I have a client who specializes in selling things on E-Bay. What a fun personality she is! And what experiences she has with all the people she meets. She's my guest blogger for this posting: meet Michele.
As a long time eBay consignment seller and trading assistant, I’ve had a lot of collectibles pass through my hands. I’ve also been invited into many homes to review and value collections of items for owners seeking to sell at profit or who are seeking to immediately liquidate items for needed cash on the spot. I’m often shown many collectibles and keepsakes, just for “show”, but I’m told they’re too dear to the family and not for sale.
Time and again I’m struck by how little people do to protect these collectibles and heirlooms that they insist they could never part with for any amount of money. Surely then, they’re worth a very small amount of money to protect and preserve them against the damages of water, earthquakes and being mishandled? Certainly also, collectible objects should be anchored to protect against breakage from being inadvertently bumped or, heaven forbid, shaken from their shelves and wall mounts and such in the event of an earthquake or other disaster.
There are such simple steps anyone can take to preserve their precious keepsakes and collectibles. When I mention things to the people I meet like anchoring shelves to walls, or anchoring collectibles down to shelves or using archival plastic bags for photo albums and so on, I’m often given what my mom used to call the $10 stare. Lately I’ve been mentioning Scott’s book, How to Save Your Stuff from a Disaster…, to the people I’ve been meeting with. If people aren’t prompted by my advice to them, maybe they’ll at least buy a book and take action after they see what I’ve said to them reinforced in print.
