First off, let me say thank you to everyone for your patience and support.  For those who do not know the main catalyst for this venture, Lynn VonDemfange, passed away suddenly in early February.  To say that her death threw Oldstuffologist for a loop is perhaps the world's greatest understatement.  She was the heart and sole of this operation -- and cannot be replaced.

For now, OLDSTUFFOLOGIST is in transition as it tries to figure out what the next move is.  We will be selling for the short term and, yes, some of the items listed will be things from Lynn's personal collection.  Others will be things that were always intended for sale.  From there we will just have to see.

Tonight we began listing actual NEW items.  Check it out.  More will be listed in the near future. 

Chip @oldstuffologist

Yes - I stole that title but at least I stole it from myself!

(the following blog post was inspired by Bridget Jones Diary):

??? lbs. (but still post-Christmas), alcohol units (none today!) calories (see last blog post, paragraph two - easy to calculate).

Feedback Rating: Down two/tenths of a percentage point. Received email - neg withdrawn for $$. Isn't there a felony-type word associated with that? Ouch. Note: refill Xanax

10:45 p.m. Am iron woman. Will go to bed soon then will have done with it.

11:15 p.m. Just found out about discounts on listing only 4 tomorrow. Who Needs Sleep? Still Iron Woman. Need to gather self (and stuff!).

I am not one for eschewing New Year's resolutions - they are still a wonderful opportunity even if they are initially disguised to look like a scary diet, other unrealistic goals and provide all new easy fodder for more self-reproaching. After all I am a masochist at heart, so just let me find new ways to torture myself already! (Then at least I can maintain my equilibrium.) Too much success and happiness? I have absolutely no idea what I would do with it. What would I write about then? Rapturous prose on Zen thoughts? No - not for me. Laughing despair is more my style.

But I this year I am thinking progressively. I have decided to use my resolutions as loosely-based "guides." This way I can make edits in them as I go along when necessary. For example, today - my "two-a-day Slimfast + two Lean Cuisines and one piece of fruit" became "all of that plus a tin of chicken and black olives on fat-free saltines." No harm done. Just a few more calories, right?

Though some of my resolutions just may not fare as well under a microscope. For example my "drop three sizes so I am almost unrecognizable, go even blonder, have all new photos taken and then get an apartment in the city and put up an all-new all-different dating site profile so I can lure the last jerk I went out with (who won't recognize me because let's face it, they don't even recognize you if all you do is alternate your primary photo!) back into my web and break his heart this time" idea may be a bit out there. It was kind of low on the list anyway...A "well if I get through all of these other things then maybe I can do this" type-of-plan. But farther up on the list - where I write a book about all crazy dating stories I have acquired in the last year – is still looking entirely feasible.

Did I mention this little essay was actually about shipping stuff to my customers? Sorry - I digressed! Anyway...I made a "firm" resolution to get up to date on shipping and stay that way, permanently. Then I altered that a little by actually making a bona-fide schedule to keep (this was an improvement over Plan A which was a little too over-generalized. I could have easily rationalized that any shipping that was quicker-than-before achieved my goal). Okay....(drumroll, please) - it is THE 15TH and I AM STILL ON SCHEDULE. Actually ahead even. Yeah !!!! (knowing this to be a feat of mass-proportion – eBayers everywhere applaud in unison)

Added to our listings today: my favorite stuff! Odd bits, antique curiosities, stuff that is little, lovely and often - broken!

I started collecting "old junk" when I was eight. It was a trip to New Orleans, I had a small budget and you could buy a vintage brooch for $3, a handful of antique buttons for $1.

When I discovered real antique flea markets I was 24. I was so addicted to my "fix" that an ill-timed, Sunday morning kidney stone had me begging the emergency room staff "...just give me something for the pain! I promise I will come back in a couple of hours..." I was in so much discomfort that I couldn't stand up straight, let alone drive yet all I could think of was my first missed flea market (twice monthly, on Sundays, at that time – and I ALWAYS attended). So actual hospitalization turned out to be the only thing that has ever kept me away.

When I was 29 I had the first opening of my own assemblage art. I didn't even know what it was then. I had never heard of Joseph Cornell. It just had seemed like the logical thing to do with all the odd bits, old doll parts, antique photos, small wooden trays and all the things stored in little drawers too numerous to categorize - that I had collected. A basement studio, lots of glue and two straight days of working and I had ten pieces ready to exhibit. Some were awful, but a few were pretty darn good. I sold one piece at my first show - and it was purchased for $325. I cannot even describe how I felt.

Over the last ten years I have seen the amazing growth of art in this medium. A special set of creatives - who were once limited to arranging a room or simply making an impromptu still life on a window sill - can now easily find other means to express their special gifts. Inherent understandings of proportion, color balance, texture friction and the emotional infusion of everyday objects are the remarkable skills these craftsmen employ to create portable examples of their artist within.

One of my best friends in the world sold on eBay for years - over 11,000 total feedbacks selling only vintage and antique items. We had a conversation about feedback and she had the most astute comment: "I never receive a negative on the transactions I truly screwed up on - instead it is always on something out-of-the-blue."

So true. I could have easily received a negative, or at least a neutral, on several transactions that I can remember. Yet those buyers, due to their apparent (and much appreciated)  benevolence - left me wonderful comments. The negative I do have was on the last thing I would ever suspect - a ring that had been my own that I was selling for a mere fraction of what I had paid for it. The complaint was nutty and I am still scratching my head with one exception - the buyer was very new.

There is a great line in the movie You've Got Mail towards the beginning. Joe Fox writes to Kathleen Kelly "The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don't know what the hell they're doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino." I think feedback is like that - it gives some people, who are defeated by their inability to change stuff that truly is maddening (but not necessarily eBay-related), power. Power to make comments to people you will never see in person.

Have you ever sent that ill-advised email - you know, the one where you completely "lose it" on someone, anyone - that you will never see again (ideally)? The one that you should have “saved to drafts?” Yeah, I have sent my fair share. One recipient asked me who I was really mad at – because it certainly wasn't him. Too true – in my email to him, he was definitely "taking one for the team."

Feedback can be like that - a culmination of overall frustration. For me personally - I think even if I get a nutty one every once in a while, I should take it in stride - I certainly deserve it for something I have done. I used to be petrified of a negative but I decided not to let it freak me out anymore. Besides, nearly all my favorite sellers have at least one.

Now if we can just convince online dating sites to add a feedback option. No actual comments - but I think the "star" system would be perfect. Star ratings for "item as described, "communication," etc. would be just as helpful in those forums as they are on here!