We just recently reached a major accomplishment – we made our goal of 10,000 positive feedbacks on ebay! While it may not sound monumental to many folks, we know how much work it took. (Our dear friends put this award together.)

We’ve been selling since May of 2000. At first it was very part-time. Just in the mornings and evenings after work. We had some success and really enjoyed it. A down-sizing by one of our employers caused us to re-think our career path and while searching for another position, decided to try this on a full-time basis. And we found it to be just great!
Now, when we are asked “how did you ever reach 10,000 positive feedbacks?” we take our cue from an old comedian who we loved and admired, George Burns. He would have said “First you reach 9,999…” HA! We have actually had a lot more than 10,000 but when they are repeat customers, ebay does not count them again. We also note that less than 35% actually give feedback, even if they take the time to email with a thanks and ‘all is well’ message. But we are proud of reaching another milestone.

Selling on ebay, for the most part, has been a very positive experience. We’ve sent a number of items home! By that, I mean we were able to find things for people that “MEAN SOMETHING.” For example, we have sold advertising items from companies, hotels or restaurants that had the same name as the person who bought it. Or sent a calendar that advertised for a long-gone dairy to someone who worked there in the summer of 1965! Another gentleman bought a huge metal sign from us from a Milwaukee hotel that had closed years back. It had belonged to his wife’s family and he gave it to her as a Christmas gift. A recent sale of restaurant ware items found a member of the family of the original owners of the establishment! We have even sent several photographs to relatives of the person in the picture! And these were from the 1920s. Wow!

We have also played ‘match-maker’ on several occasions. We listed a bottom of a cookie jar and the lady who bought it had the top! We’ve listed creamers or sugar bowls that lacked a mate and they were ‘made whole’ when the buyer had the other piece.
We are also proud to say that quite a few of our items have been added to museum collections. For example, a photo of an old Milwaukee Clipper ship (ferry) has been added to a display case in Michigan. A gentleman in Arizona who collects unique advertising items purchased a very large, and rather unusual, beer wagon made of wood in Western Germany. It had a driver, 4 horses with a lot of fancy hardware and 80+ wooden beer kegs. He emailed to say it will be proudly displayed in his collectibles museum. Advertising items of “local interest” have also been purchased and added to their respective museums.
One of our favorite memories has been sending numerous wedding photos to a gentleman in Texas. He wanted them to display at his son’s wedding. He had purchased several turn-of-the-century wedding gowns for the reception hall. He placed the old wedding pictures on each dinner table. His son was very much into fashion design, so this was a wonderful surprise for him. He was kind enough to let us know it had been a big success!

Several of our friends started selling on ebay about the same time as we did. They thought it would be fun! And, while it is enjoyable, it is a lot of work! You have to find the items, (which is getting a lot tougher), sometimes clean them up, research to see what the minimum should be, list it, pay the fees (whether they sell or not), package them up, ship them off. Then you wait for the good news. We have used the US Post Office almost exclusively and have been very pleased with them. We’ve shipped well over 40,000 items and only 4 have ever been lost and 5 damaged in transit. That is incredible. While we have continued on with ebay, all of our friends have discontinued their endeavors.
In retrospect, it has been a very gratifying experience. We have shipped accordions, a large sink, a marvelous boat anchor, china dish sets of 80 pieces, oil paintings – you name it! We have enjoyed being ‘pickers’ for folks who cannot or do not wish to take the time to find these treasures.

We would love to hear about your selling or buying experiences!

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Awhile ago, hubby and I ran a good-cop-bad-cop play for a box of old sheet music. I’m still going through it all, delighting at all the great graphics, fabulous lyrics and cool connections to composers, songwriters and other folks as I list it here in the Collectors’ Quest community. (You should know me well enough by now to know that researching is a huge part of the joy of collecting for me.)

You shouldn’t judge sheet music by it’s cover any more than you should a book, but let’s face it, the nifty graphics and photos of celebrities are mighty cool. It’s one way that sheet music is a coveted cross-collectible.

Harry Potter fans wave their wands bidding paddles for sheet music with wizards, cat lovers and Halloween collectors fancy the Black Cat March, vamps vie for roaring 20’s sheet music (along with theater and movie memorabilia hounds, if it’s from a musical) — all competing with music lovers for vintage sheet music.

Along with songwriters and composers, there are often multiple performers, and multiple arrangements (piano, guitar — even for the ukelele).

For over two centuries sheet music has been printed; so no one, really, is exempt from collecting sheet music once they see what’s all available.

