My interview on RetroRenovation.com - how did I forget to post this?!?

I just realized I never posted the link to my recent interview on RetroRenovation.com! I must be slipping. Anyway, Pam was nice enough to do a little feature on me and my business, and asked me about "what's hot" in the vintage collectibles world... Thanks Pam, you rock!! :)

Some of the newness at auction this week...

I know the week is only halfway done, but I've listed some really great stuff so I couldn't wait to show it off! I'm hitting it hard again tonight, so I will probably be back with Part 2 in a couple of days... ;)

Vintage Japan Sitting Pose Doll - I almost fainted when I found this beauty - she is flawless!

Vintage Musical Doll - Made in Japan - Check her out! She is flawless too - and she plays music!

Set of 2 Vintage Reverse Painted Convex Glass Silhouettes - I just love these.

Vintage West Germany Nesting Blocks - The illustrations on these are *amazing*!

Vintage Train Case with Mirror - LOVE this color of blue!!

Vintage Fisher Price Cash Register - I had this exact toy when I was a kid, I think my parents still have it actually!

Vintage Black Steel Rural Mailbox - Mint in Box! - Never used? What a find. Seriously.

Tuesday @ 8pm - The AuctionWally Show - AVCOSA - The Antiques, Vintage & Collectibles Online Sellers Association

I'm SO excited for this Tuesday's episode of the AuctionWally show! I will be interviewing Julie, founder of the new Antiques, Vintage & Collectibles Online Sellers Association, otherwise known as AVCOSA.

I hope all of you that sell vintage online stop in - it will be live, and the chat room will be open so we can take comments, questions, and calls! See you at 8pm EST on Talkshoe! :)

And Even More Vintage Costume Jewelry

I am all done moving the 2nd batch of vintage costume jewelry to my Etsy store. Of course, there is more to come. A lot more. But, for now, these will have to do ya:

Pair of Vintage Poodle Pins with Blue Rhinestone Eyes

Vintage Blue Rhinestone Clip-On Earrings

Vintage Gold Tone Faux Pearl Leaf Brooch

Pair of Vintage Chain Connected Deer Pins

Vintage Sarah Coventry Baroque Pearl Brooch

Vintage Leaf Necklace with Rhinestones and Faux Pearls

This isn't all of it, of course... if you want to check out everything just click on over! :)

Brand New Vintage Goodness Newsletter!

As most of you already know, I've been working on streamlining my business - yes, I'm actually sticking to a New Year's Resolution I made! Shocking, huh?

Anyway, the newsletter situation was one of the things that really needed addressed, so this week I took a careful look at it. I actually have 2 email lists, one for the website, and one for my eBay store. Both were being woefully neglected, but the website list much more so than the eBay one.

Well, once I took a look I realized that the eBay one I can set up to go automatically - so those folks who want to know the new things I have up at auction every week can get it, without me having to do anything... Not the case with the website list, that one I have to actually create every time I send it out.

So, here's my new plan: The eBay newsletter will go out automatically. The website newsletter will go out every two weeks, at the very least, if not more.

I have signed up with a brand spankin new email list provider:

So the newsletter will have a fun new look, and I will get some cool tracking and list management tools!

I bet you are wondering what will be in the newsletter, right? Check it:

~ All the news about Vintage Goodness that you can handle in one email

~ Links to all new blog posts since the last time you heard from me

And most importantly:

~ Super Secret Content - That's right, I'll put stuff in the newsletter that I don't put anywhere else. Articles, links, photos, contests... who knows what it might be! You don't want to miss out on that, do you? ;)

Name


Email

Vintage Homer Laughlin Best China Restaurant Ware Dish Set - at Auction on eBay right now!

I have to share this amazing set of vintage Homer Laughlin Best China restaurant ware dishes that I have up at auction this week - talk about hard to part with! They are decorated with an atomic gray diamond pattern - too perfect!

My favorite are the coffee mugs - did I mention how hard these are to part with?

Just Launched - AVCOSA - The Antiques, Vintage & Collectibles Online Sellers Association

I just posted this exciting news over on the Vintage List blog - check it out! :)

eBay Exec Usher Lieberman tonight on a special episode of the AuctionWally Show!

Yep, the AuctionWally show is having a special Thursday edition this week - Walt will be interviewing Usher Lieberman from eBay! How exciting is that?

I've been lax on promoting our new shows on Talkshoe (Tuesday nights, 8pm!) but I am going to try to do better, I promise! I had to make sure you all heard about this one though - it should be great!

Here is Walt's announcement from his Examiner blog:

Love eBay? Hate eBay? Have questions about where this online giant plans to take its business model in the future?

