Snappy the Snail, and Something Nice About Ebay

I know that ebay-bashing is the thing right now, but I just had a really nice ebay experience. Well, Ebay didn't do anything nice, but because of one of my ebay listings, I had a really nice human interaction.

I have listed this adorable Snail Teapot. It's got an Enesco sticker, but that was all I really knew about it. I figured he was cute enough, someone will want him, so I didn't do any homework on him.

Well, today I got a couple of really nice friendly and ever-so-helpful emails from a fellow ebayer.
I wanted to take this opportunity to say "Thanks, Joanne!"

She let me know all the details on the little guy. He's from Enesco's SNAPPY THE SNAIL line.

• My ebay listing: SNAPPY SNAIL w/Rare Antennas 1959 Enesco Teapot Tea Pot

As it turns out, had I googled him, I really wouldn't have found out much. This is one of those cases where there just isn't much written about this item online. Usually I am amazed at how much info I do find when I look online.

Joanne even sent me a photo of the Snappy Snail line from her Enesco price guide. And here it is for you to see:

Maybe I'll get that cute cookie jar someday. Then I suppose I'll wish I hadn't sold the T-pot...

Joanne's going to be selling some great Enesco items, so keep an eye on her ebay listings. Just go to: apreciouslittlememory .

Hope you all had a nice day too!

Tequila Memories

Thursday was National Tequila Day. I tried to find out who decided that, but could find no exact culprit. Logic says it was a liquor company. So I guess we can't blame this one on Hallmark.

Fortunately I didn't hear about it until the next day, so I didn't get tempted into honoring the Tequila Gods, and indulging in a little Jose Cuervo, because we all know there's no such thing as a little Cuervo -- I mean, crack open the bottle and throw away the cap, right?! At least that's what I'd have done (did) "back in the day". But these days my first thought was "No way, Jose -- me no wanty hangover!"

My second thought was "Hey, wonder if I have any tequila collectibles?"

I wish I could say I pulled out my copy of:



The Champs' 1958 recording of their R&B grammy winning TEQUILA, but no, I don't own it. Yet.

I did dig out my one and only tequila-related item:




It's a ceramic jug with raised design that once held HUSSONG'S Tequila. Hussong's is a great bar down in Ensenada, Mexico. When I was in high school, we spent many a summer night there, after long days on the beach. Ah, good times. Enough said there.




Hussong's Cantina is still there, and still the place to go in Ensenada. Established in 1892, Hussong's is the oldest cantina in the Californias (California in the United States and Baja California in Mexico).

Why I didn't take, or buy any souvenirs, I don't know. But thank goodness for ebay. That's where I bought my jug, even if it does have a Zanesville Pottery (Ohio) sticker on the bottom. I doubt if it was ever even in Hussongs ...



Here are a couple of items that were on ebay recently -- the cool ashtray, and a metal bar tray. Maybe I'll watch for more Hussong's items... or maybe I'll just enjoy my memories of the good times I had there....



Just in case, here's the ebay search widgets -- one for Hussongs, and one for Tequila!

Top 10 List - "Modern" Fruit Jars

Here's the Top 10 List of the Most Watched "Modern" Fruit Jars (which just means post-1900).

Top 10 List - Antique Fruit Jars

Here's the Top 10 List of the Most-Watched Antique Fruit Jars on ebay now -- better keep your eye on these! With the high-quality jar collections currently being offered on ebay on a regular basis, there should be some real gems!

WHO'S YOUR BOZO? Bozo the Clown Collectibles

I recently read in the L.A. Times that Bozo the Clown died. Larry Harmon, an early Bozo and owner of the Bozo franchise biz recently passed away.

• According to CNN.com's article about Larry Harmon:
• "Although not the original Bozo, Harmon portrayed the popular clown in countless appearances and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly dozens of television stations around the country. The stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos."

• I never realized there were a zillion different Bozos. The Bozo of my youth is not necessarily your Bozo.
• My Bozo was: Bozo the Clown - Los Angeles --Vance Colvig (1959-1964) at KTLA-TV (son of the original Bozo the Clown)

• So, WHO'S YOUR BOZO? Here's a great list of Local Bozos.

• I remember Bozo as often saying, "That's a Bozo No-No."
• Did a kid ever really say back to Bozo, "Cram it, clown!" on live TV? Maybe... Read what urban-myth buster site Snopes.com says.
  

