Friday, July 30, 2010

Ethical Stuff

I’m just amazed at how some people handle things.

Only within the past few weeks has it come to my attention that another McCoy collector/dealer is under suspicion for ‘adding’ decoration to McCoy and other pottery pieces and insinuating that they are genuine McCoy decorated items.

There is information on another web-site that calls this person by name. There are comments by some McCoy website person as well, indicating they knew this information (for a rather long time) and making not so nice comments about the McCoy Pottery Collectors Society in relation to this man/collector/dealer.

As the President of the McCoy Pottery Collectors Society for six years I can guarantee you that NO ONE contacted me or the other officers about this matter during that time. I can also tell you that until this information surfaced to me a few weeks ago that it had not been brought to our attention since we have new officers.

It would have been extremely easy to have brought the subject up to any of the previous or present officers through contact information on our web-site. Did that happen? A resounding NO, it did not!

Who are these folks who knew this information and felt it should be acted upon but took no positive action to inform those who should have known? Why, on an internet site, put down our Society when you didn’t take the initiative to inform them of your information?

The only reason I can think of is that the person involved preferred to be negative about our group instead of doing what they called “the right thing”. Perhaps it’s easy to talk instead of take positive action for the good of all McCoy (and other pottery) collectors.

Actually I know of numerous instances where well known McCoy collectors have not done the honorable thing in their dealings. One collector told a seller who is in the process of selling an item to one collector, to put it aside, he’ll talk to him about it later. Also, the seller did ignore the person who had the item in their hand and told them it was not for sale, but later sold to the second person.

I know of one collector, (could it be the same one mentioned above?) who sat at an auction belittling another valued collector (could it be the same Hand holding pottery person above?) loud enough for them to hear? (Totally juvenile and unnecessary)

I know of one collector who used a different than normal id on ebay after he’d been told to not bid on a sellers items. He’s insulted the seller so badly that he was not welcome to buy from him any more.

I know of a circumstance where two long time collectors tried to negatively influence something that would be a great benefit for McCoy collectors, who knows why!

I could go on and on but I think you get the point. None of us are perfect. I certainly am not perfect. I do try to be honest in my transactions. I don’t try to intimidate people that if they’re my friend they won’t do this or that. I try to NOT distort facts when I’m discussing a subject.

I will not call someone by name…I do not know who the McCoy website person is…I do not know the owner of the site where this is discussed…but I’m not afraid or ashamed to sign my name to anything I write.

Life is way too short…Treat others the way you want them to treat you…even in our collecting McCoy.

Here’s for Great, Safe,Honest McCoy Collecting!

Quita

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

dingleberry ebayers

I've not had a lot of difficulty with buyers on ebay..of course I don't sell a tremendous amount. Around l8 months ago I had a buyer send a check that bounced...really irked me because it was close to fifty dollars, They said they'd make it right but never did.

SO...... every few months I'd e-mail them and remind me they had given me their word and they'd not kept it..and that really wasn't an honorable thing to do. Few months later I'd send a similar e-mail....never a response.

This week (after the last e-mail from me being a month or so ago) they finally responded that if I'd send them my paypal addy they'd send me the money. I did and they did. Persistance pays off I guess.

Today I noticed I'd gotten a negative feedback on ebay and instantly couldn't figure out why...no one had complained about anything to me. when I checked it out it was a dingleberry (my word for duds) that neged me for being honest with him. While in Zanesville on vacation I did a few relists so maybe I'd have a few dollars in the bank when I got home. I really did think the items were by my desk...but when his shirt sold I couldn't find it. I searched the ebay room high and low...to no avail. So I e-mailed him asking if he'd allow me a couple more days or that I could immediately refund his money. No response at all so I did immediately refund his money with a sincere apology. No word from him, no thanks for prompt refund..instead a Neg...a neg for being honest.

Since I can't respond to him with a less than positive feedback on ebay I think I'll list his id information here..after all, this is my site and I pay for it....If any of those reading are miscellaneous sellers you might want to add this id to your blocked bidder list.

User ID: dpar4028
Name: don parker

City: temecula
State: CA

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Recollections

The recent ceasing of publication of the NMX by Carol Semen and Dan Egert brought back a lot of memories.

In late 1987 Jean Bushnell put an ad in the ANTIQUE TRADER for subscribers to a new newsletter on McCoy Pottery. This was the OUR MCCOY MATTERS. I was one of the first subscribers, #4 as a matter of fact. She described her efforts as a kitchen table publication and it was well received. In an early 1988 issue she invited as many as could to join her in Zanesville for the Annual Pottery Festival. Ten McCoy collectors gathered there in 102 degree weather to share pictures and Hunt McCoy!

After that first year we planned to gather again the next year and each of us would bring a few bags of snacks or drinks. George Williams headed the get-togethers for a few years. We’d reserve the convention room at the Thrift Lodge/Travel Lodge and have a show and tell. When we outgrew that room George arranged for us to use the YWCA auditorium across the street for our show and tell.

Within a Few years Jeans busy career and family life allowed little time for the newsletter she loved and created so she handed it over to Kathy Lynch and her husband Sean. Sean did the layout work for Kathy. Kathy and Sean published the OMM until his early and untimely death. With a family to raise it was difficult for Kathy to continue it then. Kathy did oversee the convention details the best I remember for a short time.

1995 was the one year I wasn’t able to attend due to breast cancer treatments. Thankfully that’s way in the past! That year Nancy Spruill began volunteering her time to organize the reunion events. She did a magnificent job for a number of years. As our group of collectors and attendees grew it was a tremendous amount of work on Nancy. Polly Sweetman also put in a lot of work for a few years.

It was at another reunion / convention that a number of collectors were sitting in my (and Dewey’s) room one night when we convinced Jean to do another newsletter. Dewey came up with the Train enjine logo and the name to what was to become the NM Express. By this time Jean had re-located to the Denver area for her job. This got her closer to family in Wyoming.

Jean had a number of folks who sent her articles but it again became too much for her busy life. Jean is a serious writer and wanted to devote more time to her serious writing, not just on McCoy Pottery. She did publish her novel ,FORTUNE IN H.E.L.L, a mystery. At this point she offered the NMExpress to me but I didn’t think I wanted to devote that much time to a newsletter. She then gave the newsletter to Carol Seman and Dan Eggert who put out the NMX until recently.

During this time Nancy Spruill was continuing to organize the events for the Convention with the help of several volunteers. UNTIL, illness hit her family and all of a sudden she could not attend or carry out the work for that year. We were thrown into a frenzy at the last minute trying to keep it all together…and it worked. We realized then that the amount of work was way too much for one person to handle and began the thought process for a formal organization where various people would have different duties…and any of us could pitch in if any one person couldn’t attend.

SO our group of McCoy Pottery Collectors formally became the McCoy Pottery Collectors Society. We’re not a new group, but the old group formalized. Dewayne Imsand is editor of our Journal, a publication consisting of historical and interesting articles on McCoy Pottery along with articles from collectors on various aspects of McCoy.

We have officers that handle different duties including the events we have during our convention and together it is quite successful.

I've been so fortunate through the years to have met so many wonderful people through our Conventions, made some dear friends through our shared interest in McCoy and have so many memories to happily look back on.

Memories, ah Memories!