Rounding the Downsizing Corner

Between listing and (actually selling) a few pieces of art on e-Bay and listing other stuff I don’t want to ship on Facebook’s Marketplace, my head is spinning. I don’t like having too many balls in the air and that’s what it feels like. I didn’t earn the nickname ‘One Track’ for my ability to multi-task. I’m more like a dog with a juicy bone who won’t let go until every last drop of marrow is gone. I want to wrap up all my selling efforts by the end of April.

Selling Successes: I mentioned in a recent post that I sold a sculpture for good money with only a five day listing on e-Bay and that was exciting because I have two more to sell by the same artist. I waited to see if the first one arrived safely before I packed the second one in case I had to rethink my packing method. All was well at the end of line so it was back to Pakmail for more boxes. It took me a half hour to pack each one of these large, breakable sculptures plus each one required two boxes (one inside the other), nearly a half of roll of bubble wrap and $6.00 worth of packing peanuts. The second one is a live auction now and my opening bid has been met. Can we hear one for the home team?

Selling Misses but with a Good Outcome: One piece of art---an unframed, 30 year old pencil drawing by a now-internationally famous local artist---I sold on e-Bay to a guy who asked ahead of time if I’d allow a local pickup. I’d never done that with e-Bay before but the pickups with Marketplace have been going well and feel save, so I tweaked the drawing’s listing and the guy won with it a $50 bid. Other drawings by this same artist are listed buy-it-now for $200 and the winner of mine---when he got here---said he was prepared to go up to $200 because my drawing "was going to be his come hell or high water.” He has a watercolor of the same scene. The drawing was a study the artist did for his watercolor and my buyer plans to hang the two side-by-side. He was a nice guy---the same age as me, we even drive the same color and year Chevy Trax. Those were facts that came out when we were making arrangements for him to pick up his drawing.

I liked the guy so I had a large print by the same artist that I couldn’t list for sale because it had a scratch on the surface from when I’d dropping it, breaking the glass out of its frame and I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. I asked him if he wanted it for free and he was elated. I could have fixed it with a prism pencil and a bone paper tool but then what? I wasn’t going to sell a doctored piece of art or hang it because my eye would have always gone to the repair. So I made myself and the guy both happy. I even gave him a book about the artist. He was in door prize heaven and left me great feedback.

I also did a similar thing when the smaller showcase was picked up last weekend. The woman noticed a large ‘Save City Hall’ poster from when there was a big fight in town to keep the city from tearing down the old city hall, a wonderful feat of Gothic Revivalist architecture from the glory days of clock towers, hipped roofs with gables and arched windows. The woman said, “Is that what I think it is?” Another local but deceased artist who had an international following did the original lithograph for that poster and that original is part in the public museum’s local history collection. I replied, “Yes it is and it can be yours for $20.” She grabbed that poster so fast she looked like a cartoon character jumping over a box blocking her way to where it was hanging. We both acknowledged that in the right circles she could make good money on it but here's the thing: we’ve had that poster hanging in one visible place or another since 1969 and she’s the first person who ever recognized it as being the work of the famous artist. We talked about him and his heavy investment of time and money trying to save that old building and how all his prints were made old school, starting with a drawing with a greasy medium on heavy lithograph stones. Back in my eat-sleep-and-dream art 24/7 days 50 years ago I took printmaking classes in the same studio where he sometimes worked, used the same equipment, stones and presses. She said she'll keep the poster in her personal collection. I believed her.

With the man with the drawing and the woman with the poster I felt like I was back working in what I duped Jean’s Adoption Center for Collectibles when I first started my downsizing project. When I sell something I’ve loved and/or appreciated for years and it goes to a home where I know the object will go on being loved it makes me very happy. In those cases I don’t always care how much cash exchanges hands in the process. But watch out if you treat me like I don’t know what I own and you’re offering me a price that’s so low it’s insulting. I’d sooner take something to Goodwill than sell it to a wheeler-dealer who takes pride in cheating people. (Like the $20 fire hydrant guy. Please!)

And speaking of going places where my things will be appreciated, I just sold my 62 piece set of Iridescent Amber Carnival Glass Dishes---1930s Federal Glass aka carnival glass in a pattern called known as Bouquets & lattice Grill---on Facebook Marketplace to a woman who does catering and decor for small events. Bridal showers, rehearsal dinners, birthdays, parties up to 40 people. Her thing is mixing vintage dishes in with her regular white, service ware. She loves and buys carnival glass when she finds it but she's has never scored more than a piece or two at a time. It made me happy to see this young Puerto Rican woman get so excited about dishes that I have loved for nearly my entire life. (And trust me, it takes a lot to make me love anything orange.) I gave her a freebie, too, a large serving bowl with a Chinese design of dragons in gold, white and amber that looked super cool with this set. I said to her, "It's not vintage, I bought it in the '70s but if you can use it, you can have it!" "It's vintage to me," she said with a huge smile on her face, "I wasn't even born until 1990!" Marketplace is fun!

