Two Years Later, Gretels Treasures is Still Here! November 25, 2018

Evidently I haven’t written a blog entree for over 2 years.  That is sad and amazing. I love looking at what my blog once was. Blogs are alot of hard work. And commitment.  Two things I like to avoid.  The online retail market for vintage treasures that I off has greatly imploded in the last 18 months.  I’ve considered branching out to vintage other than jewelry. I’ve expanded to 3 selling venues, Ebay, Etsy, and Mercari.  I am a social media princess active on Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/GretelsTreasures ), Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/strohgret/)  Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/gretelstreasures} plus twitter, We Heart It, Tumbler, and Google+.   Despite this action, my sales, like many of my colleagues have tanked this year.

You can blame:

• the minimalists, (https://www.becomingminimalist.com/shopping-ban/)
• the millenials, (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/here-are-all-of-the-things-millennials-have-been-accused-of-killing-2017-05-22)
• maybe even global warming (https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/ask-mr-green/whats-better-for-environment-shopping-store-or-online)

My point is I am sitting here watching Gretels Treasures die. Something organic that I have grown for the last 7 years is dying, and with it, a part of me, my self confidence.  my raison d’etre, my comfy, cozy delusionally romantic life of making my own hours, selling what I love, shopping, networking I feel it coming to a close.   I have instituted measures to allow me to still make a profit, by basically a buying freeze.  I sell what I have.   Many of my friends are in the same situation. We are older over 50 women, who have been out of the active job market for years. We have great skills, that are marketable, but having worked for ourselves have no references that are relevent. This is my situation.

I have to change.  Change  or Die.  This is my journey.  Don’t be sad. I’ve reinvented myself many times.  Here I go again.  Tomorrow is literally a new beginning

 

 

 

 

IF IT’S TUESDAY I MUST BE AT A DIFFERENT AUCTION February 19, 2016

Periodically I get mad at my small town auction.   There is one buyer, who insists on either buying everything, or ringing prices up.   Then she sells stuff cheap. Last week she sold a Czech Glass Art Deco Bracelet for 24.99, describing it as Victorian Carnelian. (need to insert emoji of eye roll here)  When this happens, I need to convince myself that I can find treasures elsewhere.  So today I took a road trip up I-95 to a different auction house.  This one sells jewelry lots, in little bags, but posts pictures online, so that you can see what will be offered.  So when I think of it, I check out there website, enlarge my viewing screen to 150%, and try and see what they’re offering.

 

This is a comfy cozy auction. Seating is provided, the auctioneers wear suits, and pictures of the items are projected on a large screen tv. Fancy stuff.   No Amish pretzels here.  Since this is a fancy city auction, you also get charged with a “buyers premium”. It ranges from 15-21% depending how you pay. This is like going to Walmart, and at checkout they charge you an extra 15% for the honor of shopping. This makes no sense to me. And it messes you up while you’re bidding. I forget to add the extra 15% to my bid in my mind.

 

The jewelry section starts first thing in the morning, this being the city, first thing is 10:00. Huddled in one corner of the showroom, we bid on little baggies of jewelry. Last night I went through the website and wrote down which lots were most promising (there were about 100 lots of baggies)  When I arrived this morning I opened up the interesting baggies, snooped around to see what was in the.   What I’m looking for is interesting glass, you might be looking for sterling silver,  modernist pieces, we all have different interests.   I was really happy with what I won, 5 lots, one bag of 37 bracelets was 100.00.  Personally, spending 100 dollars for a baggie of jewelry slightly freaks me out, but I’d done my research and knew I would be getting some goodies in the bag.

 

In the bracelet bag was one of the best art glass bracelets I have ever seen, missing a hard to replace stone. I may repurpose it, but I need to do some research with a Costume Jewelry  group to see how viable replacing the stone will be.  In the bracelet bag I also found Whiting Davis, Kramer, a tiny scarab bracelet,  a Sandor Bangle, and some mid century pieces.

 

I ended up spending 299.00! Ach. This is a lot for me to drop at one time.  And 45.00 of that is the buyers premium I pay. I don’t even get a Cracker Jack ring for that.   But, I ended up with 99 pieces of jewelry I think are sellable. That averages out to 3.00 a piece.   That’s a number my brain can work with.

So I walked out of there happy with what I got, I’ve run out of interesting jewelry to list, I still have hundreds of pieces, but they’re just not the greatest pieces.   It was  raining cats and dogs (and cows) when I came out, I could barely see the car in front of me.  I drove with the baggies in the shot gun seat, and I must confess fondling the beaded treasures during stop lights.  I’m just so happy with what I found today.

