Switch 'n' Run

Hi, I'm back.  It's hard to believe that it's been almost 6 months since I wrote something on this blog.  It's not because I'm not 'into' Hendryx, it's because I've been trying to feel my way along with this obsession.  I didn't feel that my stumbles and falls would be of interest to you so didn't write.

     I'm pretty much an 'all or nothing' kind of person.  I make a decision, paint it in black and white (no gray allowed) then run full force in the direction I have chosen.  When I acknowledged my obsession with The Andrew B. Hendryx Co. and admitted that I was taken by it, I jumped full force into collecting.

     My goal, initially and unrealistically, was to own one of everything that Hendryx made.  I started driving up and down the I-5 corridor in WA and OR, stopping at every antique store I could find.  Most of the time, when I asked if the store had any Hendryx cages, I was met with a blank face.  How could anyone NOT know Hendryx?  I was living and breathing it at the time.  I was consumed.  What cages I found, I snatched up and toted home.  I set them in my living room and looked and looked at them.  Then I started planning the next place to buy them.

     I discovered ebay last Fall.  The cages were out and available, and I was in hog heaven.  I didn't know enough, at that time, to choose and shop wisely so I ended up with some real train wrecks of cages.  I quickly realized that all sellers don't spill their guts with everything about a cage.  Some of them describe a little and leave the rest for questions from the unknown audience.  I didn't know enough to ask "Has it been repaired?"  "Has it been painted?"  "Are all the clips present and functional?" "Are the perches original?".  I certainly didn't know enough (or have the guts) to ask for more pictures.  There were cages advertised as Hendryx that weren't Hendryx.  They were Hendryx style or type.  Not Hendryx.  I had a steep learning curve.

     So...60 cages and a storage shed later, I decided that enough was enough.  By early Spring I realized I was in over my head and needed to start selling, not just collecting.  I had some repeats that I decided I could part with.  But with my headlong pace into this collecting path, I hadn't come up with a 'plan B'.  How do I sell?

     I did a 'switch 'n' run' onto another path.  I decided I would have a booth at antique shows.  I started creating ideas, page after page of design and plans.  "Tweet Things" was my name.  As you read on previous notes, this didn't work out.  I PLANNED for it to work.  I EXPECTED it to work.  I WORKED for it to work.  I bought bird cage feeders, bird baths, bird statues and other accoutrements that would round out my booth.  No go.  It just didn't work.  I realized that just because I had a passion for something didn't mean others did.  Oh, I got the raves, the oohs and aahs, and the "I remember when"s  at my booths, and there were plenty of lookers.  But the money didn't come in.  It just went out and out and out.

     So, there I am.  No plan C.  I floundered.  I was paying storage fees for things I couldn't move.  I had cages in several booths that weren't moving.  I floundered some more.

     I am not a flounder-er.  I don't do it well.  As a NICU nurse, I was queen of my castle.  I was in control of what happened to my baby during my hours.  If the unexpected happened, as it often does with neonates, there was backup available.  I was in control.  I worked 30 years of nursing in control.  My personal life was predictable and controlled.  Not a lot of surprises.

     Now, there's no control.  No backup.  It was me and me on this journey.  It was time for another switch 'n' run but I fought against Plan C.  My only option that I could see was to return to ebay.  I was amazed at the packaging creativity that I saw as I unpacked cage after cage in my buying spree.  There was a LOT of work to selling cages and stands.  I wasn't sure if my arthritic hands would be up to the task.  I'd sold my boxes of bubble wrap, recycled the stryofoam worms, and recycled all the boxes I'd received from my ebay sellers.  How would I start?

     I didn't switch 'n' run...I kinda turned in a direction and took a few steps.  I posted my best, my most unique, and some of my most prized items.  I wondered if 'someone' out there cared enough about Andrew B. to buy something with the Hendryx name and history attached to it.

     I've been amazed.  There are quite a few 'someones' out there who appreciate Andrew B and the creative inventors who worked for him.  There's a doc in Texas, an architect in Florida, a computer guy in New Jersey, and a woman in Alaska who all appreciate Hendryx.  They, and others, have their stories, their collections, their 'looking for's.  I've been selling on ebay for a month.  That's all, but I'm at a full run again.  I post new items and for the most part, people buy them.  Economically, I'm making a quarter for every dollar I spent last year.  The prices have dropped that much!!  What I was in a bidding war for last year doesn't even sell this year.

     There is side conversation that I appreciate on ebay.  Buyers share their stories.  I like to share mine.  That's why I started this blog, to share stories, but I haven't been consistent enough to make others want to be a part of it.  So I get the stories on ebay.

     I know, for example, while I am wrapping a box, that this is the 4th cage this person has purchased.  I know the feeders I've sold to him, and I know what he's looking for.  I have a name.  And I have an imagination big enough to envision others' homes and what it will be like to have my items there.  It's good.

     I don't have a need for another switch 'n' run at this time.  I'm here for a while.  If you want to check out my items, search on ebay for 'Hendryx vintage', or 'Hendryx antique', or 'bird cage feeders vintage'.  I'm bkv5353.  

I'm looking through my items to see what I have that you might want.  Who knows...you may just push the "BID" button.  And we can share our stories and the fascination we have with the Andrew B. Hendryx Co. of New Haven, Conn.

I will return.  Sooner than the last time.  Maybe in just a few days or a week.  I'm interested in visiting with you.