Shaving Razors to New Zealand, Glass Chickens to Texas

UPDATE: Since some weeks the store does really well, there are times I can't quite keep up with keeping all the links up to date, even if I'm updating daily. If you ever have trouble finding what you need, my Mom's eBay store is:

Aunt Jan's Attic eBay Store

This week Mom sold an old history book, circa de 1890s. It was about the history of the Ottoman Empire, specifically Turkey. She put it up for auction on eBay, as the old histories tend to do well there, and ended up selling the book. It cracked her up to see that she had just sold an old history book about Turkey to the winning bidder, who lived in Istanbul.

World wide commerce can be a beautiful thing for small town antique stores that know how to use it!

There are antique books everywhere! It's amazing how many books have been published in the last two centuries: literally millions of different titles. Some antique books have a niche: old medical books with illustrations, one hundred year old histories of Europe, or 19th century English poetry, for a few examples.

There are the obvious first editions. Sinclair Lewis was one of the greatest American authors. He wrote from the 1910s through the 1940s and was considered one of the giants, coming before and then standing alongside the likes of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Steinbeck.

Main Street was Lewis's breakout work, and made him a giant among literary figures, while also permanantly seperating him from his home town. That book made him one of the best selling authors of his time, and he continued on with classics such as Arrowsmith, It Can't Happen Here, and Elmer Gantry.

Lewis was known for his easy to read writing style and realistic use of language, and all of his first edition books are now collectible, with the earliest and rarest ones worth the most. Lewis was the first American to ever win the Nobel Prize in literature, and he won a Pulitzer for fiction for his novel Arrowsmith, which he declined.

To date he is still the only author to turn down a Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Ever heard of vaseline glass? It's the antique glass that sets off a geiger counter. No, not kidding. Vaseline glass is a natural yellow to greenish color, and the coloring comes from actual uranium.

Now don't get too worried. While there is enough there that a geiger counter will read it, even extensive handling is not harmful. There simply isn't enough there to hurt someone, though you should never grind that glass because the glass paticles could be harmful.

Vaseline glass is beautiful and unqiue, standing out from normal glass because of its distinctive color. The radiation the uranium gives out is no more than what most normal appliances give off. These are beautiful antique glass pieces and one can see why they are a hot collectible item.

If you like this item, you can see it in more detail here!

Earlier I wrote a small piece about vaseline glass candlestick holders, and how vaseline glass has a strange quirk in that it is technically radioactive, though not enough to do any damage.

Still, if glass candlestick holders just aren't quite your thing, here are some Silver Candlestick Holders that give a beautiful and classy appearance to any candles in your home.

Pewter, sterling, and silver often look alike, and though the differences are slight, many people have their distinctive favorites. These are most likely actualy silver and not pewter or sterling, but more research with the marks might be able to determine this better.

There are many different types of candlesticks, as the difference between glass and silver shows, and for each person's taste there is something that can match it.

This is an ornate silver plated water pitcher which was produced by Rogers, Smith, & Co. This was found at a small town estate sale in Iowa, and really is an amazing piece that history buffs should enjoy.

What is hard to see in this picture is that this isn't just any ordinary silver pitcher. Quite the contrary, close inspection shows that on various parts of the pitcher are deailte sceneds of animals and hunting.

These carvings appear on the bottom rim, the rim of the lid and spout, and have a wide variety of animals, including bears, seals, walruses, and eskimos hunting with spears. The sides and handle of the pitcher have a banner and ivy design.

There are two stamps here. One on the porcelain liner for March 26, 1872, and the other on the bottom of the pitcher, which is stamped: Rogers Smith & Co. CONN, which forms a circle around New Haven, and below that June 13, 1868, Pat Nov 30, 1868, and below that 10.

For a 140 year old pitcher, it still looks pretty dang good, doesn't it?

This is a picture of an antique German Manicure Set. This is another example of how something that used to common is now considered an antique, but is still valuable for use.

The embroidery on the little worn because of age, but overall in good shape. These little traveling manicure sets used to be more common, and now are often consdiered collectibles. Just like straight razors, this is an antique that is often bought because the buyer prefers to still use this over modern replacements.

This is one of the wonderful aspects of antiques: how items from a wide array of countries and time periods can all end up being valuable or sought after. I know in our own family, Mom has a collection of cast iron pots and pans that she wouldn't trade for the world.

