Online Photos

Have you thought about selling off some of the items that you have around the house?  If the answer is yes, how do you go about getting the photos to the online selling site like eBay or Etsy?

You must have a digital camera.  There are many options on the market, like a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex camera that has interchangeable lenses) or even a point and shoot digital camera.

Any digital camera will give you the ability to upload photos to a selling site.

The site that you choose for selling your item will have instructions for listing and uploading your pictures.  If you are familiar with uploading pictures to a blog, it's always a very similar procedure.

Selling sites make all of this very easy.  Don't be afraid to try your hand at online selling.

My tip to you is this:  your computer has a limited amount of room to store your pictures, and the pictures can be pretty large (especially if they come from a DSLR camera).  If I were you, I would be sure to back up all of them.

A Truly Special Find

You don’t get any better than this in the collectible world:  thanks to shows like American Pickers, porcelain signs are quickly becoming one of the most sought-after antiques.

This one-sided Mobilgas gas pump sign, which I recently listed on TIAS, is a perfect way to get in on the craze.

Most of the porcelain signs I run into are so big, they literally need an 18-wheeler to transport, and a barn to hang on.  But at 12 ½ by 12 inches—that’s inches, not feet—this Mobilgas sign is the perfect way to begin collecting signs.  It would make a great addition to a garage, or over a bar, a little boy’s room, or in a man cave.

A pump featuring a similar Mobilgas sign recently sold at a Barrett-Jackson auction for $5700.

If you’re in the market for a Christmas present for the man or car enthusiast in your life, or know someone who is restoring an old gas pump, this sign is for you.  Head over to TIAS and get a good look.

As for the window for the coupon code that  I had ready to give to the person with the best answer for the Forbes silver item that I needed help with, it's now closed.  You can still help out with giving a guess on what it could possibly be!  Any help is gladly welcome.

HELP!

While walking through one of my favorite antique stores not too long ago, I came across something that I fell in love with.  But what the heck is it?

 

In all my years of rummaging through antique malls, flea markets, and even swap meets, I have never seen anything quite like this.  The top looks to me like it could possibly be part of a lamp or even a trophy, but take a look at the stem near the base of it.

As you can see, it’s not a toggle switch to turn something on or off.  What throws me off is that it unscrews from the main portion of the piece.

The other thing that really throws me for a loop is the bottom of the base itself.  To me, it looks like a spout that could dispense some kind of beverage.

So, I need some help identifying this absolutely fabulous, almost one-of-a-kind, wonderful… thing.  Any help will be greatly appreciated on figuring this one out.

If it’s any help, here are some pictures of the marks on the bottom of the piece.  The person with the best answer will get a coupon code to get 20% off an item in my TIAS store.

The store can be seen here.

Condition, Condition, Condition!

It’s definitely the first three rules of the antiques and collectibles world.  It could probably be stretched out to be rules 4 and 5 as well with not much effort.
 

Here’s a quick question:  can you tell me what’s wrong with the shaker in the picture above?

I hate to say it, but it has a nasty chip underneath the lid.  The chip is just way too big to buff out.

I saw an article many years ago that stated that when there is damage to a piece of glassware like a chip or a crack, it’s only worth 20 percent of its original value.

Keeping that in mind, you need to check the item out very thoroughly before you commit to buy.  This was one of the first lessons that I learned when I first started out.  Check for chips on the edges and underneath a lid, and even look through the item to see if you can find any cracks.  If it has an applied handle, check to see if there are any cracks where the handle and the body of the item meet.

 
If you happen to get home and find some damage, don’t fret.  You can repurpose the item into a make shift vase, or something else completely (like a pencil holder).

It’s Time For Kickoff!

I can see it now.  The Tailgate party is in full swing, and there are plenty of Bratwursts on the grill.

The football season is now going strong, and you need something to take your goodies to the tailgate party, but you don’t know what to take.  I’ve got the perfect idea:

What a great way to take some of those goodies than with a 1950’s lunch pail.  This sucker has tons of college banners on it, from Harvard to Yale.

 
To look at the lunch pail, you can go to my TIAS store here.

Searching The World Wide Web

With a book out on the market on just about any antiques and collectibles area that you could imagine, it would be a safe bet that you could find any item fairly fast, right?

 

Sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.  The internet can be a great resource for information on the item that you’re looking for, like a head vase for example.

When I look for something, I start with a fairly broad search by typing in “head vase”.  If that doesn’t get me what I need, this is when I start typing in specifics.  If the piece has a stamp or a sticker with the makers name on it, I use that.

With you narrowing down the search, you get to the point where you can find the item you have pretty quickly.  It could get to the point where you can find several listings of the same item as yours so that you have a great price range.

Store Highlight: Rolling Stone Cover

Sometimes, the description you put next to an item for sale just doesn’t do it justice.  Sometimes, you post an item in your online store that’s so cool, you’ve got to write a blog post about it. 

That’s what happened with my Rolling Stone cover:

Why is this old mag so cool, you might ask?

·         It appeals to Beatles collectors.

·         It appeals to pop culture collectors.

·         It features fun, remember-when ads.

·         It highlights the fashion of the ‘70s.

·         It offers reviews of all the “hot” albums of the time.

·         It allows anyone who grew up in the ‘70s to walk down memory lane.

The Rolling Stones magazine is up for sale in my TIAS store, which can be seen here.