Hi!

I have decided to stop apologizing for not writing two ezines a month as I had originally promised in my New Year's Resolutions. I am just going to write as many this year as I can handle. Thank you for understanding. So, let's jump into the news!

The store has taken off with an incredible trajectory and we have been slammed and super busy. Business is great! Thank you to VENTURA and to all of you ezine readers that have popped in to say hi!

Here is a shout out to those I can remember visiting. Tiki Jason, Debbie Weider and her husband Bill, Carl from Simi Valley (he even told his cousin Deda about us and she has become a consignor and very good customer), Marianne and "Doc" Severtsen (current Queen's Court member), Pam & Terry Clayton (QC members), Denise Rogers (former live boot camp attendee) and Teresa Mistretta (a former Queen's Court member). WOW!

Here are Pam, Terry and Tino!!!! I finally got to meet their "famous" grandson Tino and he ate some popcorn at the store and fixed my sonos audio service. It was AWESOME!

Here is a photo of me, Debbie and Bill.

I bought a set of dishes that Debbie had sent into the store with a friend and I finally got to pay her that day. Here is one of those listings.

Click here to see this auction.

BTW, I LOVE the way my new photos are turning out with the Foldio 3 I bought from Orange Monkey…..thanks to Mandy Kennett's advice. I have my workers write up eBay stuff at the front counter when it is slow in the store and then I take the photos in the back where the Foldio is set up. Makes for a great conversation piece and I am getting eBay merch ready to sell while the store is generating income. Win-Win.

I can't wait to share more of what has been going on since my last ezine on April 21st ! If you missed it you can read it here.

But let me share an eBay score before I get started on the Lynn's Consignments Fun Home Furnishings evolution…seriously the store has taken on a life of its own…. even bigger than I imagined .

Some of you may remember these Lucite disc book ends from prior ezines. They were listed on eBay for $1999.99 and I had turned down an offer of $600 right after they were listed back in 2014. The Queen's Court had advised me to turn it down because they were so cool! I had purchased them for $50 at an estate sale in Palm Springs.

Click here to see this auction.

I put them out in the store with a price tag of that same $600 and customers were appalled at the high price. I finally got tired of hearing people making remarks right outside my office door so I took them out of the store and put them in my office.

Two weeks ago I got an offer of $450 and I jumped on it. I had charged $65 shipping and they were being shipped to Nevada so I would make $40 on shipping (even though they weighed 25 pounds when packaged correctly). Score! As you know my usual rule is to make 10 times what you pay when selling on eBay. I paid $50 and sold them for $450 plus $40 shipping….$490 almost exactly the 10x rule .

Now back to the store and another score. My buddy Tiki Jason Smith, wanted to store some LP's in Ventura so I offered him some storage room and he brought me the most awesome Tiki bar to sell in my store!

Check it out!

We priced it at $795 and put it in the front window display. Wow! Was that Tiki Bar ever a guy magnet? More men came into the store to look at that Tiki Bar than you can imagine. In my store, the prices get marked down 20% every 30 days for two markdown cycles. The Tiki bar did not sell at $795 and after the first discount it was priced at $636.

I have amazing front windows in my store that span almost 50 feet of frontage on Main Street. It is super hard to get a good photo during the day or the evening. Here is the best shot I could get to show you the Tiki Bar and all the other lights lit up around dusk.

I had a party planner come into the store and want to rent the Tiki bar for an upcoming party on June 1st. I called Jason and he said ask her $200 for the day. She agreed! But I wasn't going to NOT sell it just so she could rent it. On May 28th a couple came in that loved it. I told them that if they bought it they could rent it out for $200 and really only be paying $436 for it. They loved that idea and bought it! A man that was also seriously looking at it came back the next day and was so distraught that it was sold. My grandmother always said, "The time to buy it is when you see it." So true Cheryl Leaf!

