Shall we introduce ourselves?

[maxine*j]

It might be fun to introduce ourselves. I am not so much a button "collector" (which implies a certain degree of organization I have yet to attain) as I am a gatherer, accumulator, hoarder, keeper of buttons. I love these little bits of history and art. My favorites include BIG buttons and I have a boxful that are each over 2" in diameter, of various materials.

[button*king]

Hello Everyone, I'm Jeff, from ohio, I have a small collection of transportation buttons about 130 different varieties. The uniform company that I work for decided to send production from our plant, to mexico and turn our building into a warehouse. well I got to clean out the building and was lucky enough to save these wonderful buttons from the landfill. I didn't know what I was going to do with them, They sat in my garage for 4 years untouched. Then I got hooked on ebay and stumbled upon buttons, wow I got buttons, I pulled out 1 of every button I had and am keeping those for myself, The rest I have been selling here and there (I've even sold to Carol!)I haven't sold any in awhile. Been researching the history of these buttons, trying to get a good grasp of what I have and what they are really worth. I wouldn't mind keeping them all, but what to do with 3000 NYC buttons, or several hundred Illinois central buttons? I've Donated some to museums, But what I liked best is the emails from the buyers telling me how these buttons took them back to happy times

[dstuber]

Hi, My name is Dennis and I am owner of Stuber Antiques and Collectibles. My small business sells both in a local mall and on eBay. I joined this group because our family tend to be packrats and I've got lots of buttons from a few generations that I am eventually going to eBay as I get organized. My first batch that I got separated are my uncle's World War II uniform/coat buttons, and I think his hat pin. When I get my year end books finished, I will probably start with those. Dennis

[marcommom_1]

Hi! I'm Kyle. My parents owned a dry cleaning plant when I was growing up, so many of my days were spent actually playing with buttons. Then life, school, marriage, kids all happened and it wasn't until I started garage sale hunting last summer that I happened upon some great black glass buttons. That started my new love! Now I'm totally addicted. (I guess there could be worse things, huh?!) I'm a novice, but I am really enjoying pouring over button books and what's online. Good luck to all of you in the group - I'll look forward to sharing experiences and knowledge together!

[braswell38261]

Hi I'm Sherry, I Just found this forum and was thrilled. I have been ebaying for over a year now and I deal mainly in antiques. I go to a lot of antique estate auctions and for a year I've been throwing all the buttons in a box. Well I went to a sale a few months back and bought unopened boxes from the attic. My favorite thing to do. There were 2 huge egg boxes in the deal when I got home I opened them and to my surprise they were completely full of buttons. Carded buttons bagged buttons by colors and styles and tons of loose buttons. as we went through them I couldn't stop. The rhinestone ones and unusual ones are great. and I have one I carried around with me to sales and asked if anyone had seen one like it and no one had. I'll take a picture and post it. But now I have to make room so I need to find out about them I bought some books but I'm not sure how to display them yet. Maybe I can get some pointers here. Thanks Sherry

[wishwee]

Hi, My name is Rosi and I live in the UK. I must say I am amazed to hear that shop Duttons being spolen of with such revered tones. I live near York, but there used to be a Duttons in my home town of Otley. It sold all sorts of habersdashery things as well as buttons. I found this site because I have a selection of old buttons and I wanted to find out more about them and their likely collectability. It seems they are collectable, so I shall have to get my head around this and get them sorted out. Good luck with your hobby everyone. Rosi

[susansselections]

Hi, I'm Roy Lambertson, from Richmond, Virginia. I'm more of a seller than a collector. My wife and I have sold antiques and collectibles on Ebay since 1999. I'm in the process of selling off a large lot of buttons we have had for a while, and thought I'd try to learn something about them in the process. I don't collect anything in particular, just a few things which catch my fancy from time to time. I have a few navy buttons, which I like because my dad was in the navy. I like things from my birth year, 1951, and fishing stuff (mostly old beat up stuff which my dad or me used together). I've enjoyed sorting this group of buttons, especially the pearls. Speaking of pearls, back in the early 1980s there was an article in AUDOBON magazine about the freshwater mussels of the United States. Apparently they were the backbone of the pearl button industry, which was quite large in it's day. My interest in environmental issues prompted me to read that, then years later I got involved in selling antiques and began running across pearl buttons. They have a lot of appeal for me, and I like all the accessories, like buckles and cufflinks made from mother of pearl. I have sort of an arcane interest in whether the species of mussel could be determined by examining a button. Lots of mussel species went extinct as the country was developed, rivers were dammed, silt from farming and construction operations clouded rivers, etc. If I remember the article correctly, imports from the far east were very common in the later years of pearl button making, as domestic shell became more difficult to obtain. Well...enough about that! I'm looking forward to learning from you all. Roy

[post*card]

