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

Natural Window Light

August 12, 2011

Natural Window Light 

(and Some Attention to Detail)

     I mentioned a few days ago that I would talk about using daylight to photograph toys. So today's instalment is just about that. I'll also talk about paying attention to detail, which I'll explain later.

     I'm using skylight and not direct sunlight. The reason for this is that the indirect lighting is softer and has less contrast than direct sunlight. I guess I'll talk about direct sunlight in another instalment.

Here's our sunroom.

I just realized a mistake. I set my camera for daylight, but notice the tint of the blue curtain!

I should have did a custom white balance. That's where you place a white car in the photo, and set your camera to "white balance" for the light present.

Here are some different reflectors that I use to:

1. Fill in shadows

2. Create highlights (bright shine) to my small toys

The matt silver reflector is made by me. Matt is less-reflective and subtler than the shiny silver reflector. Sometimes just a "tinge" of fill light or a very soft reflection is better than the shinier one. 

The materials are shiny silver reflectors, Foamcore, and an aerosol spray adhesive that you may buy at an art store. 

Foamcore is simply flat sheets of styrofoam that have white cardboard on both sides. If the cost is too much, then you can use corrugated cardboard as the backing, and rubber cement with a brush applicator.

Make sure to apply the glue evenly, and then use a brush or plastic scraper to flatten the reflector sheet to the Foamcore or corrugated cardboard.

Notice the blue tint in the reflectors. They're from the blue tinted shade.

   The very shiny reflectors are cardboards that come with smoked salmon which 

is on my top 20 favourite foods. Notice that 1 side is silver, and the other is gold. Most of the time I use a white or silver reflector. However, if I was to photograph gold objects.then a gold reflector would create the proper tone or colour of reflection. White is acceptable, but not silver since the silver would create silver reflections on a gold surface.

Photo # 1

Just the straightforward skylight

Photo # 2

A reflector off to the side adds:

a. Detail to the shadow

b. Creates a nice highlight

Photo # 3

1 Reflector on top, with the other reflector off to the side

a. The # 1 reflector to the side create the highlight and fills in the shadows

b. the # 2 overhead reflector creates a small highlight

Photo # 1

Daylight only

Photo # 2

Daylight and reflector off to the side

Photo # 3

Daylight and side reflector and back reflector

Photo # 4

Same as # 3, but reflector is not showing now

Photo # 5

All 3 reflectors in the photo*

*This is a major error!

One never hand holds a reflector! 

Why?

1. You can't see the reflection if you're off to the side holding a reflector

2. You will create vibration by having the reflector sitting on the table while you hold it.

A before and after set of photos

Some Attention to Detail Notes

I'll introduce "attention to Detail" gradually since it's not a topic for everyone. This is one of the factors that makes a professional photographer what he or she is. I'm sure some of you will undoubtedly say- "Well I can do that in Photoshop". That's true, but remember that takes time, and to a photographer time is money!

So what attention to detail am I doing above? 

The foundation that the car is sitting on is a place matt for eating in our sunroom/eating room.

Those tiny spots on the wood are food crumbs.

In this pair of photos, the difference is quite obvious.

Again, some of you may disagree with my choice, but the darker place matt is better.

Why?

Being darker, the car presents itself better that the lighter place matt.

     

To Restore or Not to Restore; That is the Question!

# 5 - January 20, 2011




Most antique and vintage items on E-Bay are in their original condition. The percentage of restored toys on e-Bay is probably less than 1%. However, there are some people who enjoy restored toys just for their vintage looks, rather than for their monetary value. Of course, some restored items will fetch good prices.

For this article, I've posted Hubley vintage tow trucks. Personally, I like then either restored or unrestored. However, as a seller, they're easier to sell unrestored. I have mostly restored these Hubly tow trucks in terms of just sanding and repainting. They've sold to people who liked the "finished new look", and I was proud of my work. I sold 1 re-painted Hubley tractor, and the buyer wrote to say that this restoration was the best one he had from all his toys - I was definitely floored!

As with most new learning, you learn as you go. With the Internet, you always have instant knowledge from an infinite amount of resources.

Safety notes:

1. Wear safety glasses
2. Wear a breathing mask if removing pain in a confined area
3. Wear long-sleeve shirts to avoid getting corrosive materials on your skin (e.g. paint remover or stripper)
4. Wear hearing protectors. Buy a good set of those half-moon types with replaceable inserts. I use these for also mowing the lawn! I've tried ear plugs, but to me, they're useless, and don't block the sound enough!
4. Use disposable plastic or latex gloves when stripping paint from toys.
5. Use old leather gloves when using the Dremmel or when removing rust.
    *Do not use latex gloves. You may find they'll catch on the turning spindle of the unit!
   The leather gloves will protect you from the fine wire hairs that fall off form the wire brush attachments  for the Dremmel. SOme of the wire splinters are so small you won;t see them unless you wear glasses, but they hurt like heck!
6. Work in a well-lit area.
7. Work in a well-ventilated area or even outdoors for paint removal and paint  stripping.
8. Most vintage or antique toys will have lead-based paint. This is further reason to wear a breathing
    mask.
9. Dispose of all stripped paint, and dust in a proper recyclable centre.


When actually working:

1.  Use a Dremmel high-speed tool to remove dirt and rust.
2. You can use a wire brush for starters, and then different grades of sandpaper (by hand).
    Eventually, you can use 1000 or even 2000 grade automative sandpaper for that final smooth sanding.
3. If you have access to a sandblaster, that works better than having to use the Dremmel and hand sandpapers.
4. When you are finished with the sanding, carefully wash the toy to remove all hints or traces or oils and
    grease.
5. When the toy is completely dry, add an automative primer. I like to use Humbrol hobby paints for re-painting the toys. However, their primer did not seem to have good sticking power, ergo someones's suggestion from e-Bay to use automative primer. Now that sticks! However, to be fair to Humbrol, I did not wash the toys in soapy water!
6. There are other brands out there besides Humbrol, but I like their paints for the variety of colours.
    Spend the money on good brushes, and buy different sizes for different area (small or large).
    Clean them after each use. Wipe them on a rag, then dip them in paint thinner. Uuse several
    small glass or metal cans. The first can is for removal or most of the paint. The second one if for
    removing that "tinge" that is still there.
7. Stir the paints for about m minutes, and when finished clean the body of the small can, so that the lid will seat tightly on the can top.
8. Try to work in a place that is clean and free from dust. You can't see dust, but you won't believe how
    much there can be when your toy is finished drying.
9. Someone suggested to me to place the toy in a box and cover it, so falling dust would be mimimized.
10. Wait 24-48 hours for the paint to harden.
11. USe a fine sandpaper to give the paint a rough surface to have the second coat (or third coat) stick better.
12. You can buy these paints in gloss or matter, and they even have a clear matt finish.
13. You can use latex-based paints or even spray-can paints if you want.
14. Some automative retailers will even customize a paint colour for you, and put it into an aerosol can.
      This of course is relatively expensive.

Enough said, so here are the unpainted and re-painted items that I have sold on E-Bay.

Don't forget that you can double click on a photo to enlarge it.