The wide variety of sheet music isn’t the only reason to love it. Since some songs were printed in millions of copies, even very old sheet music can be easy enough to find — and affordable. Condition is always a part of an item’s value, so if you’re charmed by something enough not to care about its condition you can get vintage sheet music for a song. While this makes sheet music an area of collecting which is easy for beginners, those who like a challenge will find many printed musical ‘holy grails’ to spend a lifetime pursuing as well.

Being both small in size and light in weight makes printed music not only inexpensive to ship but easy to store too. While some preserve their collection in neat protective plastic sleeves, others put the pretty papers behind glass and properly frame them (we hope) — not just for safe preservation, but to display as part of their home decor.

While there’s so much to love about old sheet music, there’s more unloved, under-appreciated sheet music in this world than this collector cares to think about.

This point was driven home when the seller of my most recent box of vintage sheet music asked me, “You’re not going to paper your walls with this, are you?”

Stunned, I could only manage to tell her, “No, of course not!” But on the way to the van I had to ask hubby (and myself), “Can you do that? Paper walls with sheet music?”

Not that I would. But the idea of seeing walls papered in sheet music is very intriguing… Perhaps one day I’ll investigate that and other altered art projects with copies made from scans. (I’d hate to make a collector — or seller — cry.) But right now, I’m having lots of fun with them as they are.

For more on collecting sheet music, see ParlorSongs.com.

Images of wizard and cat sheet music via SheetMusicCenter.com.

Through the hallowed halls of sketch comedy, there are a few select television series that stand far above the rest. Of course, above them all, shining down on the rest like some kind of huge-footed beacon of hilarity is Monty Python’s Flying Circus, without whom much other sketch comedy would not have been possible. Over here, across the pond, my all time favorites come neatly packaged in a convenient trinity : the oft forgotten The State (which ran for a brief period on MTV, who never know a good thing when they see it), Kids in the Hall, and Upright Citizens Brigade. SNL should have quit while they were ahead.

UCB has a special place in my brain because the UCB Theater in NYC is frequented by none other than Jesse Falcon, one of the head honchos of Marvel Toys. You can sometimes see Jesse on various ‘I Love the 70’s’ type retrospective shows on VH1, dispensing his unique perspectives on things past or popular, but when he’s not doing improv on stage, he’s making action figures. In fact, I was told by Jesse that the Nick Fury action figure from an early series of Marvel Legends is based on Ian Roberts, one of the founding UCB members and co-star of the UCB television show, which lasted for three seasons on Comedy Central. Now, the first two seasons can be yours.

Yes, the bus driver with the enormous butt, Officer Lunatic, Little Donny, the problem with astronauts, and the beautiful ape-woman. All yours. It all might not be for everyone, but their particular brand of absurdist humor, mixed with straight-faced crassness and intellectualism, with a fair amount of public stunts thrown in, will probably have something for everyone.

As always, any TV-on-DVD set can be judged solely on its completeness and its secret stash of bonus features. Seeing as how these are billed as ‘the complete first’ and ‘the complete second’ seasons, we can rest assured that nothing is omitted. During the commentary track on the first episode, we can even hear the UCB lamenting that the original commercial breaks were not included. So, what do these have by way of additional material?

Any great TV show will include the original, usually unaired pilot episode, which is included in the first season. Episode commentaries are offered up on a handful of episodes, many of which were recorded live before an audience for the second season. Additionally, we get an in-character episode commentary from Little Donny, whose peculiar affliction shall remain unnamed here, but is immortalized in a song that you do not want to be caught idly singing. Which I almost was. We get deleted scenes, a selection of live performances, and the feeling that we’re getting a package that’s completely full of everything that they could possibly fit in. With a third season on its way to DVD still, I think that we can expect a whole lot more.

Each season has ten 23-minute episodes, collected in the order in which they originally aired. In the UCB’s particular brand of comedy, we’ll get characters, jokes and references that run through the entire series, beyond the episode in which they first appeared. Watching them in sequence isn’t essential, but there’s always that divine pleasure of picking up on an in-joke that can be added.

The first season was re-released this week (after an initial release in 2003), accompanied by season 2, and at an average price of 20 bucks per season, it’s an excellent investment in hours of pure entertainment. Plus, Amy Poehler. Who can resist that?

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Let me just preface the following by saying that I have a 7-year-old girl in my family whom I spend a lot of time with, and it’s not as if I’ve made the discovery of the internet paper doll fad because I’ve made any personal efforts to frequent places trafficked by pre-teen girls. Is that clear? Keen.

The world is going paperless. Environmentally, anything that prevents deforestation is awesome by my count, and having a computer database to catalogue books at work instead of having thousands of index cards is always a bonus.

