Norman Brumm – Former Michigan Artist

Posted on July 31, 2010 by AJA

Beautiful Norman Brumm Hummingbird Enamel on Copper Plate

Norman Brumm was a well-known Michigan artist who favorite subject were the birds and flowers of Michigan. He was a painter, both in oil and water color, but what he was most known for were his works in enamel on copper. He created both plates and sculptures in this medium.

Norman Brumm passed on in 2008 – so there are no longer any artworks being produced by him, but he has left a large legacy of works behind – they are very popular and have many collectors.

His sculptures often combine flowers and birds, and are attached to driftwood for the base. Most sculptures are signed with a burnt “BRUMM” into the wood base, and many are also signed with his distinctive “Brumm” signature as well. He has created all sizes, from a single small flower to large wall hung sculptures that are several feet across.

Brumm also created decorative plates depicting a wide variety of subjects. Small little mice, baby rabbits, deer, all kinds of birds and beautiful flowers. I have seen plates ranging in size from tiny plates about 4 1/4 inches across to larger plates of about 9 3/4 inches across.

If you love Norman Brumm enamel on copper art, you will want to keep in touch, for over the next few months AuntJanesAttic on eBay will be offering many sculptures as well as a few more plates by this amazing artist. You can also go to the AuntJanesAttic Facebook fan page to become a fan (by clicking the “like” button) and whenever more Brumm is listed it will be announced from the AuntJanesAttic Facebook page.

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30 Day Blog Challenge Wrap-up

Posted on July 7, 2010 by AJA

I kind of fell off the wagon for the last week of the 30 day challenge – I ended up flooded with so many things to do that a few things had to give and one of them was the 30 day blog challenge. It still was a valuable activity and I learned a lot by participating.

One thing I learned was that I could think of things to write about – in fact I still have a long list of topics I still want to write about! Another thing I appreciated about the blog challenge was just reading all the different viewpoints, ideas, tips…it was actually pretty overwhelming. I tried to read all the blogs that were participating and came across a wide range of topics and styles. It broadened my horizons!

Another benefit to participating was traffic went way up for the month of June – my traffic increased by 154%, and search engine traffic took a huge jump as well, with a much larger variety of keywords being used to find my website.

I still need to get better at multi-tasking so I can keep up regular blogging. I recently acquired a huge pile of items to list and needed to get them up – and I just concentrated on listing, listing, listing – and then the blogging fell by the wayside – so that is one thing to work on in the future.

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Ingrid Dijkers Fantasy Doll at AuntJanesAttic!

Posted on June 26, 2010 by AJA

Fantasy Doll by Ingrid Dijkers

I have come across the most unusual doll – a fantasy doll sculpted by the artist Ingrid Dijkers of Plymouth, Michigan. I am helping clean out an estate, and the woman who used to own this was quite a collector. This doll is a one of a kind, large elf with pointed ears and a mysterious grin.

Ingrid did fantasy dolls for about 20 years, but now she is moving away from that into Altered Art and beautiful handcrafted journals. She mentioned in her blog that she is destroying her old dollmaking molds, so this doll is now even more unique, because no one else will be able to make one even close to what this one looks like.

This figure is uniquely crafted from vintage laces, fabrics and accessories collected on trips to Europe, flea markets and thrift stores in the US and created by the artist herself into an unique expression of her love of medieval art and folk stories.

Anyway, I just listed this doll on eBay if you are interested in checking it out.

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Barbara Buck Santa at AuntJanesAttic!

Posted on June 26, 2010 by AJA
Hand crafted Santa

Hand Crafted Santa

I have been very busy this week with 2 big loads of eBay stock! I had a business meeting that took me to a part of town I don’t get to much, and ended up with a van load of stuff from various thrift stores. Then I got a call from a friend who needs help clearing out an estate. So I ended up with another van load of stuff! I have been busy taking photos, researching and now getting those listings up.

My first batch of listings includes a beautiful handcrafted Santa by Barbara Buck of Pearl City, IL. Barbara has been handcrafting Santa figures for 20 years, and this one is from 1993, early in her Santa crafting career. It is a darling Santa with a thick, furry white beard and a twinkle in his eye!

