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Post by Aspidistra on Jun 8, 2011 17:00:19 GMT 1
I bet you'd struggle. If there is one thing there is a plethora of, its bibles. If on the other hand you had the first version of the James the whatsit one... ;D But be interesting to hear if you can sell it. Are you an ebayer, Mrs Nooj? There was a young couple at a bootfair I went to selling on their wordly goods, mainly baby stuff, etc. I felt rather sorry for them, I thought they looked like they were really selling stuff out of desperation. I agree about the specialism. I know what I want to specialize in really - it's 'proper' literature mainly, because it's what I know. But I can see that on ebay this may not be the main market for it. The book that has loads of watchers is an Agatha Christie, so hardly the sort of high brow end, but I guess very collectable. At a boot fair the other day, a bloke told me that poetry flies off the shelves, which surprised me, but he said it was because in Brighton there is a student market from Sussex uni. So I think I am in the right place for it. He specialized in gardening books, which I think is a good option, but it's a different market - specialist pricey old books, or out of date 1960s black and white books that sell for not a lot. Thing is, if I get left with books, I want them to be ones that I want to read. Like that Fanny Craddock. And a few more squillion that I am amassing to read before selling. ;D
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Post by janerowena on Jun 8, 2011 18:58:36 GMT 1
;D I only thought that the bible might sell because of a bookstall outside Winchester Cathedral, held in the undercroft to raise money for the churches locally. they sold all sorts of religious books and old bibles amongst all the other stuff, and I was very surprised to see how fast they shifted. Maybe you have to live in a cathedral city for it to work.
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Post by Nooj on Jun 8, 2011 21:04:23 GMT 1
These are in good condition, and the box, never read! Says it all about me I suppose. Dear H is an e-bayer, but he buys instead of selling As I've said many times - I can't do anything with him - bloody free spirit..... I blame the 70's.
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Post by Aspidistra on Jun 9, 2011 12:27:02 GMT 1
That's an interesting point, Jro, re Winchester. My father has quite a lot of religious books and bibles and indeed I think the market is mainly limited to cathedral cities/places with lots of religious people. But what do I know, go for it Nooj. I am now amassing other items, by proxy . In my search for old books, I go to a charity shop near my Thursday class but they never have anything of any interest in the book line, the people in that village are clearly illiterate, there is only ever piles of trashy stuff. I have ended up buying all sorts of bits and pieces of other things in there because there are no good books and today got a nice set of 4 Wedgewood tea plates. I always had a thing about not buying second hand china, but somehow I have crossed to The Other Side. Thing is, I'm not supposed to be acquiring other stuff, but then I never really looked at these shops very closely before, so this hobby is just running out of hand... ;D
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Post by janerowena on Jun 9, 2011 20:52:49 GMT 1
;D ;D ;D You'll be giving MIL a run for her money! Only she inherited all hers and then wouldn't part with it.
Hideous broken piano stool donated by great-uncle Bert, anyone?
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Post by Aspidistra on Jun 9, 2011 22:31:20 GMT 1
;D The plates I bought are just four nice little tea plates, I just loved the design on them and they were very 'clean', no crazing or anything. I am really hoping I will inherit my Mum's tea china, I always loved it, but today I thought, oh whathell, why not just buy a few plates anyway, I can always give them away if I end up with too many. It's quite amazing how I am finding I can justify buying all sorts of stuff now on the basis that the money is going to a charity shop, therefore it's not like spending unecessarily. ;D I am doing good. ;D Self-cluttering. ;D Jro, do you remember us having a conversation about whether to replace old plates with the same ones or diversify? Well, I have decided to go in for diversifying and also replacing stuff with bone china. It's funny, years ago I thought bone china was soooo old fashioned and now I think it's nice to have a decent plate, I'm sick of all my clumpy pottery stuff. I feel guilty about my Mum's dinner set though. I went on and on at her to get a dishwasher and she has never really liked it. I use it all the time up there but it has made the pattern on her old china dinner set fade. I feel really guilty about it, she had them in perfect condition for years and years and I come along and ruin it. She doesn't blame me, but I feel without my clever suggestions she wouldn't have got or used a dishwasher and the plates would be fine.
