It’s been several years, but some of you might possibly still remember my handle from the eBay antique board. A quick peek at the forums here found many familiar names – Bakersgma, Bookahtoo, Verybrad, Afantiques, Figtree, Dragonflywink, springfldarseanal, Ladybranch, Ownedbybear, Antidiem, andundverkaufen, Terry… and many others. I actually felt like I’d traveled back to times I have (mostly) fond memories of. It never ceased to astonish me how generously many people shared their expertise and knowledge with total strangers. And how viciously experts can fight… I was mostly hanging out with the silverados on the silver forum, from 2008 to maybe 2013. And silver is also what brought me here today: I was googling a silver item an old friend from the AB times had bought, and Google took me to these boards for a comparable item. My old AB friend is still very much into old silver while I’ve been busy with anything but for the past decade. Like selling the Alabama house we’d lived in for almost 30 years, moving to Europe, renovating two apartments in two countries and publishing the novel I’d been writing, on and off, for only 40 years. The book found a traditional publisher in Finnish, I self-published the writer’s cut in its original language, English. I don’t sell anything anywhere and don’t really buy much of anything anymore either-- downsizing from a four-bedroom house to a 20-foot ocean container, most of which was usurped by husband’s history books--teaches one an excellent lesson in acquisition control. I therefore suspect I won’t be nuisance with frequent questions here. And I surmise I won’t be of much help a la eBay AB either, since I’ve forgotten most of what I knew and learned on the boards back then. After ten years of living in Europe, I’m constantly forgetting even common words in several languages. Not to mention the thingies I just went to get from the place where I cook. Oh right, the coffee cup. And glasses. From the… kitchen… Hmmmm… maybe I left them in the… living room… Husband hates snow so we spend winters in Lisbon, summers in Helsinki The reason for this long introduction are two Satsuma vases bought in Europe: a five-euro Rome flea market find that’s most likely worth exactly what I paid for it, and a more interesting one from a local antique store I’m hoping one of your resident Asian experts might kindly help me identify. I’ll post on the Pottery forum if I manage to downsize the photos on my Mac. I’m a separatist Finnosaurus with regard to phones and cameras and computer: I basically use all of mine only for the purposes they were originally meant for. Warm greetings from Lisbon, Finnclouds
Hi komokwa and Davey! So sorry about Ladybranch and Afantiques. I was just skimming forums to get a feel of the site and didn’t check dates they posted. I’m kinda hoping they just got busy with other stuff but assume komokwa’s circle of life applies.
It's good to see you here, @Finnclouds ! We've already interacted, but this is the first time I've seen your introduction. As for members who have left the Earth, you may have noticed that in the General Discussion forum there are memorial threads pinned to the top, for several of them. We also have a long-running thread called Antiquers Alert - Where the Heck is. . . https://www.antiquers.com/threads/antiquers-alert-where-the-heck-is.52505/ If you ever have some free time on your hands. Usually we just post asking about somebody who was a regular but hasn't been here recently. Most of them have returned eventually.
Hi Figtree, Thanks. I noticed those last weekend. Saw Gregsglass is also on the list. :-( I heard through other channels that Highlyintelligent is not among those in this world either. I’ve learned a lot on these boards, but they can get quite addictive. Lots of opportunities to while hours away by going off on tangents and digging deep into rabbit holes. Dropping out cold turkey was actually much harder than I expected. Makes one understand how people can get so totally addicted to their phones and all social media sites. But I did get a lot more done in RL. T.
