Jewel

I have been having a really good time selling my finds online. It's so nice to just have a bit of pocket money to spend and know I don't have to dip into my bank funds as often. People have been really nice, and the site I'm selling on has been great, but every once in awhile you run into trouble, and that's when what I call "potatogate" happened.

I found this really cute potato bin in a pile at the curb. Nothing wrong with it save for a few onion and potato stains on the wood inside. I thoroughly cleaned it, yet they remained. I thought since it was stained, I'd list it at a modest $20

It's cute, but nothing really special that I could see

Well, instantly I was getting notification after notification that people were interested in buying my potato bin. My computer, email, and tablet were blowing up. I listed it on the sections for 2 different city areas since I'm kind of in between them both. I'm telling you, there were line ups about 50 people long on both sites. People were privately messaging me asking if I would skip over the line (a rule breaker) to sell it to them because they "could pick it up right now!" etc.. it was crazy.

However, I am a follow the rules gal and made sure I went person by person.The first person in line decided to pass, so I moved on to the second person. They could not pick it up in my area. When I suggested the second area, she said it was impossible as well, and then told me to pass to the next person. I went on to person #3, made arrangements for pick up and that was that. Or so I thought...

The next morning I woke up to a snarky email from person #2 saying I should have been more accommodating and that I should have met her somewhere. She then reported me to the moderators. I replied back to her that I gave her 2 options, that she declined both of them, and that she told me to pass to the next person. You can't just tell me to pass and then change your mind! The moderators contacted me and told me that because I had replied to her (which she took as me being hostile) and didn't contact or go through them about it, I would receive an X on my sellers file. If you get 3 X's you're banned from the site. WTF? 

Anyways, I fought it and got the X removed, but the mods say that if they get another complaint about me, I'd get an automatic 2 X's. I'm not too happy about that, but I guess I have to live with it. As I explained to the mods, right now we're just a 1 income family and this is pretty much a small part time job for me to earn a little bit extra while I'm still at home with my youngest. Why would I jeopardize that in any way? Some people just don't see the bigger picture and realize there is a person on the other side. I'm not some big faceless corporation. This petty complaint could ruin a good thing I have going, but they don't care, they're just all butt hurt because they didn't get their potato bin.

Now whenever I list something that gets a lot of interest, I'm always thinking "Oh man, I hope this doesn't go all "potatogate" on me!"

So, let's get on to the rest of the finds for this entry!

In one town I hit, it's rather large, so I do the most populated area at night, and then in the morning I hit another area that has a few side streets. I always have to get there nice and early because by the time I'm done, my nemesis the garbage truck, is crusing in. I think he's on to me because he has been coming earlier lately.

This time I'm so glad I beat him because I found a big clean out pile full of vintage treasures :)

This old Kodascope movie screen is from the late 1920's





Here's the cool old label on the back

There was also a large box full of frames marked "garage sale". Inside were a whole bunch of dusty old framed prints with beautiful vibrant colours. The series is called "Great moments in pharmacy" painted by Robert Thom. Unfortunately, some of the prints did sustain damage, but others look pretty good.

 



Can't say that I know what I'm going to do with them yet, if I'll attempt to take them out of their frames, or try to sell them as is... For now they're properly wrapped up and being stored in my shed.


There were also 2 original boxes full of vintage mason jars with original zinc lids. The boxes are in pretty good condition considering their age. The colours still look as if they were just printed.

 


 One box was full of Jewel brand jars. I don't think they had ever been used.

 




The other box had a bit of a mish mash of jars of different sizes

 




There was another box as well of Shell insect sprayers. The box is marked 1939. Check out the price in the top right corner marked in grease pencil...$2.48 for the whole box. I wonder how expensive that was back then compared to today.

 


They were all used and the amber bottles of spray were all empty, but again, everything looked like it was still new. No rust, no corroding, nothing. Just a good coat of dirt and dust.

 


A little wipe down and they look amazing




The extra amber jars look nice too

 

I'm so glad the garbage truck didn't get to chew up these treasures!


 I also managed to pick up...

A working DVD player

 


Two old farm house windows that I sold very quickly and easily for $20

 


and a cute little wooden shelf




The next day I went on to another small town where I picked up...

A nice little side table from the 1940's. It's a little worn on top, but the rest looks great. Most small pieces of furniture I end up selling ends up to the "shabby chic" painting crowd anyways, so I'm sure someone can re-vamp this piece.

 


This thing which I thought might have been a magazine holder or something, but I later found out is  a fireplace accessory. I think it's used to hold logs by the fireplace.




 and this cute gold leafed mirror

 


At another pile I pulled out a few electronic things, like this voice recorder...

and a bunch of Apple products. Unfortunately I couldn't get the ipod to charge up or turn on, but I'm pretty sure someone will still buy it for the right price

I also picked up this outdoor light up Christmas tree, because from experience, all the ones I have picked up and taken home have worked just fine. This time luck wasn't on my side. I went to plug it in and discovered a scrapper had cut the cord off. Grr!

Nevertheless, I took 10 minutes to unravel and take the lights off the tree, listed it, and sold it for $10.

Took my lemon, and made lemonade thankyouverymuch! :D

Keep looking out for treasures, and happy picking!