Hello All, Jamie Graser here... (JamesGraser67)
My parents (Richard "Rick" & Pam Russell) were avid Pepsi-Cola Collectors going back as FAR as I can remember, which is about the early 1970's. We would awake early and my mom, my younger sister and I would head to swap meets and flea markets each Saturday and Sunday, when we lived in Los Angeles. I remember all the Pepsi Cola items we would obtain week-after-week as that was always our main focus.
But but, but... I totally forgot about all the other stuff! You see my stepdad "Rick" started to get sick as you do when you are 70+ years old, and lived "his" life, "his way." Rick was a tough guy, born in 1941, his father went off to WWII, I found all the papers, the Purple Heart and other medals and ribbons, which included a signed letter from the President of the United States, but all that said, Rick grew up without a father he was shot down in his B-24 over Mediterranean Sea in 1944. Rick grew up his way, and lived his way! I hated to see him get sick, but just as Rick would have wanted, he went out 'his way. It wa about four years ago, my mom called me totally out-of-the-blue and said, "Come get all this Pepsi Stuff soon or I am going to throw it in dumpster !" I was literally driving up from Atlanta to Detroit the very next weekend to start to curate and move all that “stuff" from Detroit to Atlanta, where I live.
It was not easy to empty a house of over four decades of collected items, especially when you are a novice. I literally wince when I remember all the items that I thought were trash, that now (looking back) were ANYTHING, BUT TRASH! Yes, I did... I know what you're thinking and what you want to ask..., "Yes, I threw away a good amount of items that I considered "garbage." Obviously a lesson I learned a bit late in mylife, and as I typed that last sentence, I can see Rick staring at me from his studio chair (He was a professional sculptor and a good one at that), but I can see him clearly with a drift of smoke surrounding his head, a lit Marlboro Red hanging out of the corner of his mouth, and with a look that says, "Mac, you never listened to me, did you?" You see, Rick called me, "Mac," not James or Jamie. Even when I graduated from United States Marine Corps boot camp, he clamped me on the back and said, "Congratulations Mac! You did it! You are a Marine now!" So Mac it was, but it was "Mac" (as he told it), Mac, as in the Immaculate Conception, because he said, nobody had ever had sex with my mom until they met! Yet, I was born 11 years before they met, soooooo... But back to the lesson that I learned, and that lesson was something he did actually teach me, but I had forgotten; "You never know what is going to be of value to someone else!" Thankfully, I was smart enough to secure as much of everything as I was able. I drove back and forth and back and forth - I certainly was a ton of work.
BUT truth be told, I was rather surprised at how much I loved going through ALL the Pepsi Cola Collectibles, I literally spent 300 hundred hours taking copious photographs, collating, curating, researching online, going through Pepsi Cola books and then from time-to-time stopping and pensively reflecting and remembering the day when and where we found ____ . Many of you have inquired about my mom and she is now living in Phoenix, AZ and again loving her life of reading books and not having to deal with snow & ice! But I digress, back to our narrative... Rick would pay my sister and I a finder’s fee for anything we found that was Pepsi Cola branded with a double dot between the two words PEPSI and COLA (Pepsi:Cola), as that meant was that that item was from 1905 -1953! What we were paid the most to hunt & find were those items that featured "Pepsi & Pete," which were two cartoon keystone cops that Pepsi Cola used in their advertising, starting in the 1930s. These unique items brought us triple our normal finder’s fee and Rick was always in a great mood the rest of the day! (This was before assholes started making fakes and such, then trying to sell them for actual time-period pieces)
So when I started going to Detroit and bringing these Pepsi Cola items home, I kept having to move other "stuff." You see, I totally forgot about the literal treasure-trove of other antique & vintage collectibles, as Rick and my mom collected much much more than just Pepsi Cola items, they collected things that Rick thought, in his own words were "trick!" (My mom would have used the word; Bitchin' - Yes, she lived in Southern California). They loved old items from 1900s to the 1950's. I have uncovered so much, examples include: Automobile emblems, badges, lights, hood ornaments. Ty Beanie Babies circa 1990's, WWII recruitment posters, old comic books, baseball cards, vintage magazines; Life, Collier’s, Saturday Evening Post, vintage ashtrays, Corelle Ware, marbles, jars, glasses, matchbooks, advertising ephemera, metal signs and trays, US & foreign currencies and on and on… So much so that my 'non-Pepsi, but Cool' items are currently growing to nearly the size of the entire Pepsi Cola Collection!
It took me nearly three years to curate and photograph the Pepsi Cola Collection, and I as I have moved on to the other stuff, please be patient with me as I am a novice seller on eBay and this is not my actual job or profession. That all just means that it takes me awhile to get everything posted and as my wife likes to remind me (near daily), she tells me I am too verbose.
But whatever, as Popeye was so fond of saying, "I am, what I am... Ag Ag Ag!"
So that is my back-story,
- Up for grabs today is a fantastically persevered:
- - 1932 State of Pennsylvania Vehicle License - -
This license plate from Illinois is 90+ years old and will truly only appreciate in value. I have 200+ vintage and antique license plates from the USA, Canada and some Islands that they visited, some of these date back to 1905, so take a look at my other postings! Think about this 1932, what was going on? Amelia Earhart completes the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a woman, the Lindbergh Baby was kidnapped (Charles Lindbergh son is kidnapped) and Buck Rogers of the 25th Century debuted on the radio, THAT is 1932! .
