I’ve been pretty quiet online lately, because my life — and house — have been completely taken over by the Franklin Township Historical Society’s fundraiser rummage sale. I sit on the executive board of this small nonprofit organization, and since the pandemic nuked most of our in-person activities this year, I suggested that we have an online auction to help raise the necessary funds for repairs and maintenance on our 149-year-old building.
That’ll teach me to make suggestions.
So in the end, I found myself in charge of running the sale, which meant collecting and sorting through hundreds of donated antiques and collectibles, photographing them, researching their value, and listing them individually on eBay. The downside of this was the couple hundred hours I put into the process over the past two months, the frantic few days of packing and shipping that I have to look forward to, and the loss of my entire kitchen and office to boxes of antiques. The upside is that we had some REALLY COOL STUFF donated, and I got to look at all of it!
We have a large number of rare and antique books, vintage Star Trek collectibles, antique furniture, vintage Victorian and Edwardian (and later) garments, antique bisque dolls, kitschy midcentury toys, and even some more modern things like DVD sets and comic books. So if you want to start your holiday shopping early, might I suggest supporting a good cause while you do?