The way to high bids on Ebay is in your photos. Buyers want to see as much of an item as possible before trusting enough to place a bid. Many times I get prices far higher than other sellers with the SAME ITEM, simply because of MORE photos.

Tips:

1. Use a photo host off Ebay. I use Auctiva. Others are Photobucket, Inkfrog, Vendio. A photo host is a website where you upload photos and get a web address for them. Using your own host means you can have up to 16 photos on Ebay, all for 15 cents! Not 15 cents per photo, 15 cents for ALL photos after the first one, which is free. Why? Ebay has an overloaded server. By hosting your photos elsewhere, you are saving Ebay server space. They reward you by giving you all the photos you need for only 15 cents. Remember, 1st photo is always free.

2. Take 4 or more photos per item. Check out my listings. You'll see at least 4 and usually more per item. Often I'll use all 16 that Auctiva can upload. More photos means higher bids. Try it!

3. Create a spot for photos. Hang a white sheet on a wall for clothes. Create a corner with white paper under your items and behind your items. Yesterday I saw an auction where the seller took a photo of their item on top of the bathroom sink! Eeewww! A white background shows off your item and gives a fresh and sanitary feel. The one exception is clear glass, it is better to use a solid color background to show off clear glass. I like purple or burgundy.

4. Take interesting photos. Try close ups just showing part of the item, so that your item almost looks like modern abstract art. Try and show off a feature you like about your vintage item by close ups of that feature.

5. Check your photos to see your item is free of hairs, dust, fingerprints or anything that doesn't belong there. Clean your item and retake the photos if you see anything. I also recommend cleaning your items as much as possible. Cleaner means higher bids. So many sellers are selling dirty stuff, you can stand out by your cleaning ability. People are busy and appreciate a fresh looking item and WILL PAY more for it!

6. Crop your photos. Get rid of as much of your background as possible. A white background will blend into Ebay's search page, making your item stand out.

7. Pick your best photo for a Gallery Photo. Always use Gallery, it sells. A good gallery photo is one that looks best small. Sometimes a close up of part of the item looks better than one teensy shot of the whole item.

Photo up top is one I like.

There are so many wonderful USA made items from the 1940s-1970s, from housewares to radios and telephones, all made of plastic. Vintage plastics get scratched and dirty from use, and even worse the colors can change and fade, or turn cloudy.

For most people these are plastics they would send to the landfill. But, if your item has a wonderful vintage design, there is much you can do to bring back the original finish. Hopefully I can offer you some ideas here that you haven't heard of before.

Scratches and color change:

Radios and old telephones are usually scratched up with use, and often the color can actually change. A common color change happens to those turquoise colors from the 1950s you see in housewares. Sometimes the turquoise will turn green, or it can turn blue. Similarly, a vintage blue will turn green. Often the cause is the item has sat in the sun near a window.

Not to worry. The real color of the item is underneath the color change. Dealing with color change and scratches require the same procedure to fix. This will also work for clear plastics that have turned cloudy.

1. You must sand off the surface of the item. This requires some kind of sandpaper or steel wool. It is best to start with the finest grades of sandpaper or steel wool, which minimizes the amount of effort in sanding. Regardless of what grade you choose, the procedure requires changing grits from the coarsest to the finest, so as to work your way back to a mirror finish. So, if you start with a rough grade, you will need lots of finer grades to progressively smooth out the scratching caused by each previous grade.

I usually start out with a fine steel wool, 0 or less. I keep 0, 000, and 0000 grades of steel wool on hand. Steel wool is the last stage of sanding to get back to a mirror finish prior to polishing, so start with steel wool.

Sand away at your item and see if the original color underneath starts to show through. If you are rubbing a lot, switch to a rougher grade. If you are still rubbing a lot, try a sandpaper of 150 grade or higher. I usually keep 100, 150, 220, and 300 grades on hand. If the item is dark, you can also use fine metal polishing sandpapers which are black in color. You don't want to use those on light colored items though because they can leave a black streak.

