It was shortly after the birth of our fourth son, the last of three born 15 months apart. Our home at the time was an old schoolhouse built in the thirties, nestled in the foothills of Mt. Spokane. We were adjusting to life with a home full of young boys and struggling to make ends meet.
I’d recently begun making a modest amount of money selling yard sale finds on ebay and although it wasn’t anything to write home about, I enjoyed it immensely.
One afternoon, my friend Teri called to tell me she’d just been to an amazing yard sale in Deer Park, which was about a half an hour from my home. Dishes, fun vintage purses, neat old scarves and so on. I was so excited about her finds that I dropped my yard work, hopped in the car, and headed on over to her house to check it all out. When I arrived, I was surprised to see how much stuff that she, her sister, and two girls had scored. I asked if there was much left at the sale when they’d left. “Quite a bit!”, they replied.
And so we headed back to see what I could find.
We pulled up and all I could really see were several tables piled high with clothing. Not what I was hoping. But when I neared, I could see that the clothing was at leastall vintage and I was intrigued. Digging in, I came upon an interesting old Hawaiian shirt.
At some point leading up to that day I’d read an article in Country Living Magazine about vintage Hawaiian shirts and remembered learning that certain ones could actually be quite valuable.
I added the shirt to my pile and went to pay. “All clothes are .10 cents each”, the lady said with a smile. Well, I thought, I can’t go wrong.
Later that week, I listed my shirt on ebay and crossed my fingers that it’d be worth something. Maybe $50? And then something began to happen. The bids started coming in and the price began to rise. $50 – – – – – $85 – – – – $125… WHAT?!
I called Colin, heart pounding, “MY SHIRT IS AT $125!”Then I’d call Teri. MY SHIRT IS AT $125!!! No, Wait! It’s at $135!
And so it went for seven days. Eventually, Colin’s co-workers were watching the auction too. Who could believe this shirt was going this high?
When the final minutes on the auction ticked away, and we continued to click refresh! refresh! refresh! with the mouse, the price ticked on up to a final bid of $860!
$860 dollars!
Yep! That’s the shirt, and the $860 check.
But the fun didn’t stop there. Ebay loved the story so much that years later I shot a commercial for the company, re-telling my story. I don’t think the commercial ever aired, but it was a fun experience none the less.
IT'S ME, SERENA!
I bounced through the first years of my life in a hippie gypsy wagon, hand-built by my father, wandering the back roads of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. My family eventually settled into a tiny cabin in the woods on property that was once inhabited by Native American Indians.
I spent my childhood days searching for arrowheads, teaching myself to sew on a treadle sewing machine and to bake in a wood-burning stove, with no running water, refrigeration, or electricity in our home. My family lived frugally and early on, inspired by my parent’s thriftiness and style, I gained a knack for thrifty creativity and turning ordinary objects into something useful. And I dreamed of the home I would create for my own family someday.
Now I’m married to my husband, Colin, and our children are all grown. After 24 years of producing The Farm Chicks Vintage & Handmade Fair, I'm spending time visiting other markets around the world. You can watch episodes of Serena Goes to Market here.
I share more about my life story from time to time, here on my blog. You can also find me on Instagram, and Facebook.
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