Not everything, however, should go ‘paperless’. Books, for instance, are now being downloaded and read on flickering digital screens, and even paper playing cards are being cast aside for that most antisocial and dangerous of online activities, internet poker. There is much to be said about certain paper pursuits being palpable, from origami to painting, and yes, paper dolls. I’m not paper doll aficionado, but I presume that at least one aspect of their appeal is folding the little paper tabs around their tiny shoulders until you get bored of their little fashion options, and then making some of your own. It’s a nearly free hobby, if you have any skill with a pencil and scissors and a pad of bristol. It becomes something else ENTIRELY online.

My niece, for the past few weeks, has been preoccupied with Stardoll. It all seemed to be a big, pink, incomprehensible mash of flash animation and superficiality, so I had my wold-wise niece explain it to me. She somehow has an immunity to the color pink, whereas it tends to cripple my brain in any quantity, so she seemed like a good candidate. Stardoll is an online paper doll site where you can clothe your ‘paper’, two-dimensional doll, customize almost all of its features, and even decorate your doll’s 2-bedroom apartment. Because this is online, your display is made available for viewing by anyone who clicks on your profile. They can go in and play with your doll, your outfits, and even rearrange your apartment for fun - though none of these changes by others are permanent.

Unfortunately, none of these things are free, and you can’t simply draw out a new fashion to wear or pretty things to put on your walls. No, you need to purchase everything at the Starmall, using Star Dollars, which can be purchased for about 8 to 10 real-world cents per ‘Dollar’. Many fashions and accessories don’t seem to break the 10 Star Dollar (or one REAL dollar) mark, but it’s clear from clicking around that many participants are paying good, real money to make their Stardoll the fanciest of them all - and because there are over ten million Stardoll users, there’s a lot to see, and the digital collections are significant.

Stardoll places a limit on just how much money you can spend in-game each week (ostensibly to teach a small lesson about economy and smart shopping), but they also spur impulse shopping by placing limits on certain items of clothing or accessories. These are only available in small quantities or for a very limited time, and if you miss them, you can’t even trade for them from another Stardoll. Your digital collection is made limitless by an infinite, scrolling closet, so your clothes collection really has no visible end. My life would be so much more awesome if I had that endless closet space - not only could I display all of my action figures and rotate the visible part of the collection as I pleased, but I’d have a place to dispose of the bodies. Hell, if it was infinite, I could charge to dispose of EVERYONE’S bodies! Knowing me, though, if I accumulated more then three, I’d start to intentionally collect them, and we all know where that ends up. CNN.

Below each Stardoll is a place where the user can type up their own profile to introduce themselves, promote themselves to various statuses, and generally make a mess of things. Because the site is dominated by young girls, expect about 35 fonts per page, and no two consecutive letters to EVER share the same color. The musings of young girls typically follow the ‘I’m prettier than u’ theme, interspersed with a swarm of oddly-placed LOLs and OMGs, and every so often, someone praises Jesus amid their ego-filled bombardments of desecrated English language. Is this a strong argument against letting anyone under the age of 16 touch a computer? Possibly.

The front page greets you with an array of paper dolls made up to look like celebrities - some accurate, some barely even human. You can dress them up, you can save them, and you can have a fun time playing with free paper dolls. I wasn’t convinced of any of this being remotely interesting to me, the average 25-year old male…. and then I saw Conan O’Brien. After one click, I kinda figured that the whole thing was worth a second look.

There are clubs, there are lots of different areas to explore on the site, but the most interesting aspect to me was the prospect of collecting these intangible things, and paying money for things you could never actually touch, or even use in the world outside of the game. Perhaps if you were given the option to print out any fashion you bought so that it might be used on an actual paper doll, I’d be sold on the concept. I’m all about the tangible, whenever possible. Of course, that’s also why I need to leap over things just to get in my door.

It’s not the only example of real-world currency being used to buy digital currency, which is in turn used to buy digital items with no real-world counterpart, but it certainly is the…. pinkest.

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We have been traveling to the most fantastic flea market in Wisconsin for many years! It is the Elkhorn Antique Flea Market! I had the chance to interview Nona Knapp, the owner and operator of “N.L.Promotions” who runs the show! Nona has been ‘in charge’ for over 25 years and watched it grown from a small market with 20-40 dealers to over 500 dealers at the present time. It was not an ‘easy ride’, but she has a marvelous attitude about it and really appreciates the dealers, friends and workers that make it happen four times a year.

Nona’s first husband, Dennis, was a music teacher and worked summers as a superintendent on the Walworth County Fair Grounds. They often talked about all the possibilities for the location, other than an occasional horse race or annual County Fair.

