MoreHappy New Year
Hi!
Happy New Year! How cool is it that my first ezine of 2009 falls on New Years Day?
In This Issue…
- Lynn Recommends: Live Boot Camp
- Special Announcement: The Queen’s Court Christmas Gift
- Feature Article: Sometimes you have to Trust your Instincts
- The Queen’s Update: Our 46th 100 Best Story from YOU
This ezine is published every two weeks.
January 1, 2009 Volume V, Issue 1
Dear eBayers,
It’s been a crazy past two weeks. As I am sure it has been for most of us! I went out to thrift stores on Saturday the 20th with Indy and my friend Joel Elad, since there were no garage sales. I found a great set of Adirondack dishes for 1/2 price at the Goodwill. For the $7.50 purchase price I got 25 $9.99 auctions. Pretty cool! Check out one of the auctions for one of the dinner plates that sold. I want to mention this because a lot of us don’t bother with the Goodwill or Salvation Army and I found a ton of great stuff at our Goodwill. You just never know.
Here is one of my Studio Nova Adirondack Dinner Plates that sold at Auction.
I also got this really neat Nativity set at the same Goodwill
for 99 cents. Nativity sets sell and they sell year ’round!
Click here to see the auction.
At one of the other thrift stores, Indy spotted a vintage tumbler that said Sharon.
Here it is for sale.
And then right behind it I see one that says Wayne
. What a strange coincidence! Or is it?
Here is that one for sale.
You see, those are the names of my mom and dad who were once married and now divorced. Indy and I thought it was such a strange coincidence. Maybe my parents are meant to be still married? (Or not.) I am going to go with the “or not” and that is why I am selling the tumblers.
Speaking of my dad, Wayne, he was here for 10 days. It was great to have him in town and he helps out so much. He is always saying “What are you going to do when I leave?” and I say “Beg you to come back as soon as possible.”
Unfortunately, when he flew out of here on Saturday the 20th, he got diverted to Eugene, Oregon instead of landing in Bellingham, Washington (because of all the snow). My mom and sister were housebound because of the snow for a week in Bellingham. What a nightmare! My poor dad sat in the Eugene airport from 11 pm to 1 pm the next day. I felt so sorry for him. I know that many of you are also experiencing terrible weather and I hope it improves soon! But at least while you are housebound you can be listing, listing and listing some more.
As you read this, I will be watching my USC Trojans playing in the Rose Bowl. Wish us luck!
There are just 15 seats left for our one and only Live eBay Boot Camp of the year. Read more about it in the Lynn Recommends section.
In the special announcement section, I share with you what the Queen’s Court members’ Christmas Gift was and the challenge to my Inner Circle members. I think it is going to be fun!
Finally, I was having a hard time thinking of a feature article
for this week, when a lesson I learned this past November dawned on me. You can’t always trust the “experts” and one thing I remember the most about my grandmother was that she always said she “was NOT an expert.” She knew a lot about a lot of different antiques but she never trusted anyone who claimed to be an “expert”. Please don’t miss my Feature Article, “Sometime you have to trust your instincts.”
My grandmother definitely was NOT an expert in hair styling. No wonder I am cracking up as she tried to roll my hair!
Finally, we are bringing back the section
where you write in with your major scores! Please read The Queen’s Update to hear about Patsy’s great story about a robe and gown that made her jaw drop.
Happy eBaying,
Lynn Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions,’ Creator of the best-selling
eBay Boot Camp in a Box and Boot Camp in a Box Lite.
Many of you have called or emailed to find out when our ONLY Live Boot Camp of 2009 is going to be. We have confirmed our dates and it is going to be Friday, August 28th, Saturday August 29th and Sunday August 30th at the world famous La Quinta Resort! If you can believe it, there are only 15 seats left! And five of the nine who are coming are return students. Too much fun!
By holding it the last weekend in August, we were able to negotiate super great room rates for all you future students and the resort will not be very crowded. We will also be able to get the meeting rooms that we want.
Here are my 2007 Graduates!
Don’t you want to be running with us next year? I want to see you in La Quinta. Please let us know if you didn’t receive your special invitation. Contact us here.
