MoreHi!
As you read this I am setting up for my only Live Boot Camp of the year. Wish you were here! This was a week of reflection as we honored those who lost their lives on 9/11.
- Lynn Recommends: eBay Shipping Made Easy DVD
- Special Announcement: The Best of eBay III
- Feature Article: Fenton Glass Shuts its Doors
- The Queen’s Update: Our 29th 100 Best Story from YOU
This ezine is published once a week.
September 13, 2007 Volume III, Issue 35
Dear eBayers,
I feel sad this week as we remember those who lost their lives on 9/11. We watched the Extreme Home Makeover 9/11 edition and all cried on Sunday. My heart goes out to all of those whose lives were changed forever by this event.
My entire week was spent preparing for my only Live Boot Camp of the year. I take this event very seriously and put my entire heart and soul into it. We will have an update for you in next week’s ezine but I know it is going to be a blast and a huge success!
By the way, I ended up selling 18 of those 1980s band pins last week for a total of $96.50. Pretty exciting! And I still have about 55 of them left to put right into my store at a fixed price. I think that they will all sell this holiday season. Here is a photo of the pin that sold for the most.
Simple Minds enamel pin.
Click here to see what it sold for.
Some of you may not have seen the email this week for the best of eBay 3 put together by eBayer Dave Lovelace. If you didn’t see that email, please read the Lynn Recommends section to learn more. This incredible offer ends on Wednesday at noon PDT. You won’t believe what I have given as my product offer!
While out garage saling on Saturday, we found the most perfect desk for Indy’s room. It was huge and only $75.00. I really wanted to buy it for her but didn’t think it would fit into her room and how was I ever going to get it home? As we were driving away, my mom goes, “Ask them if they will deliver it.” I said, “OK,” and thought to myself that if they will deliver it–we will make it work.
I couldn’t believe it but the guys said, “No problem–we will deliver it.” I paid the $75.00 and gave them an extra $5 for gas. When we got home from garage saling, there it was in my driveway! What a score!
Here is a picture of the desk with built-in bulletin board, light and computer drawer. I will share a picture with you later of how she decorates it. She can’t wait to put her WebKinz on the upper shelves.
The reason I wanted to mention this to you is that you shouldn’t always just be looking for eBay items. When you are out garage saling don’t forget to look for items to decorate your home. You can find some incredible bargains! That desk would have cost me $500 in a traditional retail establishment. I never pay full retail anymore! And you shouldn’t either!
Speaking of being sad and retrospective this week because of 9/11, my feature article is about the Fenton Art Glass Company that is shutting its doors on September 30th after 102 years in business. This makes me upset because my grandmother used to carry Fenton in the gift department of her antique and gift store starting way back in 1950 and I have a lot of memories tied to Fenton. Don’t miss this article.
And don’t forget to check out the Lynn Recommends section because my eBay Shipping Made Easy DVD is ready for sale. It can save you 100s of dollars in costly shipping mistakes. I am so excited to get this sent out to you! The pre-order special pricing ends Thursday the 20th at midnight when they will start shipping.
This week we have another great story about the things you all have sold on eBay. Read below to hear the story of a dumpster salvage turning into big bucks.
Here’s to Successful eBaying!
Lynn Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions,’ Creator of the best-selling eBay Boot Camp in a Box.
Check out this email that I received recently:
“Lynn, I have been having problems with eBay’s shipping calculator. I have been losing money by paying out of my own pocket for extra shipping charges. How can I avoid this?” – David
It seems like the majority of questions that I get asked are mostly about shipping. It can really make or break your business. A successful shipping department can make a big difference in your bottom line. Click here to preorder now. The price will increase by $10 on Thursday, September 20th. So order now.
We are announcing a new series of instructional DVDs: The Queen’s Academy. The first one is about what I consider one of the most important cornerstones of your eBay business–shipping. This shipping DVD turned out great! It was a lot of fun to shoot. I am really excited to share all this great information in a visual format. It is very difficult to teach how to ship without showing the steps. The DVD is about 50 minutes long and comes with a lot of back up information on my web site. Click here for special introductory pricing.
