Vintage Letter Blocks

A few months back, I found an entire box of vintage letter blocks at an estate sale. I'd already sold a set of blocks in my JillHannah Etsy shop so I was very excited to find quite so many of these fabulous blocks.

But now I face a problem: how to sell them. A lot of people already do custom names and things, others have words like "FUN" and "LOVE" available for sale. So I can compete with the existing or I can innovate. My initial innovative instinct? Sell words like "SHIT," "ASSHAT" and "NUMBSKULL." They'll sell, or at least get attention, but do I want my shop going in that direction? It's not exactly classy.

Maybe today I'll work on listing the vintage popcorn popper and see what other people think.

Other people? You out there?

Black Americana is Not "Cute"

As a seller of vintage goods, I frequently come across "Black Americana." Mammy dolls, Uncle Remus, Aunt Jemima, "pickaninnies," and anything that looks like a black dysmorphic clown is not cute. It is racist.
There are positive historical icons of African Americans out there. I'm aware of them and all for them. These are not what I'm disparaging.
I'm also not advocating setting the racist items on fire (though I do have the impulse), as it is an unfortunate part of our history. Still, they need to be recognized as a mockery and not just sweet little cookie jars.

Etsy's "DOs and DONTs" actually state:

Items or listings that promote, support or glorify hatred toward or otherwise demean people based upon: race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation; including items or content that promote organizations with such views

So, along with relics of the Hitler youth, the racially demeaning salt and pepper shakers can't technically be sold on Etsy.

I'm more than happy to report any listing that uses the words "cute" and "mammy" in the same sentence. I find this a thousand times more offensive than the four letter words and artistic nudes that have to be labeled "mature."

If you sell vintage, please take this into consideration before you buy or list that horrific lawn jockey.

What do you think? Please comment! I know it's a hard issue and there's no "right" answer, just my strong opinion.

Pay 10% Less for 100% Dads

For Father's Day, since my shop is so full of Father's Day gifts:

I'm just trying out this site so we'll see if anyone bites. Business has been slow lately despite the many treasuries I'm in almost daily. I need to contact some blogs for giveaways and weasel my way back into magazines and list twice as many items as I've been listing. Maybe if I take up heavy drug use...