 

Tomorrow is Wed, I’ve packed up jewelry to sell, hope to meet up with my auction buddy Todd for lunch in the Amish restaurant, and maybe I’ll finds some more treasures. But I don’t have to buy anything, because I’m happy with what I got today.  This is my favorite piece, a porcelain dragon by Toshikane, Japan

 

SON OF A BEADS I WENT TO THE AUCTION AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED February 6, 2016

Okay, the title will make more sense. It’s Wed., so we all know what I do on Wed. I got to the auction, last week it got cancelled due to snow, but this week was a go.  I have teamies on Etsy, but did you know I have teamies at the auction? Like on Etsy, we help each other out.  I have one friend who has a store, who has tons of jewelry she hasn’t been able to sell. The wonderful thing is, we all sell different things, genres, eras, whatevers.  She’s always saying she has to bring them in to resell. Well last time she came in with a 20 pound bag of costume jewelry. Sure there was a lot of junk, but there was also stuff I love, like a Czech glass flower necklace, and an Alice Caviness set.   I went through and picked out what I wanted to keep, then told her I’d take the stuff to the auction to sell. Even though she comes every week, she can’t get there early enough to put everything on display, but I can get there early. So today I sold some of her jewelry, still have more to sell from the original bag, and she told me she has 10 more bags!!!! Extra funny side note, she buys jewelry from me through the auction, now I’m seeing the stuff she got from me.

Another thing my auction buddies do is bid for each other. There are 2 auctions going on at the same time, and it never fails that I’ll want something from both ends of the building, so far I’ve have 3 different people bid for me! Today, Todd had to leave early, but there were some old dusty tools he wanted.  Of course it coincided with the jewelry auction, and I was only able to get one item, but I did it. A few weeks ago there was a weapon of minimal destruction he wanted, and I was able to get it for him while he was in another part of the auction.  I’ve talked about the assistants helping me out before, it’s just a warm and fuzzy auction moment.

These are the earrings I got today

 

Today there was a Czech bracelet I wanted. I had missed it 2 weeks ago, dumb me, and it was back again. But I wasn’t quite sure if it was Czech. Got out my Iphone, went to a facebook group, posted a picture of the bracelet and within minutes had confirmations from numerous teamies that it was Czech. Still didn’t get it, darn bidding went too high.  I had done the same thing last time on a Boucher necklace, I asked if it was worth buying for 10$….general concensus was, yes, buy it.

These are the earrings I got today

 

There were sporadic jewelry treasures today, I got a beautiful broken Czech pin, that I’m going to turn into a necklace, may be a keeper. I got a Venetian wedding cake necklace, and earrings, and a Whiting Davis gold tone mesh necklace with the original box. I love that kind of stuff.

These are the earrings I got today

 

The silly thing I bought was 5 trays of art glass beads. In the past I have made lampwork beads with a torch. This has provided me with a practical understanding of how glass jewelry is made, and why I love glass jewelry.  Some of these beads are vintage, but many are handmade lampwork beads, a few are fused glass.  I appreciate how valuable these are, and like my ugly Coro fur clip pin, I felt these need rescueing. So I now have a lot of  gorgeous beads, one had the original price on of 100$. (yes, beads sell for that and more)

These are just a few of the beads I got. These are all artisan lampwork beads.  I also got about 10 pounds of vintage to contemporary glass beads. There were a lot. I paid 30.00 for all of them. I paid 10 for the above lampwork ones, then 20 for a box with odds and ends.

The 3 pendants at the top are part of these, I’ll sell them as jewelry. I also found a bag of vintage art glass cabochons, they’re gorgeous too.

This year I am being super selective about what I buy. My shop is evolving slowly to a lovely curated place of vintage treasures, not just jewelry, some accessories, but everything is getting better. I only sell very good to excellent quality costume jewelry, with no issues.  I’m listing less cheap costume items, and trying to sell identifiable objects, that someone, somewhere is looking for them.  I can only list so many items a week, there’s no need for me to buy hundreds of junk pins that I can never list.  Step by step,  my shop is becoming a true depository of treasures.

Thank you for reading,  I’d appreciate it if you could send some love to my Facebook Business Page, it needs love!

https://www.facebook.com/GretelsTreasures/?ref=hl

Thanks for reading,

Gretel

 

 

THE STORY OF A VERY UGLY PIN January 11, 2016

As the official costume jewelry princess at the auction I go to, and because I’m a nice princess, I get special privileges.   A few weeks ago a seller dropped off a 20 gallon box full of costume jewelry.   Don’t get excited, it wasn’t full of Juliana and Fancy stuff jewelry. Rather lots of broken watches, dirty jewelry, and possibly the occasional bug.

