Tag: ebay

Lessons from Dolls

I mentioned on the blog that I have been buying some of my old toys and dolls from my childhood, from eBay. It’s been a fascinating experience, that has lead to a few research rabbit holes for me (my specialty – pointless rabbit holes). Anyway, I’ve gleaned a few unexpected lessons from this exercise. First lesson, if you think that we, as the world, have one universal beauty standard, it is interesting to note that the Barbie doll (started in 1959) has had literally 100s of different “face molds” since her inception. Avid collectors have names for each of these “molds”. If you look at some of the old molds, (and the big haired Barbies of the 1980s), you fully understand that our societal ideas of beauty change constantly. So, I say, wear your own “mold” and wear it proudly. It’s your mold and it’s one-of-a-kind and it’s beautiful. Second lesson, no matter how much you try to preserve something, it ages. I have purchased some old dolls which people clearly thought, one day, were going to be worth millions of dollars. (Spoiler alert – they mostly aren’t. In fact, I’m sad to report that I have purchased some decades old dolls, still in their pristine boxes with their original price tags intact, for less than the price that was on their bright orange, Kay-Bee price tag, even the ones that had been marked down on clearance) The crazy thing is, you pull out a decades-old toy or a doll from its original packaging, that has clearly been stored and preserved carefully for decades, out of the sunlight, never removed from its box, and yet, the doll is still old. The doll is still fragile. Her limbs are loose, her hair is crunchy, her face glow has faded, and some of her accessories crumble instantly away, in a poof of dust (note to self – pleather, which has been cleverly remarketed in modern times as “vegan leather” does NOT age well at all).

So in the end, I realize that no matter how hard you try to fight it, you’re aging. We’re all aging. So do we really want to live out our lives, carefully, hidden in a box?? If we do this with the idea that we’ll “age better”, I think that’s a farce. Overall lessons from my current obsessive rabbit hole: Own your unique mold proudly (it has a name), love it, and remember it’s beautiful enough that people would try to hold on to it for ages. Also, life is boring and wasted, sitting in a box. No matter how hard you try to preserve yourself, you’re still aging, whether you like it or not, box or no box. And the final important lesson: Don’t get too attached to your assessories (especially if they’re made of pleather) – they turn to dust, just like we do.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Vintage Friday

Happy Friday!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! On Fridays, I discuss the tactile stuff that is fun to eat or to drink or to smell, or to hear, or to read, or to wear, or to touch, or to play with! Lately I have been feeling really sentimental for the toys I played with when I was a little girl. I’ve even purchased a few things on eBay. I tell myself, “Won’t it be fun for my future grandchildren to play with the toys I used to play with?”, but I think it’s more than that – I think my inner child is reaching out. There is something comforting about remembering being a child, and being in the moment, not a care in the world, just using our imagination. Below are some of my favorite toys from childhood. What were your favorites?

Barbies, Dawn Dolls, Liddle Kiddles, Rosebud dolls, Sea Wees, Inchworm Riding Toy, paper dolls, Holly Hobbie dolls, Sunshine Family Dolls, Honeybunch Hill Kid dolls, Bionic Man and Woman dolls, Wonder Woman dolls, I Dream of Jeannie Playset, Wizard of Oz Dolls, Big Wheels, Baby Chrissy doll, Mrs. Beasley doll, Chinese jump rope.

As I started growing out of toys, my sister (who is five years younger than me) really got into Strawberry Shortcake dolls (she particularly loved Blueberry Muffin) and Cabbage Patch dolls and never one to sit quietly, she LOVED her Sit-N-Spin.

Anyway, take a trip down memory lane today, and look up some of your own favorite toys on the internet. This will make you feel that happy/sad syrupy feeling of nostalgia. It will bring all sorts of feelings up to the surface, but in a good way. It will make you feel like a kid again.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

823. What vegetable do you hate? (Don’t say “all of them” – just because I advised letting yourself be a kid again, doesn’t mean you get out of eating your vegetables!)

Monday- Funday

There are so many things that I love about this letter: courtesy, effort, fond memories, life lived, connection, diligence, humility, humor, kindness, meaningfulness, the idea of ‘gentle maturing’, gratitude, appreciation, “if there is a will, there’s a way (he found a working VHS player!)”, the fact that the seller shared the letter with others . . . . may we all live and have all of these precious attributes, in abundance in 2023, and beyond. The ways of being pure, and real, and having unentitled awe, are truly timeless, and these ways will never, ever fail to inspire what is the best in all of us – giving and receiving love, to and from others, and giving and receiving love, to and from Life.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

You’re Better Than That

“7.5 billion people in this world And you let the opinion of one stop your good energy? You’re better than that.” – Eric Thomas