• Check out tvparty.com for Bozo pix, and info on all your favorite tv shows from the past.

• There's a site devoted to the art of Clowning, clown-ministry.com. Here's their Unusual History of Bozo the Clown - attempting to unravel who did what when in the creation of "Bozo, the World’s Most Famous Clown"

• From Wikipedia: Bozo the Clown is a clown character whose widespread franchising in early television made him the best-known clown character in the United States. (the wiki article gives a lot of detail on the different Bozos, worldwide).

• Bozo the Clown was very heavily promoted and merchandised. You can find tons of items to collect.

• Here's the cool ebay search widget for items with "bozo clown" in the title:

• Here's ebay's "most watched" list of TV Character toys (sadly, Bozo doesn't have his own category)( Toys & Hobbies >TV, Movie & Character Toys > Other )

Muncie Summer Jar Show

Muncie Summer Jar Show, July 13th 2008

Jeff and I spent a couple days in Muncie, Indiana last weekend, enjoying the friendship and comeraderie of fellow Fruit Jar collectors. The room hopping and visiting was a blast. We've already made our room reservations for the January 2009 show!

• Read the Ball Jar Collector's Group's forum thread about the show -- scroll down to Joe Coulson's notes and show pix.
  

• The Signature Inn of Muncie hotel manager was very thoughtful, and put a lovely tribute to Phil Robinson in the lobby entranceway.

• Now available for purchase from the Midwest Antique Fruit Jar & Bottle Club -- a DVD of Phil Robinson giving his famous sermon illustrated with some of his jars; also includes pix of the jar museum. Ordering info: Dave Rittenhouse (765) 468-8091

• Midwest Antique Fruit Jar & Bottle Club --watch for their show report and info about the upcoming January show.

• Some of the group milling about at Saturday's Get-together Meeting.

Here are just a few things I took pix of -- mostly I was too busy visiting to think about documenting the event.

• Greg Spurgeon's colorful Petal Jars

• A really rare National 1876 salesman's sample jar
  

• Joe Coulson's photo of John Landis Mason -- U.S. inventor (d. 1902), who was granted a U.S. patent on 30 Nov. 1858 for the screw-top glass jar.

• Jeff Klingler with the huge 3 gallon jar that came out of Phil's Jar Museum(that he won from Greg's auction, and picked up at the show). Guess-timators think it is circa 1920-1940, and probably was used for sterilized gauze -- anyone who has any info, contact us, please.

• Since Muncie is the home of Ball jars -- check out the new Collectors Weekly page devoted to BALL Jars - see the ebay search widget with all the Ball Jar listings, and be sure to read the article by Bruce Shank. Pictured- some of his Ball jars.

Remember -- the York Expo Bottle Show is up next -- it'll be here before you know it! I have info and links on the Findlay Bottle Club's website.

Ice Cream Collectibles

I went out with friends the other night, and over ice cream we were reminiscing about our favorite ice cream parlor in our youth, Farrell's.
Wondering whatever happened to that fun chain, I googled it.


Here's Farrell's current site, with some history. Sadly, it was a case of it getting bought out by a big company, then another company, and the 3rd owner had to mess with a good thing... bye bye Farrell's! But it appears they're trying to make a comeback.



I found lots of sites and blogs with people telling stories and reliving great moments spent celebrating there. I remember always getting my free birthday sundae!



The originator, and now noted marketing speaker, Bob Farrell's motto was "Give 'em the pickle!" A great marketing/customer service strategy for everyone in every business - give the customer what they want. Coincidently, the Friendly's restaurant we were at gave my friend a hassle over getting his expected pickle with his burger-- they are no longer including them with the burgers. I am surprised that an ice cream-focused modern chain restaurant would let that particular episode happen-- I am sure that corporate has to have heard of Farrell's pickle theory.




Here are a few collectible items from Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor's past that have been on ebay recently.

So why am I going off about all this on my 'Tique Talk blog? Well, today I picked up my Antique Week paper, and the cover story is on the history of ice cream -- turns out July is National Ice Cream Month!




I have a couple of neat antique ice cream advertising tin trays in my 'Lima, Ohio' memorabilia collection. Both are from Graham's Ice Cream, with great colorful images printed on them.



I know that there are some really collectible ice cream related items. There was an ice cream scoop on ebay recently that sold for over $4000!