He is seated on a bench, dressed for the cold in a wool fur-trimmed jacket, wool vest buttoned up tight and wool trousers that tuck into fur lined boots, all topped off with a furry red beanie! And his hands are tucked into gray wool mittens.

Barbara is a full time artist, with Santa sculptures her main product. She also is the official artist at the Diamond Jo  casino, who from time to time give away her fantastical sculptures as prizes. Every one of her sculptures is a one of a kind item with no repeats.

This is a chance to own one of her early works, from 1993. It does show its age in the face, but it is still quite a distinctive piece as a fraction of what her sculptures sell for out of her studio! Check out the listing on AuntJanesAttic!

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Top eBay Store Features – Tracking and URL

Posted on June 20, 2010 by AJA

I have been discussing eBay store feature in a series, and the latest features I want to discuss is the Tracking Traffic and Personal URL. If you haven’t already upgraded to a store, you should try to use keywords of your biggest sellers in your store name because your store name becomes your URL on eBay. For example for my store, Aunt Jane’s Attic, the address eBay assigned me is: http://stores.ebay.com/Aunt-Janes-Attic. This is a simple  and easy URL to remember.

The other great store feature that you get with a store subscription is Selling Manager/Selling Manager Pro. Basic stores get Selling Manager as part of their subscription and Premium Stores get Selling Manager Pro. Both of these include a visitor tracking component. With this feature you can see what keywords shoppers have used to find your eBay listings, what website addresses directed them to you, how many visitors you have received per day and in the Pro version you can see exactly what paths were taken through your store and listings. You can see what your most popular listings are and what keywords searched in your store resulted in sales (in the pro version).

This type of information is so valuable in helping you as you stock your store and design your listing titles. If you find that you are getting a lot of searches for particular keywords that are resulting in sales for you, then you know to keep stocking those items. It also helps you determine what keywords to put in your titles to draw searches. I discovered a keyword that was very popular in my store, one that could be applied to other listings as well and when I started using it on more listings I definitely started seeing additional sales.

You can also use the tracking to see if promotions you are doing are resulting in more traffic to your store, such as newsletters, running sales, ads on facebook or posting on your blog. This helps you determine where is the best place to spend your time for promoting your eBay store in the future.

I have a few more features to discuss in this series about stores, come back tomorrow for more!

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Top eBay Store Features – Mark Down Manager and Newsletters

Posted on June 19, 2010 by AJA

Yesterday’s post discussed the different store features that are available and the pricing structure. This article is about my 2 favorite store features, Mark Down Manager and Newsletters. I am not going to discuss every feature in this series – just the ones I personally find most valuable. I also will not be including information about the Anchor store – just Basic and Premium stores.

I first want to briefly explain how I typically list on eBay. I primarily deal in OOAK (One Of A Kind) items. Usually what I do now (based on what I learned from Lynne Dralle’s Method) is first list the item at auction, and then if it does not sell at auction, I have it set to automatically relist as a fixed price listing, and usually at a higher price.

Listing at a higher fixed price covers the higher final value fees and gives me a little room to run a sale or add the “make an offer” option at a later point. Any seller can use the “make an offer” option, but only store sellers can use the mark-down manager to run a sale.

Mark Down Manager:

When you use mark-down manager to run a sale, you can choose from several options. You can mark all items in the sale by a percentage of your choosing, you can reduce the price by a set amount, or you can offer free shipping. You can also choose the length of the sale, and either select by categories or pick out items individually.

The store subscription you choose allows different levels of items to be chosen for a sale per day. With a Basic store is it 250 items, and with a Premium store is it 2,500 items. If you want to list more items for a sale than your store level allows, just come back 24 hours later and start a new sale.

Newsletter:

Another great feature that a store subscription offers is a newsletter that you can send out to people that have signed up to be on your mailing list. You can send out one newsletter per week to up to 5,000 per month with a basic store or up to 7,500 per month for a premium store. This is a great feature that allows you to keep in touch with people who are subscribers. You can customize your newsletter to a certain extent, and I especially recommend you put it in your own subject line instead of the default eBay subject.

