Swarovski Is Not Just For Jewelry

You don't need to show off your Swarovski on your wrist you can find pieces like this sailboat to show off at home. Collectibles like Swarovski have great international appeal.

Big changes at The Sell It Now Store

Welcome Nichole Pirolo, our new Manager of Operations and Listing Services. Nichole has been with us on a part-time basis and is an expert in item valuation, listings and customer service. She has also team-taught our eBay classes since their inception and is responsible for design and implementation of our social media. Her new role will include strategic planning, managing our listing specialists, operations and customer service to ensure we maintain our quality standards as we continue to expand. Nichole has a Bachelor's Degree in computer science and is finishing up a Master's degree in Business Administration. Please welcome Nichole in her new full-time management capacity at our store.

We are also physically growing! Please pardon our dust as we add space at our store to accommodate increased work area and listings. We are also investigating the potential expansion into multiple locations. Look forward to our open house planned in Spring/Summer 2010.

Waukesha, Wisconsin - Birthplace of Les Paul

As some of you may know, The Sell It Now Store is located in Waukesha, WI which is the birthplace of Les Paul. We sell many musical instruments including our share of Les Paul guitars worldwide. We hear from our customers that reside out of the USA that when they purchase a Gibson Les Paul guitar from us, they like to tell their friends where it came from.

You are looking at Discovery World's Les Paul Exhibit. This exhibit highlights Paul's Wisconsin roots while also educating visitors about his innovations. The 3,000-square-foot attraction features interactive elements, including an opportunity for each visitor to play a guitar while Paul himself provides instruction on a pre-recorded videotape.

Watch our future auctions for more guitar listings.

What is it?

What is it? Some type of spacecraft seat? Torture chair?

It is an absolutely beautiful Martin Baker MK.H-7-1 Rocket Assisted Aircraft Ejection Seat, as removed from a USN / USMC F-4 Phantom Jet Aircraft. It comes complete with drogue and main parachute containers and canopies, catapult tube rail, remove-before -flight safety pins and flags, Rssk escape seat pack.

These seats make a great addition to a rec room or other amusement type of use. We are excited to sell this at auction and believe it will bring in the $3000-4000 range. Stay tuned to see how it does.

eBay Selling Tip #4

You can never communicate too much to a customer when selling items on eBay. Many times, you are judged by how fast, accurate and the tone in which you return an email when a potential eBay bidder asks a question. Communication that has a friendly tone can also derail a potential problem resulting from a misunderstanding or error. Frequent and friendly communication is key to excellent customer feedback.

January 10th Top 5 Auctions:

Again, this week seems to be dominated with musical instruments but the Kenner Blythe Doll was a bit of a surprise. The top 5 sales this week are:

1. 1972 Kenner Blythe Doll - $2,000
2. 1958 Seeburg 201 Jukebox - $1,335
3. 1996 Fender USA Jazz Bass - $641
4. Vintage Kay Thinline Archtop Electric Guitar - $445
5. Paul Reed Smith PRS SE Custom Electric Guitar - $330

Featured Listing - Week of 1/18/2010

The featured listing this week is a 1984 Gibson Les Paul Studio Custom Guitar.

We called Gibson Customer Service about this guitar because we were unsure if it was a Studio or a Custom. The Gibson representative explained that this is a Studio but it has all the features that the Customs had between 1984 and 1986 except the block inlays. It also has the fast 1960s style tapered neck, triple bound body and neck, gold hardware, mother of pearl dot inlays and FACTORY Tim Shaw pickups.

We estimate the value of this instrument to be $1200-1800

New Arrival 1/20/2010

Here we have an Edison Cylinder Phonograph from the turn of the century. The horn is unique and it is a beautiful original survivor. It plays Edison wax cylinders and sounds excellent considering the age.

Thomas Alva Edison announced his invention of the first phonograph, a device for recording and replaying sound, on November 21, 1877 and he demonstrated the device for the first time on November 29 (he patented it on February 19, 1878; US Pat. No. 200,521). Edison's phonographs recorded on a cylinder using up-down (vertical) motion of the stylus. Edison concentrated his efforts on cylinders, since the groove on the outside of a rotating cylinder provides a constant velocity to the stylus in the groove, which Edison considered more "scientifically correct".

We estimate the value of this piece to be between $800-1200

New Listing 1/3/2010

Our highlighted new listing this week is a1958 Seeburg 201 jukebox. This 200 select jukebox is a nice survivor. It holds 100 45 RPM records and the grill lights resemble tail lights from a 1957 Chevrolet.

Seeburg remained the industry leader throughout the 50's and was famous for many jukebox innovations including the ground-breaking innovation of the electronic memory unit, which was used to "remember" and then play multiple selections.

Tune in next Sunday to see how this jukebox does on eBay.