Third Generation Picker

I'm teaching our son to pick.

It's not really a new concept to him. Bless his heart, we've dragged him to auctions and antique malls since he was a baby. When he was playing little league sports on Saturday mornings I would pray for an early game so we could stop by any yard sales along the way and hit the estate sales on the way back.

We come from a family of pickers. My daddy is a picker but not a seller. He got me started with my bottle collection when I was in my late teens and early 20's. He would dig up bottles he found on job sites...see this post for the story.

Part of my soda bottle collection

Corkers in the bathroom window

I love bottles in the window

He has a varied collection of things he's picked from over the years. He rarely if ever sells anything, but for the most part he can justify keeping his treasures because he has put them into use at some time or another. What he hasn't is somewhat on display around the barn or shop.

At any rate, I got the bug honestly. I spent a lot of time as a kid, digging through old trash piles on farms near where I grew up, finding little saucers or zinc jar lids...enough to make me want to keep digging and searching. 

My first auction buy was a Diamond King wood cookstove that I saved until we built our house and still have it today. It cost $150 in 1981. I was offered $500 for it a couple of years later and I wasn't even tempted to sell. I loved it that much. 

Our cookstove, here piled with stuff during our recent ceiling reno project...we now have tin, but more on that later...

And now...generation three. Our son.

Sam NEVER intended to be a picker. Since becoming a teenager four years ago he began his protest against anything old. But, now at a wiser seventeen, he can be motivated.

Sam likes to spend money. His likes far exceeds his needs, which is probably true for most of us. Being homeschooled has so many advantages, one being we get to choose curriculum. This semester his electives are Photography and Essentials of Business along with his last English class needed to graduate. 

With jobs for teenagers being slim to none here, we finally convinced him that he can be his own boss and generate as much or as little money as his own efforts produce...plus he will be earning school credits at the same time...or in other words, an internship.

Picking without selling can become hoarding! We can easily have a relationship with all of the cool things we find...so, I've started Sam out selling first to get a taste of profit and motivation for more. We still have a barn stall full of things from the trailer...see here for story... that need to be sold. I'm letting him pick from there first. He has been sifting through boxes for smalls to list on ebay. 

Ford Volt Meter

Model T Headlight

He cleans, researches, photographs, packs, weighs, measures, writes descriptions, lists on ebay or craigslist,  answers any correspondence, ships and collects his rewards. This helps me immensely by taking care of things that need a broader market than than our local venues, by building positive feedback in our new ebay account, and saving me the incredible amount of time it takes to do all of this.

He is doing a great job, all the while, using his creative writing skills, business essentials, plus teaching me all about the functions of my camera. Win! Win!

The items above end this evening, February 8. Click on either photo for a link to the auction if interested.

Do your kids work for you? How's it going?

Things Go Better With Coke

I've decided that the best thing about all this pricing I've been doing in the shop has been the education. I've picked up a wealth of information I otherwise would have had to ask someone for later on if I hadn't stumbled upon most of it!

For instance, I never knew about ladies spittoons, or that laxative bottles were collectible! We have both here in the shop in case you are in the market for either.

 Remedies and elixirs displayed in the actual medicine cabinet they were found in.

Usually when I go looking for one thing I will find another. For instance, when looking for the value of an aluminum coke carrier we have, I found a link to a promotional video from 1974 about the trays with 1920's calendar girls. I was 14 in 1974 and should remember them from my teenage years...but no. All I remember about being 14 is my 4-H horse projects, my best friend, and that I wanted to marry John Denver, but not the trays.

The trays today are very affordable and easy to find. We found ours on a picking trip years ago and had to scrub coal dust off of them to see what we had. In our dining room we have our selection of them displayed with our soda bottle collection and framed calendar pages from my grandparents' home.

We have some of the 1974 trays in the shop for purchase and have also used them in projects that we hope you will like as well. 

One of the trays and the carrier

Here's a look at the video. Enjoy! Oh and for the record...I'm a Pepsi girl as far as drinking the stuff goes.

Suncrest Sign Had My Name on It

I scored a nice little rusty sign yesterday to compliment my bottle collection. My friend, Lisa at Homethrown Pottery...just down the road a piece...put up some pics on her Facebook page with some new/old things she was about to put in her shop.

 See my Suncrest bottle...with the blue label.

I commented that I loved the sign and by the time I got up yesterday morning I had decided that I really loved it so much that I needed to have it on our wall in the dining room.

I had to rearrange things just a bit because I hadn't had anything on the walls...the Coca Cola girls were on either side of the window propped up on the plate rail. I think they look nice there together in their new arrangement now.

Looking at the photo makes me notice how much I need to get cracking on a new floorcloth for us. I will put that on my list of "to do's".

Thanks again Lisa for posting the pictures...I would hate to think I had missed out on this little piece of nostalgia!