icollect247

Saturday, May 10, 2014
                Cloudy and cool

iCollect247.com

   I recently wrote about 2 merchants on a new found website called  iCollect247.com.  One is Irene Davis who is the webmaster of  iCollect247.com, as well as the owner of her own company, Creek House. The other merchant is Clay Smith, whose company is called Das Bulli Haus. Since I already had the permission of Irene and Clay, I decided to incorporate them into today's post  about  iCollect247.com.

Please click here to visit the interesting website of icollect247

When you go to icollect247, the above screen capture is what appears.In this case, I had already selected toys, so the photos all all toys. The other categories of vintage items are presented on the left. 

Icollect is a website that only ells vintage items. So you will only find true vintage items for sale, and as they mention, not have to screen new from old.

What's also noteworthy is the fact that this site is like a "shopping" mall with many different merchants. Merchandise is presented on each store's pages on the main website. There you'll find  photographs, descriptions, the price of the item, and store policies.

This is the  "about us" page for icollect247.

What's also interesting (please see below) is the they have a nice newsletter that you can read and learn about merchants and vintage and antique items.

Each category of vintage items has a drop down  menu to sort out the different categories within. Since I write about toys, I selected the step-down menu for toys.

The top of the main page of icollect247

The above illustrates the top of the icooect247's page. 

Below is the opening menu of "shop directory", where you can view all the many different sellers. 

This is the same list of toys as I presented previously.

 This is the actual list of merchants on icollect247

I've inserted arrows aimed at  Irene Davis and  Das Bulli Haus (Clay Smith)

The navigation through the website is easy to read and to move around.

 The above page is Irene's . Don't worry about those  question marks (???).

It's a small "quirk" that I informed Irene about, and hopefully their website designer will fix it. Nevertheless, when you do click on a "?", there is no problem, and you are redirected 

The above screen capture is of Clay's store. Again, don't worry about the question marks (???). Click on the ? and you will be redirected to the specific toy without any problem. The page shows you all of the different kinds of toys available. However, as I wrote before, you can search out  a specific category of  toy.

The above image can be found at the bottom of the main page.

It's a nice feature because the magazine provides you with upcoming auctions, as well as informative well-written material about old and antique collectibles.

That's a screen capture about the magazine. 

You can even register to reeve the latest issue via your e-mail address.

I selected a sample  directory of an issue of Antique Back Roads Collectors Magazine.

As you can see it's quite informative.

So that's a post for today. It'a always great to find new sources to write about and to meet new people and their fine items for sale.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Another Fine Merchant on icollect247

Friday, May 9, 2014
    Cloudy with rain forecast

Another Fine Merchant 

on icollector247

   Mr. Clay Smith is the second person from icollect247.com who has allowed me write about him and of course his items for sale. earlier in the week, I briefly introduced icollect.247 as I presented Irene Davis who is the webmaster and I'm sure much more in germs of hard work and motivation to promote this great site.

   I had discovered icollect247.com totally by accident while doing an image search on Google.  While I was  searching for more hill climber toys, I saw a nice image that was on  the icollect247 site,and there I went. It's a website that sells antiques of all kinds, and, of course old and antique toys.

Please click here to visit Clay Smith's fine site on icollect247.com

Please click here to vista Clay Smith's own website

    What's interesting about Clay's own website and collector is that they both are more than just places to buy old toys. There are interesting links to information and upcoming shows such as the Brimfield Antique & Collectibles Shows. So if you want to know more about places to find toys or learn about them then these 2 sites are very good resources.

  When I came to the Das Bulli Haus on icollect247.com, I immediately know what I'd write for today's post - hill climbers. I'd just write a post about a nice hill climber from  Randy's toy Shop (May 5, 2014), and was still looking for more of these toys. For those who don't know what a "hill climber" toy is, it's a toy with a friction wheel. You move the toy forward  (or I assume backward) on a surface, and a heavy duty wheel picks up the energy from your push. As you continue to move the toy, more and more energy accumulates, and the noise of the wheel whines stronger and after. When you release the toy, it moves. The friction wheel is vert strong and thus can transfer lots of energy to the wheels of any toy. As such , these toys easily move uphill - hence the term "hill climber:.

The photo immediately above is a great example of the friction wheel.

What surprises me about most of these specific "hill climbers" is that they are not expensive for such old toys.  ALso, if you look closely, you'll see that they were made both of wood and metal (tin).

When you enlarge this image, you'll be better able to see the writing, especially the Nov. 1, 1897.

Although this toy needs some work, it certainly is a beautiful-looking toy.

Certainly beautiful colours. 

The description above is noteworthy, for the fax that many of these very specific 
toys (Hill climbers) were made in 1 place - Dayton, Ohio, U.S.A. 

 The right rear wheel shows you  how the energy from the large friction wheel 
would transfer via a smaller wheel to the actual vehicle wheel.

In the above photo, the transfer of energy from the friction wheel is to the rear left toy wheel. If you look closely, you can see a smaller brass-coloured wheel inside  the wheel (9:00 o'clock position ) and that transfers its energy to a larger inner geared surface of the toy.

 What';s also interesting is the use of the primary colours red and green in many of the toys, and as I also mentioned the combination wood and metal materials. The above toy is missing a few parts that could easily be found on the Net. When complete that certainly would make a nice piece to showcase on anyone's mantle.

Now that I have both Clay Smith and Irene Davis as posts and their help,

 I'll be able to write about icollector247.com.As you can see, I'm always looking ahead to the next post.  When you write almost daily,you have to be 2 steps ahead of your readers who like to visit daily!

Now all I would like is about 1,000,000 more readers/day!

( I can daydream, can't I?).

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com