Hi!

I can’t believe that it is almost June! This year has flown by. Things are finally getting back to normal. Well, as normal as can be expected.

Happy Memorial Day! This was a tough day for my family as we honored and remembered all our service men and women who have given their lives for our country and my little sister Kiki.

Here are the boys at her gravesite.

The boys love the place where their mother has been laid to rest. It has flowing streams, a waterfall and they can run around and celebrate her life. I think it is a wonderful testimony to the joy and love she brought into their lives. Even though she passed away when they were only 3 and 5 years old, she frequently said to me, “This was my mission in life, to raise these two boys through their most difficult first years and give them a good strong foundation”. Well, she certainly did. And I am very proud of her.

It has been a huge month for us as Indy is graduating from Middle School and heading off to High School with her brother—starting in just 2 weeks when they both get to take the same art class at Xavier for summer school. Pretty awesome. Here is a picture of Indy getting ready for graduation.

Let’s start with a score. My favorite thing to do!

I took a best offer for this Majolica piece that I had paid $10 for at an estate sale.

Check out this ebay auction here!

Another score for Indy! She was one of only 12 students at her middle school of 1,300 who got a perfect 4.0 all three years. They gave her the cutest photo of her in the school’s garden and all her teachers signed the margins. Go Indy!

Here is a photo of the award.

Last Friday, my friend Lori and I went to an estate sale in a private gated community. As soon as we gained entrance to the sale, the association shut down the admittance of any more customers through the guard gate.

It was our lucky day! Sandford and Bob (who run an LA estate sale company but were out here on vacation to help a friend) were motivated to move the merchandise. Lori and I thought these guys were hysterical! They cracked us up and we had more fun while buying tons of stuff!

I bought a deviled egg tray and Bob just had to tell me that there were three things Sanford could make….Deviled Eggs, Pigs in a Blanket and Reservations!

Here is that listing for the Deviled Egg tray.

Check out this ebay auction here!

It was a priceless experience . I LOVE being able to go to sales with my friends and family because it makes it soooooo much more fun than going alone.

I know that this can be tricky because sometimes you and your friend OR you and your family member are both looking for the same items. However, I have found that in my 16 years of selling on eBay, the good outweighs the bad. I would much rather that my good friends and family members get the scores than going it alone. I hope that makes sense?

However, I have counseled quite a few Queen’s Court members on when to walk away from a toxic friendship/new friend experience when it turns toxic. YOU MUST WATCH OUT FOR THESE.

Speaking of good friends getting scores…..Lori got this darling pitcher for $1.00 at that estate sale. Always buy this brand! If you have my dinnerware eBook you would already know this.

Check out this ebay auction here!

I got a pile of Asian jade and rose quartz fruit pieces for $10.00. It was our lucky day as they couldn’t let any more customers inside the home!

Here is a piece of that fruit that already has a lot of watchers.

Check out this ebay auction here!

FYI, any piece of fruit in any medium—glass, stone, papier mache, plastic, wood or sequins will ALWAYS sell!

I also got a box full of costume jewelry for $30 with over 30 pieces in it. Nothing was a great find but I do think most of it will sell. There were a lot of Christmas Brooches.

Here is one of the brooches that I have listed that already has quite a few watchers.

Check out this ebay auction here!

For some reason, I just must revisit that HUGE HORRIFIC office move that finally ended on 4/30/13! If you can believe it, I got my entire damage deposit returned to me! That was seriously unbelievable, but I did hire a cleaning crew and left it in awesome condition. However, how often do you get the ENTIRE deposit returned? Not often.

OK, so back to day 29 of the move, just one day before we had to be out. This was almost the end. Believe it or not? I had to share this photo again. It makes me exhausted just looking at it

The reason I show this photo is because I donated about 3 trucks full of slow selling merchandise to one of our local charities. They have just opened a location right down the street from my office and I have NEVER gone inside because I figured most of the items there would be MINE. Well, Indy and I ventured inside today.

Here is a photo of the housewares department.

I was RIGHT!!! About 75% of the items on these shelves I had donated. They were mainly brands and patterns I had bought years ago before I wrote my dinnerware ebook and really figured out what worked and what didn’t. It cracked me and Indy up!

While we were editing the shelves of older listings and getting rid of dinnerware sets and odd pieces, I came across 14 teacups and saucers from Noritake Fine China. That was ALL I had left from the set and from experience….the c/s sets NEVER sell. I considered taking them off eBay and donating them but changed my mind because they were such beautiful pieces and had only been listed for 2 1/2 years.

Guess what sold this morning for full price? 4 of those cup and saucer sets for $102.97. Rock on!

Check out this ebay auction here!

But back to the subject of moving STUFF from one place to another, that is just what we discussed on my most recent eBay radio appearance with Griff and Lee. If you missed it we talk about shoveling “Stuff” and my move. It is pretty funny.

Click here to listen now.

I have to admit that during this interview, the coolest thing that happened was that Griff bought something from me! How awesome is that?

Here is the item that he purchased. It is a wonderful mid-century modern piece!

Click here to view this auction on eBay!