If so, then you'll want to tune in to a special edition of the AuctionWally Show this evening at 5:30 PM EST to listen to a live interview I'll be conducting with eBay's Usher Lieberman, the Senior Manager of Corporate Communications for eBay.

As an eBay seller for 10 years, mostly of antiques and collectibles via the auction format, I've been impacted by eBay's many recent changes as much as anyone.

I've been up and down in Powerseller status and have gone from fanboy to critic and back several times. (Just see some of the back articles of this column.)

After an article I'd written in December, I was contacted by eBay and asked if I would be interested in doing an interview with Usher Lieberman. I of course stated that I was, but only if the questions were not fed to me by eBay. I indicated that I would be fair, but would have some tough questions.

I was told that was fine and in fact, they were contacting me because they wanted input from someone who had a lot of experience on the site, but was not just a cheerleader.

An interview was arranged. You can tune into the interview as it airs live, by going to http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/25106

If you miss the live show, of course you can always listen to it, and any back episodes in the archive.

If you've got some advice or issues about eBay, now is your chance to do something more than howl. Come to the show where there will be a chat room set up. My co-host Mitzi Swisher will be monitoring the room for questions.

I already have a list of my own questions, but we'll take some of yours as well.

Thanks for reading.

AW

Vintage Costume Jewelry - Finally!

Yes, I know it's hard to believe, but I have finally started tackling the huge pile of vintage jewelry that's been sitting on my shelf for a whole lot longer than I care to admit! It's been a blast sorting it, I'd forgotten about so many cool pieces...

I've been listing them at auction on eBay (with a bit of success!), and whatever doesn't sell will be moved to my Etsy store. Here are just a couple of the Etsy listings I just finished up:

Enamel and Rhinestone Antique Telephone Pin Set

Vintage Travel Charm Bracelet

Vintage Rhinestone Basket Locket Necklace

I've also got some really amazing things up at auction right now, here's just a taste:

Set of 2 Vintage Enamel Badge Pins (you don't know how tempted I am to keep these!)

Vintage Sterling Silver Rhinestone Brooch

Vintage Trifari Virgo Zodiac Sign Pin

Vintage Avon Owl Pendant Necklace

Sarah Coventry Taste of Honey Necklace & Earrings Set

Vintage Amber Rhinestone Necklace

If you want to check out the rest, just head on over to my eBay store or my Etsy shop - and there is still more to come! :)

My latest guilty pleasure - victoriporn.com

I stumbled across this blog, and I love it. It's a little naughty, and pretty often a lot funny. Follow them on Twitter.

Vintage Decorating for Children's Rooms - 1971

I have been working on sorting books over the last week or so - 99% of them were kids books, but a few other random ones were mixed in (no surprise there). One of them is a little booklet called Decorating Your Child's Room from The DoubleDay Home Decorating Program, circa 1971. It's a winner, so I have to share!

The scans are a little small, since it is more of a booklet rather than a full sized book, but I hope you can get the general idea...

First up we have a little boy's room. I kind of dig the beds and dresser, and even the numbers, but the whales have me totally confused. As far as the colors go, the book says, and I quote: "Make sure to select a color scheme (like avocado green and blue) that is easy for lots of people to live with for a long time to come."

Really. Really?

Here is a lovely yellow and green girl's room - another stunning use of avocado green! The trundle bed is kinda cool, in fact the author of this book seems to LOVE trundle beds. Wicker furniture is also prominent, for some reason...

I find the flooring especially interesting - "Note that the gay design is carried out in the easy-care, easy-to-apply hard surface flooring." It looks cool, but man, if little Suzie falls out of bed, she is going to get one good conk on the noggin!

Now here is a color combo that I actually really love, bright red and baby blue. I also really love that wallpaper! But, I think the carpet is a bit much, and the soldier is a tad on the creepy side. The bed unit is pretty awesome, and for some reason the pillow with the red square in the middle leaning against the polka dot wallpaper makes me happy...

A girl's room, of course. You can tell by the pink telephone, if the stuffed leopard (?!?) wasn't enough of a clue. Again we have wicker furniture, and crazy wallpaper. And a super fuzzy rug - at least Suzie won't hurt her head falling out of this bed!

I think it is interesting that the books on the shelf that don't match the color scheme are wrapped in paper so that they will... I like the idea in theory, but the idea of wrapping all of my books is pretty overwhelming!

I think the rule for designing boy's rooms in 1971 was use primary colors, and large letters and numbers. And they weren't allowed to have pillows, apparently. I love the lamps in this room though!

Hopefully, this is designed for a teenage girl - I can't see little Suzie enjoying a fake zebra skin tacked on her wall. Well, I guess I can't really see *anyone* enjoying a fake zebra skin tacked to their wall. And what is that head on the shelf under the window? Creepy. I do like the bedspread, and how the shade over the window matches.