Huge box of jewelry I dug through to find treasures

 

 

 

 

When sellers drop off huge amounts of jewelry like this the auction assistants have to match pieces together (like earrings) and display them on trays.   The thing is, costume jewelry gets no respect.  So the assistants don’t know treasures from trash.  So Melissa, the assistant,  told me to put some trays together, for myself to bid on. Woo hoo.  Digging through a box of costume jewelry, that’s right up my aisle.  As you may have figured out, I have a thing for beaded jewelry, especially glass jewelry.  So I dug around and found some art glass necklaces, a Venetian Sommerso bead necklace, some 1950s beaded necklaces, and assorted treasures.  I kept digging around the bottom,  because you never know what you might find.   I love dress clips and fur clips, so at the bottom I found a figural Coro fur clip, of what looked like an old woman. It was in bad shape, very chippy, but since I was going to bid on this extra special tray, I threw it onto my pile.  Long story short, a couple hours later I was high bidder on the two trays.

Huge box of jewelry I dug through to find treasures

 

So I took my treasures home. The Venetian beads were wired onto an ugly chain, so I removed them and put them on an appropriate chain. I listed some of the necklaces, and kept putting the ugly Coro fur clip aside.  I finally got around to taking her pictures, and posted then on  Ebay.  While I heavily promote my Etsy shop, Ebay is still my  primary  store, so I post everything there first.  I knew painted Coro dress clips could be valuable, so I researched them only finding Charlie McCarthy ones.  Why they would make womens jewelry depicting Charlie McCarthy is beyond me.

I had no idea how to price her, so when  in doubt, I put items up for auction and let the  buyers decide the value.  So I started the auction at 14.99.  Right away I got a bid on it, and a strange email asking if I would end the auction early, because she had lost these before.  I said,  once I start an auction I don’t end it.  I recently joined the 21^st century with an Iphone, which is connected to Ebay and tells me every time I get a bid.  About 20 minutes later my phone started beeping, and told me the bidding for the pin was up to 300.00.   For a really ugly pin.

At that point I decided to ask my Etsy team mates on Facebook what was so special about this pin. I  posted pictures, and we went back and forth.  Someone found a Coro website with the other half of this fur clip, it was Punch, as in Punch and Judy.  He had a moveable arm with a stick, was in excellent condition and asking price was 1200.00!  So who I had was Judy, but her arm was missing the stick, and she was missing a lot of paint.  Everyone gets excited when a teamie has a great find.

So I had to wait 7 days for the auction to end. I knew there were at least 2 people in the world that wanted her. I kept checking the bids, but they didn’t change.   Final high bid was 320.00 Only 320.00! This shows you how greedy we can get.  The first bidder was the winning bidder.  I asked her what she was going to do with it, restore it or leave it?  She was up in Providence Rhode Island, former costume jewelry capital of the country, and her grandmother used to work in the Coro factory.  She didn’t know whether she would restore Judy or leave her.

What absolutely amazes me, is that if I hadn’t found her, in the bottom of that grubby box, I’m sure she would have ended up in the trash.   In my mind, this ugly Coro fur clip has a place in costume jewelry history,  and I was possibly the only one there who could even envision anyone wanting her.   I’m so happy that she has returned home to Providence.

 

TRASH TO TREASURES FIND, A GUEST POST December 6, 2015

TRASH TO  TREASURES FIND—A GUEST POST

 

You all get to hear about my adventures at the auction.  But that’s not the only place to go treasure hunting. Thrift shops, flea markets,  and yard sales are great places to hunt.  Everyone has different searching techniques.  After a while, the best way to find treasures it to trust your gut. The longer you do this, the better your gut feeling will grow.  Don’t pay attention to people saying, oh that’s just junk jewelry.  Sometimes it’s just a diamond in the rough.

I recently read a facebook post from Courtney, owner of the Ruby Lane shop Mercy, Maude.  She sells a lovely assortment of vintage and antique treasures.  So sit back, and read her treasure hunting story

 

I’ve got a nice, happy story. A few months ago, I was in a tiny favorite thrift shop in Virginia, where my significant other lives, just a few miles out of DC. Cheap costume jewelry hangs from an expanding peg rack on the wall there, and I aways look it over for the occasional modern Brighton, Loft, Talbots, etc piece that I can sell at a yearly mixed craft/vintage/new show that I do with my best friend. Necklaces there are 2.99 and I resell them for about $10 to $25 apiece.

You know that moment when you look at something that is presented to you as one thing, and you know it’s something else, but your brain won’t accept it because you’re told it’s not? Yeah, that. I see this cheap fake leather cord necklace with base metal clasp and extender, with a dirty pendant with cloudy stones, and my eye, experience, and knowledge said: Um, something isn’t right here. But my brain thought it knew better – it’s junk, right? Fortunately my eyes always wins over my brain, and I took it down, touched the pendant/charm, and went “Yup, it’s good.” Took it to the window but all I could really see was dirt and a junky necklace. But it felt right. Bought it for 2.99.

