Not long after I began dealing in antiques and collectibles I developed a passion for antique advertising that continues to this day. The detailed graphics and multi-colors of many pieces speak to me and my personal collecting interests have always centered around this segment of the antique arena.

Sometime in the mid 1980s someone showed me a copy of a newsletter devoted to antique advertising called The Tin Type News. The Tin Type News was published by a gentleman from Colorado affectionately called Nosmo King and each issue was filled with photos and information about fantastic old tins, tin signs, and other advertising memorabilia. After seeing that one issue, I quickly subscribed and ordered a complete set of back issues.

Fast forward to 1995 ……… We had just moved to a new home and my better half decided to have a garage sale to get rid of things we didn’t want to clutter up the new house. Some how, the boxes all my issues of The Tin Type News were packed in got shuffled into the wrong place and my mother-in-law who was “helping” at the sale, ended up selling them to someone for five dollars.

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There were thirty-four garage sales that started today in Grand Forks which is a large number for a Thursday. If normal ratios are the same as in past years that means there may well be fifty to sixty new sales on both Friday and Saturday.

This is unusual for this early in the season. It is normally the first or second week of June before this many are seen Thursday, Friday, and Saturday around here. We have had exceptionally nice weather the last two weeks so maybe people are getting the “bug” earlier than normal.

I started started shopping at 6:50 this morning with a sweatshirt to ward off the early morning chill, a large Midnight Roast coffee from the nearby Holiday station, and some John Fogerty CDs to keep me motivated.

With all those sales, I only purchased three things for eBay. A one-stroke painting video set, a pair of Michael Jordan sneakers, and a Fred Bear re-curve bow. All the rest of my purchases were books that are destined for Amazon.

In a comment to yesterday’s post Stephen asked if it was possible to list the titles of the books I purchased to put on Amazon. I make no promises that this will be a regular thing, but since nearly all of today’s buys are destined for Amazon, here’s a list of the titles that I purchased and their authors:

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The garage sale season in Grand Forks began with a whimper last weekend with three sales opening on Friday and seven more on Saturday. It must have caught most of the area’s serious buyers by surprise. I didn’t see any of them Friday morning. Saturday, there was one person who would be considered serious competition.

Unfortunately none of the sales offered anything to get excited about. I picked up a few books that went on Amazon and that was the extent of my purchases. The temperatures were in the mid 40s both mornings and the sun was shining so even though there wasn’t much to buy, after the cold, rainy, spell we’d been in it felt nice to be outside.

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The first opportunity of the year to go to garage sales occurred last Saturday, with four sales in Grand Forks. None of them were very large and the only thing I bought was a large, four foot tall, bag of packing peanuts for $2.

One of the sales had a lengthy inclined driveway leading to the garage and freezing rain had fallen the night before which made for some rather amusing body language as about twenty-five people scrambled out of their cars when the garage doors opened. Then, just so that the garage sale fanatics in town wouldn’t get their hopes up too high for the new season, mother nature provided us with 8″ of fresh snow Saturday evening and Sunday.

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Today is a day to stay off the computer and spend with with family and friends but I just want to take a moment and wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas.

And, with the New Year just a week away, I hope 2007 brings you health, happiness, and everything you dream and more.

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This is a few hours early, but if you’re from the US I wanted to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!

In about an hour, I’ll be picking up one of my granddaughters and we’ll be making the four hour drive to the Minneapolis/St.Paul area where we will spend Thanksgiving with my oldest son and his significant other. Since both Mike and Lisa are excellent cooks I plan to eat way too much turkey and the go-withs tomorrow and then relax in front of the TV watching a football game or two.

If you don’t live in the US, I invite you to join those of us who do and take a few minutes and reflect upon everything you have to be thankful for.

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PayPal is conducting a promotion to encourage online shoppers to use PayPal when doing their Christmas shopping online.

You can receive a $20 cash rebate directly from PayPal simply by registering by November 22 and then making a single online payment of $50 USD or more using your PayPal account.

Your purchase must meet the following requirements to qualify for this offer:

• Purchases must be made on eBay.com, eBay.ca or on merchants’ sites in the US or Canada.
• eBay.com and eBay.ca purchases must be made through the eBay checkout flow via the eBay website and must not be made through the PayPal send money tab.
• Purchases must be made between 11/23/06 12:01 PST and 12/31/06 11:59 PST.

The following transactions are excluded from this Cash Rebate offer:

• Send Money transactions
• Payments to Personal Accounts
• eBay payments made to Personal accounts
• Donations
• Text to Buy
• Payments for services

The Cash Rebate will be deposited into the participants’ PayPal accounts within 6 to 8 weeks after 12/31/06. Limit one registration and one $20 rebate per person and/or PayPal Account. Offer available for a limited time. Offer is limited to US and Canada registered users. PayPal conversion rates apply. PayPal account must be in good standing prior to and throughout the offer period to qualify.

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There’s an AAUW book sale in Jamestown, ND on Friday and Saturday and this afternoon at 5:30 they sold early buyers privileges for $2. I left home at 2:00 and made the 147 mile trip via back roads so I could stop at a couple of small antiques shops along the way.

I’ve been going to this annual sale for the last five years. Some years I don’t bring home enough books to pay for the gas, but other years it’s a small gold mine. The trip this year wasn’t anything special but the purchase of 27 quality religion related books that should sell on Amazon for prices ranging from $15 to $40 will pay for the gas and a small profit. In addition to those 27 books I purchased a few items that will go on eBay.

The visits to the two antique shops produced four stereoview cards and nothing else.

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eBay announced a $.20 cent listing promotion for today and since I’m pretty sure that the day of the free listing and the $.10 listing promotions are long-gone, I took advantage of it and listed 107 items that were in my “special promotion” folder on MarketWorks.

These are all items didn’t sell after being listed two or three times, and which weren’t appropriate for the eBay store. The opening bids for all of them were decreased and hopefully 30 to 50 of them will sell at these lower prices. Whatever doesn’t sell will be destined for a garage sale next spring and after that will be donated to a local thrift shop.

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Is this just happening in North Dakota, or are book sale organizers becoming weird in other parts of the country?

Yesterday at the Bismarck FOL sale I bought books by the pound.

This morning, at the Grand Forks AAUW sale prices were determined by age, cover type, and thickness. I didn’t bring a copy of their price sheet home with me, but it looked something like this…..

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