Time To Lighten The Load

For the first time in about two and a half years, we experienced a week with no doctor's appointments. In addition, Rachel was here for the week so I took the time to catch up on a few things that I have not been able to get to. I finally switched the Scottsdale homeowner's insurance from Farmer's to State Farm, officially moving on from the worst financial experience of my life. The timing was pretty fitting because I only have two loan payments remaining and I will have finally paid off the reconstruction costs. I spent a lot of time being emotional about the situation and dreading having to relive things because I knew Farmer's would ask why I am changing companies. But I got through it and the big bonus is I will be saving $700, partially because I have a multi-policy discount bundled with the car insurance. This is almost as much as the homeowner's association fee for the year. I wish I would have done it sooner. I just need to verify with the mortgage company that all is good to go and then this will be something I do not need to do again.

Back in May, I signed up for a Capital One savings account - I have a business and personal credit card with them and loved the experience as well as the unlimited cash rewards. My purpose for establishing the account was to set up an emergency fund / Gem Show budget and actually earn interest on it. I needed to keep $50,000 in the account for three months and if successful I would receive a $500 bonus in addition to the interest. It was a very long three months of waking up in the middle of the night to check account balances six days a week to be sure everything was in order but I was able to do it and I received the bonus on Tuesday. Now I can freely transfer money in and out of the account with no minimum balance or deposit requirements. I just need to keep in mind that it takes a day or two to transfer money between banks. I do not receive interest on my US Bank accounts and this Capital One account pays 4.30% which may not be the very best but I am happy with it. I have received about $1,100 in interest already including the bonus and the customer service from Capital One has always been top notch with the credit cards and bank account so far as well. When looking online for the bank account rules, I came across an article which said this particular account is a great place for an emergency fund.

On Wednesday I took a little time to organize expense papers which had been in inboxes in the office for several years. I have a little shelf next to my desk and sorted all of the papers which were on there by year, then took them to the basement for storage. It is great to have the extra space for storing jewelry I am working to put online along with the tools I need to do the job such as the measuring tape, calipers, ring sizer etc. I also did the same thing with a lot of papers in my display cabinet and now I have boxes of jewelry lined up in the space that need to go online. I still have more to do but I think devoting a "power hour" to it will do the trick.

I posted the above lot Sunday evening - the photo turned out surprisingly well considering these were mostly the last of the pieces I received back from consignment. I decided to add a few "oldie but goodie" rings for a pop of color. I received so many compliments on this lot and was able to sell the two Hopi cuff bracelets at the left and the Tom Willeto kachina ring in the center. So many people loved the motif of the bolo with the Native American man, eagle soaring above and starry sky but in the end there were no takers. One of the nicest and most knowledgeable people in the Facebook groups identified the artist after someone asked me to provide a photo of the hallmark. She was afraid to sound like a know it all but I let her know how grateful I was for the information. This will definitely help me sell it once it goes online.

The artist is Floyd Becenti Jr., I have definitely heard of him as he is very well-known. His hallmark is very clever - it reads B ¢ T - Becenti.

I posted the unsold items online from this grouping from August 20 and two pieces sold the next day - the brass cuff on eBay to someone I recognized, the most fashionable person in the Facebook groups. I am honored that she is incorporating one of my pieces into her collection! The ring just below and to the right sold on Poshmark at a slight discount, although it is really great quality I thought it was kind of weird-looking and figured this would be my best offer. But within 10 minutes someone offered $3 more on Facebook. In this world, it is definitely first come, first serve!

I also completed this lot from August 27. No additional sales yet but I think it will just be a matter of time before they all find new homes.

The only remaining former consignment item I have left to post is an amazing heavy solid sterling silver and black leather belt. I am going to list this one separately but need a little time to figure out how to take some good photos of it. I am going to try and get a photo on my mannequin, hopefully I can get it to fit her as she is very petite. I do have a silver jewelry buying appointment on Monday evening and the word is there is some Native American jewelry so possibly there will be enough to put one more online lot together. If not there is always plenty to sell, I will come up with something!

Speaking of other things to sell, I got back to the fabulous Federico jewelry which I have had since January. I shot photos of the remaining rings, here are four of them. They are real statement and investment pieces, all made from vintage natural turquoise and solid sterling silver. I delisted and relisted the Federico rings which were already out there, updating the descriptions to the new format and adding hand model photos. I have heard that delisting and relisting is good for items that have been out there for a while and I have my Vendoo account set up to let me know when listings have been up for 90 days. Once I catch up with posting new items, I will regularly do this so eventually all of the listings will have the same description, format and photo style. Looking forward to that day!

As usual, holiday weekends are for paperwork and I completed a lot of that as well. I am looking forward to the estate sales starting up again, the time between Labor Day and the end of the year is my favorite. I know I have been saying I would start staging the breezeway with costume jewelry for the pop-up sale but it has been too hot to work out there as it is not air conditioned. I did round up all of the costume jewelry from the garage and the next step is to sort like items together so they will be easier to display in the cabinets. The plan is to have progress photos / video next week!