Our NEW Dirty Butter Collectibles Shoppe is OPEN FOR BUSINESS!!

Well, I've finally done it. Our large selection of vintage collectibles have been orphans now for quite awhile, as we closed our eBay store some time ago, and I had not found the time to put them online in our own catalog. I've been too busy working on our Plush Animal Shoppe Catalog. But I'm glad I took the time to work on the vintage items, since I really enjoy showing off all the old things we've collected over the years.

I've made a small dent in our inventory the last few days as I worked to fill our own Dirty Butter Estates Collectibles Shoppe Catalog. I've started with the Porcelain, Pottery, and Glass items, so now a small number of our items are online.

We give s/h discounts for multiple purchases, and we do welcome International buyers. Please contact us to get a price for International s/h, or the combined s/h charge for multiple purchases.

If we make an error in estimating the s/h charge for an item we do make partial refunds of s/h fees via PayPal or credit toward a future purchase. Light unbreakable items will ship in bubble envelopes, while breakable items will ship via Parcel Post or Priority Mail in boxes. We do ship internationally to countries that PayPal allows. We accept Money Orders and credit or debit card payments through PayPal. You do not have to join PayPal to pay for an item using them.

So, how about the attractive plate I've shown here? This plate is one of 5 in a set of commemorative plates depicting various buildings on the campus of Harding University in Arkansas. The black transfer ware designs are very detailed, and my photography doesn't do them justice.

I hope you enjoy looking through our treasures and reading all about them, and maybe you'll even find something that you just can't live without!!!

I Just Discovered Freecycle!!

I have just recently discovered the FreeCycle network, and wanted to pass this information along to all of you. If you check the main site you can look for a FreeCycle group that is close to you. I ended up joining 4, I think. I opted to get individual emails, but you can have it sent as a digest, if you don't want your mailbox filled with all the posts.

And what, you ask, is FreeCycle?? It's a place to post items you want to GIVE away, not sell. And it's a place to ASK for stuff you need. So far, I've only been reading, rather than asking or taking, but I find the whole process fascinating. And I do intend to get involved, once I can get myself off my duff and do some serious house uncluttering. You are expected to offer more to Give than to Ask, as that's what keeps it going.

I did answer a request from a lady looking for a cpap machine, with several links to places that sell them at discount online. But she wrote back that someone had already given her one. Considering how much trouble I'm having getting used to my brand new cpap machine, I can imagine lots of people have one they are not using.

It is heartwarming to see that there are so many people with such a spirit of generosity, and also a desire to keep "things" out of our landfills. This is even better recycling than taking things to the Thrift Store!

Although the stuff is not free on Craigslist, we have just recently gotten one of these for our area, so now I try to check there if I need to buy something. The advantage in this is that there is no advertising cost, and the items will be local. This saves all the shipping/handling cost of buying online, and does provide another opportunity to reuse something that someone else is no longer needing.

I remember as a child that all of my hand me downs went to a distant cousin of mine, who lived out in the country. They still used an outhouse, which meant that they were dirt poor as far as I was concerned, and I always was glad to give her my old toys and books. We didn't have any other children in the family to pass our girl's things along to, so their hand me downs always ended up being given to the Thrift Store. I doubt if that was nearly the lesson in generosity for them, compared to actually seeing or knowing the person who would receive the outgrown lovies, as I had been able to do.

FreeCycle would definitely be an easy way to teach today's children the satisfaction of being generous, plus the importance of using our resources wisely. And buying second hand, either at the Thrift Store or from a place like Craigslist, might be a good way to combat the pervasive materialistic attitude of so many of today's youth. And, if we teach our children how to be good stewards of their possessions, we will be more likely to bring up a generation that values living green.

So why not check out the FreeCycle network in your neck of the woods. You might be surprised to find one nearby. Then get busy sending all that stuff you don't use any longer to someone who can make good use of it. It's a Win-Win-Win situation. Win for you - less junk at your house. Win for them - getting something they need for free. And Win for the environment - one less item ending up in a landfill.

