What are things really worth?

As someone who has collected clothes and homewares from the 50s for over 20 years now sometimes it dumbfounds me when I see things on ebay for some astronomical price.

Admittedly when I started collecting things were pretty cheap, no one wanted stuff from the 50's apart from likeminded people. It wasn't mainstream to wear 50's stuff or have it in your house, the word 'vintage' hadn't been invented and so it was all ours and no one elses!

The world has changed massively, partly because of ebay I think, you can pretty much buy what you want from whereever, that would have been amazing when I was in my 20s, I didn't have a choice I had to trawl around places to find stuff I loved!

However I do think that things have gone a little crazy price wise, I do wonder what you all think, here are some of the things that have shocked me recently price wise.

Now these are very nice however they are only a set of 6 50s coasters, how much are they? £5? £10? £15? oh no, these are Buy It Now for £49.95 oh yes people £49.95, that's $76 for my US readers!! That is a crazy crazy price!

Now don't get me wrong, this is fabulous and they do naturally find their price online and they do go for a good price, however this one is priced straight in at £395! This is at least twice the price I've seen the best ones go for, in fact most go for about £120 which I still think is a little pricy but that's fine as the price is reached by demand, but £395? That's just over $600, shocking huh?

Now to be fair this seller seems to sell mostly designer stuff, something I know nothing about and I'm not interested either, so I could be wrong about this but personally I think this is totally overpriced as I've seen similar stuff FAR cheaper. How much? £565! That's $860 approx. Maybe it's a certain designer or whatever I don't know as I said I'm interested in buying what I like, not something just cos it's 50's or cos it's worth something or has a designers name on it.

Not long ago there was a seller on ebay in the UK selling several pairs of fabulous 50's curtains and they really were fabulous, sadly I didn't save the pics cos they were stunning but the prices were crazy I have no idea where they got the prices from, they started at about £800 and went up to about £1200 (That's $1200-$1800)! Needless to say they didn't sell, they were listed several times and still didn't sell, wonder what happened in the end....

I'm sure we all come across overpriced stuff when we're out searching I was just wondering what your view is on it, now don't get me wrong I'm all for private enterprise I mean I run a business but my view on business is I would rather get the sales and sell at a reasonable price than overpriced and not sell. I wonder if these sellers are misinformed or just ambitious! Would be really interested in your views.

Selling stuff....

Yeah 2 posts in one day weird huh?

Anyway I have been selling of a lot of stuff for about 2 years now, I do it in batches, well the thing is you don't stop buying so when you've been into this as long as I have you get a bit bogged down with the excess of stuff! Then there is the denial of something not fitting but not being able to bare to part with it! I have finally started to come to some of that stuff, I just listed 3 things on ebay that are all stunners, so in case there are any other larger ladies out there I thought I'd pop them up on here so you can check them out.

There will be more stuff and some really random stuff going up on my ID, I'm just trying to get rid of stuff as well as good stuff! So apologies for the random stuff!

Here's the first, a fabulous 1950s Kamahameha Hawaiian Dress in a larger size, you don't see that very often! You can see it here

I'm only really parting with this cos the size I am when this fits it's just to large for me to feel comfortable in that type of dress, does that make sense? So when it fits I don't feel comfortable wearing it and then when it's too big it looks wrong! So really it's got to go, I love it, but it will never work :o(

Second up, oh boy why I even bought this I'll never know, I have had it for so many years I can't tell you, I even remember buying it and when I found it, but here's the thing, I hate pink, I don't wear pink and it doesn't suit me! So why haven't I sold this before now, cos I LOVE the style, I've even said in the ebay listing, if it doesn't sell I'm going to dye it black eeek! You can view it here

And last but certainly not least this little beauty! Well I'll have to post a few pics of this cos WOW! You can see this here

Anyway thought I'd let you all know in case you are, or know someone who is a larger size cos I know how hard it is to get good vintage clothes in larger sizes.

I'll be listing loads more, mostly in much smaller sizes, but probably over the next few days rather than just today.

Right better get back to it!

I need your help people!

I know lots of you are collectors or renovators so I was wondering if I could ask for your help.

I have a fabulous wall cocktail bar but sadly it got damaged and I'm trying to find something that will renovate it was I love it so much!

Here it is as it is now

I just rewired it so it's not on the wall at the moment!

Here is it several years ago before it got broken :o(

Sad huh? Now don't get me wrong I know that I won't be able to replace the glass which saddens me beyond believe especially as we didn't break it but someone we knew let us store it in his garage and when we went to pick it up the glass was smashed to bits! Anyway nothing I can do about that but what I think I could do is put the ridged plastic that you see in the middle at the sides too. Here's a close up

Or similar stuff on my other cocktail cabinet

If anyone has any recommendations of suppliers or products that would be great! Really really appreciate it!

Great ebay sellers - they exist!

Ok people radio silence didn't happen, it's a long story but my laptop is still in the shop to be mended but we have a new one for my husband so all is good YAY!

Anyway I just wanted to let you know that great ebay sellers do exist!  A while ago I stumbled on something on US ebay that I knew my husband would use and love, it's a vintage keyholder wallet with his initial on the front! Here it is

How lovely is this and how much was it? 99cents! Yes you heard it 99cents! Of course there was postage on top of that which was hardly excessive!

And why was this seller so exceptional? Because I won this lovely thing for 99 cents and they found a tie pin with the initial P so sent that too! FREE!

My husband was chuffed to bits as you can imagine not only did he get a lovely useful gift that cost almost nothing, he got a gift from the seller for nothing!

Bravo to that seller!

I did have another fabulous seller not long ago again I bought a bathroom cabinet for 99p, I went to pick it up and the seller said wouldn't you like to check it is what you want before you take it, he also brought it to the car and put it in for me, all for 99p, amazing!