Took it home, scrubbed it down, took it off the plastic leather cord, took off the oversized base metal jump ring, saw the thin break from wear, located on the ring where you hang it, and realized: white gold, diamonds, peridot charm; the only thing that breaks from wear like that is a 50s gold charm that has been worn pretty much daily on a loaded charm bracelet – looks like someone gave their granddaughter a broken charm, and she put a big loop on it to wear it on a necklace. And then tossed it aside.

I think: Peridot is no big whoop, but gold and diamonds are! And it’s a four leaf clover, heart shaped leaves, and how symbolic for me – my luck in turning up treasures that others dont see, and rehoming once -cherished items.

So I take it to my village jewejer, to be repaired on the loop, and he throws it down and sneers “It’s costume.” He’s been getting ruder over the last couple of years, disappears for weeks at a time, and is doing less decent work. I said politely, Well, how about we test it and see, and he says nastily that he isnt going to waste his time on junk. Which are the last words he gets to say to me because I walked out. (I am never going back, either.)

I take it to my old jeweler in Syracuse, and he’s like, we don’t work on costume, you know. And I’m like – it’s not costume; it’s gold and diamonds. Shouldn’t he know that? He looks at it with the loupe, politely says, “We’ll have Tom (the house repair guy, very good) look at it Monday. Maybe it’s sterling and he can solder a loop.” You can tell he thinks I’m an idiot in this regard.

Tom calls and says yeah its silver I can fix it. I say, did you test it? Those are diamonds and no one sets diamonds in silver. Yes, I know that peridot is no big deal and is commonly set in silver, but this is a 1950s piece and white gold was popular then and peridot with inclusions was used to create leaves, on gold pieces. I feel like I’m giving a history lesson to someone who doesn’t want to hear it but he agrees to test it before proceeding, once I point out that a repair for gold is going to be about four times as expensive.

He calls me back: 14k white gold, good diamonds. Estimated replacement value at least $500.

Here it is, a $40 repair of the loop, and a new ring later. My lucky charm which I am wearing on a chain. I will wear it every time I go out treasure hunting. And be reminded that I need to listen to my self. Yay me!

Please visit Courtney’s lovely shop:

http://www.rubylane.com/shop/mercymaude/ilist/?cs=Vintage+Collectibles

Thanks for visiting,

Gretel

http://stores.ebay.com/GRETELS-TRINKETS-AND-TREASURES

 

Button Button Who’s Got the Button? November 22, 2015

You never know what is going to happen and what you’ll see at the auction.  If you remember, last week I did really well selling at the auction.  I bought junk jewelry and flipped it for over double what I paid for it. I dumped it into a case, and got 30.00 for it.  Well, this week I tried the same strategy, took my broken junk, flipped it into a case….and got 5.00 for it.  Just another day at the auction.

After I set up my case to sell, I cruise around making sure I don’t miss any jewelry on the tables.  It’s weird, sometimes the jewelry goes for more, or less on the tables.  I’m also taking pictures for my auction photo blog on Instagram…I love taking pictures of weird and wonderful stuff.  Right now Mid Century Modern furniture is really hot.  So I’m cruising the aisles and look what I found:

A Staffordshire poodle dog and puppies figurine.  I love this stuff!  I don’t know what’s old and what’s not. I don’t need antique Staffordshire. It was so cute! I stood around and waited to bid on it.  I held in  til 30.00.. The other bidder got it for 40.00.  I didn’t need another dustible at home.  Then I saw a Steiff little lion! I love Steiff.   Once again I held in til 30.00.  And the other bidder got it for 40.00.  I collect small mohair animals, I don’t know if it was worth much more.

I tried calling Mr. T, my auction buddy, on the phone, but it wasn’t working.  Had to go outside into the auction field to look for him.  It seemed to be a cheap day as far as buying.  I wandered the aisles, finally found him digging around in rusty old tools.  This guy knows his stuff. Out of a whole table full of tools, he’ll declare it all junk, except for one widget that he’ll get 300.00 for!   So we’re wandering and found an old jewelers bench. He started opening drawers, I start opening drawers. There were bits and pieces of broken jewelry. I found some great Swiss jewelry  tweezers, a couple of pliers, and best of all, two tiny boxes of replacement rhinestones.  I save broken jewelry for parts, digging out rhinestones to replace missing stones, it’s hard and annoying work.  These little jewels would make my life so much better. Meanwhile Mr. T gets a screw driver out and starts removing a jewelers vise off of the bench. He also got a pile of tools.  We put all the stuff together and put it in a drawer. He would come back later and bid  on the lot.

