Lords of the Fly Eclectic $.99 Sale

Abandoned

A Caesar Hernandez Water Color Painting

Aloha! When I'm not lounging around in my favorite coffee shops in downtown Walla Walla writing profusely while sipping on a tall cup of bold or, whenever I feel like splurging, guzzling down a venti-sized caramel frappucino, I'm diligently taking photographs and working on listings for my eBay business, Lords of the Fly.

http://hawaiianodysseus.hubpages.com/hub/Vintage-Us-The-Story-Behind-eBays-Lords-of-the-Fly

The large majority of our sales have been through our fixed-price items in our eBay store. Lately, we've opted to complement those Buy It Now listings--on a weekly basis for now and, hopefully, more frequently in the future--with a nostalgic throwback to the good old days of eBay...the 99 cents listing.

Yes, there's always a risk, more so in an unsteady economy, that we could take a loss. But the marketing psychology behind the move is akin to driving in slippery conditions: Turn your wheel in the direction of the skid!

What?!

Call me crazy (don't worry, I call myself that all the time), but nothing in life worth striving for ever came without risk. Sales have been down these last couple of months, so I'm simply retrieving the old welcome mat from storage, giving it a good dusting, and laying it out there for the global marketplace to tread upon. 

My metaphorical welcome mat--the 99 cents sale--says loud and clear in my language of origin:

E komo mai!

Come on in!

http://stores.ebay.com/Lords-of-the-Fly

So here are some of the items that I'm listing today. First, a mention of the artwork at the top of this post. Caesar Hernandez was a prominent watercolor artist in California. His paintings have sold for hundreds of dollars. My listing of this particular item for a starting bid of 99 cents without any reserve (a set amount that the seller determines ahead of time that is unknown to the buyers, unless the seller chooses to tell them; if it isn't reached, there is no winner...thus, no real risk to the seller) is probably the highest kind of risk I could take with my eBay item(s). Ah, but what the heck? What's life without risk? Besides, read the beginning of paragraph 5 again.

Here are more interesting items.

Collectible Vintage Hershey's Kisses Christmas Wishes Mug

Collectible Vintage Set of 3 Teddy Bear Porcelain Thimbles

Collectible Vintage Duck Figurine 

Collectible Vintage Brooding Hen Salt or Pepper Shaker

Collectible Vintage Bee, Hive, & Flower Salt or Pepper Shaker

Collectible Vintage Leanin' Tree Greeting Card featuring

Norman Rockwell's 1947 Saturday Evening Post Cover--"Family Outing"

National Geographic--October, 2009 Back Issue

The Tallest Trees 

Collectible Vintage Schramberg Cow Figurine

Collectible Vintage Konica Minolta AF Maxxum 70 SLR Camera

With Quantaray Lens 28-90 mm f/3.5-5.6

Dipinto A Mano Hand-Painted Vintage Collector Plate

Venezia Ponte Di Rialto

Vintage Collector Plate

Mission San Juan Capistrano, California

We earnestly pray that our eclectic 99 cent auctions will be a fruitful venture and a great win-win experience for our buyers and us. We truly believe it keeps us entrepreneurially sharp, focused, and motivated to honor the heart of the buyer. Empathizing with our customers  and uplifting their perspective will help us make steady progress on the road to becoming better sellers.

http://hawaiianodysseus.hubpages.com/hub/Im-Tired-of-Just-Thinking-About-It-Im-Doing-It

Vintage Print Ads Make Awesome--and, yes!--Inexpensive Gifts

1942 Coca-Cola Vintage Print Ad

(Hawaiian Odysseus Photo)

Smack dab in the midst of high school and college graduation season, with Father's Day and the 4th of July just around the corner, and with a myriad of birtdays, anniversaries, reunions with loved ones or fellow classmates of an honored alma mater, and other special occasions on the horizon, you're left wondering, What kind of gift can I get?

There's really no need to look any further. Take your pick of hundreds of gorgeous nostalgic options at http://stores.ebay.com/Lords-of-the-Fly/_i.html?_fsub=2623719010 .

What are vintage print ads? They're commercial advertisements carefully removed from old magazines--say, from the 1970's and earlier (although the term vintage is often loosely interpreted to include even more recent items). These ads are then placed in acid-free plastic sleeves along with acid-free backing boards and then mailed in large flat or padded envelopes to their respective customers.

The top photo is a great example of a potential gift for dear old Dad. It not only piques the nostalgic strings of an older generation's collective heart; it also has intrinsic value in a sub-niche of its own--Coke memorabilia.

Here are three more examples of ads from three different sub-categories--automobiles; World War II; and sporting goods.

1946 Ford Mercury Vintage Print Ad

(Hawaiian Odysseus Photo)

1942 Lockheed Aircraft Corporation World War II Vintage Print Ad

(Hawaiian Odysseus Photo)

1945 Wilson Sports Equipment Vintage Print Ad

(Hawaiian Odysseus Photo)

Why settle for the old humdrum annual necktie, bottle of cologne, golf club, fishing pole, or stationery? Sure, these gifts are great, and we're certainly not knocking them. But if you're looking for that unique and very special item that's sure to elicit a grin from your favorite family patriarch immediately upon its removal from the envelope, we invite you to check out what might turn out to be the gift that special man remembers for years to come.

http://stores.ebay.com/Lords-of-the-Fly/_i.html?_fsub=2623719010

Who knows? In browsing through these lovely yesteryear memorabilia, you might very well develop an interest in becoming a collector of vintage ephemera. There's something very appealing about the way the ad agencies of the past combined gorgeous art and/or picturesque photographs with clever  text construction that you just don't find in today's high-tech advertisements.

