Antique Trails of Texas

When you get a chance, click on the Events tab on the menu and check out the new Events Calendar.

The one we had was adequate, but the new one is wonderful.  Take a look and I think you will agree.

There are many nice features but one of the most visible is the map at the bottom of the calendar which shows the locations of all that month's events. 

More features and improvements are coming.

There is a really interesting article about eBay on the Antique Trader site.

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What the heck happened to eBay?

A few years ago many of us were complaining that finding “it” online was the final nail in the coffin of every brick and mortar shop around. A recent Associated Press report now states that eBay subsidiary PayPal could overtake the giant online marketplace in gross revenues by 2011. It’s not that surprising since eBay remains an online marketplace and PayPal has the capacity to be used everywhere for a variety of goods and services.

But why isn’t eBay projected to grow in lock step with PayPal? After all, we who stood by the behemoth when it required us to accept PayPal for every transaction dutifully signed up and paid the fee for the right to do commerce on eBay.

The crippling snag is likely due to a slew of major site and policy changes that occurred at the same time as a calamitous worldwide financial meltdown.

During the past two years eBay has worked to develop new ways to claim their rightful share in the millions of transactions through its sites. EBay had every right to find new ways to make money from the site – business is business. However, the difficulty came when it started to over regulate the transactions and encourage sellers of antiques to “get in line” or get out.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

We are developing a forum to use in conjunction with the web site.  The purpose will be to have a place for all the basic information for visitors, antique shop owners, advertisers, and the general public.  There will be instructions for adding listings, using the mapping component, advertising rates, future plans for the site, and so much more.

There will also be a section on different types of antiques and collectibles.

One really fun part is that it is interactive so visitors can register and take part in the forum.  Hopefully, we will have a lot of people take advantage of that feature.  It could be a fun place if we can get some people to take part.

If you want a preview of the site, go to  http://antiquetrailsofamerica.com/antiques-forum/

Notice that it is on Antique Trails of America site.  That way it can be used by each of the state sites as we develop them.

The Mapping Component has been installed and is working.  There is a small problem with the print process but the programmers are working on that and should have a solution soon.  We have a workaround on the printing problem.  (ED. NOTE: THE PRINT PROCESS WORKS FINE NOW.  mfm 11/01/09)

To use the Mapping Component:

1.  Go to the Antique Guide page (on the menu).
2,  Search for shops by city, by region, by name.  However you want to search.
3.  Select the shops you want to visit by clicking in the box "Add to Map".  You can do other searches and keep adding shops until you have selected the ones you want to visit.  NOTE: it is not advisable to select more than 10 to 12.
4.  Go to the bottom of the page and enter your starting address in this format:  Street Address, City, state, zip code.  NOTE: You must have a comma after each field.
5. Click on Make My Map!.
6. In a few seconds, your map will appear and in a few more seconds directions from your starting address to each shop will appear beside the map.  In the lower part of the page will be a list of the shops you selected with options for directions to them.
7.  Click on View and Print Routed Map and a window will pop up.
8.  Click on "Print Map" and your computer will print the map. 

(ED. NOTE: THE PRINT PROCESS WORKS FINE NOW.  mfm 11/01/09 BUT THE PRINT WORKAROUND GIVES YOU A NICE PRINTOUT).
PRINT WORKAROUND:

• Click anywhere in the column with the directions.  Hold down the CTRL key and press the A key. The directions will be selected.
• Hold down the CTRL key and press the C key.  This copies the directions.
• Open Word or any other standard word processor.
• Open a new document and click on the page.
• Hold down the CTRL key and press the V key.  This will past the directions into the document, which you can then print.  (Usually by going to File and then Print).

We will have more instructions and information about this great new feature very soon.  Have fun.

I don't know where different ideas come from, but we were discussing people who never miss one of our estate sales and how they seemed to be addicted.  Actually we kidding around about how some of them just can't stop buying.  I don't know anyone who is really addicted, but I know plenty of people who love estate sales and rarely miss one of ours.

 

Somehow the conversation turned a little silly, as we are known to be sometimes, and we decided to start an organization for those poor souls who are addicted to estate sales.  At first it was just a bit of joking around and then all at once there was http://estatesaleaddicts.com.

 

Naturally we expanded that antique addicts.  Then http://antiquersanonymous.com came along.

 

When we thought about Antiquers Anonymous, it was more of a humourous organization that gave members a certificate and an ID card.  We thought we might include a plea on the ID cards for antique dealers to give them a discount.  Hmmmm....  From that came the idea for Antiquers Anonymous Enablers.

 

Again, all of this is in fun, but it can also be beneficial.  To me, anything that encourages people to have fun with antiquing - no matter how, has got to be a good thing.  Encouraging antique dealers to offer discounts to Antiquers Anonyous members just seemed like a really fun and profitable idea.  It is one more thing to encourage people to buy antiques and visit our shops.  Then we both win: more customers for us and a savings on some purchases for the customers.

 

Dealers, check out the information about Antiquers Anonymous Enablers on this site.  The information and the program itself will be expanded soon.