Everyone into antiques has some type that is their personal favorites. I like old fire arms, but I absolutely love old books. Book scouting is definitely my favorite tie to the antiques world, as it combines two of my biggest academic loves: history and literature.

One of mom's favorites are the glass hens. She has shelves of them at home: white, blue, amber, orange, yellow--in any shape and size they're all in rows staring out from an impressive collection.

This is part of the fun of antiques. It's not just "old stuff," it's really beautiful, well detailed art. We tend to tease Mom about all her glass chickens, but they are wonderful pieces. If you want to see more about the amber glass chicken displayed in the picture, just click RIGHT HERE to see more.

Maybe you'll find you start loving these glass hens and glass chickens even as much as Mom does!

Many people think of antiques as old things that aren't useful anymore, but people like to collect. There are plenty of people who will take exception to that belief! Ask anyone who uses old cast iron or Dutch ovens that have been in the family for a century.

An antique that remains popular, sometimes still for use, are Antique straight razors.

Straight razors were long a necessary instrument of an experienced barber, and some are in use. These particular razors are 6 1/4" 1865 Henry Sears & Son "Queen" straight razors. Razors have remained popular among collectors, many of whom still prefer to shave with the old fashioned lather and straight razor.

This is yet another example of an antique that is practical and useful. Not every antique has to be pretty or fragile. Some of the best practical tools later find themselves collector's items.

Some old black and white photographs just have a way of capturing a time period in a way that history books simply can not. The value of these photographs are beyond price as they remind us of different times, show us glimpses of what was, and a great photograph can captivate you in a way few paintings can.

This is an example of a Depression era photograph, framed very nicely with a protective glass cover. The boy in a muddy field, still pulling a plow attatched to horses while he's barefoot and wearing overalls. This speaks of a time and place that simply doesn't exist any more, and is a picture that has captivated many visitors to my parents' house.

It's a great picture, and if you want to look at it more closely, click HERE for a better look, along with additional information.

When I think of antique glass, I often think of plates, bowls, that sort of thing. Turns out that antique glass can show up in many other forms as well!

Here is a picture of a pair of vaseline glass candle stick holders. There's a beautiful elegance to these pieces, a sophistication that goes perfectly with candle light.

Vaseline glass is colored with uranium, and should glow under a black light. However, there is not enough to harm anyone, and the beautiful color makes it easy to see why someone would want to make more than just dishes with this great green vaseline glass.

For a closer look, click HERE

This picture is an example of pink depression glass. Depression glass is some of my mom's favorite type of antique glass.

The "Depression" in "Depression Glass" does refer to the Great Depression, although Depression Glass refers to any of this sort of antique glass that refers to American made transparent glassware that was first made in the mid-1920's through around the end of World War II.

Much of that time was considered the "Great Depression," but the glassmaking period extended out on both sides of the "Great Depression." Depression glass generally refers to any transparent glass made in that time frame.

Not all antiques cost an arm or a kidney!

There are expensive antiques and everyone knows about those once in a life time finds: that first edition of Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien worth $150,000 or that Japanese porcelian from 1880 your great grandfather had that's now worth $30,000, or those 8 rookie Mickey Mantle baseball cards now worth $50,000 each that Dad threw away as a kid (sorry to rub the salt in, Dad, but it is kind of funny) because "that's what you did back then, you threw them away to get new ones."

But most antiques are far less expensive, and there are plenty of beautiful gifts for that college student looking to spend $20-25 or less on something really nice. This is great news, since often times antiques look far better and more impressive than their cheap Wal-Mart counterparts.

The picture included in this one is only $24 for a set of four beautiful frosted glass sundae dishes, and that's four antique dishes, the kind you're not going to find new anymore, that have character, look beautiful, and that even includes shipping. Plus, you get to talk about how you went to an antique store to find something special. Whether your looking to impress a spouse, a girl friend, a parent--that's going to carry some weight.

There's something just about the word "antique" that does that. If you happened to be passing through the town of Belle Plaine, Iowa, you could even walk into the store and get it for less than $10. Who do you think is going to come out ahead when the cheap Wal-Mart glasses get compared to those?

