My dad was in town also for the past 10 days so it has been crazy but fun. The editor of all of my books, Susan Thornberg, happened to be in town visiting her dad who lives here, so last Saturday she wanted to go garage saling with me. It was a blast. At one stop, I asked a lady if she would take less for a set of dishes and she said, “How much are you offering?” I said, “No, you tell me.” So we waited and waited.

Finally, we agreed upon a price and when we got to the car Susan said, “I got to see what you talk about in your books! Never naming the price first, but BOY was that painful to watch!” Too funny. I used to think the same thing when I watched my grandmother practice this rule in the antiques store.

Here are Susan and I at Houston’s middle school RUMMAGE (I love that word) sale with our cart full of goodies.

Here is one of the plates from the dish set I negotiated for. I really thought it would sell for more but I only paid $15 for seven pieces and they all sold–so I did fine.

It was also a hectic couple of weeks as our travel baseball team has changed. Houston is now playing up a year (the boys are year older) for the La Quinta Longhorns under the direction of one of his former (and favorite) coaches Bob Boetto. It was a hard decision to make but one that is best for Houston. He needs to be playing up a year so that he is ready to play in High School.

Here is Houston in his new Longhorn baseball hat at the BP Paribas Tennis tournament last Saturday in Indian Wells.

He and I got to see some incredible tennis. We watched Federer lose to Murray and Nadal beat Roddick. Both of the guys we were rooting for lost but it was still awesome!

Houston will still be going to Cooperstown, NY to play in a major baseball tournament this August with the Palm Desert Mustangs and I am running charity auctions for them this week. Check out more about the eBay auctions in the Lynn recommends section. You won’t believe what I have donated. Even a seat at Live Boot Camp!

Speaking of Live Boot Camp, please check out the special announcement section. The six-part payment plan ends tomorrow, Friday, 3/27. And Live Boot Camp is filling up! There are only nine seats left.

Remember the contest to pick a favorite mom-run business on Startup Nation. The leader has over 16,000 votes and we are sitting at 1,430. The contest ends on March 31st and you would help me greatly if you could try and remember to vote every day until then. Here is the link.

VOTE HERE EVERYDAY

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

I got the most amazing gift in the mail from a Queen’s Court Member, Caroline.

Check out this excerpt from her letter…

The Queen’s Court forum is like a big family, we vent, we laugh, we cry, and we learn. The funny thing is, we all have so much in common. I love learning and can’t get enough. I have learned so much via the Queen’s Court, it is AWESOME.

I have enclosed a painting that I did for you. I have tried to include all the things about you that would bring a smile to your face. This is a gift from my heart. I truly hope you like it. This is my Thank you to you, for creating a forum that helps so many people in so many ways.

I am not alone and feel like I am a part of something so wonderful. I would rather have a little bit of something wonderful, than a whole lot of nothing special.

Thank you kindly,

Carolyn

Carolinescountrykitchen

I LOVE THE PAINTING! Carolyn and Ray (two-time Live Boot Camp graduate) have become friends on the Queen’s Court and Ray sent me the cutest paperweight.

Is it too funny?

Ray writes:

I hope you enjoy this paperweight which so aptly describes you. We are truly blessed to be ‘your loyal subjects’ who adore you. Besides your delightful and bubbly personality, you have willingly shared with us your knowledge and experience to enable us to become successful sellers and make a better life for ourselves. My gratitude for you is inexplicable. May your life be forever blessed!

Ray

SouthernBelleSells

I am the one who is truly blessed to have such wonderful members of The Queen’s Court. I have to tell you I was crying after reading the letters from these two amazing ladies.

The Radio interview with Griff and Lee was just as fun as usual. If you missed it please click here to listen in now. By the way, the “Make do” pitcher that Griff admired is now in his personal collection. We are so thankful to all the help and support he has given us over the years that it was shipped to him right after the show as a gift.

Here is what that “make do” piece looks like.

You will have to listen to the interview to find out what a “make do” piece is and what I learned from Griff on that show!

Finally, we are bringing back the section where you write in with your major scores! Please read The Queen’s Update to hear about an eBay newbie that hits a home run!

Check out the auctions we have going for the Palm Desert Mustangs’ trip to Cooperstown, NY to play in the baseball tournament.

The baseball team is a 501C charity and all proceeds go directly to them.

Here are some of the amazing items you will find when you click on this link: PalmDesertMustangs.com…

All auctions Started Wednesday, March 25th and will end Wednesday, April 1st. Bid often and early.

All Auctions start at just 99 Cents. Thanks Y’all!