Outside, a football field full of junk, er, treasures

 

 

There wasn’t anything exciting at the jewelry auction, I picked up some assorted stuff, including a box of jewelry, all missing rhinestones, that I should have skipped.  But there was some interesting stuff in the back on the tables.  There were a bunch of New Old Stock Lucite necklaces and earrings, with original tags on them.  They’re not worth a lot of money, but I am so attracted to beaded jewelry, and they are so charming.  I rushed back to try and bid on the boxes.  I saw my arch nemesis at the table.  She often outbids me (because I care about profit margin) and then sells cheap.  (Yes, I stalk her on Ebay, but there’s nothing creepy about that, really there isn’t)

 

This table had jewelry, old hats and bags, and jewelry boxes. There was a woman hovering over MY jewelry!  Turned out she was interested in the wooden case under the jewelry! Yay…I won the jewelry, and a large jewelry box (for storage) and a Christian Dior vintage chapeau.  I think it might be from the 50s, in excellent condition.

 

The biggest surprise of the day was 2 tables with lots of vintage button, linens and a box of beaded flowers.  You never know how prices will go for this type of stuff.  By this time, it was getting later, and things were moving faster, I put together a lot of buttons, 3 vintage compacts, a nautical ruler and divider, a huge bag of mother of pearl buttons and a Pug Christmas stocking.  I got it for 20.00.  I moved to the next table and pu together a lot of beaded flowers, a bunch of vintage buckles and more buttons and got that for 20.00 also.  I know I swore I wouldn’t buy anything but jewelry anymore, but there something about buttons and beads that attract me.

Mr T. stopped by, and gave me the rhinestones and tools we had squirreled away, he got the whole bunch for 10.00 out in the field.  He helped me carry my haul back to my car.  I stopped by the office and collected my 5.00 for the case of junk I sold.  I went home tired and happy.  It was a great day at the auction.

 

No auction next week because of Thanksgiving,  I may do a question and answer blog next week.

Thank you for reading.  If you google Gretels Treasures you’ll be surprised at what comes up!

Gretel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Make Money Without Really Trying and With a Little Help From My Friends… November 16, 2015

Every week at the auction brings new surprises and new treasures.  Last week I was looking at the previews and saw this.  Nothing makes me get warm and fuzzy more than gobs of colored glass.  Looking at all of these colored glass cruets, some of which were hand blown made me want to have them.  I thought I’d sworn off of buying blown glass, but cruets aren’t that big, and would easily fit into a small size priority box.  Bad news was, they were going to be auctioned off early. Instead of waltzing in at 11AM I’d have to get myself up and out of the house and be at the auction by 8AM… Part of my responsibilities at home are getting my teen age son up and driving him to the bus stop, by 7:30….auction is 25 miles away….I could do this.  Got child up and shoveled into car, and as I got to the bus stop, I slowed down, pushed him out and said “see ya”!

So I was on my way by 7:30, but I hadn’t had coffee yet. Ach!   I thought I might have time to stop for a Mickey Dees Latte, and still make the 8AM start.  Gotta have coffee.  So I stumbled into the auction before it started, and ran to look at the glass.  The auction at 8 is very different from the auction at 11.  I used to come earlier and work the outside field, but since I’ve started concentrating on jewelry, which doesn’t start until 1PM, I’ve slacked off from getting here so early.  I loved the cruets and lovingly fondled a few.  Of course the stoppers didn’t seem to match, but they were soooo pretty.

I looked at the first table  and saw 2 huge boxes of junk jewelry. Hmmmm, not a lot of buyers here yet, and it is jewelry, I don’t usually buy box lots, they are a lot of work, but it is an auction, so I started bidding and got the boxes for 40.00. Surely there would be something in them.   I carted the boxes back to the jewelry auction and stored them behind the counter. Back to the glass.   I waited patiently for  for them to get to the cruets, there were twenty,  I hoped they would go cheap.   A woman pulled aside 8 of them, I figured I’d let her have them and maybe I’d get the rest.   I think she got them for around 60.00.  Fine, they were the nicer ones anyway, they put up the rest of them, and they went for over 100.00 Aw shoot, I got up early and everything and never even got to bid on them.   Life goes on.

