BLOGAHOMA

The priciest thing I owned as a child was my glasses. True they were clinic glasses those semi transparent orange-ish/ pinkish generic frame but most everything else in my little life was second hand. I didn’t hate them as when I finally put them on at age four because I was no longer walking into walls or tripping down stairs, however, once I hit school age I realize quickly that the kids that wore the same frame were marked as “clinic kids” or needy.  By high school I was going to a local ophthalmologist and able to choose my own frames keeping price in mind.

Contact lenses were never an option for my monocular, amblyopic, astigmatic, farsighted vision I then need to really like my frames. Before the Internet you had to trust that your eye doctor had interesting frames. That didn’t happen until I went to Dr. Robert Sunkle in 1978 that got in trendy eyewear for artists such as my husband and myself. And it didn’t hurt that Doc was friend and neighbor and would deliver the new frames to your home. One of my favorite frames of that era is the Silhouette steam-punk style frame I selected in 1980.  I wore them off and on for 8 years. I keep them for the time that I will put a new prescription in it. Then the wonderful world of eBay and e-market opened up a whole world of selection. The last four frames I purchased through eBay. One of my all time favorites was a rectangular matte silver pair by Prada and I would still be wearing them if it wasn’t for an unfortunate tumble I took that blackened my eye and broke the frame arm rendering them unwearable.

Three weeks ago I went completely madcap and purchased “new old stock” modified cat-eye shaped ORANGE frames on a “buy it now” on eBay. Aptly named “Vivacious” and made by the American Optical Co they are stand outs. No sense being timid at 66. Orange is my favorite color after all. They are bound to clash with some of my clothes but that’s the way it goes. I’d have a second neutral pair if I could but my lenses alone are over $250. A second pair is not an option for me. Going vintage has an advantage if you want to stand out in a crowd because you won’t see yourself coming and going. Today I surfed the net I found the oversized, modified cat-eye frame is back. These retro frames sell at 3 times what I paid from mine. Do I wish I had “good” eyes? YES, a thousand times, YES, but by being very choosy about my frames I have made the best of a less than perfect situation.

Stapler Attachment
I started collecting staplers in earnest about July 28th 2009. At first it was ohlala look at this cool EM 230 Paris agrafeuse on Ebay and it’s so French! There was an identical one up but in red and they were asking $99 so I went for the one that was $8! Really! (Note the red one is still sitting there a year later.) And that is how it all started. I had bought staplers in the past then resold on Ebay wanting the whole time to keep them but then who needs more than one stapler? So how do I justify collecting them? Who wants to know? There are so many layers to collecting staplers. I love layers. Here are the dozen layers I have discovered: Maker, Type, Country, Year, Style, Inventor, Patent, Size, Material, Rarity, Color, Variation. So of course I have a database because I can. I use Bento for its visual appeal. But when all my best rationalizations for collecting stapling machines fail I pull out the art card. That’s right art doesn’t need a reason. I create Photoshop images and 3D animations and am currently working on stapler coveralls and a “This is Not Stapler” t shirt. Happy tangents to you!

I like the surprises doing a new thing brings. I now have invented ways to clean these little buggers. I have passed on this knowledge to other fledgling collectors when asked. Stapler collectors, I have discovered, tend to be detail and design fanatics which is ropes me in. Another enlightenment to me is their mechanical workings which, unlike newer gadgets like ipods and cellphones that leave me in the dark, the stapler can be understood one spring, one plunger, one anvil at a time. I now have stable of staplers numbering over 50 almost enough for a Stapler a Week (a great non-threatening stapler website BTW). I might just stay at 52. I have sold off ones I didn’t particularly like for various reasons. Not just dupes mind you. I like some staplers more than others like the Jakyneuf Agrafeuse which I just have to say “aucun merci” the next time it comes up for auction.  I’ve learned stapler in German (Hefter) and French which is pretty useless but fun nonetheless. And have come to realize that a package shipped from France can take 2 months but it will arrive. I’ve taken my staplers of interest to the Park Tavern for show and tell and on Facebook for the socialization. Because it’s NOT true “If you seen one stapler you’ve seen them all”.

June 3, 1997 began my stint at ebay. It was very early in the game actually before Meg Whitman started! I’m not sure how I found the site but it was quite intriguing. I remembering someone selling a bar of soap with Jesus’ face on it. It sold but not to me. My first purchase was a Rubber Baby Buddha designed by Rose O’Neill of Kewpie fame. A squeaky toy that I learned later was named “Happy Ho Ho” created in 1940.  I payed the starting price of $9 (I was the only bidder) its now worth around $60. Pretty happy with my purchase I decided to sell. We had an old Camel cigarette can from the 30’s that someone had left in our first home, a 1906 late Victorian. We kept pennies in it for years but I photographed it, scanned in the photo (before digitals were affordable) and put it up starting at a penny for the fun of it. It ended at $51. Amazed I asked the guy he would pay that much and he said he would have payed $80. I knew then that this was my game. Part time of course. It also allowed me to buy things, as I haunted the antique shops, that I did not collect but liked enough to sell.

I am not, by the traditional sense of the word, a gambler but ebay is gambling and not for the faint of heart. It’s more than just chance however. To do it right it takes an eye, knowledge and research, decent photographic skills, marketing and follow-up (my husband handles the after sales including shipping). Selling at first was a whim and then it became an income when I was laid off my job. It helped buy the house I live in, helped pay for my daughter’s education, and buy the groceries for a while. Now after thousands of transactions I don’t need to sell but I am back for the fun of it trading out collections for the fun of it. We’ve sold estates and remainders of a closed pawn shop auctioning only antiques, collectibles and art. Hankies, guitars, Kiowa paintings, pottery, furniture and vintage cars have left from here to points where they are appreciated most the time in the US and Canada but also to Europe as well.

So when I buy a photo album for $35 and sell one of the pictures for $400, buy a hanky for $50 and sell it for $140, a tin pail for $70 and sell it for $400 it’s all worth it. Sometimes is not the high price that it goes for it is the thrill of someone receiving it on the other end who’s been looking for IT for a long time.  Oh, our rating, well it’s 100%.

Times Up on Ebay