Just like that Tiki bar walked in through the front door (sounds like the beginning of a bad joke ), so did this thermometer. The consignor told us what she wanted to get for all of the antique advertising thermometers, so we priced them according to her wishes. I researched several of them later in the day and ended up buying a few to sell on eBay. This one was the best of the bunch!

Click here to see this auction.

I paid $20 (1/2 of the asking price of $39.50) and it sold for over $200 with a lot of bidders! Once again, my 10x rule is working!

After Tiki Jason left, it was time for me to pick up Indiana at Pepperdine and move her home to Ventura. Indiana was finished with finals on Wednesday, April 25th. Can you believe how early that is to start summer vacation?

I drove up to campus to pick up her and her "stuff" but when I arrived she was sound asleep and her room was not packed at all. UGGGGHHHHH! Teenagers. I told her to start packing and I would start loading. OK, Pepperdine is nicknamed Stepperdine for a reason. There were three flights of stairs to get to Indiana's dorm room and I made 24 trips up and down. I was exhausted!

Here is what her room look liked when it was almost all packed. She is showing me a "LOVE" sign so that I won't be mad at her for having to do so much work. Smart kid!

Here is what my SUV looked like once it was all packed and Indy is smiling with relief. Me too!

Time for an eBay score. At one of the last estate sales I attended in Palm Desert, there were some beautiful art limited editions taped up on the hallway walls. There were about 20 pieces and I asked my buddies J&J...Jack and John "How much"? They said $15 each. I quickly took them all down and said I would buy them. Then I hear my mom asking, "how much"? Great minds thing alike!

Here is one that I recently sold for very close to asking price that was shipped to Florida. Pretty cool, huh?

Click here to see this auction.

It was a piece by Francoise Gicot and the woman's mother had recently passed and she had collected Francoise Gicot. So, the daughter was going to add this beautiful unframed piece to her mother's collection that was now in her home.

BTW, I LOVE selling artwork that is unframed. It is so much easier to put it in a cylindrical tube and ship it for a 1 pound USPS price than it is to bubble wrap and crate an expensive piece of art with glass and a frame. Sometimes, I even take the art out of the frame prior to listing it. Other times, I list it and say that shipping can be about $80 less if they don't need the frame. Many customers want to reframe these items so this works quite well.

Back to Ventura & the store, before we knew it March/April had turned into May. Time flies when you are having fun and working 80 hours a week LOL. I decided to take a day off and do something fun with the kids (who were both home in Ventura for a few weeks until they would both leave for Pepperdine summer programs).

On Thursday, May 3rd, we headed up to Ojai. We had breakfast at a darling restaurant and right next door was the Wachter Hay & Grain store. We took a leisurely stroll through the store and I snapped a photo of Indy and Houston with a horse that they have in their front window. Eerily similar to the antique amusement park ride horse, Harry, that I have in my front window.

We had a wonderful day and took the back road from Ojai to Santa Paula. We stopped off at St. Thomas de Aquinas College and walked the beautiful campus grounds. It was breathtakingly beautiful and was very close to where the "Thomas" fires had begun. Hence the name "Thomas" Fires.

In Santa Paula we had lunch at the airport. This is the same airport where Steve McQueen lived in a hangar for some time. Seriously interesting history is found in Ventura County. Love living here!

After our adventures, we took Houston to Jos. A Banks to get him his first fitted suit for his paid internship in Washington DC this summer. The kids make so much fun of me because I call it Joshua A. Banks and it is Joseph A. Banks. LOL.

Here is Houston in his new suit posing as a mannequin with Indiana. Houston has been following a gluten free diet and is the thinnest I have ever seen him. I think he may need to gain a few pounds.

Houston was going to be living in the Pepperdine Washington DC House and had applied and been accepted to work as a paid internship for the Trinity Forum in DC. Trinity is a non-profit that works to bring faith to the leadership of today. I am very proud of the "Goose" for getting this internship and pursuing his dreams.

He left a few days later from LAX for his 9-week Pepperdine summer program. Not very much fun driving in and out of LAX. Palm Springs was a much easier haul. Here are Houston and Indy crossing the sky bridge.