So I now had about 20 pounds of junk costume jewelry,  I figured I’d try and flip it at the auction. Something I’ve never done before.  I got a large case, and carefully started pulling out ugly necklaces and arranged them in the case, trying to make junk look attractive.   I got another case and stuffed it fulled of carefully arranged jewelry. This left me with a huge box of more junk jewelry.  I had picked out a few interesting things,  so I was offered the last available case, took the box and just flipped all of the remaining jewelry into it, shoveled it around some, looking for treasures I would be willing to sell in my stores.  I’ve never just dumped jewelry in a case, but a lot of people do this, and I was tired of untangling necklaces.  My hope was to make back the 40.00 I’d spent on the junk, the same day.

This was a very confusing auction day for me.   I found a great box of jewelry in the back, with a Venetian Wedding Cake bead necklace I HAD to have.  At the same time there was also a Venetian Sommerso art glass bead necklace at the jewelry counter I had to have.  At this auction you can consign a table, and put what you’re selling on one table, then items are sold individually from it.  There is one seller who consistently has great vintage jewelry.  It can be a bit pricey, but the quality is great.

Venetian Sommerso Glass Bead Necklace https://www.etsy.com/listing/256230586/vintage-murano-italy-sommerso-end-of-day?ref=listings_manager_grid

So I went to lunch with Mr. T, as I always do, and worried over the two necklaces.   I didn’t know whether I should pull the one necklace from the back, or bid on the whole box. At the same time there were treasures at the jewelry counter I wanted, including a case with a millefiori bead jewelry set.  I pondered my dilemma while munching on my egg salad wrap.  Side note, as a vegetarian, the egg salad wrap is the only food I can eat at the Amish restaurant in the auction hall, so every Wed  for 4 years I have had that.   Mr T mumbled on about knives he bought, and tools he was thinking of bidding on,  not realizing how important the jewelry dilemma was.  Men!

After agonizing over this monumental decision, I decided to ask Mr. T to bid on the necklace in the back, and I would work the jewelry dept. So I stepped up to the plate, whining to anyone who would listen about the injustice of not being able to be in 2 places at once. Another auction buddy volunteered to bid on the necklace in the back, but I told him I had it covered.   How cool is that, I have friends there who will bid for me,  and I have done the same for them…I love that.

Row of showcases, my 3 sold for 85.00 this week!

So my cases did really well,  I was shocked, they sold for a total of 85.00,  I made about 75.00 from the sale, but it meant I didn’t have to take any of that junk jewelry home.  I also sold some rings for 40 and 2 trays of jewelry for 50.00…. Selling at the auction is always hit or miss, this week I sold high…but that also meant I bought high.  Mr T got out bid on that Wedding Cake necklace, he actually went higher than I told him to go, and he still lost it.  I did get the Venetian Sommerso necklace, but I paid way more than I should have. I bid with my heart, and we all know that is stupid and costly.   I also bought the case for 50.00 with the millefiori set, there’s a bunch of other jewelry in it to sell, but some will go right back to the auction next week.

Millefiori Art Glass Bead Jewelry Set https://www.etsy.com/listing/256132605/vintage-murano-millefiori-art-glass-bead?ref=shop_home_active_6

I got some nice jewelry this week,  it’s always a surprise to me what I got, even though I look through everything ahead of time.  It was really nice walking out of there with  a little bit of cash.  I have so much stock,  and I can’t list that much, so I’m finding as time goes on, I’m getting very selective about what goes into my stores.   I specialize in Art Deco, Rhinestone, Figural Animal, and Beaded jewelry.  Mostly mid century, but I’m not afraid to go out of those boundaries.

Jewelry makes me so happy. I’m so lucky to have this as an option for making a living.

Please visit my Etsy shop, Gretels Treasures

https://www.etsy.com/shop/GretelsTreasures

Until next time,

Gretel

TRUE CONFESSIONS OF GRETELS TREASURES AND HOW TO DEAL WITH JEALOUSY October 26, 2015

\

Bangle bracelets

Every week is different at the auction. You never know what you’ll find and equally important, you never know who will be there bidding against you…Earlier this year I was in a total funk, because there was a woman who would outbid me on everything.  It made me so mad.  What really hurt was seeing my treasures going home with her, and then being listed on Ebay, WAY underpriced.   She bought massive amounts of jewelry, took awful pictures and would sell for 6.99 or best offer. (which meant she was really selling it for around 5.00)….Obsessiveness and jealousy are not pretty on me.

Assorted jewelry purchased this week

My obsession was not healthy for me. I whined about it to my auction friends.  My auction buddy Todd said I should just bid her up. And I tried doing that, but I didn’t want to pay that much for stuff. And it’s very hard at an auction to know who is bidding, unless they are jumping up and down. There are no paddles with numbers.  You may wonder what impact this has on pricing?  I won a case a few weeks ago for 40.00….if she had been there, she would have paid 90.00. That is a huge difference, granted you’re getting a lot of jewelry for that price, but I turn over a significant portion back to the auction. I pick what I want to keep, and throw it back.

