Going going gone

One thing I have missed out on during lockdown more than others is a rummage around a good old fashioned auction house. I have had to travel further than normal since the closure of the Wirral Auctions site in Birkenhead, and I still do wonder where all the eclectic 'treasure' which Neil used to sell, has gone. The Hoylake rooms have always been poor quality, but the other major sites seem to be Knutsford and Macclesfield way.

I have, therefore, been much more selective at what I look at and bid for, as you can never be quite sure what you are getting unless you have seen and felt the goods during the preview days.

So I have taken my financial life in my hands again today and speculated a bit over some art prints and posters to see whether after a bit of restoration they can be sold on to accumulate some funds for more investment. Antique bargaining for me is very similar to my golf equipment process. For example, when I purchased my Q follow golf trolley SWMBO indicated to me that it would be sensible to sell one of my other 'golf toys' before I laid out for this new one. That way we are fairly golf neutral, and that's the way I  try to be with auction items.

So the main purpose today was to buy enough stock to sell most on via E-bay and recoup funds to pay for the good ones to be restored. Whether or not that will happen remains to be seen, although the collection of Harold Riley prints I had hoped would be part of the process had a reserve of £40-£60 and went for almost £1000. I couldn't see much profit in that sadly.

Anyway, I am expecting viewing days to be reinstated shortly albeit with a booked visiting slot, which will get me out of the house to do something other than play golf! 

Happy Days....

 

Viewers and watchers

 The second round of lockdown is quite interesting here on the Wirral. At the beginning of October we had over 300 cases per 100,000 when the average in England was 23. We entered stage 3 with the rest of the City of Liverpool conurbation where the figure was almost 600 in parts, and at least enjoyed golf and having a beer, albeit one to a table.

Boris then saw fit to introduce the national lockdown but sweetened the pill in Liverpool by using the City to dry run the mass testing initative. It has been restricted to just the Liverpool City Centre but their figure has halved to less than 300 cases now, and Wirral is down to about 180. The National average is now over 200. Quite what will happen in a couple of weeks is anybody's guess but at least we can see some progress 'Op North'. If that means we can return to stage 3 and some people can get out and about more easily, then all well and good.

My golf is now restricted to the back garden ( don't you mean front garden...ed) and I was having a thrash with my SkyTrak when I became aware that Stewart Golf have launched a new remote controlled golf buggy. Bit on the pricey side I thought but on examining my SkyTrak usage I noticed that while I was playing golf I was less inclined to use the simulator so it was sitting there doing nothing for most of the time. When I got it for lockdown 1, I convinced myself that I would sell it on afterwards as they seem to keep thier value pretty well. 

So it was a matter of selling one to buy the other and research showed me that the Sky Trak  factory has sold out and there are no new orders until January, E-Bay here I come.

First basic error I made was not waiting until a special Black Friday selling offer was announced by E-Bay, but that turned out not to be too much of a problem as bids flew at me from all sides, most of which were to buy before the auction finished. I don't tend to do that, and with over 1000 people viewing and over 100 watching,  letting the auction run it's course was the honourable thing to do. All people have their price though, and when somebody made me a very generous offer and said they would pick it up next day, I weakened and closed the deal.

So, Mr Stewart Golf is coming to Wallasey next month subject to lockdown being lifted and I get a personal demo of their new machine. If it fits the bill and copes with Wallasey's lunar landscape then it will be utilised much more than the SkyTrak, and in the months ahead, who knows, the SkyTrak market may depress and I can buy another one.

So a bit of wheeler dealing even Del Boy would have been proud of. Cushty Cushty Rodders.

The wrong trousers

Six weeks gone and still maintaining my sanity, although the last week has been a bit tense. SWMBO caught a bug, whether COVID-19 or something else is hard to say. She could not get out of bed for three days yet had no fever or cough. Three days in bed is almost unheard of, even on our honeymoon!! Ironically she has hardly been out of the house as I do the shopping. we have maybe had four walks round the local area, so to be on the safe side we booked a test for her

We were sent to Haydock Park race course, a 45 minute trip from The Wirral and on arrival we were instructed by q cards where to go and what to do, all very efficient. SWMBO had to self administer the swab and now three days later the test has come back clear. We still have no idea what she had as I suspect the test was taken too long into the process to have confirmed COVID-19, but she is now back cleaning, ironing and dusting so must be much better. She is also back in the pool. Clearly it is worrying when one so close could be at risk but fortunately admissions and deaths on the Wirral are falling along with the rest of the regions figures. I do note, however, that the North West is now the highest ranked in the hospitalisation table even ahead of London.