Here is another room that has more of a teenage feel to it. I love the desk and chairs under the window, and the bedspread is kind of cool. Taking it all the way to the ceiling behind the bed is a bit much. Again we have a wicker chair - was wicker really all the rage in the early 70's?

Last but not least, we have this pink monstrosity. The only thing I kind of like about it are the shelves on either side of the vanity. The rest just hurts. And why hang modern art on the walls only to surround it with such an over the top floral pattern? I just don't get it.

I wish there was more, but most of the photos in the book are too small to scan in well, or are in black and white. Still, a fun little look into 1971!

Vintage Geek Gear!

As you can probably tell from my blog tagline, the phrase Vintage Geek is one of my favorites - it just describes me too well! I have wished for a while that I could get a coffee mug that says it, so today I did something about it!

I set up a store on Cafe Press and whipped one up - nothing fancy, simple black on white... but I dig it. In fact, I went ahead and made a t-shirt and bumper sticker too, for good measure!

If you want one too, just head on over to the Vintage Goodness store...

Country Home magazine to cease publication after March issue!

I am so incredibly bummed! This is my favorite print magazine, hands down, and to hear that it is ceasing publication after the March 2009 issue is so sad. Apparently they will also be closing down their website at the same time - killing the initial hope I had that it might continue as an online publication.

The decline of print media is snowballing at an ever increasing rate - newspapers and magazines are all struggling to survive these days. I guess it was inevitable with the rise of the internet, but I can't help but mourn it's loss...

Mid century red chair set - to die for!

I ran across an ad for a local live auction today - check out these chairs!

If only I had room... *sigh*

CPSIA Law - Does it apply to vintage and antique toys?

I just wrote a post over on The Vintage List blog - it's a must read!

Planning for 2009... Revised - or, remembering I'm only one woman!

A couple of weeks ago I posted about my plans for 2009 - it seemed like an ambitious plan, even as I was typing it all out, and once I sat down to really figure out how much TIME all of those things would take me, I've had to scale it back. Significantly. Unfortunately.

So, here is what has been put on hold, until they invent in-home cloning technology so that I can make a few of me, or some other way of doing more things in my meager 24 hours a day makes itself apparent:

Bonanzle

This is the decision that hurts me the most. I've shelved all Bonanzle projects for now - both my Vintage Goodness booth there, and my co-hosting duties on the Brainstorming Bonanzle podcast with Walt.

I just don't have time for a new venue right now - between eBay and Etsy I have all that I can realistically handle at the moment. I will still pop into the radio show when I have time though, it's too much fun to walk away from all together!

Figure8Jeans on BuyItSellIt

Selling plus size jeans is my new product line, and I realized that I don't have time to try to drive traffic to a stand alone website for it, at least not in these first testing stages. So I am making it eBay only for now - my Figure8Jeans.com url will point to my Auctiva storefront, where you can see all that I have listed.

I am also putting the Figure8 blog on hold - I am barely keeping up with this blog and The Vintage List blog, so adding another to my plate is, well, unrealistic. It may come to be in the future, but for now I am just going to maintain a mailing list, and go from there.

VintageGoodness.com

I don't know how many of you were in the habit of going to vintagegoodness.com to see all my stuff, but if you go there now, you will notice that it leads you here, to my blog. All of my info is in the sidebar here, so maintaining another page with all that same info seemed a little bit like overkill. Again, saving time is the goal!

What's Staying

Vintage Goodness on eBay - Our goal for the next several months is to significantly ramp up the auctions. All the inventory waiting here to be listed, with the exception of ephemera, will be put up at auction first, and if it doesn't sell, will then be moved either to my eBay store or one of my Etsy shops.

Vintage Goodness on Etsy - I will continue to list a variety of vintage items in my main Etsy shop, but over the next few months I will be focusing on costume jewelry and paper ephemera.

Vintage Goodness Too on Etsy - I will continue to list a variety of items in the "for the young at heart" niche in my 2nd Etsy shop, but over the next few months I will be focusing on the huge backlog of children's books I have here waiting to be listed.

TheVintageList.com - I am hoping to really grow the directory site over the coming year - stay tuned, either here or to The Vintage List blog for all the news and updates!

The AuctionWally Show - I know I've been slacking about updating and promoting what is going on with the AuctionWally podcast, but I promise to do better now that we are all set up on the Talkshoe network in our new timeslot, 8pm EST on Tuesday nights.

BooksFYI.com - I am still on board with the folks at BooksFYI, and will continue to help them with their online presence and getting books listed.