Years ago, I had an eBay store. I’ve mentioned before on the blog, that I am an excellent treasure hunter/picker. I say this not to brag. There are a plethora of things which I completely stink at, but I am pretty good at honing in on “diamonds in the rough”, which others tend to easily dismiss. So, my eBay store (Baubles and Bling, it was called) was filled with one-of-a-kind treasures that I would find in garage sales, or flea markets or second hand shops. I had a lot of fun with the whole process. I enjoyed the treasure hunting, and I was thrilled with some of the prices I obtained for things that had been discarded, and were now highly valued by someone else. I felt like I had connected the desired thing, to the person who had been yearning for it. It was like being a match maker of sorts, and it was quite satisfying, most of the time. In particular, I was intensely proud and protective of my 100 percent customer satisfaction rating. I kept the “perfect” rating for several months after starting up my store (maybe even over a year), until one day, I got a disappointed customer. I couldn’t believe it! I did everything that I could to rectify the situation, even giving a full refund, even though I didn’t think that the refund action was particularly fair or justified. Still, I was obsessed with keeping my 100 percent rating. The person refused to change their negative feedback and my approval rating dropped all the way down . . . to 99.9% satisfied. I was utterly sick about this fact. I groaned and moaned for days to anyone who would listen. I would try to avert my eyes from my less than 100 percent perfect customer satisfaction rating. I became incredibly nervous and worried and overly affected about everything that I sent out to customers, living in fear of more negative ratings. What had been a fun hobby of mine, started turning into nerve wracking, gut wrenching experience.

Then one day my exasperated husband said to me, “You have hundreds of satisfied customers. Over ninety-nine percent of your customers, are grateful to you, and they are happy with their purchases. Many of them are repeat customers. Maybe you should focus on what the majority thinks. Not everyone is going to like you, but obviously a whole lot more people like you, than don’t like you. You are giving a whole lot of power to something/someone you don’t have any control over.” (I like to think that I am the wise one in my relationship, but when I retell these stories, it becomes clear to me that I am the one who married a sage.)

When what my husband said to me, finally sunk in, I felt a new sense of freedom. I no longer had the “perfect” rating, and I started to feel immense relief. These days, I sometimes lose a follower to my blog, or sometimes my blog has a low daily count of visitors, and that old sense of shame and dread and a desperate need to please, sets in. But then I remember my husband’s advice and I just keeping doing “my thing.” Deep connection is a unique and precious and intimate quality. I treasure the connection that I have with my readers who “get me”, and who relate to me, and want to read what I have to say. I treasure our authentic connection and that doesn’t have to happen on a mass scale. When I come here to write, I am so happy and excited. I am thrilled to commune with you. Please don’t ever change who you are, and I promise in return, to always give you “the real me.” And you are always welcome to come and to go, as you please, of course.

“Always remember, your focus determines your reality.” – George Lucas

“Don’t lose yourself trying to be everything to everyone.” Tony Gaskins

(****** On an aside, I know that you are probably wondering, because my friends ask me about this a lot. Why did I close my eBay store? There were a lot of reasons. We were making a big family move to a whole other state at the time, so I was paring my responsibilities down, to focus on the transition, for all of us. Also, I am sort of a contrarian. Being a stubborn contrarian is something that I know kind of bugs and annoys the people who love me. I fully understand and accept that even the people who love me, do not love 100 percent everything about me and that’s okay. I doubt that I even have a 99.9 percent approval rating, but as long as I’m at 65-75 percent approval, I consider that good and interesting for anyone I am in a relationship with, going both ways. Anyway, picking and selling stopped being cool and fun for me, when American Pickers and a bunch of other TV shows like it, started making picking a thing for the masses. Ironically, I lose total interest in almost anything that 99.9 percent of people like. Hidden gems are always my target and obsession.)

Are you passing on love, or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Where Did You Go?

Yesterday I received the final package I’ll ever get from what used to be one of my favorite stationers.  They have decided to take their business in a whole other direction and were offering leftover stationery items like memo books and pens and even cute coasters at bargain prices wrapped up in “grab bags.”  Ugh!  Why???  Why???  I’ve mentioned before that I have eclectic tastes so I find that more often than not my favorite items get discontinued just when I’m at my peak of adoring them.

Lipstick colors, nail polish colors, perfume scents, Starbucks offerings, etc. get thrown out to us like delicious teasers and then just when we’re really hooked, we’re told we have to go search the bargain bin for the remaining lot of what’s left.  Thank goodness for ebay and places like Replacements.com (replacement pieces for hard to find, discontinued dinnerware) who have made a business out of people desperate to find crumbs of what is still available of their former favorites.  These businesses know that when something is rare and hard to find, you want it even more.  We always want what we can’t have.  The irony of it all, is that you end up paying five times what you used to pay for the item, now that the company has deemed the product passe and past its prime.

When I get past my hunt frenzy, looking desperately for remnants of former favorites, I started getting a complex.  Why do I like things that no one else likes?  Why didn’t anyone else think that this cream was God’s answer to skincare?  Why didn’t anyone else like this exotic flavor of potato chips?  I pride myself for my unique tastes and then I disdain myself at the same time for the same reason.

So, this was just my Saturday morning rant.  Thanks for reading and possibly commiserating.  Storms made for bad sleep last night.  I’ll try to be a little bit more positive tomorrow.