Collecting Disneyana ~ Mickey Mouse

Having the Mickey Mouse consignment made me realize that I forgotten what a fun little collectible he is. It is very tempting for me to collect all things Mickey again. I already have a head start from my childhood; I still have my Mickey Mouse ears, plushes, postcards, glasses, comic books, watch, stamps and Disneyland guides.

Mickey Mouse became an overnight sensation after his third cartoon short, “Steamboat Willie”. Check it out here ~ http://www.youtube.com/user/CartoonShortsClub The first Mickey Mouse fan club was created, and by the end of the year, there were over one million fans and everyone wanted a Mickey Mouse of their own and Walt Disney made it happen.

There are basically two time periods to collecting Mickey Mouse: (1) Before Walt Disney died (Vintage –  before 6/1966 ) and (2) after Walt Disney died (contemporary  - after 6/1966).  Most start with contemporary Mickey items since they are more available and cost just a few dollars.  Mickey’s cheerful face has been on everything: sheets, bedspreads, glasses, mugs, hats, clothes, note paper, greeting cards, dishes, slippers, stamps, lamps, pens, pencils plus there are figurines, dolls, plush, puppets, comic strips, comic books, books, DVDs,  and let us not forget about all the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse items!

A big pocketbook is not needed to start collecting, you can find good deals at local yard sales, flea markets, antiques stores and the Disney Stores, Disney Resorts and don’t forget about ebay! Check out what we have in our store!http://stores.ebay.com/id=375389728

Before spending money on the high priced Mickey items, whether vintage or modern, it is best to do your research to make sure it is a Disney original product and not a vintage re-production or non-licensed item. There are plenty of books available on collecting Disneyana with photos, descriptions and values along with the multitude of websites. http://www.squidoo.com/affordable-vintage-modern-mickey-mouse-collectibles 

In the beginning of collecting, it will be difficult to zero on one item/theme since Mickey is everywhere along with his pals and his fellow Disney friends – Snow White, Cinderella, Bambi and Aladdin . 

I do love the Walt Disney Classic Collection – Mickey is so classy in fine porcelain! Check out one we have for sale  http://cgi.ebay.com/WDCC-Mickey-Mouse-Figurines-W-Bases-COAs-Disney-4-MIB-/270720107995?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f082d05dbAnd I am also drawn to Vintage Mickey – the puppets, the dolls and figurines.  Then how can I collect Mickey without adding Minnie or Donald or Goofy and what about Pluto?!

Luckily, Mickey Mouse is loved by my entire family and I know I can depend on them (even the in-laws!) and a few close friends to help continue my Mickey Mouse collection.  Before the end of the day,  I’ll get Mickey from the attic and I noticed a nice little area in the family room that I can display him. 

 

Ups & Downs of selling

We have been listing like crazy the last couple weeks. Lots of Mickey Mouse going up but no sales yet. Very frustrating when you think you have some great items to sell but no one is bidding. But we know we have to be patient and wait for that one person to come along. So we just keep listing. Sales of our other items have been steady. Sold some Vintage Concert T-shirts for a good price and some items that we had listed for quiet a while are finally selling.
We did have a problem with an item not getting to Canada when it should have. We were so afraid it was lost in the mail. The postal service kept saying to wait it out. I was really afraid to refund the money to the buyer then find out they ended up getting it. So we waited and the day I was going to refund their money we got an email that they received it. So glad I waited that extra day. Just wonder "Where do the packages go??" When I drop them off at the local post office I know they head up north, Wilmington or Dover then on to Jersey. From there the one to Canada seemed to disappear for weeks. Do they sit in a building somewhere?? Are they sitting on a truck? I really want to find the answer. Some packages only take a couple days to get where they are supposed to go even to Canada. And some take weeks. Really makes no sense to me. The fun of shipping!
We are going to be selling some Barbies for a friends Animal Rescue Group. They are called HAL out of New Jersey. Some one had donated a huge collection of Barbies to them so we have agreed to sell them for them and a large portion of the proceeds will go to there organization which specializes in Cats and finding them wonderful homes. They have even started helping families who have pets with food & vet visits that just cant afford them right now. Its an amazing group of people and we are really excited to help them make some money.
Looking forward to going to a Flea Market in Rehoboth again this weekend. Last month we found some great deals and hoping to come home with some more this weekend!

Trading Assistant on Ebay

What a great day yesterday was! We got our first cold call on being an Ebay Trading Assistant. We went yesterday to see what she had & thinking we would get a box or two. NOPE! She had about 10 big boxes of all Disney Mickey Mouse Items! We were so excited. She was so nice too. We have plush dolls, Lenox figurines, Christmas ornaments, blankets, books, comic strips. You name she has it.
We came home and divided all the stuff up between us. I must admit we were alittle over whelmed. But its going to be fun. We have enough to keep us busy for months.
Hope we can make her some great money & us too!
The month of Feb. was pretty slow but looks like March is picking up nicely. Lots of sales last week. Looking forward to a great spring on Ebay!