‘Souvenir Plates–Something to Remember’

by Lynn Dralle, The Queen of Auctions

At a charity sale at the local Presbyterian Church, I found a pile of souvenir plates from different states and cities. There were 85 plates and they wanted $1.00 each. The ladies in the boutique area recognized me and said, “Here is our best customer who comes every year.”

The best part of the charity event this year, was that my friend Coco who sells as PalmDesertAuctions, had sent me an email about the sale. It wasn’t in the paper and they were going to have a pre-sale on a Friday afternoon (4:00 to 6:00) for a $5.00 entry fee. Melanie was in town and we arrived to the sale at about 5 pm. Thanks to Coco for the tip!

All the souvenir plates were made by Vernon Kilns. I asked the ladies if I bought them all if they would give me a great deal. They counted them all up and there were 85 of them. How about $60.00? Sold! They cost me 70 cents each and I knew that I would get at least $9.99 for each one.

When I checked on PriceMiner, the Vernon souvenir plate that sold for the most money was one from Trader Vic’s in Hawaii (one of my favorite restaurants). It sold for $305. Another interesting souvenir plate that sold for $184.00 was one from Tyler Texas. The reason that it sold for so much was that it was a multi-color and you can see that all the ones I bought were single colors.

Here is a Vernon collector’s plate that sold on eBay recently. It fetched a pretty good price. Probably because the subject matter is so interesting, an Oregon Rodeo.

See the auction here.

Now some information about Vernon who made all the plates. Vernon Kilns was originally Poxon China Company that started in Vernon, California in 1916. In 1931, Faye G. Bennison bought Poxon and continued to use Poxon shapes until an earthquake in 1933.

By the way, we had a 4.7 earthquake this morning at 5 am near the Salton Sea. It wasn’t too bad. Indy slept through it but Houston’s baseball medals were swinging around and woke him up. But I digress (as usual!)

After 1933, Bennison started to develop original shapes. More disaster struck in the 1940s with two fires. The Company almost didn’t survive this devastation, but they forged on. Faye Bennison rebuilt and Vernon continued to flourish.

In 1942, Metlox purchased the company, and still continued to produce patterns under the Vernonware name until 1989. Metlox shut its doors in 1989 due to the influx of Japanese imports. They just couldn’t compete.

I had always wondered why on Replacements it is Metlox/Vernon/Poppy Trail. Metlox started in 1927 in Manhattan Beach, CA and really grew when they bought Vernon in 1942. Turns out that Poppy Trail was a line of dinnerware that the Metlox company launched in the 1930s. There were 15 different colors in the line–the pastels and then the bright hues.

Vernon Kilns produced many different products that were made of earthenware, using clays from North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and even England. Glazes were made from minerals in local California mines. One of Vernon Kiln’s major lines was these Collector’s Plates.

During their 67-year existence, Vernon/Metlox made hundreds of Collector’s Plates in a lot of different designs. The plates are often characterized by a prominent element, surrounded by related scenes. They made a wide variety of plates that featured events, places and celebrities, which made them fun to collect.

An exhibit of Vernon Kilns commemorative plates.

Most plates were blue, brown or maroon with a cream background. In 1953, hand tinted colors were added, which made them even more desirable and costly. Be on the lookout for mid-1950s plates depicting the Vernon Plant. These were given to employees and are more rare than others.

Most Vernon collector’s plates sell from $10.00 to $100.00. Replacements has quite a lot of these plates listed and most are in the $29.99 to $39.99 range.

My plate that sold for the most was the Houston, Texas skyline from 1950. I have to admit that I considered keeping this one because of my son Houston and the fact that my grandmother started her antique store in 1950. But do I really need more stuff? NO.

Here is that auction.

I ended up selling 19 of my souvenir plates at auction for a total of $197.16. Not bad for a $60 investment and I have 66 plates left that will be listed in my eBay store at $9.99 to $14.99 each. That will eventually net me another $659.34 (at $9.99 each) for a total return of $856.50. Wow! That is an almost $800 gross profit.

I am actually surprised that more of my plates didn’t sell for much over the $9.99 starting bid. Out of 85 you would think that one of them would have been a winner. Oh well!

Here is another one that did sell for more than $9.99 and I had high hopes for it. The plate was from a boy’s summer camp in Indiana and 36 people viewed the auction.

Here is the Indiana auction.

Funny how my two best plates were from such special places–one from Houston and one from Indiana!

Remember, when you can buy huge collections at great prices, you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain! Just make sure that the item is collectible and that it something you can get listed quickly.

Happy eBaying!

Lynn