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Post by janerowena on Jun 9, 2011 22:38:28 GMT 1
Some plates have transfers on them and just aren't dishwasher proof and I think we forget that, and take our tough cheap china for granted. I love old plates, I always have, but don't use them because they are too pretty for Mr Black Ash 80s. My idea of bliss is a whole heap of gorgeously floral mismatched bone china, every one different and one for every mood. I could cry when I see them getting smashed at the village fete.
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Post by Aspidistra on Jun 9, 2011 23:27:21 GMT 1
wow, do they smash them at the village fete? Down here, old floral china is getting very pricey as everyone has got onto the mismatch bandwagon. It's not even cheap in the charity shops. Mind you, I suppose once it's chipped or cracked, it's not much use, except perhaps for mosaics.
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Post by Amazing on Jun 10, 2011 0:51:01 GMT 1
Old plates for mosaics? ? When I wanted to cover one of my large balls for the garden I broke numerous plates but found that the curved bits made it really difficult to fit. Threw them away and used little stones instead.
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Post by Aspidistra on Jun 10, 2011 9:50:10 GMT 1
Yep, I did a mosaic course where we used them. You do have to make the pieces quite small and some bits are too curved, but you can do lovely stuff with using them in amongst plain bits
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Post by joany on Jun 10, 2011 12:53:31 GMT 1
I use chipped/cracked crockery for, err, crocks. How come TV gardeners alway seem to have loads of broken terracotta pots. Are they just careless And what have broken pots to do with e-bay ;D
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Post by Aspidistra on Jun 10, 2011 13:58:48 GMT 1
That in search of interesting collectable books, I find myself now perusing crockery in charity shops. ;D See, these conversations do have a common thread, you know. ;D
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Post by janerowena on Jun 10, 2011 19:29:00 GMT 1
I use chipped/cracked crockery for, err, crocks. How come TV gardeners alway seem to have loads of broken terracotta pots. Are they just careless And what have broken pots to do with e-bay ;D I lose some each year to frost, joany. despite them being frost-hardy and under cover.
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Post by joany on Jun 10, 2011 20:02:08 GMT 1
Sorry to label you careless Jro I remember I did lose one last year to frost but to be honest I don't have many because they're a little heavy to carry home on the bus
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Post by janerowena on Jun 10, 2011 23:13:45 GMT 1
I suppse I am careless- or an eternal optimist. they are supposed to be hardy - like many of the plants I have lost here - and many of them are ancient and have been left out in all weathers, but here it just gets dreadful - who would ever have thought that we would have a -5 frost at almost the end of May? I have several large pots that contain lilies - the lilies are fine but the pots are now tied together with string bows!
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Post by Aspidistra on Jun 10, 2011 23:16:22 GMT 1
I lost quite a few pots that I'd had for years this winter. I have loads of crocks. ;D But for years I used to wonder how the tv gardeners always had them to hand. But now I know, never throw away the bits when you break a pot. ;D
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Post by janerowena on Jun 10, 2011 23:18:49 GMT 1
Except you end up with tons of the stuff when you repot, because you always save the bits from the bottoms of the pots that break as well as the bits that are newly broken!