Friends of theirs were antique dealers and they often discussed what a wonderful setting it would make for an antique flea market. Their friends, the Wagners, were members of WADA, Wisconsin Antique Dealers’ Association, and knew a lot of other dealers. They joined a ‘partnership’ and ran it together for the first three years, from approximately 1982-1985. The Wagners actually handled the food concession. Nona handled all the paperwork and record keeping and Dennis helped with the upkeep on the grounds, sign-in, etc. The dealers would just ‘show up’, and you never knew who would be there or what they’d bring. They were competing with some pretty heavy-duty markets in the area. They felt truly lucky if they had 50 dealers. The ‘gate fee’ was 50 cents and they would be pleased with close to a thousand people passing through. At the time, Nona was teaching full-time but this was a great summer hobby.
Nona tells me they were lucky to have a ‘full row’ of booths from the office in front to the grandstand – that is where the food was located. The flea market has steadily grown through the years and today they have between 500 and 700 dealers, with approximately 200 indoors, located in animal barns, and 500 outdoors. Their ‘benchmark’ for attendance is 5,000, a far cry from their 800-900 attendees in the early days!

They currently have ten food providers on the grounds and let me tell you, it is top notch, quality food, lots of variety too. Another plus is that there is a lot of ample free parking, right on the grounds!

In 1995, they added table rental. Her present husband, Skip, came up with the idea and made 200 wooden tables to rent, then added another 100 the next year. These have been very popular and an easy solution for sellers who do not have the extra room in their vans or trucks for tables. They can fit in a lot more items to sell that way!
There have been numerous changes through the years. An ATM was added several years back for convenience to shoppers. Advertising has greatly expanded with ads being placed in about 50 newspapers! These include publications throughout Wisconsin, Illinois, and into Iowa and the Auction Action News covers even further. For those that drive quite a distance, they’ll find very pleasant accommodations in Elkhorn or nearby Delavan and Lake Geneva.
They have four shows in Elkhorn a year. There is still one left – to be held on September 30^th. They also have another show scheduled for early 2008, January 19^th and 20^th at the Washington County Fair Park (West Bend, Wisconsin.) They expect approximately 60 top-notch dealers for the West Bend Antiques Show. For locations and their complete schedule for the remainder of 2007 and 2008, check their website at www.nlpromotionsllc.com.

Nona was kind enough to share some time with me the week before ‘everything goes crazy.’ For two weeks before the show, the phones go wild. There are the ads to place. She has to be sure all sellers have their Vehicle Space Reservation Cards showing their booth location. She has to answer questions from those that are new to the market as to what they can and cannot sell. She also does some ‘screening’ to ensure that no one brings in ‘tube socks and Tupperware’, since she runs one of the rare ones – an Antique Flea Market that has maintained its integrity and high quality goods. On occasion, a seller will be found offering reproductions or newer items. These are frowned upon and they will be asked to sell those items ‘elsewhere.’

Dealers can set up on Saturday afternoon or early Sunday morning. Nona and her husband arrive at the Fairgrounds approximately 4:00 A.M. on the day of the market, especially if there is a ‘weather issue’ and they need to spread sawdust over damp spaces, or help dealers with their set-ups, etc. The gates open at 7:00 A.M. There are the occasional ‘problems’ such as a vehicle in the wrong spot or crowding a walk-way, or an over-zealous dealer who takes up more space than they should. But the problems are few and handled with finesse. Nona credits her ‘team’ for the smoothness of the operation. They are on hand to assist buyers with large purchases. They do whatever they can to make this a pleasant experience for shoppers and sellers alike!

From a personal standpoint, I can honestly say this is the best flea market in the area. It has kept its high standards and offers some of the best and friendliest workers. The food is delightful and the bathrooms are exceptional. Not the Port-a-lets you find elsewhere, but clean, well-stocked, indoor bathrooms – and lots of them! We often find fantastic bargains at Elkhorn, and have set up a booth on occasion too. We have always found it enjoyable. We have had buyers from all over the mid-west, including Illinois, Iowa, Tennessee, Michigan, even several from North Dakota. They were very complimentary about the market – many of the flea markets in their areas have become more ‘craft fairs’ and with lots of beany-babies and such! You won’t find those things here.

You will find everything from high-end furniture to hardware and yard art to beautiful estate jewelry to fabulous antique glassware. There are also several booths with ‘seasonal flowers’ and produce. It is well worth the visit to those booths too. If you have not had the chance to attend one of these flea markets, plan to do so soon – only one left this year, but the 2008 schedule should be on your calendar!

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