Just wanted to prove there are still some great sellers out there on ebay.

Rediscovering what you didn't know you had.....

Or at least didn't remember you had!

As I said a couple of posts ago I'll be lagging behind on blogging in July/August as I'm desperately trying to catch up on all the jobs in the house that I have let fall by the wayside in the last 2 years whilst I've been working hard on building Notorious Kitsch.

Anyway I am having the sort out of all sort outs, I do this often but I finally see a light at the end of the tunnel! I've been buying vintage clothes, music and homewares for over 20 years and when you're been collecting that long - I'm sure my older readers will agree - things CAN get out of hand! Don't get me wrong I've bought loads and sold loads in that time but there are always things you forget about or you don't want to part with or whatever.

I thought I'd do this post on 3 things I forgot I even had but uncovered when I tackled a particular part of the house!

First up is this cute vargas girl poster, it has a fold in it so I assume it came from a mag, we always had it up in our bathroom, but haven't put it up since we've lived in this house, she doesn't have a frame so will need to get one and it will go back in the bathroom!

How cute is she? Ah to look like that and have a sarong and bikini top like that, although now we are veering dangerously into fantasy territory!

Next up is an odd little thing but I kinda like it, however it is one of those things that you think why do I have it!!

Cute top so what is it?

It's a brush and inside.....

It's a manicure set! Clever huh?!

And last but certainly not least, this very very cute shelf lining paper that I still haven't found a home for and has been stored away forever!

I have some mexican themed fabric for curtains in the kitchen too, it will look very cute in there eventually!

In Other News!

My laptop is kapput, it needs to go away for 10 days, YES 10 days! Running an online shop is not easy without a computer, fortunately my husband has one but it's pretty crappy so not sure how much non-essential stuff I can do on it before it gives up the ghost, so there may be radio silence from me on the blog for 10 days aaargh, just warning you!

AND

I notice I am not too far away from having 100 lovely people following the blog, how fabulous, I'm so chuffed, as soon as I reach 100 I'll be hosting a giveaway, lord only knows what but I'll conjure up something fabulous you can be sure!

Ok people I'm backing up my system as I write this so need to get all essential stuff done before I say bye bye to my laptop for 10 days, noooooo.......

Talented guy!

I said I'd let you know when the very talented guy I know who sells repro chalkware was selling on ebay again, well he's selling now! There's quite a few on there, some have already gone, sorry for being tardy, however he told me he's releasing a lot of new models so keep an eye out for what he's releasing in the future.

I have several of his chalkware pieces, they are really lovely, well made and the best repros I've ever seen. Here are some that he has on ebay at the moment, I know he packages really well and ships all over the world so if you're in the US and want to bid don't worry! They can all be found here http://shop.ebay.co.uk/wigantamla/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

I really want the next one for my bathroom!

Really how talented is he?! Thanks to Ray I had the courage to repair some of my own chalkware realising it was easier than I thought, which I was happy about as I had broken the base of one of my favourite lamps, now it looks like new!

If you want to check out some of the chalkware I've bought from him, click here for a previous post!

Loving what you have - part 3!

I haven't been blogging much lately as I'm a woman on mission! I've been building my business for so long I haven't had time for anything else and I have so many things that need doing or sorting in the house that I've finally decided to make a huge list and I'm setting myself a date goal to get things done by, pretty ambitious huh?

So please bear with me during the summer it's going to worthwhile, well for me anyway!

So this weekend we did something very boring but necessary, we painted our garden fences, boring huh? But boy it looks much better out there.

Today I went through my kitchen cupboards having a big old sort out getting rid of things we never use, and sorting through and photographing my dinner services of which there are 2 almost full sets. I LOVE them and wish I had somewhere to display them so I could see them more but back in the kitchen cupboards they have gone, well for now anyway! I'm sure I will discover all sorts over the coming weeks so I'll make sure I photograph as I go along!

First up is my Alfred Meakin Midnight Star Dinner Service, I can't believe I have so much of this, yet there is more to get, I got most of it cheap and in one go, I know, lucky me!

I LOVE the shape of the soup bowls!

Here's a close up of the teapot, love love love the star pattern!

Next up is my Alfred Meakin Stag Dinner service, it's in the rarer blue colour, you don't see this around as much as the red, so it's been hard to get additional items for it. We actually bought this as a whole set years ago at an antique centre.

Here's a close up of the design, again I love it!

Next up is a lovely desert set again from Alfred Meakin, can you see a theme here? Yes I love Meakin, sometimes I don't even know what I'm picking up is Alfred Meakin yet I look underneath and there is it. My mum even has a dinner service from the 50's which is not really my kind of thing but I've always kinda liked it, only last year did I look underneath so see who made it, you guessed it good old Alfred Meakin!!

Anyway we're not huge desert eaters so this doesn't often see the light of day but recently it's been english strawberry season, I sincerely believe English strawberries are the best in the world! Anyway strawberries and cream eaten out of this set just makes it extra special!

This is absolutely one of my favourite designs, here's a close up of a plate I have, it's the only plate I have of this design apart from the desert set above. I love the colours and the design!

The design is also called Bill and Ben, this makes me giggle, which will only make sense to British people of a certain age!

Next up, not Alfred Meakin - well I dunno it doesn't have a mark on the bottom but I don't think it is - are a set of 4 plates which I just can't bear to part with, I don't know why I keep them apart from that I love them!

Next up is something I had in my 'for sale on ebay box', I have no idea why, it's very cute!

And also came in VERY handy after painting the fences in the hot sun on Saturday, once we'd showered the muck off, drunk loads of water, we filled it up with Pimms, Lemonade and loads of fruit and ice, YUM!

How good did this taste after an exhausting day of hard work?! Yep you guessed it DAMNED GOOD!