Sand until the original color comes through, and scratches are polished out. Clear items will look cloudy, but don't worry.

Switch to higher grades of sandpaper or steel wool until you reach 0000 steel wool. This is a super soft steel wool. Each grade you are using should rub out the scratches from the previous grade you were using. If you are working and see that your current paper or wool is not getting out the scratches from your previous grade, you must go back and select another grade until you are only seeing the marks from the grade you are currently using.

By moving progressively to finer and finer grades, you are nearing a polished finish which is what we want.

After you finish with 0000 steel wool, then it's time for polishing.

2. Polishing is the use of a paste or rubbing compound. Metal polishing requires a polishing compound like jeweler's rouge.

My favorite polishing compound is toothpaste. Well, it works on your teeth, doesn't it? My favorite toothpaste for this use is Gleem, which is a little hard to find these days, but is generally around $2 a tube or less. Gleem has an ingredient for whitening, and can often work well on clear plastics that have turned yellow, and get rid of remaining yellow residue after your sanding. It will also polish out the light cloudy scratching from the 0000 steel wool.

To use, take a pea size amount of Gleem with a cotton cloth and rub, dry (no water), in a circular pattern onto your plastic item. The paste will get dryer and dryer until you can't rub any more.

Then use a fresh part of your cotton cloth to buff off the toothpaste. You may see a filmy residue from the paste. Use a little water at this point to wipe off the rest of the paste. Inspect your item to see there are no more scratches. Clear plastic may still look a little cloudy, but that will be dealt with in the final step.

If you still see scratches, go back to your steel wools or sandpapers and work your way back through the fine grades until you finish with the 0000 steel wool. Then repeat the toothpaste procedure again.

3. Adding the shine. Here is a real trick. What I use for shine is a bottle of liquid designed to get scratches out of DVDs and CDs, Disk Scratch Remover. Well, it is good enough for your DVD's and video games, which are basically a shiny plastic!

This liquid is a brown lotion that is sold under many private labels. I've seen it on Ebay for about $7 a bottle, and I buy mine for about $5 from Gamestop stores, which sell video games. A little goes a long way.

Take a small pencil eraser size of the liquid rub it around the plastic with a clean fingertip. Then use a clean cotton cloth and rub until the liquid is dry. Rub some more to buff. You will notice the liquid adds shine to the plastic. Use more as needed.

This final step really brings a mirror shine, and even fills in remaining scratches so they are clear, rather than cloudy.

If you still see scratches, you can repeat any of the above steps.

4. One more experimental, tricky procedure to try with plastics. If you have a really deep nick that would require extremely deep sanding, you can try another method which involves dissolving the plastic into a liquid form. This involves a lacquer thinner solution. There are many to use, but the one I feel I can control the best is a product called Oops!, which is sold as a way to remove permanent marker ink and paint splatters.

This product does work great to remove ink and paint from almost any item. But, you have to be careful when using it on plastic, because like lacquer thinner, the plastic actually starts to liquify into a sticky gummy mess.

However, a drop or so placed on a deep nick in plastic, and rubbed JUST A LITTLE, can liquify the nick enough to smooth it out. It will leave the surface cloudy. Don't rub too much, or your surface will turn into what looks like melted sugar. Done correctly, you can also take the cloudiness out of clear plastic with this product. Follow with sandpapers. If your plastic is gummy, let it solidify for about 24 hours, then repeat sandpapering and steel wool before polishing.

I like Oops! because it is a diluted lacquer thinner and easier to control than pure spirits. Also, the product has the odor masked so you don't fry your brain while using it. The product can save you from deep sanding by smoothing out the deep nick.

It's okay to leave a few nicks in your project. It's a vintage item, remember, and scratches are to be expected.

The goal is not PERFECTION, but rather to make the item look better. If you've made the item look better than it was, you've improved it for yourself, or for selling it at a higher price.