After I move I'll have very few things of value and that's been the plan all along. As I age I don't want to become Ms Set-Up-a-Nanny-Cam to figure out who is stealing from me. That happened to my relative when home healthcare workers were coming to her home in the last years of her life. Several from different agencies stole cash, credit cards, jewelry, heirlooms, even meat from her freezer. Not that value really matters. When my husband's mother was in a nursing home we were always chasing down or replacing her shoes, teeth, glasses and other stuff not nailed down in her room. And when my dad was in Hospice---HOSPICE WHERE YOU GO TO DIE!---a night shift worker was stealing money from his wallet that he kept under his pillow each night until I got wise and filled the wallet up with Monopoly money. Dad didn't know the difference. He'd just see the edges of the bills and was at peace that he had plenty of  "walking around money" and I wasn't going broke on a daily basis when Dad asked to bum some cash from me. That sense of vulnerability, of being easy prey to the those who target the elderly is something I want to avoid as I age, so I can spend the next chapter of my life playing with paints and fabrics. ©

Art...I Don't Want to Do This!

 

Have I mentioned how much I hate selling art? I haven’t actually listed or sold any yet but the windup to get ready for the job is driving me crazy. The windup includes watching online videos on how to pack big things but the biggest problem is getting the material needed to ship them---glassine paper, corner protectors (for the framed art in the house), large sheets of cardboard or core-board for the unframed stuff and extra wide bubble wrap. I’m still looking for egg crate foam for the framed stuff. Not the typical shipping supplies that I’ve kept on hand these past few years. If my husband was alive I’d be chewing his head off about now because he’s the one that put me in this situation. How? He loved the western artists especially James Bama, Wayne Cooper and Gordon Snidow and every year when he’d go out West elk hunting he’d come home with a new, signed and numbered print. We ran out of walls to frame and hang the stuff but that didn’t slow down his obsession and fast forward to now when I’ve got a 31” x 41 ½” faux leather zipper case full of 14 unframed prints to measure, research, photograph, write up, prepare for shipping and finally list.

Some guys bring shot glasses and bed bugs home from vacation. I suppose I should be grateful Don had better taste in souvenirs and he spent his nights camping in the mountains---or that he came home at all. One time out West he stretched out on a large, flat rock to take a nap and woke up with a rattlesnake curled up on his tummy. His hunting buddy took a photo or I would have thought they were telling a tall tale which has always begged the question: Who takes the time to photograph a thing like that? His buddy said he thought about killing the snake with his hand gun while the two of them slept---holy crap!---but he decided against it because his aim wasn’t that good. The Cliff Notes version of the story is it took long stick and a very nervous Don who had to stay as still as a fence post to end it.

Back on topic: Another problem I’m having with gearing up to sell prints is figuring out a starting a bid and a Buy-it-Now price. I’ve discovered that a lot of people trying to sell prints on e-Bay don’t know the difference between a poster quality print and a signed and numbered or artists proof prints. From what I’m seeing in the unsold section is that buyers do know the difference and that’s a good sign for me. I have never done Buy-it-Now sales on e-Bay until this month and I’ve been selling off and on e-Bay since 2000. I can’t believe I’ve never tried it before. Within an hour of listings fifteen things I had four things sell at my pie-in-sky price while their rock-bottom starting bids were passed over. One of those early sales was a folding wash basin, field gear from WWI. We have a leather donkey footstool (also turn-of-the-century) and that basin was what the donkey "drank" from. I love that old guy and will hate to see him go.

I have had great success selling a few big items on Facebook Market Place this past weekend. Levi’s antique fire hydrant that was in my dog pen and a large, four-sided glass showcase that was in our library and held the small collectibles I've been selling off. Both sold within 24 hours of me listing them. The fire hydrant, however drove me crazy or rather the people who contacted me about it did. Within an hour I had 32 people messaging me with offers. The first guy who set up an appointment to pick it up bellied out on me at the last minute because his wife “wouldn’t let him buy it.” In the meantime seven or eight guys kept checking back with me to see if the first guy who had the appointment took it. And way too many of the people who sent messages need to brush up on their communication skills. It’s like the old joke about the proper use of capital letters i.e. there’s a difference in meaning between “Help your Uncle Jack off his horse” and “help your uncle jack off his horse.” People would send messages like ‘20’ and that’s all. Took me a long time to figure out that meant, “Will you take $20?” Uh, No! It’s listed at $50 or BEST offer. The couple who ended up with it bought it for their dog to use instead of their their shrubs. They were super friendly and easy to talk with as they dug it out of the ground. Two antique fire equipment collectors offered $80 and $95 but they came late to the party. I think Levi would be happy that his fire hydrant is going to another canine. ©

A lady who collects tigers had been looking for a larger showcase than the one she's outgrown. She was thrilled with this one. While her crew was here to load it in a truck one of the guys bought the two animal skulls that I had de-cowboyed out of my living room last week. He got a good deal and I was happy I didn't have to list them on e-Bay. It felt good to be wheeling and dealing again.

This is hydrant that I just sold. It was made in Tennessee in the '50s and was used in Colorado where my husband bought it and 2 others. We rode all the way home with those hydrants on the floor of our motor home. One we sold right away for what we paid for all three. A smaller hydrant, early 1900s, was on display in our garage for years. It sold at the auction house last summer for over $200. I hated to see that one go. It had a lot of brass on it and was a real cutie. I don't know if it's true in other places but old fire station equipment has always been quick sales for us.