Frito Bandito Eraser

The Frito Bandito was used for advertising Frito Corn Chips in the 1960's and 1970's. As a kid I had many of these erasers. They were given as premiums for the purchase of a bag of chips. Every kid in school had at least one of these erasers. They were used, thrown at each other or lost by the millions. Today, they are collectible. Cash this one in. The price range is between $15-25 for one in good condition. Excellent condition erasers, like this one, sell for upwards of $50.00!

Happy New Year!!

I woke up this morning all ready to go. After sitting around doing practically nothing for the last 4 weeks I actually felt like today was the day to get something done. At 8:00 I was outside in the cool morning air (15 degrees f ) loading up my van with items that were going into a local auction. I actually had a full day scheduled. First, a trip to the auction to drop off the freshly loaded items. Then a trip to one of the local charities to drop off some usable household items. Finally a trip to the scrapyard to sell a grouping of metal items that would otherwise be worthless. How little I knew.

The Van.

Ford Windstar, 1997, runs great, oops! I purchased van 2 years ago for $800.00. It was old, a bit scraggly and with 114,000 miles getting a little long in the tooth for a Windstar. But it did fill my needs. This business can be pretty hard on automobiles. Many miles of driving, the loading of heavy items on the inside and of course extensive use of the roof rack on the outside for larger items. It was used for towing trailers. It made several trips to North Carolina, numerous flea markets / antiques shows and made many trips to antiques appraising shows. Scratches, dents and heavy hauling are all part of the daily routine for a van used in this business. It served me well. Until this morning.

To put it as simple as possible, THE ENGINE BLEW. As I was making my trek towards the auction the van simply slowed down and started coasting. I was on a major four lane highway and managed to coast into a parking lot. Ironically the parking lot was for a HOSPICE care home (no I'm not making this up). In the HOSPICE parking lot she was pronounced dead.

Towed home on a flatbed, she now awaits her final fate, being crushed to be used again. Hopefully she will be reincarnated as a Lexus or maybe a girder in a tall building, most likely though, she will be sent to China, be changed into a toaster and be sent back to the U.S. market. I really believe in reusing every single item with the ultimate goal of protecting the environment as much as possible. I just not sure about how it can be scrapped in the U.S., shipped halfway around the world, be remanufactured, get shipped back to the U.S. and then be sold as a toaster for $7.99.

This however is not a tale of woe. I am actually pleased with my purchase of the van. Why? Because I purchased the car for $800.00, drove it for 2 years and now I will scrap it for around $500.00. Not bad. How many of people can say that you drove a car for 2 years and only had $300.00 in depreciation occur? I know that not everyone is cut out to drive a $800 car. In fact for most people I would not recommend it, but, there is a lesson to be learned here and that is you can get great buys on just about anything, cars included. So my van has now made it to a new category TRASH IT FOR CASH! Scrapyard here we come.

Plinging

This is a simple test that everyone in the antiques, collectibles and replacement business should know, plinging.

Plinging is a simple quick way to check china, crystal, stoneware and porcelain items for cracks. All you have to do is hold the item in the palm of your hand (or leave it on a hard surface) and gently tap it with a pen, pencil or similar type item. If you hear a ringing or clear vibration it means that there are no cracks. If the tapping is followed by a hollow sound it is most likely cracked. Test it out. Find a piece of porcelain or crystal that is obviously cracked, then find one that is not and tap them. A little practice will enable you to quickly identify cracked items.

KitchenAid Mixers

CASH IT!

How do you really make dough in this business? You pay attention to quality at any level. I have preached repeatedly over the years that you should make money anytime, anyway, that you can. KitchenAid provided us all with an item that can readily be turned into cash!

KitchenAid mixers are great items for picking up a little extra cash. Everything from the old mixers to new are popular with everyone from professional cooks to everyday homeworkers. The typical used mixer goes for around $100.00. Keep an eye out for the attachments. Many of the attachments can be sold for $20 to 200.

Are They Right?

First, NO! I am not recanting. A few weeks ago I wrote about the spate of new television shows, American Pickers, Pawn Stars and the host of new auction shows. I was overall on the negative side in my review of the shows. What I said in the review was true. But what has the net effect really been?

Amazing! The number of people attending auctions and storage locker sales has increased ten fold. For years I have been attending storage locker sales and typically the crowd of attendees rarely went over 10 bidders. Today I attended a storage locker sale, that had a total of 4 units, and over 200 bidders showed up. Unbelievable! Over 200!

Initially my reaction was "My God you have to be kidding. This many bidders is going to make it impossible for me to buy anything." Well that didn't happen. The units brought the same amount that they always do.

Second reaction, curiosity. That's right, I figured that they had all seen the shows and just plain wanted to see what it was all about. Today, they got a good dose. Four units that were filled with what could best be described as a bunch of crap. I do not deny that you can make money on these storage sales, if you couldn't I would not be going. But like I said before you need to go through a bunch of them before you get one good one.

Third reaction, the new bidders were hoping to get rich quick. Watching these shows leads one to believe that these storage units are just teeming with tons of great stuff that is worth massive amounts of money. Today, they were disappointed.

Fourth reaction, FANTASTIC! Fantastic? I just spent two full blogs knocking these stupid shows. FANTASTIC. Around here business has been particularly poor. For the first time in over 3 years people were excited about something in Youngstown, Ohio. It didn't involve a murder scene or a burning building, it was a simple storage locker sale. Two hundred people attended a piece of crap storage auction sale, fantastic!

What it really means is there is hope for this business. These shows for all of the nonsense and impossible expectations that they raise have generated genuine interest in the business again. I really hope that the interest continues and that better prices for everything are just around the corner. The depression / recession / or whatever we are calling nowadays has really hurt the antiques and collectibles market. Is this sudden boon in attendees going to bring about an end to slumping sales? Probably not, at least not by itself, but it certainly helps in creating interest in the business again.

Sorry, about the photo quality. It was 5:10 in the evening and it was taken on a cell phone.

Merry Christmas

We will be spending Christmas Eve at home. It will be a quiet evening with Stephanie, Gus and myself. Stay tuned and have a merry Christmas.

French Provincial Dining Room Set

Looks great! China cabinet, table with two leaves, 6 immaculately preserved chairs, scratch free, odor free and in perfect condition. Who wouldn't want this for their home? Apparently very few.

This falls into the category of it should be, but isn't. This style of dining room set seems to be plentiful in the Youngstown, Ohio area. They were staples of 1960's through 1980's home furnishings. Today, they just don't seem to fit in.

Changing styles, families going away from formal dining and a lack of disposable income are all influencing factors on why these are worth so little in todays market place. It seems such a shame but typically in our area these sets sell for as little as $50.00. How do you explain to the elderly women that her pride and joy is worth $50.00? You can't. This is probably a case where you should just tell her that you don't buy this type of antique. But, if you are feeling really adventorous and you think you could get $7-800 for it, give it a shot. Just remember that I'll say "I told you so".