A couple quick items about what kind of eBay Seller I am:
(1) I will always accept a return from a buyer who is not delighted with their purchase. My stepfather was kind of an asshole when it came to selling or trading to/with other people on what he collected. It was one of few times that I (as a kid) I thought my stepfather to be an incredibly cruel man. He relished the power he had over those people who wanted something, that he had. To be honest, I hated this about him and as such, I just do not do what he did, I WILL always negotiate if our stopping point is just on the PRICE, as I do not want the price to be the determiner that kills a deal. I will always do my best to not allow you to walk-away unhappy just because I want to gouge you for a few extra dollars on an item. Truth is, I know how much fun "collecting"was to Rick, so I have decided to honor his memory by finding homes for his very unique items. I seek-out like-minded and true collectors. I look for those as passionate as he was about his collection(s). That said, I will obviously take your item back from you and provide you a full refund, IF YOU ARE NOT 100% satisfied with your purchase. I believe this is the way that professionals conduct themselves, I am from the school of 'Treat Others as You Want to be Treated!' So don't fret, I will only ask that you ship it back tome unscathed, just as you received it from me.
(2) Should my listed price be too high, just take a second and let me know and please feel free to make me an offer of your own! I know the value of many of these items, but again, price is only one part of my offering these items. I used to do a lot of auctions via eBay, but those just seemed to drag on and on and on and on and on and on. (Did you see what I did there?) Then I learned about 'Buy it Now' and that seemed a much better and faster way for me to get items to people who wanted them without having to wait XX days JUST for the auction to end etc. Again, I obviously want to make a few dollars selling all this cool stuff, but it is truly not my only objective. It seems very strange to say that in a post where I am actually selling something, but it's true. I want these items to find a home similar to where I grew up, we had so many rooms filled with antiques and vintage advertising, it was just common-place for me, but when new friends came over to my house for the first time, they were floored with the Pepsi Parlor (I will try to find and include a photo or two so you understand).
(3)I forgot to express my abject hatred of other sellers who attempt to make up their cheap listing price, by gouging on shipping costs. THIS is why I almost always offer Free Shipping. This way you can calculate and know proof-positive exactly the REAL COST of what you are buying. I think it is the fair and reasonable way to conduct business.
Asan example, I many times list things as such; Blah-Blah item for $18.75 with free shipping to Continental USA, (sometimes I will also pay the stupid 'sales tax' that is now charged upfront on every item), but if do not, I ensure nothing is left as a surprise! So for that Blah-Blah item, I listed it at $18.75, knowing and telling you you will pay $1.31 in sales tax, then in the description portion, I will net-net it all out for you and say, "This item will only cost you a TOTAL of $20.00 to buy and receive the Blah-Blah item delivered to your door." I try to make it as easy as possible for you and others to do business with me!
Therefore, today's example works out like this:
1932 State of Pennsylvania Vehicle License Plate with a listed price: $92.75 + $6.76 sales tax (they charge it, nada I can do), so you will walk-away with a TOTAL price of under $100.00 = delivered to your door, as I pay the shipping cost!
(4) Please know that I will review any offer that is made regarding any item I am currently selling. So tell me YOUR Story! Tell me why you want ____ and let's work to get you the item or items you want and need! Life is just too short and if I can make your day, maybe bring a smile to your face by getting you an item for a price that is a bit better for you, well, I just may do that! I want us both to walk away from the deal happy, (You know that feeling where you cannot wait to go and tell someone what you just got and for such a great price, Wow!? That is what I want for you because I get the same type of feeling when I sell a blah-blah item (that I may or may not have helped collect as an 11-year old) for $XXX.XX, Why? That's a two-fold answer: A) I make $ that then goes into my two teenage boy's College/Trade School fund! I am hoping my hints of attending the Coast Guard Academy may finally land, but alas, and B) I enjoy watching people's joy when they get what they want for a fair price, moreover, knowing I facilitated that joy! Weird I know, but that's probably why I ended up in Training, Learning & Employee Development as a professional, as my passion has always been people. AND as I am rather obviously transparent, those who buy my items usually enjoy the process as well. In fact, the feedback I hear the most is that many enjoy buying from me, as they claim that I am different. Now I am not so sure about all that, but I know this, there is no "caveat emptor" here (Latin/English = Let the Buyer Beware) - and yes, I learned that Latin phrase from watching Brady Bunch reruns on tv as a kid!
The fact is I am not going to get rich selling items on here. I could go on about how all this has changed in the last 5-10 years as there are now a shit-ton of new and different fees we face; insertion fee, selling fee, listing fee,listing upgrade percentage (fee), store subscription fee and let us not forget the nearly always subjective and baffling final valuation fee, but that would be like explaining to you the difference between the USA currently having high inflation versus being in a true recession, it still hurts, it's really boring and it doesn't matter as at the end of the day = It is, What it IS.
...But maybe my explanation will help you make sense of why and how I do what I do.
Plus, this is truly just my side-hustle, I enjoy it, it's fun for me, and it makes a little extra money for my boys college fund, maybe Trade School! So I thank you for looking and if you like what you see - make me an offer you as you never know what mood I am in and what I will accept!
Thank you for looking!
JamesGraser67 = Jamie Graser