Roy, Thanks for the fine introduction of yourself and your button activities. I'm primarily interested in old Kate Greenaway buttons of all sorts. Do you have any to offer at this time? I look forward to hearing from you soon. JLL

[chumpy1]

Hi, my name is Debbie and I have been selling on Ebay for 4 years. I moved recently and I ran across some old buttons I had bought at a garage sale years ago. I just put one on Ebay and tried to research first but could find out nothing about it. However the subject was fascinating and I want to learn. My button is celluloid and is a figural vhich to me looks like King Tut or the Sphinx. I am glad to find a place where I can learn more. Debbie

[chumpy1]

Hi, my name is Debbie and I have been selling on Ebay for 4 years. I moved recently and I ran across some old buttons I had bought at a garage sale years ago. I just put one on Ebay and tried to research first but could find out nothing about it. However the subject was fascinating and I want to learn. My button is celluloid and is a figural which to me looks like King Tut or the Sphinx. I am glad to find a place where I can learn more. Debbie

[svengali]

Hi Roy, Debbie and JLL: I'm one of the moderators of this group but haven't been able to sign on for some time due to security settings that blocked me from doing so. Now something has changed and I can sign in again. Indeed, Roy, the pearl button industry in this country was quite a successful enterprise for many, many years. Centered around Muscatine, Iowa there is still a button museum there and one can see shell mounds left from the button making industry plus I understand there are bits of shell sparklinkg many of the concrete applications throughout Muscatine. Today all shell buttons are being made overseas at a pittance of that would be charged by US industry. Yet another industry that was once strong in the US lost. Debbie, about your King Tut button, I think I know the one you are talking about. It's rather large and has one or two shanks on the back? I bought one like that once and paid $50 for it. Is a handsome button with a populare Egyptian theme. There are precious few really good looking Egyptian theme buttons to be acquired. You are lucky to have found that one. Did you sell it yet? -Carol C- svengali@linkline.com or carolc@vintagebuttons.net

[silvergirl03]

Hello everyone. My name is Lana and I own an old fashion General store out in the country and have been selling on Ebay for a year and a half. I sell all kinds of things, but I really like to create things and make jewelry. I belong to 2 beads and jewelry boards. We have cleaned out my mother-in-laws house and she was a "collector" or better known as a wishful crafter and a hoarder. She never threw anything out, even those pieces of string to short to use. Her house was major full, all 14 rooms upstairs and down. Anyway I'm rambling. She had quite a few old buttons and I have sold some of them on ebay and would like to find out more about them. I still have a lot that are not listed, mostly due to the massive amount of stuff I now have and time. My physical store is open 7 days a week about 12 hours a day. My Ebay store is open 24/7! I don't have a lot of time to check out the boards even though I love to read them. Thanks for listening. Lana

[mathscool]

Hi, I started selling on E-bay last May. My mother passed away last March. Mom was a collector of sewing, doll making, jewelry supples. I found my great grandmothers tin of buttons. I have tried to ID some of the buttons, I believe I have some vegetable. ivory. Is there a test you can do?

[momlovesabargain_1]

Hi my name is Nancy and I am fairly new to the collecting side of buttons but I have hoarded them for years and years because I do a lot sewing. I started picking up buttons at estate auctions in jars in flats of sewing stuff that was useful to me. I only paid $1.00 or so for these kinds of flats. I was getting disgusted at paying so much for new buttons at the stores that I started using the ones in jars for sewing. Then I discovered a button collecting book at my library and that is all she wrote for hoarding, now it's collecting. I have 3 kids so time for sorting is minimum and I am still learning to identify them. I need to develop a way to sort, organize and then identify. Not sure whether to start with size, color or material. Anyway, I can identify the glass ones without any problem. I have some really neat colored glass ones in blue, red, yellow, and clear. I don't want to post any on ebay yet until I get them all sorted through because I am putting them on cards and I want to make sure I don't end up with an odd one that could have been put on a card with some other ones. Nice to meet you all.

[artcwe]

Hi all.......my name is Cheryl and I have a small collection of bakelite buttons and goofies. I love the goofies dont know why .....but they facinate me. I am also a studio button artist who was in Deb Wisniewski's book Antique and Collectible Buttons Book II a collectors book that is available at all major book stores. You can view some of my early carvings in that book. I sent photos for a photo album just waiting for approval. While not antique some like to collect studio buttons .....well they will be old someday ........ I will try to pop in from time to time. Imostly sell my studio buttons but dont have any up today but will soon. My son also makes them and we were guests at the Idaho State Button show last June and did a presentation for them ....it was tons of fun! and lots of enthused customers. Nice to meet all of you! Cheryl

[svengali]

Welcome all the new members. Good to hear from those of you with an interest in buttons whether commercial in nature or due to collecting. Jeff do you still have oodles of uniformb buttons? If so, e-mail me, I do have ways to help you move some of those. -Carol C., Moderator-