I read at the weekend that historians are encouraging people to keep a diary to document our activities during these almost unique times. I know you can't really say almost unique, but it fitted the flow......

To aid these historians and those in later years this is what I got up to yesterday.

I have  a strict clothing process in operation at home. My good clothes stay good until they degrade in quality. They are then moved to the golfing cupboard where  trousers in particular  are utilised on the links. After further degradation they are consigned to the gardening and decorating  box after which they get thrown out. Polo shirts tend to follow the same route or occasionally get sold on e-bay or at car boot sales. The time was right, I thought, for a clear out.

Gosh, I wish I hadn't done it!! This is my inventory of  'good' clothes:

• 16 pairs of trousers, 6 of which are NWT
• 19 jumpers
• 23 shirts
• 22 ties (why?)
• 32 polo shirts
• 3 blazers
• 7 jackets
• 2 suits
• 1 dinner suite with extra trousers
• 4 dress shirts
• 7 weatherproof tops
• 8 base layers
• 4 waterproof trousers and 
• 3 pairs of golf trousers

Oh yes, I also have a three-quarter length red coat which I have never worn!!

I have managed to identify four polo shirts and two weatherproof tops which can go on e-bay. One pair of golf trousers and a couple of polo shirts are destined for the gardening box and I have thrown away  some threadbare jumpers and a few old shirts. I still seem to have a few too many jackets and trousers but just can't bear to part with some old favourites, like black moleskin trousers, a pair of Levi's and a very comfortable denim jacket which I hardly wear but just might in the future!!

There is no car boot sale schedule this Summer so I guess we will see what I wear once the golf season kicks back in, and I can have another clear out after that. I am sure I don't need half what I have got, but as with toilet paper, you never know when hoarding may come in handy!!

Week and politics

Well week four in the big brother house is drawing to a close and the housemates are getting restless. In the  big house in London by the river, the occupants are now fair game,  targets for everything and anything that could go wrong. That hindsight talent which many press reporters seem to have in spades is certainly coming in useful. Would they like the job of managing the Country out of this? No way. Would the Labour party, Lib Dems or Nosher from Up North want the job? Definitely not. Lets accept we are in a bit of a pickle, look around us and see most of Europe is too, and try to pull together to get through it. Nobody is handling the crisis perfectly and the whole World all need the things we need so baton down the hatches and try to think of some interesting questions the Government spokesperson can answer instead of coming out with the same old rhetoric every night.

So that's the politics bit dealt with, now how has the week been? Sadly one of the ex-captain's of the golf club, Eric Roberts,  died a while ago and his funeral was on Thursday. He was my first sponsor for captaincy nomination so I am saddened that we will not be around to see me in action. We gave him as good a send off as we were able as he was applauded on his route to the cemetery, hopefully there will be the opportunity to toast his passing once we are able to socially connect again.

I am close to exhausting my outdoor job list and have just finished repointing the patio and realigning a few boundary bricks. I think it looks pretty good. I have managed to fix the electrical fault in the kitchen so normal service has resumed there, and I have orders out for spare parts for the shower, the vacuum cleaner and the bedside light. That has once more meant I have been trawling through e-bay to procure most of it.

Regular readers will be aware that I have no will power where random spending is concerned. I used to do most of it at auctions but they have dried up on the Wirral with the best two closing down. The ones which still exist are not able to trade at the moment so I am once more weakening and spending speculatively on-line. This week though has taken a bad turn. I am now starting to buy unseen job lots, be they returned goods, bulk purchases of various Chinese imports, or potentially fake t-shirts or sunglasses. The first consignment is on its way to me so I shall report back on whether I have made a killing, or, probably, not, later in the week.

It would be more sensible for me to just have a declutter and sell my stuff on e-bay, but I just can't decide which of my 32 polo shirts I don't need any more, or the seven weatherproof jackets, or four pairs of waterproof trousers. Ah, talking of which I have just purchased another two pairs of cotton slacks which I am convinced I need for golf!! I really should utilise the one in,  one out principal or else get a bigger closet!  This lockdown is a strange bedfellow,  I  just get so excited when the door bell goes these days. Now why did I not buy shares in Paypal!

