything during the auction raffle. She ended up winning three prizes! What a banner day and all for such a great cause!

I have been keeping my mom super busy while here. Not only does she help me ship (she packaged 27 items today  and business is crazy good), but she grocery shops, cooks and does the dishes! I am one lucky kid! My sixth grade best friend, Leslie Arntzen, was going to be in town during the same time frame so I planned a boat cruise and invited a bunch of friends.

Here they all are on the boat while I drive and take the photo. Mo, Leslie, Candy, Coco and my mom. Super fun day!

The Friday after the boat cruise, my mom and I went to some sales in Palm Springs. I bought a set of Mottahedeh blue dishes for $45. Never found a Mottahedeh set before just individual pieces and I have some bids on these bowls. Hope they go even higher!

Click here to see this auction.

My mom didn’t find much on Friday while out saling, so she planned to go out early on Saturday with Coco. I was going to sleep in because I was exhausted and had stayed up until 1:30 am on Friday writing this ezine and listing.

At 7:30 am on Saturday I checked my phone and there was a text from my mom….”I can’t walk. Pls come to bedroom”. Holy crap! I jumped out of bed and was in there in a flash.

Here knee was super swollen and she couldn’t put any weight on it nor walk. I got her our crutches out of the garage so she could get into the living room and she called her insurance. They said to go to urgent care so we were at the Indian Wells urgent care when they opened. When I walked in and asked for a wheelchair the Dr. told me that their x-ray tech was not in that day and to go immediately to the hospital…so off we went.

Apparently, hospitals are pretty quiet on Saturday mornings and she got in immediately. They did ultrasounds (no blood clots) and x-rays and then Dr. Frank drained the fluid around her knee. It was mostly blood and he drained 60cc’s. YIKES!

He explained that the ultrasounds showed cysts behind both knees but some type of trauma had happened to her one knee and that was why there was blood in the joint fluid. Once the fluid was drained, she was out of pain and could walk and we escaped! Praise the LORD! Tests are being run but we still don’t know what caused it as she never twisted or hurt that knee. If anyone has any other ideas, please let us know. In the meantime, all is good.

Although, we were admitted quickly to the hospital, we ended up being there from 10 am until about 4 pm. I got a lot listed as I sat in that room. Here is one of those listings that I hope sells for big bucks…only paid $15! I do need some help identifying the maker if anyone has a clue or two.