everything vintage/what is it worth?

vintage embroidered tablecloth

I’m working on an ebook and this is part of one of the chapters. It’s still in the rough draft phase but hopefully you will enjoy this!

Victorian: 1865-1899

Industrialization and new inventions revolutionized the textile industry but also lightened the load of the average housewife. Sound familiar? It happens in almost every generation! Now the housewife has more time for artistic endeavors such as the wonderfully detailed and embroidery and lace on tablecloths from this time period.

Why Victorian? Queen Victoria set the style. In the late 1800s, she had lost her beloved Prince Albert and made it fashionable to be a widow, using dark, rich colors and fabrics. Table linens of this period were heavily decorated, plush, rich, velvet or tapestry.

Art Nouveau – Art Deco: 1900-1920s

The beginning of the 20th century was a period of brilliant and energetic designers who believed that all art should work in harmony to create a total work of art. Again, this sounds familiar of today’s ideas! Tablecloths conformed to this principle by geometric squares, stylized florals, good luck symbols, ribbon, animal prints, laurel wreaths, etc. The colors were brighter than the Victorian but still muted like pastels and pale greens, pink, mauve, and gray.

As the United States entered WWI, Germany was producing about 85% of the world’s supply of dye. However, a blockade of German shipping caused a dye famine in the US, forcing Americans to come up with a quick solution. As a result, many textiles from this time period resulted in unstable colors.

The Depression: 1930s

Thriftiness was the word of the day in this time period. Homemade goods and recycled fabrics were a sign of the times. This is when you will find the printed feedsack cloths that were recycled into tablecloths. My grandmother (born in the early 1900s) said that if you paid an extra 5 cents for the flour (or whatever) in the feedsack, you would get the fancy flower printed one instead of the plain so that you could recycle it more readily.

Just sold this one on eBay for less than 10.00. It was a beauty!

this one is not vintage but it is listed on eBay until Oct. 31.

Check it out at EVERYTHINGVINTAGESTEPH.COM.

THANKS FOR READING!  More to come…………

Well, my total for the entire antique show was about 650$. That is a little less than what I usually sell in the summer (which is slower) but I did have better sales in the summer show so I guess it all evens out. The crowds were better than usual because the weather was really perfect so I am assuming there were more lookers than buyers. This is typical for an antique show but we all want more sales!

So get out there and buy some recycled products! You get more for your dollar and it’s a great investment too.

And you never know—you might meet someBODY like this! She was in the booth across from me. The first 2 days she was lying face up on the table in a very awkward position. The last day she got tied to the post.

Here are some of the vintage Fisher price toys that I am taking to the Renningers Kutztown extravaganza Antique show this weekend. I have already been there for 2 days and there is one more day tomorrow. At last count, I sold about 500$ worth. I like to take primitive items to this show but I didn’t have a whole lot of them this time. I did find a nice stash of Fisher price toys at my last auction so I took a lot of those. They sold OK. I think they sell better on eBay. I sold the yellow house with most of the people and furniture and a few other smaller Fisher Price items.

What I don’t sell at Renninger’s will probably end up on eBay. Vintage Fisher Price does well on eBay. Check it out yourself! Some of the other items I sold at the antique show: shaving kit, tool box, cobalt blue salt and pepper, needle packs, tole work lunchbox, scale, Girl Scout hat and book, rubber skeleton, etc.—all vintage of course! I didn’t sell any of the doll cradles yet either.

Here’s a display of the Franciscan ware I took. Didn’t sell any of it yet but it looks nice! I’ll report back on tomorrow’s action! A shout out to Colleen from freshvintage.typepad.com who was making the rounds of the antique shows and found some really great stuff! Thanks for stopping by!

Visit my eBay store at everythingvintagesteph.com

Welcome to my booth! No this is not my eBay site but it is an antique booth that I rent at the Zionsville Antique Mall in Zionsville, PA. You can see their website at zionsvilleantiques.com. You can’t order from the website but you can get a lot of information about antiques from the website or go there if you can!

It is an amazing place of 30,000 square feet of antiques. I took my aunt there last week and we were there for 3 hours and still didn’t see everything! This is another way that I can sell my vintage items besides listing them on eBay. Ebay is still my primary source of income and sales but sometimes I have items that are too large to mail or they just need to be held and touched to be appreciated.

I also sell at antique shows and flea markets. (Another one is coming up at the end of September at renningers.com)

If you have any questions about any items in the photos, just leave a comment! I can always remove an item from Zionsville and place it in an eBay listing if there is any interest. That is, if it hasn’t already sold from Zionsville! I sell about 50 items or more a month from my booth there. In comparison, I sell about 150 items a month on eBay. Of course, I have to list and photograph and mail each of those eBay items. With the Zionsville booth I just pay the rent and they do all the work.

I hope you have some antique malls in your area to visit. It’s a great way to recycle old items and sometimes even save some money compared to new items. This is especially true of furniture. So go green!

