This post is an update to my two
previous blog posts about the 1960's Ferro Grab Bags I had for sale in my Etsy shop. As you might recall (all you avid blog readers...) when I posted
the second one, I commented on the theretofore lack of interest in the first. Within a day of that post everything changed. A woman purchased the first bag I had listed, and I sent her a note asking if she had peeked at the contents on my blog. Her answer was EXACTLY the answer I had hoped to read regarding these little bags the day I found them last September. I will share some of it below with her permission:
I am so thrilled that you found the Ferro Grab Bag!!!! As a child in the 1960's, I opened one each Christmas. My grandfather's company must have been a customer of Ferro. But, oh, those grab bags were such a favorite. We were allowed to open it on Christmas eve, so the grab bag held a special place in the hearts of my brother (now 46) and me (now 47). I kept one item all my life from the bag, a Fortune Telling cellophane fish.
Wow, what a story! When I explained that I had not only the one bag she purchased, but one more listed and one in the wings, she expressed the desire to purchase all three. I offered her a discount and shipped them out to her right away. She was kind enough to write to me and describe how much fun she had opening each little gag and toy in the bags this week. She is setting one aside for her brother and I hope he enjoys the experience as much as she did.
These photos are not of the family in the story, but, some images from about the same time period that I thought provided some fun illustrations. It is stories like this that really make selling on-line worth it. On-line selling can be very impersonal. Years ago, when eBay was new, focused more on vintage items and people communicated more freely via email before the advent of social networks, I heard some fun stories. One woman purchased a set of vintage Russel Wright dishes from me as a Christmas gift for her sister. A couple of weeks after the holiday, I got an email of thank you from the sister! I also sold an antique humidor once that I knew little about. Several months later the woman who purchased it wrote a long description to me of her fun taking it to have it appraised at the Antiques Roadshow. Since eBay makes it impossible to communicate directly anymore between buyer and seller these stories are pretty much extinct. They are still possible, however, on Etsy, so I thank this buyer for giving me a wonderful experience and charming story to share for the holidays.