This caps it all

I trawl through E-bay every now and then. it's a great insomnia cure. Generally I am looking for something to do with the house genealogy, works of art which have been incorrectly attributed  or Twickenham RFC memorabilia. In the last few weeks I have had a couple of good results.

Firstly I picked up a little limited edition sketch book by Northern artist Harry Riley.  Riley was a contemporary of L S Lowry and they knew each other well. Where as Lowry was renowned for his matchstick me, Riley was, and still is, a unique golf scene painter and commentator. The book I brought tracked Jack Nicklaus through his final two rounds at the Open championship at St Andrews. The commentary charts Jack's  thinking as he decided that missing the cut at his final Open was the best thing to do as he could not face two more days of high drama and emotion, nor did he want to deflect from the actual winner and the reception he should get. Typical Jack Nicklaus to the end, every bit the gentleman.

That's two of Harold Rileys sketch books I now own.

Things then got a whole lot better when I noticed what looked like a Twickenham RFC honours cap from 1926 in the rugby memorabilia section. I did a bit of checking and found that indeed it was a genuine article. I contacted the lady to see if she would sell outside the auction, but she was keen to let it run. I contacted the club treasurer to see what price he would fund up to and then played a waiting game. I won it at about ten percent of the price it could have fetched and it is now in the clubhouse collection with its fellow cap's.

Two were awarded each year to first XV players who had an outstanding season, and that tradition still goes to this very day albeit the designs are slightly different. One such cap is the oldest relic the club has dated as 1897-98

The cap I obtained had the name Bishop inked in the label and a study of the team photograph for that year shows a gentleman of that name sitting in the front row. I love it when a plan comes together.

Ker ching

They say things go in three's and that seems to be the recent case here in Scouseland. A few days ago SWMBO received notification that she had been successful on the Premium Bonds which will boost her spending account when we go on hols later in the month.

 

I received a call this morning to say that the small claims court action I had instigated against Scottish Power has been settled in my favour. So not only do I get the £200 they have owed me since last May back, but I get the court fee's and an inconvenience payment as well.

 

I moved to one of their tariff's in October 2013, and they managed to transfer the gas supply of a different property in the street. They then instigated a standing order to take funds out of my account to pay this neighbours gas bills!! It did take me a couple of months to notice, but nothing like the time it has taken to get them to understand the problem they have caused, and the reason I was a bit grumpy. I must have talked to them 6 or 8 times and each time I was reassured they would sort it. They didn't and in the end I got so frustrated I went to court.....they now say the cheque is in the post!!!

 

Scottish Power have the worst customer satisfaction rating of any of the big 6 power companies, so as soon as I have the money I am looking to move somewhere else.

 

So that's two bits of good news. The third one has just made all the days I spend trawling through tat and rubbish at auction houses worth the effort.

 

On Wednesday I was at an auction I go to fairly frequently when I saw a very odd shaped putter in a bag of 1930's steel shafted clubs. This putter had a curved face and a hickory shaft. I got the lot for £5.50 including commission, and a bit of research indicated I may well be on a winner. It's on e-bay here.

 

The irony of all this is that yesterday I threw away two old mirror's in the tip, they both smashed. So much for seven years bad luck. I can only think that as they were intact when I let go of them that I was not deemed to have smashed them!!

 

Sorry to be missing the England v Italy Six Nations game tomorrow but I feel confident the boy's will do the business. I will return for the France game which will hopefully be the Grand Slam decider.

Gee up Neddy

If Carlsberg ran auctions on e-bay then I would have probably purchased the best item I ever could.

I have a vivid childhood memory of playing Totoploy at my friends house when I was about  9 or 10.  Totopoly was made by Waddingtons, and was the companion game for their greatest hit, Monopoly. For those of you not familiar with Totopoly, its a horse racing board game. There are two tracks, on each side of the board. You play the training track first to gain credits and chance cards to help you during the race, which takes place on the other side of the board.

There are twelve horses, all names after previous winners of the Lincolnshire handicap, and they are colour coded to represent the four training stables.

Now I remember these horses to be die cast lead horses with four legs, a tail and a jockey, proper three dimensional playing pieces.

