Christmas in June -- Vintage Holiday Postcards 1909 - 1940's

These beautiful vintage postcards are a glimpse of Christmas past.   The card below is linen, and unused.  I would date it as 1930's to 1940's.  It's by C.T. & Co., and it depicts Santa Claus waving as he stands on top of the world globe.  Beautiful and unusual imagery! 

This card is embossed and from 1909.  It has a tan shadow at two edges, but I love the simple design of this card -- pastel colors and thick paper with embossed design.

This card is my personal favorite.  It's a 1930's to 1940's vintage linen card -- check out the Art Deco lettering -- showing a cute little elf family playing on an old fashioned, decorated tree.  It's another C.T. & Co. card.

Vintage Children's Book Illustrator Jessie Gillespie

I just listed a lovely and hard to find vintage health reader called Just Ten Minutes: A Health Story.  This 1926 school book has gorgeous silhouette style illustrations by Jessie Gillespie.  I have seen Jessie Gillespie's illustrations in The Birds' Christmas Carol (Kate Douglas Wiggin).  I looked for more information, and found that she was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1888 and lived until 1926.  I am still looking for more biographical information on this illustrator, so please add a comment if you have more information.  Thanks!

How to Promote your eBay Listing with Bump Sites

I've been an eBay seller for a long time.  Years ago, sellers were able to just list items and watch the bidding wars.   However, in today's down economy, sellers need to actively promote their listings.  One of the easiest ways to do this is bump sites.

Bump sites are quick and easy to use.  They definitely yield results, too!   I check my eBay Traffic Reports regularly to see where buyers and browsers come from (and you should be doing this, if you are not already).  The bump sites yield weekly traffic to my listings. 

My three favorite bump sites are:

• PowerSellingMom
• MagiesPlace
• AuctionBump

If you have other bump sites that you recommend, I would love to hear about them as well.

How bumps work:

You visit one of the sites above.  To add your items to the bump site, you will need to copy the auction title, the auction number, and upload a photo of your item.  I have found the easiest way to do this is to open multiple tabs in Internet Explorer, so you can move back and forth between the bump site and your auction items.   I try to choose bright, colorful items with pictures that fill the whole frame;  they show up more on the bump sites.

I hope the bump sites are helpful for you, as they have been for me!

Guest Post: Collectible Vintage Playing Cards

My friend Sally has a wonderful eBay store (thousandsofcards) specializing in vintage playing cards.  Through Sally I have also come to really enjoy these cards, and have some charming vintage Dachshund playing cards in my personal collection.  Sally wrote a great blog article to share here about collectible vintage playing cards:

Collecting single -- opposed to decks -- playing cards is a popular hobby among senior citizens around the world and is becoming popular with younger people too. Many seniors collect cards because of the warm childhood memories cards reawaken in them. Others collect single playing cards because they are introduced to this wonderful hobby through friends of theirs and because they enjoy the fun of sharing and trading cards with one another.


I began collecting single playing cards when I was very young in the 1950s. They were called trading cards at that time because young girls would spend hours trading cards with each other and because these cards did not have any numbers of suits such as the King of Diamonds on the reverse side of them -- they were blank on the reverse side. This wonderful childhood hobby entertained me and my older sister for hours on end. When we became teenagers, however, our interest turned to boys and our cards were donated to charity. In the early 1990s, my brother Jim gave me a book on antiques for a holiday gift. That book revived my interest in single playing cards. I soon met a man who lived close by who was also a collector and he helped me revive my love of collecting cards by introducing me to other collectors and by giving me several boxes of single playing cards. Today my collection is much larger than the collection I had as a child and the number of traders I share my cards with has also grown exponentially.

I love this hobby and sharing my knowledge of cards with others. I sell my extra/duplicate cards online to collectors around the world. Some people collect only specific types of cards such as art deco style single playing cards or single playing cards that have a picture or drawing of a Dachshund or Scottie Dog on them. Other people collect only cards that advertise Liquor products or Tobacco products. Still others, like me, collect all kinds of cards. While I have my favorites -- cards with pictures or drawings of animals on them -- I also enjoy cards with people, paintings, scenes, railroads, ships, and vintage ads on them. I trade with several other collectors on a monthly basis and am amazed at the number of different single cards there are. Friends of mine search for cards for me regularly and my gifts on birthdays and holidays always include cards.

Please visit my eBay Store to see the types of cards that are available and of interest to collectors.  ThousandsOfCards on eBay
 
Thank you, Sally, for this great blog post!

eBay's Best Offer: A Great Way to Increase Sales

I taught preschool for years, and I really loved the children but sometimes joked that teaching preschool was a great way to learn patience.  The same could be set of Best Offer on eBay.  It is a great way to improve sales, although it may at times also teach a seller the value of patience!

I have used Best Offer for years and I am a real believer in it.  I think it is an even more useful sales tool in our "down" economy.  It works a bit like an auction in reverse.  You list your item at the price you really want to sell at and buyers will make an offer for what they think the item is worth.  You then decide whether to accept their offer or not.

Going in to Best Offer, you need to realize you will get some occasional silly offers -- i.e. an offer of $1 for an item that is worth $100.  I have learned over time to handle these by countering with a reasonable offer and a little note that says something like:  "Thanks for your offer!  I can usually discount __% with Best Offer" or "Thanks for your offer!  $___ is the lowest I can take for this item."

I have Best Offer on everything but ephemera (vintage Valentines, Christmas cards, postcards, etc.).  Since I already offer free shipping on my vintage paper items, I don't want to negotiate lower;  however, I periodically have Markdown Manager sales on all my ephemera.  (I am running one right now for $1 off each card.)

I have not inflated my prices before adding Best Offer, as I want to stay competitive in eBay's Best Match search.  I would recommend against inflating prices to add Best Offer for this reason. 

For the items with Best Offer, I always accept offers of 10% - 15% off.  If someone offers less, I may accept or may counteroffer with a polite note.  I am a huge believer in the counteroffer with a polite note, as I feel this generates regular sales for my store.

Occasionally buyers will repeatedly send ridiculously low offers, or send offers with a rude note like "$1 is all this is worth."   I just decline with no note, and block those buyers. 

I hope you find Best Offer beneficial too!  I make Best Offer sales most days, and think it is a great eBay tool.