Today's Haul

(click to zoom)

I love going Estate Sale-ing. I can usually find some great pieces and keep my costs down for my shop. Unfortunately, the sales have been a little depressing lately, with not much good stuff when I get there.  Yesterday was a rare day when I got to go sale-ing on a day that wasn't Saturday.  Of the 5 sales I went to, 0 had any good jewelry.  Today though, Hubby and I went to Estate Sales and bought all this from just 4 out of the 8 sales I went to.  Hey, a .500 average is great in Baseball, it should count for something in the Vintage world!

Anywho, one of my favorites from today is that ring in the bottom left corner.  That's sterling silver and Israeli Turquoise.  There are some shell cameos up on the top, and some funky clamper bracelets too that I'm digging on. The necklace on the top left is Hematite, and the top right is Majorica pearls.

I'll be a busy girl photographing and listing all this great stuff. Gotta inventory it and do some cleaning first!

What's in Style Right Now? Vintage! Part 2

Continuing with the article I saw yesterday about great jewelry buys for under $100, I wanted to look at item number 2. 

ASOS Diamante Linked Collar

It's for sale for $26.96.

I betcha I can find some Vintage Jewelry that has the same style!

VezaVe has this great 1950s Necklace

Shopon Sherman has this great Coro Lucite Set!  (Look! Earrings too!)

Creativegatherings has this one, with fantastic lemon glass and rhinestones!

All these previous necklaces were found on Etsy in less than 5 minutes.

Goes to show, you can find great vintage jewelry that's low on cost and high on style!

More to come!

What's in Style right now? Vintage!

I was reading the news this morning and found an article entitled "Bright baubles: Get statement jewelry for under $100" on msnbc.com. Looking at the image on that page, I saw vintage pieces, even though those pieces were new! 

Lets do a comparison.  Here's a screenshot from that webpage:

Number 1:  The BaubleBar Drop Earrings, priced at $94

I found earrings on Etsy that had a similar style for much less.

Like these from Masterymixedmedia

or these by PritiStar

or these by JanasTreasures



We'll keep visiting these suggestions over the next few blog posts.  In the meantime, don't pay $94 for a pair of earrings when you can pay less for jewelry that's got much more style, and history!

The most Fabulous Earrings I've seen in a long while!

Check these puppies out!

Aren't they delicious?

Check out the listing here

Trust

Trust is one of the most important things in any relationship, but especially in the relationship between buyer and seller.  I understand that when people are purchasing from me, online, they are trusting in my photos, my descriptions, and that my prices are fair.  I trust that they will be honest with me regarding any issues they may have and that they will deal as fairly with me as I try and deal with them.  Thus far, my trust has not ever been broken.

However, I know several sellers who have had that trust broken by buyers, and several buyers who have had that trust broken by sellers.  This does not help the overall culture of online commerce.  As a result, there are somethings that I do to help preserve the trust. For in-country purchases, I use delivery confirmation.  This way, I know that a package I shipped arrived at the address given to me by the buyer.  For pieces that are more expensive, I purchase shipping insurance.  I use only shipping companies that I trust, like the USPS.  I use only PayPal.

Does that mean that I am not trusting when I do these things? Or do these things make trust more possible?

Struggles

I am not a natural saleswoman.  Sure, when I was little I had a lemonade stand periodically throughout the summers, and when I was in Girl Scouts I sold cookies.  I never "worked retail" though.  I did flirt with the idea of selling stuff like Tupperware or Pampered Chef or even Lia Sophia jewelry, but was talked out of it by my hubby.  I liked the stuff, but I'm not a very good seller.

Which is one of the reasons why I don't seem to be doing so well with the blogging bit.  Blogging requires salesmanship. However, I truely believe that with effort, anyone can turn a weakness into a strength.

Through the encouragement of several friends, I've improved my tweeting abilities (@PinkAstilbe), and I've even got a semi-decent facebook page, though I'm not very good at finding followers.  Like me please!

I'm starting to realize that I cannot just tweet the newest items that I've listed.  I need to share my personality with people.  I need to sell not just my jewelry, but myself.

I'm going to try and be better with the blogging.  Not just focus on vintage jewelry.  I'm NOT going to delete my old posts, they're part of the learning curve. However, I will try and be a bit better with them.

Thanks for following me, if you did!

-Joanne
PinkAstilbe Vintage

Two of my current favorite pieces

I do collect jewelry, and I sell jewelry.  Sometimes I'll buy a piece intending to sell it so that I can then buy more expensive pieces, but then I end up falling in love with them.  My husband tells me to list everything I buy for the purpose of selling, regardless of if I fall in love with those pieces.  I have two pieces listed in my Etsy store that I am getting the biggest kick out of wearing lately.  I get so many compliments on them that I'm surprised they haven't sold yet!

The first is a vintage milk glass and metal floral brooch that also has a bail on the back to be worn as a pendant.  It is so cute, springy and lovely!  It weighs almost next to nothing and doesn't appear from any one particular decade.  I'd guess it to be in the 1960's but it works with modern styles so easily!  (You can see the listing here.)

The second is also a brooch and pendant combo.  This one has the tiniest cameo set in the middle of an abstract-ish five petal flower and accented with small rhinestones.  It too is so modern looking but with that vintage flavor, I'm not sure why it hasn't sold either!  (You can see the listing here.)

I certainly hope you can see why I love these pieces!  They've got so much personality. Both are unsigned, but both have prong-set stones and lovely detail work.