Well-- now I am going to go have a bowl of my current favorite ice cream -- Blue Bunny PEANUT BUTTER PANIC -- yum!

So I'll leave you with the neat ebay search widget for ebay auctions with "ice cream" in the title:

TOP 10 List - Vintage Halloween Collectibles

I went to a fun auction yesterday. A Christmas and Halloween collector was down-sizing her huge collection. She must be keeping all the truly vintage stuff, as most of the items were more modern. But colorful and fun, and I bought a lot of treasures.
I picked up a lot of Hallmark ornaments, and some collectible redware Santas. I'll cover those in the future. I also got some newer Halloween goodies. But there was one super little vintage item that found its way to me. Yay!

It is a 1925 Dennison's Bogie Book:

• Here's the cover illustration

• Inside are the cutest orange & black illustrations of party ideas, using the wonderful Dennison's line of party favors and decorations. Try to find those items now-- very pricy!

• Here's a really good article on Bogie Books on BOOKTHINK (sign up for their free e-newsletter while your there).
• Here's the link to search for Bogie Books on ebay: book (dennison*,bogie) -bogart
• Here's the link to search for: Collectibles >Holiday, Seasonal > Halloween > Vintage (Pre-1960)
• and here's the TOP 10 List of the Most Watched Vintage Halloween Auctions on Ebay Now:

The Rest of the Story

Last week I went and previewed a local auction. I found only one thing that I wanted, but decided not to stay and wait the 2-3 hours it would have taken before they got to my little treasure. I did take a photo of it.




Here's the pic of the cute little vintage hard plastic toy bank in the shape of a pirate. Or is it? Believe it or not, he started life as a Santa Claus. I have a small collection of other banks from this same company, all made from the same mold with many color and theme variations. Some are Cap't. Kid Pirate, Sandy Sandman, Shootin' Sherriff, in addition to the original Santa Claus. Which is why I wanted to add this version to my little group.

But I didn't stay, and was actually a little sad about it. I thought about the little pirate quite a bit. Every time I walked by my little gang of banks, they said "Where's our buddy, Cap't. Kid?". I even searched on ebay, but to no avail. I thought, that was it.

But wait -- as Paul Harvey says, "You don't know the rest of the story."

This weekend, for once I was stronger than "Evil-Morning-Marianne", and succeeded in getting up and out early. We went to the monthly Urbana Antique Show, and, well, lo and behold, there was my little pirate, just waiting for me. A little worse for the wear and tear of being dumped in a box lot, but I rescued him (for a cheap price-- yay), and now he's hanging out with the rest of my Pirate/Santa Gang, and I smile every time I walk by them!



Aren't they adorable! (Click to see a larger view).
Don't you just love a happy ending?!
Can't wait to see what I find next...

Happy 4th of July!

I couldn't pick just one card to use for my 4th of July greeting-- so here are 10, all available in my Scrapbook Art Antiques Shop...

Hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend.

Selling on the Moon

You've probably heard selling on ebay and Amazon referred to as selling on the Bay, and selling on the River. Well, there's another game in town-- selling on the Moon. That's what selling on eCrater is being called.

So what's eCrater.com you ask? It's an online shopping site that is --- drum roll, please --- FREE! I love Free, so I am giving it a try. They let you set up your own customized ecrater shop with your own url -- mine's http://www.msdowantiques.ecrater.com/.

You can list as many items as you want, forever, no expiration date, no listing fees, no commission/final value fees. You can add up to 10 pix for each item, and they host the pix for, yep, free.

You can take paypal (phtuie) if you want, or, my choice, you can take Google Checkout -- yay! Google checkout only charges 2%, so that's the only cost to this whole deal. You can take checks and money orders, then it won't cost you anything.

The site is in partnership with google, so your listings are automatically displayed in Google/froogle Product Search.

It is not an auction set up, but fixed price listings, so it's like a big online antique mall. There's new stuff, too, but they have a great search engine (google powered of course), so you can find the vintage stuff. They don't have the number of listings that ebay's got, or that kind of traffic, yet. But I'm sure you're aware of all the changes ebay's been making, and all the sturm und drang those changes are causing. I'm betting ecrater will grow. And quickly.

I just started setting up today, so I only have a few items in my store. Up above is the cool little widget they create for you, too.

I'll let you know how it goes. I'm sure it'll take me all summer to get lots of listings posted. And then I'd bet, just like ebay, that sales will pick up in the winter. We'll see.