Isn't nice to be the favorite? If you're interested in finding a quality unique gift click here for a great eBay store with great deals. You can grab a great gift, and then when someone at my house asks at Thanksgiving, "Why do we put up with you?" I'll actually have an answer this time :)

Our family has always been pack rats. We never throw anything away. My dad laughed when his grandfather gave him ten years of backrecords to a business he sold in the 1970s. Dad got the boxes in 2005.

My brother and I played with the same stuffed animals my dad played with as a kid. One year out of college my brother has a library filled with books, pictures, old maps, and a mini fur rug that would make any passing observer impressed.

My college dorm room had enough stuff to fit into an apartment. Four couches, lofted beds, an entire closet with every square inch filled with books, extra box fans and carboard cut outs of Jim Carey stuffed in the ceiling tiles above. I still have every undergraduate paper I've ever wrote.

So it made sense to me that Mom and Dad would love going to auctions and estate sales. It also didn't surprise me that they really got into antiques. We all love old stuff. Jon loves old maps & history books, I'm an amateur book scout, Mom & Dad specialize in glass, but love all antiques.

They started on eBay. After the basement, attic, summer kitchen, sheds, garage, and house were stuffed with boxes and glassware, it was time to start a business. They weren't ready to buy a building, and worried whether an antique store could survive in a small town.

So I helped them set up on eBay. They figured out how online commerce worked, how online auctions worked, and how to build a reputation and pay attention to how the antique market shifted by season.

They became very good, and when it was obvious that there wasn't a single space left anywhere on the property, it was time for a building, if for no other reason than to have a place to store all the antiques.

The town really wanted an antique store, and when cheap buildings came available on Main Street and they knew the town was serious about revitalizing (my brother was hired into a full time position to help make sure this happens), they bought a building with a very smart sales plan:

All anticipated business would be online. Just going from dial up to broadband Internet in town would boost business, and they would assume that all income had to be online...and if anyone walked in to buy something, that would be bonus.

They are doing great, and I hope this helps even more. The businesses doing well in town are ones that take advantage of online sales. This is the new model to revitalize small towns, and shows how antiques and computers can go hand in hand :)

My parents' antique store, Aunt Jan's Attic, looks like what you would consider a normal small town antique store, but to survive in an increasingly Wal-Mart world, this little shop holds an edge to help them survive: technically they do international sales.

"It really is amazing," Jan, co-owner and founder, says. "With eBay we can have our shop in town but make sales to places like Japan, Germany, Australia-something that was impossible even ten years ago."

Aunt Jan's Attic is both a walk in store on Main Street of Belle Plaine, Iowa, as well as an online eBay store by the same name. Sometimes what sells where, and where it goes, has been surprising. Some of the sales have included:

An old antique camera to Japan

An antique straight razor and strap to New Zealand

Antique tangerine glass to South Africa

Champagne glasses to Germany

They have shipped to every continent except Antarctica and South America, though most of the business comes from home.

Whether it's for antique glass, straight razors, jewlery, or something miscellaneous, being able to reach a world wide market definitely helps to stack the odds in their favor, as sites like eBay stores can help even the playing field for the little guy.

The antique world is so full of niches and specialties that being an expert in all antique fields just isn't possible. Coins, stamps, fire arms, dozens of types of glass, art, weapons, furniture, jewelery, carvings--this barely even begins to scratch the surface of everything out there!

One great thing about antiques is that they also tie naturally into history, so if there's an area that you are particularly interested in, that can be a good start.

I had a friend, Jack, who loved the Civil War. One time he bought a letter that a union soldier wrote to his family. Then a second that a general wrote to a dead soldier's family. These letters were fascinating to him, and he continued to collect, specializing in Civil War era letters.

I've always loved words. I've wanted to be a writer since I was three--the same age I read my first book. So my favorite antiques are antique books. As a book hound, I look for cheap John Steinbeck first editions because he is my favorite classic author. An author I've come to love, and re-discover, because of searching for antique books is Sinclair Lewis.

The best deal I ever managed was off an antique Sinclair Lewis book: a true first printing of The Innocents. I bought it for $58, and about seven monthes later found a buyer for $750. I haven't come close to that since, but I keep studying and hoping.

Mom and Dad love colored antique glass. Pink depression glass especially hits their fancy, though you can find Fenton glass, tangerine glass, frosted glass, and about any other glass you can imagine.

Another friend of mine isn't into antiques in general, but he collects them anyway because he loves antique fire arms.

No matter what the field or interest, there is probably something in the antique fiel that can match for you!