I. Introductions
Hey, darlings,
A few new people have commented lately--welcome!
If I haven't met you before, and you don't blog yourself, would you take a moment to introduce yourself, next time you comment?
Just a brief intro, like, how did you land here, where are you from? (Thanks, Ceci, for doing that.)
I'd enjoy that--thanks!
It's a funny phenomenon:
bloggers make themselves very visible, and readers may feel they know them--(I have almost 70 "about me" posts)––but to the blogger, new commenters arrive as total strangers out of the blue.
It can also happen with friends who read a blog but who don't blog themselves that there's an imbalance in how much info one person has about the other.
Not a bad thing, just something to watch for.
II. Thrift Things
1. In which I am entirely wrong about a price.
Every so often we get donations from a consignment antique store--things that didn't sell and that the original owners don't want back. They'll often come with the antique store's prices on them, which is helpful--if they're in my areas, I'll mark them maybe a quarter of that price.
These old animals made of real skins came to me as "toys". They had no price.
How much would YOU price them?
Manageress said she'd price them $2.99, but I went with $9.99 because the panda is so darn cute, and the wildebeest & zebra's eyes are hand-painted glass. But with their old skins, I found them a little creepy.
I came in the next day (yesterday) to see them repriced $19.99, and put on the shelves behind the cashier where special (stealable) things go--the work of Volunteer Art, who does art.
I didn't mind. Art & I have sometimes struggled for control (mostly over space), but this was fine--I was just baffled.
"If someone pays that, I'll eat my hat," I said to Louisiana.
"That man's crazy," she agreed.
A couple hours later, someone bought all three.
"If you eat half your hat, I'll help you eat the other," Louisiana said.
2. Faces
The camera on my old (new-to-me) iphone 7 is good but not great--it wasn't until I looked at this photo this morning that I saw it's out of focus. But Oceania: Art of the Pacific Islands in the MMA sold yesterday ($3.99), so I'm going to post the photo as-is because I love related-looking faces. Like the side-by-side Yoruba queen & the boy from Belarus.
Here, both faces have eyebrows set close above eyes, bulbous noses, thin lips, prominent chins...
and, right [full photo & more info here, and many more fab photos from the book]: "a whale ivory figurine of a woman, from the Ha’apai Islands of Tonga, known as ’otua fefine, a term used to describe prominent female ancestors who were venerated as divine beings".
3. Candidate for Re-Writing Public Prose
Well, hell, I could finish a half-marathon in a few months too.
4. BELOW: This antique hand-held fishing net makes me ache, it is so beautiful, the love of the machine––its bent-wood teardrop hoop with cotton net running in a runnel all around the edge (you can just see the indent on the left edge).
The maker's mark is worn off. I looked up nets--this is a "landing net"--for scooping up the fish on the end of your line--I see they're often for fly fishing in rivers, but from "any kind of watercraft" too.
I priced it $25, which is a good deal.
Things like this, I wonder if I'll regret not buying them.
But while I love this net as an object, I care nothing about fishing. It's better it go to someone who loves it for itself.
i would have snatched the incredible old animals at the high price, too. they are so wonderful!!
ReplyDeletethose of us who are into old things know something wonderful when they see it.
yesterday i took some items to one of my local church thrifts. they had a incredible wedding dress hanging up which i bought simply because of the hand sewing and the incredible design. if i think they should price an item higher i will often pay more for an item as a donation to them. i think they are always surprised that someone would do so!
for some of us i think why thrift things may appeal to us is the patina of use it has acquired. new things don't have that and quite frankly many of them never will due to their coldness. we can tell the item was used and often how loved it was.
kirsten
KIRSTEN: Yes, the patina of use on the fishing net really appeals to me--how many times it was handled and dipped in rivers or lakes...
ReplyDeleteLOVE.
Love your stories of choosing thrift yourself. You're a great example of a non-blogger who's become a friend too!
I wish we lived anywhere near you as I would buy that fishing net. I have an antique fishing display up in the loft and that would go perfect with my 1904 flyrod.
ReplyDeleteThe marathon bit — that's amysing. I was so addled by "fatigue-finish" that the "few months" didn't even register.
ReplyDeleteI think photographing the net was a good choice. Much easier to store!
You can price things too cheaply as well as too high, and both can put off potential buyers.
ReplyDeleteI love it when new people say Hi... especially when they blog themselves
JIM & BARB: Oh, I wish you could have the net! That sounds the perfect home for it.
ReplyDeleteMICHAEL: And to think, that marathon book was a Revised Edition--was the cover copy even worse before?
You're right--the photo is just the right size for my small apartment. :)
GZ: Getting the price just right is an art, for sure--and I think even more on eBay than in the thrift store, where people will haggle freely.