Here they are as they said their goodbyes.

Score time! One of my workers in the store was very interested in the dinnerware that I sell on eBay. Peggy is hysterical and she wanted to see the signature of my "all time hands down" favorite dinnerware brand….Villeroy & Boch. I showed her on a Tuesday. That Saturday, I get a text that has this photo and says "$60 for whole set".

I immediately text back and said, "YES"! I was thinking that she was buying them for herself to sell on eBay and then the next text says, "You want them?" "Yes!”

She also let me know that she was negotiating for a lower price. Later that day Peggy and her twin sister Polly hand delivered the set to me that they had negotiated down to $55. I tried to pay her extra for a finder's fee but she wouldn't take it. OMG, I love Ventura. Not only does stuff walk through the front door to sell, but now my new friends are out at garage sales finding it for me! Doesn't get much better than this .

Here is the piece that sold for the most money. It sold for about 5x my initial investment. Love this story!

Click here to see this auction.

The day that I sold that piece was Cinco de Mayo. A year ago on Cinco de Mayo, everything changed. My dad, aka Papa, passed away from pancreatic cancer. On that day last year, I was scheduled to fly from PSP to BLI at 10:20am, but at 7:20 am my brother called and said, "dad passed away". Cinco de Mayo will never be the same for me or my family again.

Here is one of my favorite photos of my dad to honor him today and every day. He was doing the dishes in our Tudor Lane home.

My dad always wanted to help. He grocery shopped, cooked for the kids, did the dishes, helped me with eBay, drove Houston to baseball practice and Indiana to piano, sorted the garage, etc. etc…

Here is my dad cleaning up my garage and joking around with Houston.

Here is my dad with Indiana after we loaded a bunch of stuff to take to the dump.

My dad loved meeting new people and shooting the breeze. I just know he would have LOVED sitting behind the counter in my new store. I miss him so much! Doesn't seem to be getting any easier. Does it ever?

OK, I have to take a moment to talk about my awesome workers, consignors and customers in the new store. I am beyond blessed to have such a great team in place to make this store tick. We also have so many amazing people that come in to see us every day that it makes this new endeavor such a happy place.

On the first day that we opened, March 1st (in honor of what would have been my dad's 84th birthday), Lloyd and Carol bought a lot of cool stuff for their new home. They had lost their home in the Thomas fire. They purchased two very heavy terracotta planting pots and did not come back to get the 2nd one until May. I don't blame them…it was heavier than a car. Here they are trying to load it into their truck.

But just like last time, they gave up on the heavy lifting and Lloyd just put it on a furniture dolly and walked it across the street to their home . Gotta love Ventura and its people!

And now another score. How hip and 1980's is this Cache jumpsuit that sold for a Best Offer of $300? Do not ever pass up Cache. Such a great brand.

Click here to see this auction.

OK, one more fun story about our customers. On the exact day in May that some chairs got marked down by 40% a young man came into the store and tried to negotiate to get them cheaper. I was like "no way". Already cheap enough. He decided to purchase them and asked me to play along with his story.

Matt let me know that his fiancé Kerry was obsessed with these chairs and that she would be in any minute to purchase them. He asked me to please put sold signs on them and tell her that someone else had just purchased them as he wanted to surprise her.

Well, true to his word, about 40 minutes later Kerry walked in and said, "I am so relieved my chairs are still here" and I was like "what chairs?" and she immediately walked over to the retro chairs that Matty had already purchased. I said "Oh my goodness, I am so sorry but those sold first thing this am." "NO NO" she cried in anguish and literally (and I am not kidding) doubled over in pain.

She walked around the store asking me all sorts of questions. "Did a bald guy buy them?" No, I said. "Who bought them?" I said, "this interior decorator lady that I have never seen before". Kerry wasn't buying it…she said, "are you sure?" I was so convincing that she was heartbroken.