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Post by Aspidistra on Jun 11, 2011 17:06:07 GMT 1
Had a very interesting morning at a book fair today in a little village. Think that might be the way to go, to get a stall at one of them. It seemed moderately busy, interesting to see the clientele. 99 per cent male, over the age of 60, both the buyers and sellers. Its obviously a bit of a boys club but that doesn't matter. Got a list of all the book fairs in the area over the summer. Haven't got enough books here to sell at one yet, but maybe by the end of the summer or for next year. I do love finding out about things. ;D A bookbinder sort of fixated on me and spent ages telling me all about the binding on a particular book. He was somewhere on the asperger's spectrum but for me as a collector-newbie, it was quite fascinating, all the detail he knew about book binding. Went on to a garden which was open for a charity thing, madwoman owner telling me all about how the sunken rose garden, designed by Lutyens for Vita Sackville West, only discovered when they were clearing the ground a bit. Quite an amazing story. So a good day, one way and another. ;D I was needing one of those, had been feeling a bit flat, sometimes just need a few interesting things going on to feel back on track again. ;D
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Post by Bulleydog on Jun 11, 2011 18:28:01 GMT 1
Do you attract "strange" people Aspi?
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Post by kath on Jun 11, 2011 18:53:35 GMT 1
Well, we all talk to her.
;D
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Post by Nooj on Jun 11, 2011 18:54:19 GMT 1
I think binding is interesting I wonder if he had worked for Remploy, whose binderies employed a lot of people with an assortment of health problems, and they didn't just used to do sewn or pefect in some places. I've always attracted strange people - I put it down to that helpful, enquiring and pleasant look all librarians have ,before it turns into the glare Maybe it's just a book thing...
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Post by Juliet on Jun 11, 2011 20:53:23 GMT 1
R attracts strange people - people used to sit next to him on the bus and tell him their life stories. He got a bit weirded out by it after a while and now he always travels with an MP3 player.
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Post by Nooj on Jun 11, 2011 20:58:02 GMT 1
Oh yes the bus and train trick Why do they always think you will share their political views!
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Post by Aspidistra on Jun 11, 2011 22:54:40 GMT 1
;D I don't mind strange people, so long as I am in a good mood. ;D I do most things on my own - taking photos, going round gardens, wandering around places mumbling to myself etc etc, and I think it just means I'm a target because I'm alone. This bloke had been bookbinding for a billion years, he was telling me about little marks and stuff that show hand-binding. He collects - get this - ;D the little teeny stickers you get in some old books that show who the printer or bookseller was. He thought it was the ideal collectable - very small, smaller than a postage stamp, so takes up no space. Yeah, but WHY collect them? ;D He was identifying vellum on some bookbinding to me - vellum being sheep skin stuff etc rather than posh paper. It was interesting. Being as I had absolutely nothing to do. ;D
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Post by janerowena on Jun 12, 2011 20:16:05 GMT 1
i collect weird people. ;D i used to collect stamps - i can't believe i did that! still, at least it meant that i knew where burkina faso was in geography. it was the only benfit i ever got out of it!
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Post by Bulleydog on Jun 12, 2011 20:19:08 GMT 1
I used to collect stamps too, I think everyone of a certain age did!
I have a book of first day covers which my Mum used to buy for us! I don't really want it but I don't want to get rid of it!
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Post by janerowena on Jun 12, 2011 20:29:39 GMT 1
i gave all of mine to a seious collector who i knew would apprciate it - i had some very old hitler stamps, i sometimes wish i had hung on to them, i was told that they were rare. i bet they weren't.
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Post by Bulleydog on Jun 12, 2011 20:33:59 GMT 1
I gave my stamps away but kept the first day covers. I was always a bit wary about getting rid of them as they all have my old name and address on and my parents are still there!
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Post by janerowena on Jun 13, 2011 10:18:11 GMT 1
that never entered my mind in those days!
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Post by Aspidistra on Jun 14, 2011 21:44:04 GMT 1
wahoo, another mammoth sale on ebay. ;D um, well sold a book for £2.99. ;D My goal now is to get up to 10 sales, so I get a star, then I might retire for a bit. I'm up to 7 sales at the moment, I think. Got a few more finishing tomorrow and some of them have got a lot of watchers, although I'm yet to be convinced that watchers turn into buyers...
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