There are a few other store feature I want to cover in my next post – so check back tomorrow for more! If you have any questions, leave a comment and I will be glad to address them in an upcoming article.

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How to Choose the Right eBay Store

Posted on June 18, 2010 by AJA
Subscribe now or find out more at eBay Stores

Subscribe Now or learn more at eBay Stores!

Many eBay sellers have been debating the new changes to eBay stores that happened a few months ago. I have heard on various boards that there is some confusion about what kind of stores are available and whether you even need to have a store any more.

The first thing I want to point out is that you DO NOT need to have a eBay store to put up either fixed price or auction style listings. If you are a casual seller selling a few items once in a while, there is no need to have a store. However if you get to the point that you want to ramp up your eBay business, having a store is an important key to your success.

There are 3 levels of stores available with 3 different subscription rates.

  • Anchor Stores – $299.95/month
  • Premium Stores – $49.94/month
  • Basic Stores – $15.95/month

There is a store subscription for every type of eBay seller, so you need to figure out what type of seller you are to determine which store you should choose for your business.

All stores offer certain benefits in common, and among many other benefits, the most important to me are:

  • track traffic to your eBay listings
  • send out promotional emails
  • put fixed price items on sale
  • access to eBay support
  • place listings on vacation
  • personalized URL address
  • 15 custom pages

Basic Stores:

With a basic store you can put up to 250 items on sale per day, send out up to 5,000 emails through the eBay system per month and have access to Seller Manager, which is a great feature to help manage your listings. Fixed price listings are $.20 each per month. (If you do not have a store, fixed price listings are $1.00 each per month).

Premium Stores:

With Premium stores you can reduce the eBay header on your store to leave more room to display your own branding, put up to 2,500 items on sale per day, have access to Seller Manager Pro with expanded reporting, send out up to 7,500 emails per month and your fixed price listings are $.05 each per month.

Anchor Stores

Anchor stores, at $299.95 per month is best for eBay sellers who carry a large inventory and have a very high volume of traffic. You can put up to 5,000 listings on sale per day, send out 10,000 emails per month and fixed price listings are only $.03 each per month.

What is the Best eBay Store for You?

Look at your past business, and look at your goals. If you only want to use eBay to sell off sports equipment your kids have outgrown, hobby items you have over bought, things that you no longer have a use for but still have a lot of use in them – then there is no reason to pay the extra $$ to have any kind of eBay store.

If your goal is to provide some part-time income and you anticipate carrying a small inventory or listing around 20-100 items per month at fixed price, a basic store is worth subscription fee. If you are interested in making eBay produce a sizable income, maybe even a full-time income and plan on carrying a larger inventory or listing around 200 items or more a month at fixed price, a premium store is really worth the subscription fee – just for the savings in listing fees – the break even point on fixed price listings is right about 200 fixed price listings per month. If you list 200 fixed price items per month in a basic store, it will cost you $40 in listing fees and $15.95 for the store subscription for a total of $56.95. If you list 200 fixed price items per month in a premium store it will cost you $10 in listing fees and $49.95 for the store subscription for a total of $59.95.  The extra features you get for the $3 difference are definitely worth the $3, and once you get past 225 fixed price listings per month – you are wasting money sticking with the basic store.

An anchor store is best suited for someone that has already ramped up their eBay business big-time – and for the most part are selling new stock, because you need to be listing about 20,000 fixed price items a month before it makes sense to upgrade to the Anchor store.

Check out this calculator tool created by eBay to estimate your fees for various levels of listings and store subscriptions.

This is just a short summary, there is lots more information on the eBay Stores site to help you make your decision. Come back tomorrow for more in depth info on some of my favorite eBay store features and how to use them.

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Johnson Brothers Dinnerware – Dorchester

Posted on June 17, 2010 by AJA

Beautiful example of Johnson Brothers Dorchester

I have to admit I am a dishie – and my absolute favorite company is Johnson Brothers! I love all their patterns! I always look for it. It seems that there are a lot of people in eBay – land that love Johnson Brothers too, because it is consistently a best seller for me. This week I have 2 Johnson Brothers patterns up at auction – Tulip Time, which I discussed in an earlier post and Dorchester, a beautiful vintage pattern.

