Ok. Our purpose is to build a house. I put my blinders on and I have moved forward towards that goal. Live it. Breathe it. Go for it. Get the house built. Whatever it takes.
It never occurred to me that I would learn something in the process. Or that I would find total strangers who actually care about our project.......in cyberspace.
I have two friends who wanted to help. They aren't from the class of '77. They just wanted to be a part of our project because they believe it is worthwhile. And they are my friends. One donated a quilt she inherited from her aunt's estate. The other donated her dad's model train collection. It became my mission to get the most out of these incredible gifts for two reasons. I didn't want to let either of them go to waste, and I wanted to honor the memory of their loved ones.
I went to work researching old quilts and trains online. I had local people look at my treasures and give me their opinions about how best to proceed. I emailed photos to friends who know trains. I found quilt appraisers online and sent about a dozen of them a request for guidance. (In other words, a free appraisal). I scoured eBay to find similar items for sale. I learned more about quilts and trains than I ever thought possible. And I learned something about people.
Surprisingly, almost all of the quilt appraisers responded to my email. Most of them were somewhat helpful. Some were not. One was actually a little devious and offered to buy it for a very small price rather than have me waste my time posting it on eBay. One, however, requested that I mail her the photos so she could see them better. Immediately upon receiving the photos, she found the answers to all of my questions in her reference books and returned the photos to me the next day, along with the answers to my questions. The quilt is of considerable value, but the market is depressed and we probably would not get top dollar for it on eBay right now. Maybe we should try a raffle instead. No charge. Best of luck with your project. (Thank you Pam! Raffle tickets are $2 each and the drawing will be July 20 at our kick-off dinner.)
I did post the trains on the eBay auction. There were a lot of them. After talking to the expert at the 1880 train museum I had a figure in mind. I began posting the pieces or sets one by one. I added a disclaimer that I'm not an expert on trains and I'd try to answer questions. I added a paragraph about Project 77 to each and every auction I posted. It took me over two months to get everything up. Pieces were selling. It seemed pretty easy once I got started. I became a shipping machine.
Then one day I started getting messages from other people on eBay. One of my buyers was not happy with the way I had described the item he bought. After a sincere apology and explanation of my ignorance, and an offer of a refund, he kindly said it was not really a big deal, he'd already fixed the problem. He just wanted me to know. The same day I got two more notes from eBay shoppers who noticed the train listings and offered information, observations, or advice about the items for sale. This continued to happen. I learned about trucks, chassis, couplers, wheel arrangements, you name it... I ended up recruiting a couple of these people to help me with the last few listings. I had saved the best for last, and I was procrastinating because I didn't want to mess it up. We shared emails and I sent photos of the pieces. One kind man named Ben even called me on the phone to discuss the strategy. Then he offered to review the listings before I posted them just to make sure I had it right. He reviewed all of my remaining listings and helped me make corrections in them. Then he wished me luck. I thanked him for his help and noted that maybe we'd be able to build a couple of walls in the house with these last few pieces. He suggested that the whole house would be nice....
I listed the last four items. The cream of the crop. I knew it was going to be good. Midway through the week I sent him a note. "Are you watching? This is amazing!" He responded with great encouragement that it was only going to get better. I also got a note from a bidder who confirmed something Ben had suspected about one of the locomotives. The bidder said he'd probably regret telling me because it was worth far more than what he was bidding..... I thanked him and wished him luck and left the description alone.
Yesterday the auctions ended and the items sold for amazing prices. At the end of it all I received a note from Ben. He'd been watching. "You did good". He was right. We had exceed our goal by almost $800.00.
Now I need to find something else to sell. I guess that's a good incentive for me to do my spring cleaning. I should warn my family to lock up anything they might want to keep!