Why Collect Vintage Print Ads?

• To preserve Americana
• To understand our heritage
• To appreciate our social, cultural, political, and economic roots
• To enhance our grasp of history
• To compare and contrast the past with the present
• To leave as a legacy for future generations
• To own as antique collectibles
• To acknowledge the art and artists of yesteryear
• To frame and craft into attractive gifts
• To utilize as decorative household pieces
• To buy, sell, and trade
• To enjoy a good return on investment

1946 National Confectioners Association Vintage Print Ad

(Hawaiian Odysseus Photo)

The folks at eBay's Lords of the Fly store would be delighted to have you drop in for a visit. Browse through their vintage print ads selection and feel free to share your comments and questions with them. Their responses, like their delivery time, are prompt and courteous.

http://stores.ebay.com/Lords-of-the-Fly/_i.html?_fsub=2623719010

You'll find more information about this collectible gift specialty in the following articles. Thanks for dropping by, and--yes, by all means--your comments are always welcomed and appreciated.


http://hawaiianodysseus.hubpages.com/hub/VintageKeala

http://hawaiianodysseus.hubpages.com/hub/Raising-the-Baron-eBay

http://hawaiianodysseus.hubpages.com/hub/Giving-People-the-Time-of-Day-on-eBay

Setting My Odyssean Sails for eBay Waters

1893 World's Fair--Chicago's Great Telescope

Hawaiian Odysseus Photo

My odyssey takes me on the most interesting twists, turns, and detours. 

I had sworn to never attend yard sales, garage sales, estate sales, thrift stores, church bazaars, and the like. 

Perhaps the core of my disdain for these haunts was my perception that this was part and parcel of a feminine mystique, not a hangout for men. I'm not machismo by any stretch of the imagination. It's just that I had no interest whatsoever in going to these places because--in my early adult years, at least--I only saw women frequenting these places. 

Plus, I learned a long time ago that shopping with a woman is like getting my teeth pulled without the balm of local anesthesia. You know...the torture of dealing with a pain that tears at the tiniest yet most vulnerable of nerves...coping in vain to deal with it by arching my back and slowly realizing that my butt is two feet off of the chair.

In any event, 9 parts because of the major economic stall of the last two years and 1 part out of sheer desperation to jump start my anemic eBay business, I went looking for new adventures.  

And so it was, one fateful Sunday morning, that I set my Odyssean sails against the wind, the figurative ocean spray (more like spit) of old tapes in my head filling me with skepticism and every excuse in the book to stay home: Don't do it! You'll regret it! You'll be the only man in the place!

Long story short (because this post is truly about something other than my advent as a thrift store pirate), I was hooked! Like a bonito attacking the tantalizing leg of an octopus attached to a huge curved object, I was HOOKED!

Funny thing is, so were a lot of other men. My preconceived notions melted like the arctic glaciers succumbing to global warming.

At this thrift store sponsored by the College Place Seventh-Day Adventist church, I happened to find this old antiquarian book that had been published in 1894. The book was a collection of black and white photographs from the 1893 Columbian Exposition, more familiarly known as the Chicago World's Fair.

In the hopes of taking my eBay store to a new level, I had been selling vintage ads for a couple of months with some success. I had at least a novice's perception, then, that vintage items appealed to a great number of people globally. I also had been besieged with spam mail advertising the collectible prints niche, some of which I had actually been reading.

The combination of these two activities, plus my predisposition towards impulsivity, prompted me to act quickly. 

Against my better judgment, I forked over a hard-earned fifty cents to the portly woman sitting at the sales desk.

 1893 World's Fair--Thomas Coke Ordaining Francis Asbury

(Hawaiian Odysseus Photo)

The next day, I did what every kindergarten boy wishes he could do...I literally tore that book apart, carefully removing the black and white prints in the process. I also had the wherewithal--don't ask me where that came from--to take photographs of the cover page and a small paragraph. These would help me authenticate the age and source of these prints.

It took me a few hours to process the pages and list at least a dozen prints. Once I felt comfortable with the basic template, things moved a little more quickly.

My cursory review of collectible art prints revealed that people were charging relatively high prices for these prints. Being a newbie, I mustered enough courage to push the ante just a bit while remaining on the borderline of my comfort zone.  I set my price at $25 a print.

As of this writing--and it's roughly been about two months--I have been blessed with three sales, and several more prints have watchers (which doesn't necessarily mean I have a sale but at least unveils the possibility). 

1893 World's Fair--Dom Pedro's Carriage

(Hawaiian Odysseus Photo)

Granted, I'm only on the ground floor of this exciting niche. But the nice thing about that is: Unless you're looking for the parking garage, the only way left is up!

And if there's anyone out there in blog reader land who learned something new or was at any level inspired to get out of his or her comfort zone and risk something new, maybe even strange, I welcome you to comment on, tweet, and share this post with others.

Now go and set your own Odyssean sails! And God bless you all!