Dorchester is a pink (or some call it red) transferware floral pattern with handpainted highlights in green, blue and yellow. Plates and bowls feature a beautiful bouquet of flowers as a center focal and the same flowers worked into a wide border. I have seen it a couple of times displayed in home photos in Country Living and Better Homes and Gardens. It is a very popular vintage pattern by Johnson Brothers.

Dorchester fits into several types of decor, such as English Country or Cottage Style with its bright colors and floral design – it has a kind of Chintz look. Also great in Shabby Chic, American Country, Romantic Style as well – as it is not high-class and precious, it is a nice friendly pattern.

Johnson Brothers produced Dorchester in England from 1931 to 1965, it is now a discontinued pattern. It is a softer, ironstone china, not porcelain. Older pieces tend to have crazing and frequently the crazing gets stained – all of pieces I have are crazed – but no staining. If you are thinking about using these for eating off of, I would not recommend using the dishwasher for cleaning since they are the older, vintage dinnerware which were not designed for the harsh detergents and high temperatures of automatic dishwashers.

You can go to AuntJanesAttic on eBay to see the Dorchester I have available.

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30 Day Blog Challenge Halfway Point!

Posted on June 16, 2010 by AJA

Participant in 30 Day Blog Challenge

Today is the halfway point of the 30 day blog challenge. I have stayed in pretty good shape, I am only a few behind the 15 that should be done today. This has been an interesting project to be involved in and I have been enjoying being exposed to other bloggers on a wide variety of subjects.

So far I have not been able to get to ALL the other blogs, as there are 249 bloggers involved in this project. But I will try to get to a lot of them, because I find I am learning a lot of valuable information and being exposed to many ideas and viewpoints I don’t come across in my daily life.

I have also welcomed the discipline of writing (almost) every day on my blog – something I have had as a goal, but this is the first time I have even come close!

Today I attended Jeanette and Connie’s midway point webinar and it was a great encouragement with lots of topic ideas and ideas on how to catch up if you are behind. If were unable to attend the live webinar, the recording is now available. It is worth it to take a listen if you are involved in this challenge and haven’t listened yet. A wealth of ideas for anyone who writes on a regular basis.

Jeanette and Connie also announced the Mini7 challenge that kicks off June 20th, which is 7 posts over 7 days with the goal to to be finished by June 30. If you want to try out a small challenge without committing to a full month, it will give you a taste of every day blogging – but I offer a warning – you may find blogging everyday becomes addicting!

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Candy Tables/Buffets for Weddings and Parties

Posted on June 14, 2010 by AJA

My Favorite - Hershey Kisses

Do you have a wedding or other large event you are planning? Just came across a super sweet idea for favors – a candy buffet/candy table! There are so many ways to customize it for your particular wedding – from elegant high-class candies displayed in crystal containers to nostalgic old-time sweets served in vintage candy-store canisters! You can order candies in colors to coordinate with your wedding and Hershey offers chocolate kisses with the little tag customized to say Congratulations. If you are crafty, you can also make all your candies for the ultimate in customization.

The suggestions I have seen all have a few things in common – the candy, displayed in beautiful containers with scoops or spoons to use for filling the chosen smaller package for taking it home. The take-home containers can be colorful Chinese take-out containers, clear cellophane bags, old-fashioned striped candy store paper bags, little heart shaped boxes – whatever your imagination and budget can come up with! Your take-home containers are decorated in some way to remind the guests of your day using stickers, tags or paper labels.

As far as the type of candy to serve at your event, after you pick out your wedding or event theme and colors, it should be really easy to pick out a coordinating candy table idea. There are businesses that will do the whole set-up supplying candy, decorated serving containers, scoops, and customized take-home containers, but candy tables are also a great do it yourself item for those who are creative or have more time than money.

AuntJanesAttic always has a wide selection of elegant, vintage, shabby, funky containers, goblets and other decorative items that can added to your tabletop display.

Here is a list of links to get you started:

How to Create a Candy Buffet

How Sweet It Is; Building the Candy Buffet of Your Dreams

Only at Hershey’s Store Online – The World’s Largest HERSHEY’S KISS™! Shop Now!

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