Welcome to eBay Ephemera: A Page Out of Time. My wife and myself have sold on eBay since 1999. We've sold just about anything, from garage sale finds, to vintage, to antique items. A friend once challenged me to sell my Lenticular Batman Popcorn Bucket from the Batman Begins movie... it sold for enough to pay for the movie ticket, popcorn, and drink. :^)
Monique's all business - she lists lots of things, fast, and knows their value. Needless to say, she's been far more successful on eBay than myself. I list things that have some personal appeal, and am often sidetracked by the history of the items I list. Over the years, she's done quite nicely selling vintage and antique art, salvaged from books that would have otherwise been thrown away. To give credit where it's due, we got started in ephemera with a how-to guide from Stuart Turnbull, Prints Make Profits. Stuart's guides are the only ones I've ever bought that work. We've followed his guides for vintage prints, and for altered art, with a lot of success, exclusively on eBay. I've never done well on Etsy, even with Stuart's guides, but Etsy's a different beast and it just never made sense to me.
Back to the point... Early 2023, I was listing some vintage Popular Mechanics magazines. Monique remembered seeing vintage ads selling on eBay, did a little research, and suggested I sell the magazines by the ad, instead of by the book. We've learned a lot since then, and I'm really enjoying selling the vintage ads. My only problem is getting too interested in the product. It's a fascinating view into history, especially regarding what was considered normal back then. Some things are amusing, some eye-opening, and some just make me shake my head. There's a lot of ads, even in major magazines, that are just... wrong, by today's standards. I try to list as many each day as possible, but they're so fascinating it slows me down. On the other hand, I really enjoy selling vintage ads, which means I'm much more likely to stick with it for the long haul.
On a side note, I've worked at a local newspaper for about 15 years, in the Classifieds section. Last year I took early retirement, but am still at the paper part-time. So, half the day selling advertising for the paper... then I come home to work with Monique, and I sell advertising on eBay. I love being able to tell people I sell advertising at both jobs. Only, one is advertising that has yet to print... and the other is advertising that printed sometime in the last century. :^)
UPDATE: I left the paper August of 2023, and am working from home with Monique now. We're both still selling on eBay to make ends meet!
Some years ago, I had a fun little blog that featured some of the odd and interesting things we'd gotten locally and listed on eBay. Actually, I had several blogs, but only two that I miss. The first, a blog that featured southern gospel piano, was called "Grace Notes: Southern Styling on a Digital Piano." It ran for about ten years, then stopped for numerous reasons. You see it now as a live link, because I decided to recreate it. The url, www.crewman6.com, has been mine for about 20 years. If you'd like to find out what that has to do with anything, visit Grace Notes and read the "about me".
The other blog I really enjoyed, and have decided to recreate, is this one. Only this time, it's going to be focused more on ephemera. I'll be featuring vintage ads here, with things that tickle my sense of humor, or amaze me, or just seem noteworthy in general.
We'll both be listing ephemera on A Page Out of Time. I have the vintage magazine ads, she has multiple categories; post cards, altered art, vintage art saved from books that would otherwise be trashed.
I'll sometimes list ordinary items on her store, Grandma's Trunk. (See sidebars for links to both our stores.)
She also came up with my new store name, "A Page Out Of Time", and made the Banner for the store. Since this blog ties heavily into the same subject, the blog is titled after my store. I like the synchronicity. It all ties together, and I honestly couldn't imagine calling this blog anything else.