Kerry pulled out her phone and called Matt telling him that the chairs she had been obsessing over all weekend were GONE! After 2 minutes Matt spilled the beans…I could have killed him LOL. Seriously he could have played along for a little bit more.

It was so fun to listen to Kerry on the phone because she was saying "I love you…I hate you...I love you" and then she finally hung up and said, "Lynn you punked me!" Darn straight I did…nothing I love better than a good prank. They are still great customers and come in often. Love these two.

Here they are in my store a few weeks later. All smiles of course.

I have so many great in person customer stories and too many to tell here. I have started adding them to my web site so please check them out at www.lynnsconsignments.com and click on the testimonial tab.

OK, I was on Griff and Lee's eBay radio show earlier this week talking about eBay mistakes. If you missed it, you can find it here.

Here is one of my recent eBay selling mistakes. I sold this tie for a best offer of $9. Not a whole lot but quite the all-American tie wouldn't you say?

Click here to see this auction.

I pulled out the tie bin that it should have been located in and it wasn't there. I asked Bridget to look and she couldn't find it either. Then one day when it wasn't that busy I pulled out every tie bin (I think I have about 300 listed) and touched every single tie. I don't like to let customers down. Could NOT find it so I gave up and refunded their money.

A week later my son posts a photo of himself in Washington DC. He rarely posts so I took some time to check it out.

Here is that post.

Grey Tweed jacket purchased at a thrift store (check), Joshua (LOL) Banks Button Down shirt bought new on eBay (check), but what about the tie? OMG OMG OMG…there is THE tie that I spent HOURS looking for. Hous when you take things home from my eBay stock you MUST take them out of inventory. HaHaHaHa…at least the mystery was solved!

I have had so many surprise visitors since opening the store 3 ½ months ago that I just never know who may walk through that front (or back) door next. One Saturday it was close to closing time and a blonde girl got out of a Mercedes convertible with her husband and walked in through the front door. I looked up from the register and thought, "she looks really familiar". Then it dawned on me…it was Ana Maarse, Hank's wife.

SOOOOO much fun! Hank has been one of my best friends since I met him on an airplane to Madrid back in 1984. Our families have always been close and my dad LOVED Hank. So much fun to have them in my store that I popped a bottle of pink champagne. Life is good in Ventura!

Here are Hank and me in the store and I am holding onto that champagne!

Speaking of champagne, which is most likely French, check out this French Guy Charon limited edition piece of unframed art that I sold for a best offer of $350 and it was shipped back to France.

Click here to see this auction.

For those of you in the LA, Santa Barbara or San Diego areas or anywhere within driving distance, we are accepting consignments daily. Please spread the word for me and please stop in and say hello!

Hope to see more of you soon! But back to eBay and sourcing. The garage sales and estate sales in Ventura are quite sparse. Not like Palm Desert and the Coachella Valley. Typically, in Ventura, garage sales are only held on Saturday and it is quite the challenge to get to as many as I can between 8 am (when they usually start) and 10 am when the store opens.

Here is one that I attended recently that I just had to snap a photo. It was a hoarder's paradise. Unfortunately, this hoarder shopped at big lots and lower end stores. I am still waiting to find a hoarder's sale where they shopped at Gumps and Tiffany's.

Check out the back yard and shed area. Yikes!

Even though most everything was junk, I was able to find a piece of California pottery by Sasha Brastoff.

Click here to see this auction.

In honor of the Fourth of July, we are having a FIREWORK SALE of our teaching products. This SALE will end SOON on the 4th of July at midnight!

Let's celebrate STARTING THE 2nd HALF of the year on the right foot with tools that keep us focused on listing faster and getting more items on eBay for 2018 selling!

Take 33% off everything on our website (except for Antiques from A to Z and Queen's Court memberships.)

Be sure to enter our 33% off coupon code: FIREWORK

Check out all of our products here .

We have included links to some of our more recent and most helpful products, most importantly, the 9 videos in our teaching series.

They are helping many of you to grow your business. That makes me super happy!

Here is a list of the downloadable videos so far.

