Recently downsize my home and have been taking all of my "projects" I've never got to do to a local auction. Still come across some great deals, but have to give great deals to sell. Picked an old barn yesterday and did find some cool unusual items.

my former BIL used to make miniatures. he was very good, and pretty successful. he did it for a decade or so.
one of his pieces is on display here in chicago, in colleen moore's fairy castle at the museum of science and industry. a pretty little harpsichord in the music room.

every once in a while one of his pieces pops up on ebay. they dont go for the kind of money that he once got for them, which is a darn good thing for me.

the other day i got a beautiful little piano.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291954471755

i have several of his pieces like this, plus he did some reproductions. very high quality work. funny that the prices are about the same. he did a set of musical instruments, then a set of furniture. i have a couple of the instruments, a pipe organ and a harp.

also have a tiny model ship in a display case.

pretty fun. my sister divorced him about 10 years ago. i always liked him, but they had a fraught relationship. one reason he quit doing the miniatures was the conflict over all the travel he was doing, and the rich folks he was hanging w.
he is quite an artist, really. he used to paint, and he was pretty good. my sister is very talented, also. their son blows my mind he is so good.


we live in a crazy time where space and time seem to be bending to technology. it sure is fun to step into the wayback machine.

I sell in a shop in the bluest town in the bluest county of the bluest state and we're still talking people down off the ledge. My ebay sales have been filled with bottom feeders making lowball offers on valuable items. On the plus side, I found a couple of pieces of art - a painting and a photograph - that are both fairly valuable and that I like enough to keep. The best days are when I find stuff I don't want to sell.

too damned depressed to spend the time listing anything on ebay too.
I've only relisted everything that didn't sell last two months this month.
I'll take one of those off the ledge pep talks too.

I'm going to force myself to list something new today. (We're snowed in so it's either that or listen to reports of how Manbaby is cranking up China and wondering if we'll survive the nuclear winter.)

Last edited Sat Dec 31, 2016, 07:59 AM - Edit history (2)

and the rest of the year is down maybe 40%

I did a search for an item I listed that is the lowest price. I searched
by lowest price items. My item didn't even show up. My page views
are seriously lagging. So I'm thinking ebay search engine optimization
is geared to higher price items. Also, eBay always recommends you
relist at 99 cents. I have items I've sold for $14 at a fixed price, and
they say 99 cent listing. So they really are indiscriminate, and in my view,
insane!

The mood in the country is bad. Even the winners are worried or perplexed.
The Great Recession gave people lots of room to shop and fill their long
term search list. Now we've had two good years, and people have spent.
They don't need or want much anymore. The Demographic wave is not
helping either. Boomers are downsizing and that creates an abundance of
stuff. Materialism aka trinket capitalism is not Millennials raison d'etre.
And people are earning, and the stores and online retailers have an advantage
over what are basically mom and pop operations.

I don't think I could sell a Cadillac if I listed it for 99 cents. I'm wondering
if the push to list at minimum 99 cents is being used to cull the herd. Not even
my good stuff at good prices gets much attention and certainly no bids.

I doubt it will improve. As far as junk is concerned, last one out is a rotten
egg. And don't forget to turn out the lights.

They're going through this whole transition from TurboLister to some type
of online Lister, forget what it's called, to be completed by June, but it's
introduced on a rolling basis. I'm last, don't know why

I get a couple sales then 2 weeks off. So I think I'm just buried due to their
search engine optimizations. I think those already converted are getting priority,
but I could be all wet.

Oh my I've reached the age of repeating myself. Sorry.

... I used to get annoyed the best ones started on Fridays. Now there's no way to get to them on time to buy the better resellable items.

Couple that with Amazon's limits on what can be sold now (DVDs, new toys, etc.) and my bread and butter has all but vanished.

I have found a niche market for used magazines that pays out a little bit.

I've pretty much given up on ebay, too. Maybe I'll try flea markets next.