The Queen’s Court Christmas Gift
The Queen’s Court members get a special little gift every month. It is just one of the perks of being a member. This month, I decided to do something a little different. Here is an excerpt from the letter that went out to my members…
Dear Queen’s Court Member,
Happy Holidays!
This year has been such a great experience for the Court. I feel that we have all learned, shared and made some great friendships. I just want to tell you how grateful I am for you!
Your gift for December is unique. I wanted to give you something that you could sell on eBay and wanted there to be a chance of a score (kind of like the golden ticket from Willy Wonka).
Then I remembered that I had purchased a 600 piece estate collection of books three years ago. I had only listed 100 of the books and the rest were in my garage. When we ran out of storage room, Mo suggested we fill my empty freezer with the rest. Doesn’t that sound just like Mo?
Your Christmas gift is coming out of deep freeze! (I wish the rest of the country comes out of deep freeze soon also!) Out of the many books that we randomly shipped out, I am hoping that at least one will be a score (or bingo as Mo calls it) and will sell for $50 to $100.
Lee is making a special posting area
so that we can share our eBay item numbers and I have given Mo, myself and Carmen books also–so that we can participate. It will be fun to see what happens.
Remember, if it doesn’t sell at auction, it will eventually sell from your eBay store. I am suggesting we all start our books at $9.99 and see what happens.
Here is my book. Let’s hope it sells!
If you have recently joined The Queen’s Court or join today and did not make it onto our December Gift list (we printed labels on the 18th)–please email us here and we will send you a book asap.
‘Sometimes you have to Trust your Instincts’
by Lynn Dralle, The Queen of Auctions
This past November I was at an estate sale. I had bought a few things and was getting ready to leave when I spotted a beautiful vase in the garage. It obviously had lived a pretty hard life and had held a lot of flowers over the years, but there was just something about it that drew me closer.
Here is a close up of the vase.
My grandmother always said you can tell quality and this was quality. Cheryl Leaf also used to say, “If it was a quality piece when it was made, it will be a quality piece 100 years from now.” My grandmother only collected quality items and when I saw this vase, I just knew it could have been something I would have seen in one of her cabinets growing up.
I turned over the vase (which was marked $5) and couldn’t believe it when I saw the Rookwood signature. I immediately got goosebumps.
Here is a picture of that signature.
The Rookwood Pottery signature is a Backwards R attached to a P
–called their monogram signature. You can date a piece of Rookwood by looking at the candle flames above the signature and also looking for a roman numeral incised into the base.
The monogram signature was first used in 1886
(but remember the company was founded in 1880), and a flame was added around the symbol every year after until 14 flames were there and it was 1900. From 1900 on, the year was incised in the base in Roman numerals. I could tell from my signature that because there were 14 flames and a roman numeral IX (nine) that this piece was from 1909. Wow! As I write this article, that vase is exactly 100 years old!
I think my Grandma is helping me out with my writer’s block this week for many reasons. The first reason is her saying that “a quality item is quality when made and will still be quality 100 years from now!” And the fact that Rookwood was started and owned by a woman named Maria Longworth Nichols. Maria began the business in an old schoolhouse that her father bought for her and she named it Rookwood after her family’s country estate.
Maria was one of the high society women in Cincinnati, Ohio who in the late 1800s painted china blanks as a hobby. Rookwood started out as a sanctuary in 1880 for talented artistic women but soon turned into a well respected business. Rookwood was one of the first companies in America to be owned and operated by a woman. My grandmother was also a pioneer like Maria and was one of the first women to own and operate her own antiques store back in 1950.
After 1914, Rookwood began marking their pieces with the color or type of clay. Examples: P stood for soft porcelain, S for a special piece, Z for a matte glaze and a V for Vellum glazes. A trial piece was marked with a T and seconds were marked with an X. My piece was earlier than 1914, so did not have any of these marks.
Shape numbers and size letters were also used over the years. The style number of my vase was 952 and the Size was an E. The Sizes ranged from A being the largest to F being the smallest, so my vase was the second to the smallest size in this cylindrical shape.
Artist’s ciphers (or signatures) were found on the best pieces and the cipher on mine appeared to be a CE. Could it possibly stand for Cheryl Eldonna (my grandmother’s first and middle names)? Couldn’t name any of my kids that middle name–that is for sure!