After including this story in the last ezine, I got the coolest email from an ezine reader. I asked him if he would mind sharing his story and he said, “No, of course not, go right ahead”!

Check out this email from Bill….

How cool is that? Seriously, I remember S&H green stamps! How many of you do?

But back to eBay radio, If any of you are planning to attend eBay Radio in Las Vegas this June, I can’t wait to see you. The event is sold out and this is their 10th anniversary. Congrats to eBay Radio!

I will be speaking there, Mo, Indy and Houston should also be in attendance and Diva Dawn has planned a Queen’s Court dinner get together. Doesn’t get much better .

Hope to see many of you in Las Vegas—be ready for an adventure!

OK it is time for another score, and this one was a Goose!

Check out this ebay auction here!

Can you believe how much that Goose sold for? I can’t! Go eBay.

As many of you know, Houston’s nickname is the “Goose” and his team played a baseball tournament over Memorial Day Weekend. The team wore camouflage uniforms in honor of Veterans and the boy’s love of Duck Dynasty.

The boys made it to the semi-finals and did an awesome job! But we spent the entire weekend at the ball field at their school. Unfortunately, there is no cell phone access or internet access there. Hard to get much listing or shipping done . But I did start writing this newsletter.

The weekend before this tournament, we spent in Pasadena. LOVE Pasadena and we were there for one of my best friend’s from USC’s surprise birthday party. Hank Maarse—son of world renown florist Jacob Maarse. His wife Ana was amazing in pulling off this surprise.

I don’t know how she did it but boy did she get him! I had emailed her and asked if it was an adult’s only party or if kids were invited. Ana was so gracious she said “bring your kids as you are coming from so far away”.

The kids and I were very excited to get out of the heat and head to Pasadena/Sierra Madre for the weekend. The party was a HUGE success, tons of fun and on Sunday morning (after the party), Hank and Ana invited us to brunch with their family on our way out of town.

Here we are after the brunch and the funniest part of this photo is that Hank was like “we need a focal point” and he chose a DEAD plant. This coming from one of the most famous floral families in Southern California? OK, we were all laughing….the parents, the kids and it was a great note to end the great weekend with. Happy Birthday Hank!

Speaking of fun, let’s wrap this up with another recent score with an item that was impossible to identify. Well, it wasn’t impossible to identify as we knew it was a thimble, but we couldn’t figure out why there was a hole in one side.

If you remember, I bought a pile of thimbles about 6 months ago for $20. I have sold over $800 worth of those thimbles since then. Awesome!

Here is the thimble that recently sold for a great price.

Check out this ebay auction here!

We were very excited when a helpful eBayer let us know that this thimble was to be used by someone who had a long fingernail or fake fingernails and would need their middle finger nail to hang out the back side. NOW it makes perfect sense!

You may remember this thimble from the bunch of thimbles that I bought and shared with you on the “What 2 Look 4” downloadable video series. If you don’t have this yet, you can learn more here.

Once again, we are very excited and fortunate to be well on our way to having the new office space perfect! We have decided to call it the “shop”. My grandma’s antique store (which was also her home) was known as the “shop” and when my kids walked into the front part of my new office they said “this feels like our house”. It is way homier and cozy like a house or a “shop” instead of a cold and sterile warehouse like “headquarters” so “shop” is the new moniker.

Here is a photo of my new shop!

In any event, I am so excited to be able to share this incredible space with a few of you before the end of the year. We are launching our new “Weekend at Lynn’s” and the response has been incredible. Please watch for more information in an email or email me at Lynn@thequeenofauctions.com to learn more.

O.K. this just in! Indiana got three awards on Wednesday morning. I am so PROUD. She got an award for her contribution to the yearbook (she was the editor), another award for the perfect 4.0 and then another award. The final award was for student of the year!

Here is indy receiving the yearbook award. Sorry for the terrible photo. I was excited for her and was shaking!

The entire teaching staff chooses two graduating boys and two graduating girls for the prestigious “student of the year” award. Indy has had her eye on this award ever since she saw the four kids win it when Houston graduated. After she won the award for yearbook, I was worried about her because I knew that meant she wouldn’t be receiving another award. I was wrong!

When the teachers giving out this award called out “Where is Indiana Wilson?” for “student of the year” I wanted to jump up and down but I didn’t

Indy worked extremely hard and it paid off! One of the teachers read a three page essay written by all of Indy’s teachers about her while she stood beaming on the stage. What an honor! Congratulations to the graduate!

I wasn’t able to get a good photo of her on the stage. Darn it! But here is Indy afterwards still beaming with her friend Giovanni! I love Gio and his family. Indy and Gio have been friends since elementary school and did many school projects together. Gio, was also one of the four select students to win “student of the year”, and I am so PROUD of them both!

OK, just for fun and to end on a crazy note, here is a photo of Indy with all her friends goofing off after the assembly. By the way, Indy has gotten so tall that I did NOT put in the photo of her and I together because she is taller than I am now.

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

Lynn Dralle, 'The Queen of Auctions,'
Creator of the best-selling eBay Boot Camp in a Box.