It's laughable, I know...the last of the bank tags sold on eBay today and I'm feeling a little sad.
Yes, a few are still left on Etsy, but just a few. I've kept a handful back for myself (and sent one or two to friends) but that's it...
Why am I sad? The point was to sell them, right?
Here's the weirdest thing: I just like having them "in stock". I like having a cool brass tag available as an item I sell.
I have a variety of "shoulds" I have secretly attached to my eBay store:
- The 30 page mixed assortment must always be available, on Buy-It-Now and on Fixed Price, not the Store!
- There should be at least a couple of other papers or mixes - right now I have the small page assortment (which is oddly popular - a story for another time) and the Baedeker/Muirhead travel pages. (which are hopelessly cool and a little know gem)
- Handwritten pages are important, ledger pages the most traditional.
- There should be something metal, preferably a tag or embellishment of some sort. Small, versatile. It really ought to have a number on it.
- There should always be some sort of bingo cards and flash cards. Lately, I've also been keeping some price tags or signs around.
- There should be a playing card assortment, and they ought to be old obscure card games, rather than traditional playing cards.
- I also like to have Victorian scrap, old postcards or greeting cards, game pieces, CDVs or Cab Cards, little glass vials, jewelry, etc. I have been lax in all of those areas lately.
Anyway, the point is that I hate to be out of a metal number of some sort. They're so darn hard to replace because they can be so hard to find.
Which brings up all of the things I grab when I see them in nice quantities and in good condition at a fair price...like 1913 Flinch cards... Commissioner of Patent Reports books, only Volume II of Manufacturing...soda fountain tin spoons...Larousse French dictionaries, pre-1930...glass watchmaker vials...Logomachy cards with the birds...and more.
And there are the things I don't let myself buy...and the things I will never buy again...and the things I selfishly only buy for myself...and the astonishing lucky finds I've come across a time or two. But those are stories for another day.