You will receive the DVD with nearly an hour of practical, hands-on instruction and as an added bonus you will receive access to:
- My International shipping rate cheat sheet
- Supplemental information to download from a special web site.
The shipping chart alone can save you hours every week. And we all know that time is money.
Don’t forget, if you are a member of the Queen’s Court, use the coupon you will find in the forums to receive your 15% discount to the already low preorder price.
I am confident that this dvd will help you save money on costly shipping mistakes!
If you missed my email on Monday with details about Dave Lovelace’s Best of eBay III, I am happy to report that it is still available at a great price until Friday, 9/14. Click here.
Every year for ten days only, Dave gathers the top eBay Gurus together and asks them to contribute their best products. He then bundles them together and offers them to you at a super price. In fact, you will get one of my products that retails for $99.95, the bundle price is less than that if you order today or tomorrow!
And in addition, you get products from these other top eBay gurus:
- Mike Enos
- Jim C0ckrum
- Jason James
- Dave Lovelace
- John Thornhill
- Tim Knox
- Alex Jeffreys
- Dave Guindon
- Andrew Lock
- Sandy Hall
- Lee McIntyre
- Chad Maslak
- Chris Vendilli
The product value totals over $699. I encourage you to check it out here.
‘Fenton Glass Shuts its Doors‘
by Lynn A. Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions’
When my Antique Trader arrived on August 29th, I couldn’t believe one of the feature articles, “Fenton Art Glass Meltdown” was the title. I read with sadness that the 102-year-old company would stop taking orders on August 31st. I immediately called the order department to see if I could place a last minute order to help save the company. My last order had been in 2004 and unfortunately, no one called me back.
I learned all about Fenton Art Glass when I was about 6 years old. I would be visiting my grandmother and of course, she would put me right to work. I loved it when the big Fenton shipping boxes would arrive with their brown oval signature on the sides.
She would let me carefully unpack each item from its brown box and place it on the gift shelves that ran the front length of the shop’s side window. Fenton items always came in their own specially sized brown box. We would keep those boxes to use later for shipping and packing. Each item always had a price tag already on it–straight from the factory–which made this a very easy job for a six year old. I loved arranging the colorful glass pieces in a beautiful display.
Fenton didn’t start actually signing their items until 1973, so don’t overlook anything that appears to be Fenton Art Glass just because it isn’t signed.
As a kid, I remember Fenton as specializing in small animal figurines, their famous boots and shoes, Burmese glass, Gone With the Wind lamps and white milk glass hobnail.
When I was doing my research for this article, I couldn’t believe that a piece of white Fenton hobnail sold for an incredible amount of money. It was a chip ‘n’ dip tray that was only made for one year – 1970. Check it out: click here to see what it sold for.
In the 1970s Fenton joined the collector plate craze and my grandmother was probably one of their best dealers in the country! We had 1000s of Fenton plates in carnival, blue satin and white satin in our fireproof basement room for years (The Tank, as some of you may recall). They all came in brown or white boxes with a free wooden plate stand. Well, my grandmother was no dummy (as she would say) and she made us pull out all of those wooden plate stands to sell separately.
Here is a photo of what those plate stands look like. If you notice in almost all of my auctions that have plates in stands–they are in the Fenton brown wood stands! We used to sell these for $1.95 in our antique store. Now, I keep every single one I find in the boxes I inherited! To me, they are priceless.
Here a photo of a Fenton blue satin mothers day plate that I bought at an estate sale recently and just sold. Click here to read for how much.
You can’t miss if you pick up these collector’s plates for $1 to $2 each.
In later years, Fenton really got into the hand painting of limited edition pieces and in 1994 they launched a family series that was featured on QVC.
Let’s take a quick look at Fenton’s long and wonderful history. The company was founded in 1905 by Frank L. Fenton and his brother John W. Fenton in Martins Ferry, Ohio. They began by buying glass blanks from other factories and hand painting on those blanks. They moved the factory to Williamstown, West Virginia when they decided to produce their own glass. The first pieces were made on January 2, 1907.
