It's Estate Sale Time
We are happy to be back with estate sales after the holiday break. This weekend our sales are both continuations - a second sale in Palatine and a third and final sale in Crystal Lake. We normally do not conduct multiple weekend sales as a 4 to 5-day sale is usually sufficient but we have had three of them at the same time going back to mid-November. I am very grateful because it is keeping us working both this weekend and next. Two weeks from now we will offer a pair of new sales in Clarendon Hills and Park Ridge.
We opened up the basement in Palatine for the first time so Kuochun went over and shot a video on Tuesday. It is a little rocky in spots but regardless a video gives a much better representation of the items than photos. I took some time to figure out how to add music to the video through YouTube. I found that the music has to be at least as long as the video or it will just stop and not replay. As a result I had to add music that would not have been my first choice. At any rate it is better than listening to Kuochun walk around with his winter jacket swishing, breathing and/or coughing. Always a learning process!
Kuochun was so enamored about all the treasures in the basement that he wanted me to see them in person. We took a trip on Wednesday and brought some vintage comic books there to sell. He was right, this basement is definitely not typical! The homeowner had great taste for cute items from antique to vintage in all different styles. The staging looked amazing as well with like items grouped together. Kudos to the setup team!
Here is the jewelry purge from last Sunday evening. These pieces are all "naked" or without stones. The cuff bracelet at the top center, the one on the right of the group of three, the one with the peyote bird to the right, the two pairs of earrings and the heart pendant all sold, the remaining items are available.
I am finding that the watch cuff projects are not popular so I decided to take two of them over to my favorite local jeweler to have him take them out of project mode and turn them into bracelets by adding turquoise to the section which holds the watch case. I gave the go-ahead to polish the high spots on the one on the left, in my opinion there is a big difference between patina and just plain dirt. I was told the Tissot watch case on the one on the right does not work but it turns out that it does! I just do not think it goes with this cuff and a beautiful piece of Kingman turquoise to go with the existing stones would be a much better look. The Tissot case is made of wood and the jeweler is going to add a band to it. The original band was cut off so it could be put in the cuff. I will end up with not only a unique ladies' bracelet but two striking men's pieces as well to add to my inventory.
On Saturday I made another trip to Palatine, finally getting around to doing something I have wanted to do for a good three years. Rachel had a pearl and ruby necklace strung but it was not ready by the time she left town. I offered to pick it up and ship it to her. I also took the opportunity to bring along a shoe box filled with costume jewelry repairs. The store is in a new location but luckily they still provide all of the same services. They were able to fix a few pieces right on the spot and think they will be able to repair the rest. The owner is a real character - he came by, took a look at my box and said you are a wealthy woman! As I left the store I thought what if the repairs become ready while I am gone? I will need to ask Kuochun to go for me, he can stop by Mother Clucker's on his way home for some carryout.
I was definitely conflicted about selling this amazing heart pendant made by a Navajo husband and wife team. I have purchased several pieces in the past but was not able to make it to this store on my last trip to Arizona. Melinda visited the town for a day while visiting a friend, popped into the shop and picked it up for me. I did not realize it was going to be quite so huge. I would love to have one smaller than this but larger than the other two I have. I could have sold this pendant 10 times over! These artists only sell to the one store and we are planning to go. It is not easy as we have to go through border patrol on the way back but it is worth it! I will report back on what I find. They are a retail price but I still want to share them with folks who cannot visit in person.
The unsold items from this purge are in the Shopify store and on eBay. It has been a bit of a learning curve even for this IT professional but I continue to make progress with the store. This week I learned how to fully set up the eBay listings in Shopify so I do not need to change any settings once they are live. Next will be Etsy - I dumped the free app I was using this evening because it was not working and picked up a new app. I did a trial run, attempting to send the ten items from last week's purge. All seemed to be successful but the listings are not appearing on Etsy yet. I will check again in the morning and if they are still not there I will reach out to technical support.
It is definitely helpful to have the listings both on eBay and Etsy. Overall I sell more items on eBay but I usually sell higher-end items on Etsy. I had a good week - I sold my favorite cuff bracelet which I cannot wear because it is too small, a high-end multi-stone bug pin and a very cool cuff to a man who said his grandfather had the same one. I am sure my eBay feedback rating of almost 14,000 and 100% positive helps a lot with sales. I only have 88 Etsy sales but a 5-star rating. I ought to put that information on my Google and Yelp profiles to counteract the bad reviews!
Mother is getting very excited about the trip, it is great for her to have something to look forward to. We will need to take a wheelchair to Tucson but luckily we have one in Scottsdale already. She called me today and said she would like to sell a couple of her jewelry pieces that she no longer wears so she could buy something new. One of the pieces is a medium-size multi-stone squash blossom necklace which I think will be highly coveted once I post it. She actually got it many years ago from an estate sale we conducted in River Forest. The clients had a Southwest Style bedroom, decorated to the nines with coyote throws. The squash was attached to a rawhide lampshade as a decoration!
I really appreciate squash blossoms and they look really great on others but for some reason they are not the best style for Mother or me. I do have a modernist 1940s single strand one which I had put together from these vintage parts and wonderful beads I found on eBay but I think it is probably too Southwest to wear here. Saturday night I took some necklace photos so tomorrow I will put my necklace on the dress form and share a photo.
I am not quite ready for in-person modeling yet, I have been reading that it is not necessary to dance around to be successful on social media (thank goodness!) but it is necessary to connect with people and have them get to know you so photos are the way to do that. Mother and I attempted a selfie last winter when the Golden Keys community wanted to introduce us as new residents but we missed the newsletter deadline. This photo was taken before the patio was redesigned so we will try again with the beautiful new plantings and white backdrop. This is a big deal for me to publish because we both hate having our photo taken. Getting more comfortable with it is a good goal for the new year.
Well this is plenty to talk about this week, see you next time!