Objects Found

I think that i have mentioned here that back at the beginning of the summer i started working at an antique store on Sundays. That is why my life has become so boring, as evidenced by this here lackluster blog! Working a 6-day work week and then being sick for the last 2 weeks on top of it (no, i didn't miss any work from being sick) has made me life one long yawn-fest. I figured since i'm not doing anything interesting right now, i may as well tell you about work. Objects Found was a cute little consignment and antiques store that i used to frequent. At the beginning of the year they moved to a much bigger location directly on Catonsville's main street. In March i started working there occasionally, kinda on-call for when Reggie (that's the owner) had gaps in her schedule. Then she started renting the space next to the store to expand and needed permanent weekend staff. Enter Niki. The work is really easy. I spend 10-6 every Sunday talking to customers and pricing consignments that people bring in to sell. Since i collect vintage jewelry i have become the unofficial "jewelry person" which means that at this point i spend nearly every Sunday sifting through bags and boxes of jewelry. SO FUN!!! I get to research and learn about makers i'm unfamiliar with and touch things that i could never afford to buy. Last week i had to research and price a lady's pocket watch that was made in 1889 - that would be 100 years before i graduated from high school. And it still works! It is really neat to get paid to learn things. One of the good/bad aspects of sifting through all this jewelry is that i get to see everything first so i can put aside what i want to buy. Of course that means i have to set firm rules for myself : anything i desperately love i can not price myself to avoid the temptation of underpricing; i can only buy one item a week or a few items every few weeks (whichever works out better); i can still only buy things that are within my natural price range after my employee discount. I've done a good job abiding by the rules so far. I have a little pile of items waiting to be purchased when their time comes. Here is what has actually gotten to come home with me in the last 2 months: Ten items in nine weeks seems reasonable to me (the 2 single earrings don't count cause they were free) and i did not pay more that $5 for any item. My favorite purchase so far since i've worked there is the rhinestone upright telephone pin that ended up costing me $3.40! It's so 80s-tastic: Since this post appears to have ended up being about jewelry, my favorite find this year didn't actually come from my store. I got these beads at a Goodwill Superstore during lunch one day this Spring: The beads are a light dusty pink color (i know they look more topaz-y in the picture, but you'll have to trust me on this) and they are multi-faceted glass. At 58 inches this is a really long necklace (waist length on me) and it is hand-knotted That may not mean much to you, but to me it means that they are at least 40 years old (probably older) and worth quite a bit of money. In fact, the whole thing is so heavy that they just might be made of crystal instead of plain glass; i am unclear on how to tell the difference when the bead is so heavily cut. When i saw it in the case at the Goodwill i thought they were plastic, but it was an interesting color so i asked for a look. When i felt the weight i knew that i couldn't possibly afford them, but couldn't resist looking at the price (sometimes the Goodwill has crazy prices on things, you know?). There wasn't one marked. So i asked the girl behind the counter "How much?" She kinda looked at me, looked at the beads and said, "A dollar." ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! I almost felt bad buying them at that price - almost.