Remember, each of these is a key step in learning how you can use "Assembly Line Listing" to ramp up your eBay sales and continue 2018 strong!

Be sure to enter our 33% off coupon code: FIREWORK

Don't forget all of our ebooks, like:

Be sure to enter our 33% off coupon code: FIREWORK

And three of our most recent AWESOME teleseminars:

And a download from my 2016 eCom Chicago Presentation.

And the Re-issue of our 3 DVD Set

OK, there are so many more great products and if you can't find what you are looking for, please email me at Lynn@thequeenofauctions.com so I can point you in the right direction!

Happy eBaying! Remember, this 33% off coupon sale will end at midnight on Wednesday, July 4th, 2018.

Time for a score! With world cup soccer being played as we speak, this seems to be a very fitting men's clothing score. Paid $5 for this and it sold for a best offer of $95.00! I LOVE selling men's clothing.

Click here to see this auction.

My mom was here again in May visiting for Mother's Day and my brother Lee even made his first of (hopefully) many treks to Ventura to see the store.

I can't believe we didn't all get a photo with my mom. Ughh! But here is a photo of me and Lee.

On Mother's Day Indiana donated her time as my Mother’s Day gift and we kept the store open for a few hours. It was super fun. Here are Indy, my mom and me behind the counter. Three generations!

The Daily Breeze did an article on our three generations that came out during Mother's Day. How awesome was that? Here is a copy of that article.

It was also really cool how it was placed in the paper because right below it was an ad that featured a display done by Indiana and she is in the photo!

Check it out.

Some of the best news recently was that back in April I had applied to carry Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Yes, you have to apply online and then do a phone interview before your store can be approved to carry the paint. The company that distributes the paint in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand is named Unfolded. I really appreciate the time, thought and research that they put into deciding which stores can become "stockists".

In May, I got the best news…we were approved! So exciting! Lynn's Consignments is now an official "Stockist". How British!

The next step in the process was to fly to New Orleans for new "stockiest" training. I was allowed to bring 3 of my workers with me. Addie, Val and Gina (my next door neighbor and fellow painter of furniture) all made the trek with me.

What a blast! Here we are as we start out on our journey. I had never been to New Orleans and I must say I am a huge fan!

The restaurants were amazing! I think my favorite dinner was at Two Sisters. Here we are at dinner.

The painting workshop was sooooo much fun and we all learned an incredible amount. I have 900 pounds of paint ordered and on its way from New Orleans to Ventura right now as we speak.

Here we are during the workshop.

Here are our fellow classmates along with the Unfolded staff on the staircase.

We stayed in the Ace Hotel in New Orleans and on the morning we were checking out a big black tour bus pulled up and out stepped Adam Levine. Well, my friend Candy has a HUGE crush on him so I pulled out my camera and chased him through the lobby. All I could get was a shot of him turning the corner. Ughh! I tried to get in the elevator with him but his body guards and luggage (including golf clubs) left no room. Oh well, I gave it the old college try.

Here is Adam Levine from the back.

My journey to Ventura and opening the store has been a train (or tour bus) that I could not have stopped if I had wanted. The whole process has really felt like "it was meant to be." Just as we were preparing to head to New Orleans for the training, I got an email from the property management company that handles my store and they had good news, the small studio in the back of my store was empty and available for lease. Meant to be! I snapped it up and it will become our Annie Sloan paint workshop where we will hold classes. Check it out! It will be so cute after we paint the front .

To learn more about Annie Sloan Chalk Paint please check out these two websites.

We will be announcing workshop dates soon! Hope to see you at one in the near future in sunny Ventura !

OK one last score before we wind this up. This one makes me want to go on a vacation! That is not going to happen anytime in the near future. LOL!

This item got a lot of action. I had best offers ranging from $20 to $50 but held out. I took a best offer of $89.95 just yesterday!

Click here to see this auction.

Thanks for reading my ezines! I appreciate it!
Happy eBaying!
Lynn

Lynn Dralle : "The Queen of Auctions"