Problems in Shipping

In our 5 years of selling on ebay & shipping out everyday with the Postal Service we have never had a problem like this one before. We mailed out a Poster in a Long Tube box from the USPS going Priority mail. The buyer wanted it fast because it was supposed to be a gift. This was last month. A couple weeks ago we get an email asking where it is. When we tracked it on the USPS website it said it was headed to "Deadmail" What is that??? Never saw that one before. Went to my local post office where we do all our shipping and they got the same notice. The only thing they could tell us was wait and see where it goes from there, they didnt have a very good explanation as to what the Dead Mail zone was just that if a label falls off (ours are taped on) or if the box gets destroyed that they have to got to the other facility where they can be opened. Obviously they had my label since it was scanned again. Finally get a notice that it was scanned there at the "Deadmail" and would be heading to its destination. In my mind that should have been where it was headed to NC. A couple days later I received the label still attached to the box only I just had a small part of the box left. Great, no poster, no box. So either someone took my poster out of the box or the whole thing got destroyed except of course this label. Sure hope that person is enjoying the Vintage Cheryl Ladd Lifesize poster for free! Now we had to reimburse the money to the buyer plus pay our consignor their money. Not a good day. I guess we should count ourselves lucky since we have sold over 2500 items and never had anything get lost before. But it is still very frustrating when its something that is out of our hands.
Other than that the month has been pretty good with sales. Having a hard time finding places to shop though. I think we have hit just about every place in Lower Sussex County. Can't wait for yard sales to start up again.We did go to the Merchants Attic in Rehoboth this past weekend and found some really unique items to try. A Barbie carrying case with a Tammy Doll & clothes, a chalkware lamp (which we have never seen before) Some Breyers Horses and Disney figurines. So we are hoping for a great sales week. Wish us luck!

Another exciting week!

Well we had another exciting week at 2friendstreasures. We are selling some 1970's Posters for a friend of ours. Who knew they would be so popular. We sold a Miami Dolphins Bob Grise poster for $40 and just last night a Miami Dolphins poster of Paul Warfield sold for $61.01. That was fun to watch with all the bidding. We forgot that the Dophins were so popular in the 70's. Also selling well are the Charlies Angels Posters.
Had another fun shopping day on Sat. But boy was it cold. One thrift store in Millsboro was FREEZING. They just had a couple space heaters going. We could hardly stand it. We did buy a Mickey Mouse pin there and some old Troll dolls. The next Antique store we went to had a whole room full of old Vintage clothes & hats. Boy the girls had fun trying on all the hats. Too bad they were too much for us to buy & resell though. We have had some good luck with old hats, we had picked some up at an estate sale once and did pretty good.
Next we went to our Favorite Antique Store in Millsboro, just made our rounds to the booths we like the best. Found a few things to sell like an old Holly Hobbie Amy doll and an old piece of Chalkware. Its shaped like Donald Duck and is actually a bank. We picked up an old Japan Christmas Elf. He looks a lot like the Elf on The Shelves that have become so popular so we are curious to see how he will do.
We wrote down a few thing that we researched & need to go back & buy next week. Took lots of photos and will be listing a lot this week so check it out on ebay or Facebook!
If anyone is intersted we are listing some handmade knitted baby blankets & sweaters. They are beautiful! Handmade by our Mother In Law.
Looking forward to a busy week here!

I decided to do a blog on our Ebay Business 2friendstreasures since we get so many questions about what we do, why we do it and how it all works. It takes lots patience and the love of collecting to really make it work. We started this business together in 2006 and it is really started to take off in the last few months. We decided to really set our minds to making this a true business. My two daughters are both in school full time now so I spend a large part of my day working on Ebay. We have a store now and are trying to keep at least 200 items listed right now. We are hoping to increase that soon. We recently started taking on some consignments from friends & relatives that have done very well. We are now selling Longaberger items and fun 1970's posters & Disney items. Its given us a chance to sell things that we wouldnt normally sell. We cant wait to see what other goodies they have for us.
This past weekend we went to the Antique Store in Berlin, Maryland on a search for items that we could sell for ourselves. It is always fun taking our time walking through those places. We have to pick up and touch everything. My girls love coming with us & we have now gotten them to help us find things. Their young eyes are really getting good at it. We ended up spending about $60. We are hoping to at least double that when we list them. We found some really nice Vintage (thats the fancy word for Old) childrens handkerchiefs. One has Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs on it. Perfect for the Disney Collector. The others have nursery Rhymn characters like Humpty Dumpty & Little Miss Muffet. All are in very good condition. Of course I had to pick up anything I could find "Holly Hobbie" It has to be the 1970's Holly Hobbie though. The one I remember from when I was little. There are alot of Holly Hobbie Collectors out there. We found a cake mold, a Christmas Stocking Kit that has never been opened and a book. We are hoping those do well.
We picked up an old Barbie book too. And an old Lefton Santa Clause Figurine. We love anything Lefton or Enesco. If they still have the original label on the bottom that is even better.
Oh yea & I had to get some more Smurf things. Found a cute Smurfette Plush doll & a small figurine. We sold an old figurine that was Smurfette a few months ago that we bought for $2 & we sold it for $72! So now I am on the hunt for more!
So Sunday was spent taking photos, cleaning the items up and researching to find the best listing price. This week we are busy listing those items & what ever else we need to get listed from the week before.
We had a great weekend of sales too! 11 items sold in 2 days! That makes it all worth it. Our top sales were a consignment that was a 1970s Bob Grise from the Miami Dolphins Poster it sold for $40 and a Kate Jackson from Charlies Angels Poster that sold for $26.99. Who knew old posters would sell so well. We have more listed & cant wait to see how they do.
We are looking forward to a great selling week. Need to get back to work listing!