Anyway, the CE that I could make out turned out to really be a CS that stood for Caroline Frances Steinle (Carrie). She was one of Rookwood’s famous artists (although it started out with just women, many men were eventually employed by the company). The famous Rookwood artists would sign their pieces differently. Some incised on the base like Carrie, and other signed with their initials within the pattern on the side of the piece.
Pretty fascinating isn’t it?
I knew that my grandmother had only ever been able to buy two pieces of Rookwood in her 50 years of being in the business and that those two pieces stayed in her private collection. She loved quality! I also knew that Rookwood pieces in perfect condition could sell in the $1,000 range. As you can see from this close up shot, my vase had definitely been used to hold flowers and from the earlier photo–it had quite a bit of crazing. I knew this vase wasn’t going to sell in the $1,000 range.
I did my research but didn’t feel comfortable listing it without knowing more. I decided to pay for an online appraisal. There are many companies offering these now and I think they are a really neat idea. I took my photos, did my write up and sent off the info with my $11.95 Paypal payment. Then I sat around and twiddled my thumbs. Just kidding, I got back to listing other stuff on eBay but I have to admit, I couldn’t wait to see what the appraiser had to say.
The appraisal came by email the next day. I had already figured out most of it and it didn’t really tell me anything else about the piece. What I was really paying for was the valuation. I wanted to know what I should start this auction at and if I should use a reserve.
I was a little disappointed when the appraisal came in with the value at $100 IF IN PERFECT condition. Well, I didn’t agree and that is why I wrote this article—you have to trust your gut reaction. I went with my instinct and started the auction at $99.00. I think you will all be very surprised to see what it ended up selling for.
Click here to see the final price. Score!
I still value the $12 I spent on the appraisal because it did help me establish a starting price and it made me feel confident that anything I got over the $99 starting bid price was gravy. I got quite a bit of gravy from this vase!!!
Also, the appraiser was very nice, and said that she, “would love to go shopping with me.” I bet she would! And those of you who are attending Live eBay Boot Camp this year (yes it is 2009!) will get that chance to go shopping with me. Can’t wait!
The appraiser also said that the pottery works is now the Rookwood Pottery Restaurant. We both agreed that this is a very sad ending to one of America’s top makers of fine quality art pottery.
You see once Maria Longworth Nichols married (she became Mrs. Bellamy Storer, Jr) she lost interest in the business. Fortunately, she had hired a very talented manager, William Watts Taylor in 1883 and he was responsible for Rookwood being sold in stores like Tiffany and other fine department stores. While many of the pieces were done by famous artists like my Carrie Steinle vase, Rookwood eventually employed 225 workers that made production pieces. These are not typically worth as much as one with a well known artist’s signature.
Rookwood also became very famous for their architectural tile. The Great Depression (less discretionary income) is what really brought down the company and in 1941 they filed for bankruptcy. Many people tried to save the company, but Rookwood closed their doors in 1960. The original molds were purchased by a Michigan dentist in 1983.
Even though Rookwood is no longer in business, just like my grandmother’s antique store, the legacy of both women lives on.
My Grandma
I hope that you find a piece of Rookwood pottery in your treasure hunting!
As I just now finished proofreading this article, I saw an email come in that I had received a $275.00 Paypal payment. I had to jump over to my email in box to see what in the world I had sold for so much money! I was amazed to see that I had just sold seven dinner plates at $34.99 each.
See the eBay store page here.
I wanted to share this with you to give you hope for 2009. I know that the last part of 2008 has been tough and a little scary, but I only see good things for all of us in 2009–both on eBay and off. Here’s to a Happy New Year and a very Prosperous 2009 for all of you!!!
Happy eBaying!
Lynn
I am happy to present our 46th story for The 100 Best Things
You’ve Bought or Sold on eBay! Patsy has a great story about a robe and gown that made her jaw drop. Click below to read…
Click here to read the story…
Please patronize Patsy’s auctions (pakrat3) and make her business this year even better. Thanks! 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 PowerSeller 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
Visit my eBay Store.Visit my eBay auctions.For more great eBay tips and stories, visit my web site at:
http://www.thequeenofauctions.com
Lynn is an experienced eBay Power Seller, author and teacher. If you want to know the eBay tips, tricks and tools that Lynn uses for buying and selling at online auction click here.
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