This Way Madness Lies

The other day started off great. I had yummy coffee before going to the gym, lots of camaraderie at the gym and later, on my way home, a bit of fun at Goodwill.

So far so good.

Then I got a few sales. Super!!

But, alas, I discovered that one of the sold items wasn’t in the storage bin it was supposed to be in. Drat! I checked a few other likely possibilities. Nada. Then I searched through my bins in the garage. Zip. Then I wondered if it had gotten mixed back in one of my totes of unlisted stuff. Nope. Oh jeez. I had just added the item to my store a few months ago, so it couldn’t have gone far. But where is it?

So after packaging up the other orders (and a box of stuff for my daughter at university), I spent hours going “Think. Think. Think. Where could it be?” I tried to visualize where I had set it after taking the listing photos. Nothing appeared. I started looking in places I’d already looked, over and over and over.

That night I went to bed slightly crazed. Where was it?

But then, inexplicably the next morning, I found it in a storage bin in the garage where I had already looked.

What??? How did I miss it before!!!

I was bewildered, yet relieved, and it’s now packaged and on its way. Phew!

After my descent into madness, I was now able to focus on other stuff.

Including this recent Goodwill find ($3.35). This glass bowl has a lovely ring tone and is cut in a pattern alternating with three daisies and a butterfly with a delicate star on the bottom. It’s possibly made by Pairpoint, which would thrill me.

But so far my only sources for believing this might be Pairpoint are a few online sellers with similar items. To be honest, that’s not good enough. Your average online seller is not an antique or vintage expert and may or may not spend time researching items. It’s quite common for things to be described incorrectly and I’ve found some doozies over the years.

So far none of my research is bringing up any official, more reliable sources of information for this pattern, but for $5 I can send photos to the Pairpoint Center (run by a husband and wife team who are experts) and they will let me know if the piece is actually Pairpoint. Or I can pay $5 to download their extensive knowledge base, which might be a handy thing to have. Hmmm…I’m leaning towards the knowledge base.

And for the first time ever I tried shopgoodwill.com. I’ve heard others complain about high shipping and handling prices, bad photos, etc. but I had to check it out for myself. Yes, I found a bit of what everyone was complaining about, but I also see that on most other online sites including Etsy and eBay.

I found one item I wanted to bid one…a sterling silver Mexican bracelet with stones (with $6 shipping and handling). Here’s their photo.

In the end, I won the auction, but at my top price. While it’s not unique, it is nicely made, heavy and wearable. It arrived yesterday and my only disappointment is that it was shipped in a bubble envelope in a jewelry box with no padding. Not a bit of cotton fluff or tissue paper. I could hear it rattling around in there as I opened the package and was sad they hadn’t taken this small step to better protect the bracelet. Humph!

But it did arrive undamaged and I plan on wearing this a bit before I add it to my store. And gosh wouldn’t it look great with the Goodwill scarf I bought last week? It’s got all the same colors and even the wild stone pattern. 🙂

And a bit of a silver lining while I was looking for my lost item. As I pawed through my unlisted inventory I came up with a few lot ideas and listed them. Woot! Here’s a listing I made up of six old games for $34.99.