Where To Sell All This Stuff?

Having been a collector (and dealer) of all kinds of everything for at least thirty years, I come from a long line of collectors, and so now, in my early fifties, I have inherited an awful lot of 'treasures' to add to my own collections from relatives who have passed over. On top of this, both my son and my husband also are avid collectors.

Since my husband is in the aviation business, we move from country to country fairly frequently, and shipping costs for all this stuff, plus the usual household items, plus number one sons stuff (who now lives away near his university) is horrifically expensive. The last move we made involved us hiring two 25' long metal containers, into which all our belongings were packed. That was from Thailand to Austria.

We gave away and sold some items, which would nearly equal the stuff we brought with us. Our hardworking and kind young maid benefited from a huge amount of stuff, which was wonderful because she was a hardworking girl with a new house to furnish (to us it would look more like a concrete garage, but to her it was heaven). Her one dream in life was to be an esthetician, allowing her to do facials, waxing and other skin-related services. It seemed odd to see my desk bought at auction twenty years before being used as a dining table. But I was so pleased to be able to help her. We went to see her house, she had invited us to admire it, just after the settled in all her new acquisitions.

After some time we found her house, a small concrete block hut with two rooms, in the centre of a field full of high grass, surrounded by expensive villas owned by foreigners. We parked hear the entrance, and got out. Just outside the front door (or rather where the front door would one day be) was a bucket with an 8' long dead snake curled up in it, blood still oozing from the long and obviously fatal cut under its chin. Sompon explained that her husband caught it before going to work, and this was to be supper for the whole family.

Even after divesting ourselves of almost half the stuff we had accumulated over the years, we still have a large attic, and a 'jewellery room' which is full of items to sell, to the point of not being able to get into the room. I have gone through some of it, selecting things which I particularly like to keep, some of which remind me of relatives who have passed. And some I am keeping as I have fallen in love with some vintage costume jewellery, particularly that made by the relatively unknown artisans of Bohemia from the 1800's to around 1950.

So once we arrived in Europe, got settled, discovered indababa music and unpacked the household furniture, I started to try to get a grip on what we have. There is so much. Stuff from my nan, things from my ex-mother-in-law, items from my mother and father, and the biggest treasure of all, travel trunks brimming over with all kinds of collectable costume jewellery and other very rare items.

These came to me courtesy of my favourite aunt, Aunt Dolly, who lived her life to the very fullest. She lived in Santa Monica (on the west coast of the USA, just north of Hollywood) for most of her life, and collected everything she could lay her hands on it seems. When her third husband died she decided to do the 'grand tour' of Europe, only with her it was actually the world. All my aunts were lovely, but Aunt Dolly was my favourite, and I am very honoured that she remembered me when it came to dispersing her rather big estate. She would always completely smother me with huge hugs and leave lots of bright red lipstick kisses on my face on those rare occasions I got to see her. The scent of Youth Dew will always remind me of her.

But now I was left with the dilemma, where to sell it all ?