Great Fun on our Date Day Yesterday

We had one of the best Date Days, as far as finding bargains is concerned, that we've had in a long time. We actually found an Estate Sale where the daughter wanted to SELL, not price everything so high that people just looked and left. We had handfuls of things, and ended up paying for one batch and taking it to the car, and then coming back for more!! We were like kids in a candy store, except it was future $$$$ signs that we were seeing.

We also went to one sale where they advertised that there was a lot of "old stuff." I would hate to be that fellow's neighbors, as his property, front and back, was one huge junk yard. We bought one nasty shaving mug for a dollar, but it will clean up into something I can add to my own collection of shaving and mustache mugs, strops, and razors. That one won't be going up for sale. Luckily, I've chosen to collect something that you don't find much of any more, so I'm not forever adding to it. I have no idea what possessed me to get interested in this particular type of item, but I find them fascinating.

This man's yard really made us both stop and laugh about what someone would think if they saw all the STUFF we've accumulated over the last few years from our forays at the yard and estate sales. Our poor children!! Well, as we've told them over and over, we have long since made our profit out of all of it, so they can just bag it all up and donate it to the local Thrift Store!

As hobbies go, ours is really not so bad, because it at least pays for itself! But it does take a lot of time to inventory it all, take pictures, and write the descriptions for eBay and for selling on our own website. I'm so far behind now that I can't possibly get everything listed, no matter how hard I might try. We kept buying, as an outlet to get away from our care giving responsibilities, even though I didn't have time to list anything, and it went on that way for almost 2 years! Now we have bags and storage boxes just packed to the overflowing with who knows how many stuffed animals destined for our Plush Animal Shoppe and vintage breakables waiting to be listed in our Dirty Butter Estates store.

Hmmmm... maybe I'd better stop blogging and get busy listing, eh??

Strange Friday 13th

DH and I had a good laugh about our Date Day Friday. Do you ever have days when it seems like nothing goes as planned? That was yesterday, for us.

First off, I couldn't get the online classifieds to show only Garage/Estate Sales for yesterday, the way I usually do, so I slogged through last week's and this week's looking for ones for us to go to. One of the promising ones was a church sale, but they didn't give an address. By the time I tracked that down, I forgot to look at when they opened the sale, and we drove way out of our way only to find that it didn't start until noon! We got lost on a couple of the others, making I don't know how many U-turns, and we gave up completely on one of them. Another one ended up at someone's house who was NOT having a sale - I have NO idea how that happened. LOL

So, as the day was getting on, we decided to go home the long way so we could check out that church again. It was an extremely well run sale, but not a single thing we would be interested in! On the long ride home on an unfamiliar stretch of Interstate, DH took a wrong exit while I dozed, so we drove a lot farther than necessary.

I hate it that he did all that driving and we have so little to show for it, but we do enjoy each other's company, and its' certainly given us something to laugh about. But if that happened very often, I think we'd get out of the eBay business!

Now that's not the end of it. There was an Estate Sale adverstised for today, Saturday, pretty near us, so we got up early as usual, walked at the track, and drove to the sale address. When we got there - no signs - only several people standing around with a bunch of stuff crowded into an open garage. Hubby got out to see if we had the wrong place. No, they had called off the sale due to approaching bad weather, and if he told her what we wanted she'd see if she could find it!! It's a good thing we're not cussing folks, or she might have gotten an ear full. ROTFL

So, we had a Friday the Thirteenth weekend, for sure.

1000th POSITIVE Feedback!!

Our eBay site, Dirty Butter Estates, has just received its 1000th feedback - 100% POSITIVE!

I feel like celebrating!!

I've Fallen in Love with Collectible DAHER Decorative Tins

It's very rare for me to blog about any of the vintage items that we sell online, but I think I'm becoming quite taken with the DAHER collectible tins of various shapes, made in England in the early 70's. I've gotten to where I can spot one from across the room when we go on our Friday Date Day and rummage around at the Estate Sales.


If you're curious to see what other DAHER pieces we have in our Catalog right now, just take a look here. Do you have any of these tin canisters, trays, or bowls at your house? Or maybe your parents had some of these pieces? Do they bring back any memories for you?