SWAGBUCKS IS awesome and fun. I am using it to earn 5.00 gift certificates for amazon and then using the certificates to buy mailing supplies for eBay.

Amazon has boxes for items other than priority like padded envelopes, and tape, etc.

It doesn’t take much time either. Try it. It’s FREE! Just click on the icon above.

I am assuming you already know about the free shippng supplies for priority mail. These are at usps.com. You just need to ship priority and all the envelopes and boxes, etc. are free. It makes eBaying a lot easier!

everythingvintagesteph.com

Yes, sometimes I have a few bombs that just don’t sell. I still believe that almost anything can sell on eBay though–you just have to present it properly.

Dollar store items. Sometimes they do sell for way more than a dollar! I bought these frames at the dollar store at  the Jersey shore. They are really nice! The reason I bought them is because I wanted to count my trip to the shore as a business expense if I found enough items to buy while I was down there–like going to yard sales and thrift stores, etc. Well, it didn’t really work out that way but I did buy a few things on the boardwalk to resell. I didn’t think I could get more than 1$ if I only sold one at a time so I put all 3 of them together. I didn’t sell them the first time around (starting price 4.00). The postage was for 2 pounds so that might have been discouraging the sale. I think I am going to relist them in my store though–at least for a month–and see if they sell. This is a good strategy that usually works for me.

A Christmas tablecloth in July. A lot of people know about the “Christmas in July” thing. It works on eBay too. This tablecloth did not sell though. I am going to use the keywords “Xmas in July” when I relist it and see if that helps. Try searching for “Xmas in July” and you will find a lot of items. I also have listed another really nice SANTA 1950s tablecloth that already has generated 3 bids in the first 24 hours I listed it. (auction is over on July 29)

Old Soap Opera Digest magazines—one at a time. I looked at other people’s auctions for vintage Soap Opera Digest mags. They were selling one at a time. Some sold for .99 or a little more—others did not sell. I listed 9 at a time and they are now at 25.00 with 2 days left.

It will cost me  a lot less in fees that way too and save me a lot of time by listing them all together. Check out any of my auctions at everythingvintagesteph.com and have a great day!

ride the ducks quackers

So they say when something big happens in the news, if you can sell it on eBay, then go for it! Well, this is my attempt to capitalize on that theory. There was an accident today on the Delaware river in Philadelphia involving the ride the ducks ride. It is a fun tour that drives you through the city and then goes onto the river and becomes a boat. I’ve been on it. They give you these “quackers” that kind of work like a kazoo to blow into it and make a quacking noise. They are very annoying but fun.

I saved my 2 from last year and had them in my “junk drawer.” So I got them out today and listed them on eBay. It’s a fun item and I hope they find the 2 people that are still missing as of 9PM this evening. Most of the people were not hurt badly but certainly it was very scary.

I even have a video on my listing to show how the quackers sound. Here is a link to the listing.     RIDE THE DUCKS

OR  here is just the video

Rats, I forgot to take pictures today of what I was doing at the Renninger’s extravaganza antique show. This sale is held three times a year and the end of June is the least attended of all the 3. The other 2 are the end of April and the end of September. However, I was SO busy today! I sold about 440.00 worth of cool junk! I sell mainly primitive items at this show. Some of the items were: old wash tub 8$, old towel rack 10$, old jar 7$ (it had a chip), old kitchen tools 3$ each, 7 kazoos at 1$ each, parts to an erector set 8$, etc.

It started at 10 AM and started to slow down around 1PM because it was SO hot! It was supposed to be about 95 degrees but I’m not sure what it was. I was underneath a pavilion and there was a breeze so it wasn’t too bad. Then we had a BIG thunderstorm around 3PM and everyone sort of disappeared after that. I left around 3:15 and the sale goes until 5 but everyone was leaving–no customers! I have to get more stuff to take tomorrow to fill in all the empty spaces!

If you want to know more about the sale go to renningers.com. I am at the Kutztown site.

I am selling at the Renningers antiques and flea market in Kutztown, PA. this weekend. June 24, 25, and 26. Check it out at renningers.com. It’s fabulous and huge! I will try to report my experiences each day. Tommorow, wed. is set up day. These photos from my porch are some of the primitives I will be taking. They are very popular at this sale although I don’t sell many of these on eBay. I guess I could but they are large items and would take a lot of postage!

I just made this tonight and it was so yummy and easy, I am posting the recipe for my facebook friends..and anyone else!

8 oz. egg noodles (pasta ribbons)

1 ½ lb. ground beef

2 cups spaghetti sauce

1/3 cup  onion chopped

8 oz. cream cheese

1 cup cottage cheese

½ cup sour cream

1. Cook noodles until tender. Drain and set aside.

2. Brown beef and onions; add spaghetti sauce

3. Mix cheeses and sour cream

4. In 3 quart casserole, pour half the noodles. Top with cheese and cream mixture and cover with remaining noodles. Top with beef mixture.

5. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes

The cream and cheese mixture make it so yummy and it’s easier than lasagna!

click here to view my eBay bargains! New items listed every day.