From 1905 to 1920, Fenton was influenced by the art glass kings–Tiffany and Steuben. Do you remember story #73 from the 1st 100 Best? Here is a photo of that vase.
I thought that this piece that I inherited from my grandmother might have been Fenton. Click here to buy the 100 Best Things downloadable ebook if you don’t have it already, because you won’t believe what this sold for.
In 1907, Fenton introduced its iridescent glass, now known as carnival. Check out this extremely rare Fenton carnival bowl that sold in the $1,000s. Click here to read more about it.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Fenton survived by going after the utilitarian market–producing bowls and tableware to survive the Depression and its aftermath.
Around 1950 (the year my grandmother opened her store), the top three members of Fenton management passed away. This left Frank Fenton (only 33) and Bill Fenton (only 25) to take over the company. These men did such a great job and led the factory over the next 30 years to a pinnacle of success.
In 1986, the 3rd generation, George Fenton, took over the business. There were nine other Fenton family members employed by the company along with 150 other employees that all worked incredibly hard to produce the amazing handmade art glass that is collected by connoisseurs around the world.
In the article I read about Fenton going out of business, still reigning company president, George Fenton blamed foreign competition, rising fuel prices and changing tastes of the middle class. I would also like to add my two cents. I think that the Internet and eBay also played a role in the company’s demise. Fenton would not allow any of its dealers to sell on eBay below their published suggested retail prices.
This issue is always a delicate subject for me. I know that because of eBay, I don’t have to have an open store anymore and that I can work from anywhere in the world. This is an incredible gift. However, on the other hand, I miss having my grandmother’s antique store where we all used to gather and hang out. eBay and the Internet have given me tremendous opportunities but they have also taken away many of the small mom & pop local businesses. It is both a blessing and a curse.
In a quote from the Antique Trader article, Scott Fenton said in 2006, “We sold to twice as many storefronts a few years ago, and our primary focus right now is how to get the market shifted back there….The mom-and-pop antique and gift shops–although still out there and we are doing well with many of them–there just aren’t as many as before.” Just what I thought.
I am extremely sad to see any long-standing American business have to shut its doors. Especially one that I feel such a personal connection to. However, I do think that Fenton pieces will certainly increase in value in the future and I encourage all of you to be on the look out for Fenton pieces.
We have sold Fenton catalogs for good money on eBay. Can you even imagine what the older catalogs and pieces will sell for in the future?
Buy some books on Fenton and increase your knowledge. Knowledge is money on and off eBay.
My best to the Fenton family and their wonderful contribution over the years to the world of art glass. An American tradition has come to an end. You will be missed.
Happy eBaying!
Lynn
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I am happy to present our 29th story for The 100 Best Things You’ve Bought or Sold on eBay! Read below to hear the story of a dumpster salvage that pays off. Click below to read…
A big thanks to everyone who has already submitted a story! We are looking for more great stories of your eBay adventures. We know there are many great tales out there, so please submit your story along the lines of the stories from the 100 Best Books and a great side story with photos will help. If we use your story, you will receive a $35 merchandise credit on my web site and you will have your story featured–along with your user ID–in my ezine! It may also eventually end up in a published book!
By the way, when I mention my ezine readers’ user IDs with links to their auctions–it actually helps their sales! Amazing how that works. Click here for the guidelines for submitting your stories.
eBay Power Seller and third generation antiques dealer, Lynn Dralle, is the creator of Boot Camp in a Box, the home-study course where you can learn to implement the Dralle Method to maximize your eBay profits.
If you liked today’s issue, you’ll love this step-by-step course that is guaranteed to be the most complete and enjoyable guide to selling on eBay that MAKES YOU MONEY.
Read all about it here.
The Queen of Auctions also offers articles, teleseminars, how-to books, tracking guides, DVDs, eBay Boot Camp training and other resources to help entrepreneurs make their eBay business a six-figure sales machine. Click here to learn more.
The Queen of Auctions/All Aboard Inc.
PO Box 14103
Palm Desert, CA 92255
760-340-6622
Lynn@TheQueenofAuctions.com
Happy eBaying!!
Lynn
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