Most importantly, you've given a well designed vintage item a new life, rather than consigning it to the landfill!

In 2004, I moved to rural west central Wisconsin, mainly to get away from the rigid mainstream culture and politics our society had drifted into. It seemed everyone was more concerned than before about fitting in to some kind of nameless lifestyle in which everyone had a brand new 4 bedroom house in a yard with no trees, and only the ubiquitous SUV in the driveway. Everything we use comes from China.

In central Wisconsin, I began discovering housewares at yard sales and flea markets that had all been made in my local area at one time. I found 50s kitchen utensils in turquoise, crystal lucite bowls, Wisconsin deerskin jackets in western cuts, 60s radios with the best AM reception ever. All in designs with clean lines.

I thought about all these local factories, now long gone, that made it possible for families to live in these small towns, raise children, and send them to college. My small town and others near here are now among the poorest in the state. What's left are the products that were locally made.

These USA made designs are still around because they were made to last. You bought ONE pancake turner, ONE radio, ONE set of water glasses, and you kept them forever. People ordered a custom deerskin jacket and it was a lifetime purchase, not something worn once and sent off to the thrift store in 2 years.

So many USA made designs have unique lines, and formed the style of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, something that companies springing up everywhere are re-creating as "retro." Why have we become content to buy cheap housewares from China that end up in a landfill?

One of the things I'm doing these days is finding USA made vintage housewares and radios that are functional and beautifully designed, and repainting them. This requires courage on my part, for the vintage and antiques market is still full of the (outdated) mindset that you have to keep things in the "original" condition. But, what about that avocado breadbox or that harvest gold cake pan, or that fake wood veneer radio? These things are going into landfills all over, not because they don't work, but because nobody likes the color.

No, "rustic," and "original condition" are outmoded.

If you want to redo a USA made item to go with your modern decorating, all it takes is spray paint. I recommend Krylon Fusion, it sprays fine and doesn't drip.

Check out the stuff I've done in my store, it sells out fast!

The scariest piece of news I've read recently was in the Washington Post, for one day, in August 2007.

The story was about high levels of formaldehyde found in clothing made in China, something like 900 times the level of safety. The Post reported that 2 children in New Zealand wearing China made pajamas burst into flames, spontaneously, because of the formaldehyde content.

My friend Marty of OnceUponabid on Ebay told us last year about a little reported story of a mysterious rash children and teachers were getting in the eastern US. I wonder if it was Chinese made clothing. Now we hear that baby bibs from China have been recalled because of LEAD CONTENT. Baby bibs!!!

This is scary, people. Even more scary is that most of our clothing is made in China. Last week I went into a Boston Store in Madison, to get to the eye clinic in the same mall. We stopped and looked at all the designer clothing labels, and yes, even the high end stuff is made in China. No matter how high the price tag, clothing is all made in the same Chinese factories.

Now I have nothing against Chinese people, only an unregulated industrial infrastructure that must be poisoning the population of that nation.

I've read that the colors in the clothing are lead based, in many cases. Gives me the heebies to even touch China made clothing. No way.

Since 2004, I've been offering USA made vintage clothing in my Ebay store. Many designs were made to last, and these jobs supported families. But, even here in the USA, clothing standards got lax, not to the level of poisoning people, but in shoddy construction, and untouchable fabrics.

I'm hunting down the best of USA made vintage clothing, to offer something that is both fun, stylish, and most of all SAFE! My special finds are Wisconsin Deerskin, western style clothing, wool, fur and sheepskin coats, leather boots and belts, and funky hats. My closet is gone of Chinese clothing, and my son is wearing USA made jeans and shirts.

Watch what you buy, people, and don't pay high prices for junk. Spend a little more for something you'll keep, thrift stores are full of Chinese imports that no one is buying. Pay a little more to keep something forever, that won't go out of style, and won't spontaneously combust.

Shown above is a Woolrich vintage coat. Woolrich was once USA made, and is a casualty of many USA companies that now make clothes overseas.