Really cool stuff!

How bad was it? I even tried imitating her, selling lesser jewelry for 13.99 or best offer (10.00) I found it could be done, but you have to sell a lot of mediocre jewelry at that price, and it takes just as much effort on my part to list a 10.00 item as a 20.00 or 50.00 item.  Every year the quality of my online shops has improved and streamlined. I used to sell everything! Stuffed animals, clothing, shoes, I ran from thrift shop to yard sale spending a lot of time shopping.  Now I’ve streamlined to where I go shopping, once a week, can be picky, and then theoretically list the rest of the time.  Sure I stumble into a thrift shop now and then, maybe a flea market once in a while, but I don’t spend all Saturday morning driving 100 miles trying to find something to sell. (I live in a rural area, that’s what it takes to go yard sailing around here)

More jewelry

Now I have to restrain myself at the auction. I don’t buy figurines, or glass, or dishes.   Occasionally small items, like antique Christmas garden toys  or lead toy animals.  And I’m happier, and my car is less trashed.  This week’s blog sounds like true confessions.

Trifari jewelry

Now I have a nice group of auction friends. They save spots for me. We bid for each other. We talk about what case we HAVE to have, how high we’ll go for it. Do you want something out of the case I won? I give someone necklaces, she gives me some earrings.  It’s really warm and fuzzy.  And that sure beats obsession and jealousy .

This is a case I sold…for 10.00

This weeks auction was just nice. I arrived early to set up 2 cases of jewelry to shovel back to the auction. I thought they were nice.  Unfortunately, I only got 10.00 each for them! But the flip side is, when I sell low, I buy low….this is all non sellable costume jewelry I’m getting rid of (good for selling at flea markets, no name contemporary stuff),  but I’m buying some cool stuff….After setting up my cases, I walked around taking pictures to share on Instagram, and then I become Princess Gretel and go behind the show cases to fondle , um inspect, the trays of jewelry.   M & K were trolling through a huge box of jewelry, putting trays together, and they told me to put some together for myself! Okay joolies, picture a 20 gallon tub full of jewelry,  granted it’s filthy, but who knows what might be in there.  So major entertainment ensued.  Poor M & K, kept holding up stuff they thought I’d like, and I’d just shake my head.   I found tons of vintage beaded necklaces from the 50s, not terribly valuable, but I love beads and love sharing them with my buyers. I also put together another tray of odds and ends, including some art glass beads.  So much fun.

Huge box of jewelry I dug through to find treasures

What I picked out of that huge box

I conferred with a few people, about who wanted what and the bidding was on. They are still selling the estate of an antique jewelry store. Not the great stuff, but good costume is still funneling through. I’m being a good little squirrel, buying and storing acorns now, because I know the good stuff will run out someday.

Got 10.00 for selling this jewelry also!

It was a good day at the auction,

Thanks for reading,

Gretel

A LOOOOOONG DAY AT THE AUCTION! October 15, 2015

Variety of masks found at the auction

Today was really different . My 14 yr old son is out of school for the rest of the week, and for punishment, he got to come with me to the auction! I had to be there extra early (before 10:00) to set up a showcase to sell junk jewelry.  Dragged my baby out of bed with the promise of buying him breakfast.   Got in the mom mobile (a Honda CRV, I think it’s cool, he thinks it’s lame) turned on my Classical Guitar CD (which I always listen to when driving to the auction) and strapped him in the booster seat (kidding! Just checking to see if you are following along)

Statue found at the auction

Got there with minutes to spare, got my assignment and trotted him over to the Amish restaurant in the auction building. Got him set up with our regular waitress, Marion, found something he could eat, and deserted him.

Row of showcases, mine sold for 25.00 this week!

Set up my case, checked in on him, he’s still eating, and went back out to cruise the auction, take pictures of interesting things that I post on Instagram (follow me here:  https://instagram.com/gretelstreasures ) as part of a series “Seen at the Auction” or “Scenes from the Auction”….Nothing I needed to bid on, checked in on him again, and we went out to look at the jewelry trays.  I’m princess Gretel again, so I can go behind the showcases and touch and breath and drool on all the jewelry. They’re still selling that Estate of a closed Jewelry Shop, today there was Trifari, Art Deco, a Miriam Haskell later set, assorted other treasures.  Nothing I was willing to spend a lot on, but the jewelry would be a good investment for the future.

Outside, a football field full of junk, er, treasures

Then, Son and Mom went outside to look in the field, it’s huge, maybe a football field, with assorted treasures lined up in rows. He found 2 Zippo lighters, which he has decided to collect, in original boxes, and got them for 10.00…I found a cute cow butter holder, says Ironstone, Made in England, stole that for 10.00 also. Outside you can make piles of stuff, to create your own lot, but someone can come and take one item out  and bid on it singly, that’s how I scored the cow.