When I purchased a set a few years ago, the horses had morphed into one dimensional plastic, supported on a plastic base. I was devastated, and set about trying to obtain an original set on e-bay.

Now this search  has taught me many things; firstly the set I was searching for is a 1939/40 first edition set, and the only one which had horses as described, secondly it is as rare as hens teeth, as the set I have purchased is the first I have found in the three years I have been monitoring e-bay, and lastly, there is a social history lesson interwoven with the horse manufacturing process.

The set I have was manufactured for maybe a year tops. At the outbreak of World War II, while production continued, metal was at a premium. The horses were, therefore, made out of pressed cardboard and came with small wooden blocks in which to support them on the track.
This was the style of horse which was used into the 1950's. Suddenly metal horses returned to the stables so to speak,  they remained the one dimensional style of the cardboard, albeit with integrated metal support bases. Then in the 1970's came the horrific plastic versions which I had purchased previously.

So I now own a very sought after game which I have covetted for years, but , sadly, I am too scared to play with it, and have nothing with the same sentimental attraction to search for e-bay at the moment. Oh well, it will have to be back to spare parts for the Dyson!!

ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh stayin' alive

I have been ridiculed about my clothes sense before. Farah slacks were banned by the kids some years ago, and I have had dated round collared shirts flushed down the toilet by well meaning house mates. I still keep a pair of loons in the wardrobe hoping one day to be able to do the waist up, and all my 'interesting' designer stuff is now reserved for the golf course.

All this could be put seriously in the shade now as a result of some action my cousin Mike has asked me to take. He has suggested I might like to help him bid up his items on e-bay. Its a common practice. you put the item on for 99p to keep the listing charges to a minimum, then get a chum to bid up to somewhere near your target price. Sometimes it works, sometimes it backfires.

At the moment its the latter, and I am hours away from owning a white linen suit for goodness sake. As if that is not bad enough, my cousin is skinnier than me, so it won't even fit!!

Now the lad who walks round Twickenham before England international matches wears a white suit so maybe he can make use of it, but he may have to look to change his outfit to blend in with the ridiculous new kit which the rugby team have just appeared in.

For the last World Cup England launched the lycra tight rugby shirt which may look fine on Kieran Bracken and Josh Lewsey, but it does nothing for the fuller figure, which many rugby fans possess. The 'Old Farts' produced a traditional cotton variant to overcome this marketing gaff, but how they will recover this situation I dread to think.

I suspect even the Orange Order, or a girls majorette troupe would be embarrassed to wear this new kit, the players do look like they have just participated in Mr Rugby 2007 and forgotten to take their sashes off. Come on RFU sort it out.

Cash in the Attic

My e-Bay rating has now tipped over the 300 mark.......my next star rating kicks in at 500 so I still have a way to go. Given though, that one in four people leave feedback I have shifted quite a bit of stuff. "Its to declutter", I tell everyone at home. "Why does the house still look cluttered then" they reply, cheeky gits.

I have sold an eclectic portfolio on e-Bay. The fire-escape from the Scouse House has to take pride of place, closely followed by a brand new hot water storage tank. Most of my sporting memorabilia has gone, together with many clothes I have grown out of ( or have they shrunk in the wash!). LP's, books, old electrical appliances, cartoons, and general bric-a-brac have all found new homes in the UK and beyond.

I have a very simple philosophy, it goes on e-Bay twice and if unsuccessful both times it is consigned to the car boot sale box. This weekend saw the first attempt to empty said box, and Chester Rugby Club was the preferred venue.

Our last attempt at car bootie was at Chiswick Community School, at which you would expect a high class of punter, but no, the Eastern European community from Hammersmith, and the Asian population of Hounslow seemed to make up the vast majority of 'bargain hunters', and boy did they want bargains. If you dare to ask more that 50p for a designer jacket retailing at £80 they looked at you as if you had two heads. Needless to say we did not have the greatest of days.

Sunday, however, restored my faith in this tremendously effective recycling process. We sold broken computers, unheard of LP's, dogeared paperbacks, magazines, bags, shoes, bangles, golf stuff, stamps, just about everything we took. The joy, however, was that people were prepared to accept the real value of the items and battle hard to negotiate a good price......that's the real attraction of the day.

Job done, we repaired to Bistro Jacques in Hope Street, Liverpool and got nicely mellow over Sunday lunch, paid for by a bunch of strangers.