Pile of trays of jewelry, buy 1-4 at a time

Time for lunch at the Amish restaurant. Back to waitress Marion, who we have known for years, and every Wed Todd (my auction buddy) and I have the exact same lunch. The child had French Fries. Munch Munch, back to the jewelry auction which was getting ready. I didn’t see any showcases I needed, that was a good thing. My case sold for 25.00, which was okay, it was mostly junk, good for flea markets.  Chatted with lots of auction friends and waited for the jewelry. Child went and got a chocolate milkshake

One of the trays that I won

I didn’t need any of it, but, for 10-20 dollars for 2 trays, I was up for investing. And I got a lot bang for my buck. I did get the Miriam Haskell set (it’s rather contemporary, but still sellable), some rhinestone goodies, just a mix up of better quality stuff costume stuff. When I was finished bidding, I took my pile to divide what to keep, throw back at the auction, or wholesale on Ebay.  I can get slightly better prices with wholesale lots on Ebay, where I make my own prices, instead of at the auction, where I might get 10 dollars or 90 dollars for a case.

Contemporary Miriam Haskell set

So we both had a nice day at the auction! Thanks for reading, you can follow me everywhere on Social Media, including Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/GretelsTreasures

Thanks for reading, see you next time,

Gretel

Cool guitar!

WOKE UP TO A RAINY AUCTION DAY October 3, 2015

Woke up to a warm humid rainy day. But that won’t stop me from going to the auction.  Very little can keep me away from the auction. Vacation and when they’re closed are basically the only times I don’t go. I used to buy all sorts of things, glass, pottery, clothes, anything that I could resell. This was back in 2011 after I lost my job.   I’m a super competent person, but where I live is very rural, and I just haven’t been able to find a full time job.   Educated in textile design, after having my own handwoven clothing business for 9 years, I burned out from that and became an academic library assistant. And I was really good at it. But there’s not much call for that in the land of crabs, fish and water that is Chesapeake Bay Country.   Since moving here with my family, I’ve worked at a marina, a doctors office, a bank and an insurance company. Sigh, none have worked out for various reasons.

Comic Relief Insert to Pity Party–Pee Wee Herman

So I found myself creating my own business, again. I’ve been a buyer on Ebay since 1997! So it made sense to create Gretels Treasures on Ebay and start treasure hunting. I used to go to yard sales, thrift shops, flea markets and finally auctions.   Selling a wide variety of items was trying and confusing. One day I take pictures of clothes I bought, then the next listing glass ware and animal figurines. I did this for a couple of years, but since I was 17 I collected vintage jewelry, and this was what I knew best. If you’re a writer, you write about stuff you know. If you are an Ebay seller, you should sell what you know best.

To Thine Own Self Be True

Every day is a learning experience. I learn to take better pictures. I learn to work social media. I’m a technophobe, so how did I end up on Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, Facebook, Tumbler, Keep AND Instagram? Baby steps. One little baby step at a time.   After being on Ebay for a year selling, I didn’t what to put all my eggs in one basket. So I expanded to Etsy. Both are great selling platforms, but different. Ebay is very structured, with lots of rules to follow. And they change about every 6 months. Etsy was a bit more warm and fuzzy, they want you to connect with your customer, and you have more control over how you sell. On Etsy you have teams you can join, and copromote your store and items.

Huh? Yes, Seen at the Auction!

I belong to 3 Etsy teams, each is a little different, but all are very supportive. I’ve made wonderful friends, and learned so much. I also belong to Facebook groups, who offer support with research and electronic business practices.

Puppy Memorial or Sweet Portrait?

So now I go to an auction once a week, play jewelry princess, and try and find great treasures that I can find forever homes for. You can find anything at this auction, including a cannon this week. I realize this hasn’t been the usual Adventures in Jewelry Hunting with Gretel that you might be used to.

Boom! Opening Price was 13,000…no bids duh

I had a great week at the auction, including buying this case, which included a Hattie Carnegie Art Glass Necklace. Soon to be coming to an Etsy and Ebay store near you.

These are the best things I got this week…and the worst pictures. I can’t take good close ups with my Iphone…but I did want to show you:

Hattie Carnegie, Venetian Beads, and Lisner leaf necklace

Art Deco molded glass dress clip, Trifari jewelry set, Trifari bracelet, Scarab bracelet, Venetian Sommerso Bead earrings

Like I said, they’re really awful photos, and I’ve touched them up! Thank you for reading, I’m getting better at this