A Scattering Sale - Bettina Network's Blog

Archive for the ‘A Scattering Sale’ Category

Facebook? Our Experience!

Thursday, August 2nd, 2018

We have had a long experience with Facebook, particularly with harrassment.

Bettina Network suspended managing estate sales because of the harrassment we received which became quite threatening and will keep that suspension until we can figure out how to deal with the kind of things that happened.

Our harrassment came in the form of Alan Davidson with Chestnut Hill Estate Sales in the Greater Boston area. They claim to be related to Chestnut Hill Realty – which manages many buildings around the Greater Boston area so Mr. Davidson and Chestnut Hill Estate Sales have a kind of protective cloud around them allowing him – as a member of their family (which is his claim) – to engage in foul business practices making it difficult for others to survive. Or at best to survive in the midst of his incredibly foul business practices, especially against those he considers his competition.

We knew Mr. Davidson, having been to several of his estate sales and had conversations with him as a friend of a friend.

When we had an estate sale we would find people arriving to attempt to destroy what we were doing and just cause a general mess. We began to recognize the people, who actually identified themselves as being connected with Mr. Davidson.

At one point we went to a sale managed by a very new (at the time) estate sale company – Consignworks. That same weekend we went to another sale managed by an estate sale company – which seemed new since we had not heard the name before – which called itself “Consign….” and discovered it was Mr. Davidson trying to muddy the waters and cause problems for Consignworks. Consignworks survived and has grown into a substantial part of the estate sale community.

We thought Mr. Davidson was a friend – more acquaintance – but he was related to people in the business we had known for a couple decades – the Shermans. Mr. Davidson identified himself as the son of Mr. Sherman’s then girl friend and subsequently his wife – so we considered him a friend.

On our Facebook page we embraced Mr. Davidson as a “friend”. Whereupon Mr. Davidson started putting some of the foulest posts on our Facebook Wall which were extremely racist – the language was foul – and the things he said were unbelievable.

Upon talking about this with others, we discovered he was doing the same thing, even to some of those who worked closely with him. It was shocking.

We contacted Facebook, referred them to the posts which were so foul they should not have been published anyplace, and asked them to please eliminate Mr. Davidson’s account. We also gave Facebook the names of others who were experiencing the same thing.

Facebook’s response was they could do nothing. The only recourse we had was to block Mr. Davidson from our account. We asked about the others who were at their wits end about the same thing. Facebook acknowledged there had been other complaints, but their policy was such the only thing they could do was to advise whoever complained to block Mr. Davidson’s from their accounts. When I pointed out to them that when someone threatens you their right to free speech stops, which gave Facebook the right to act – they were clearly more interested in keeping eveeryone than keeping everyone safe and the harrassment eliminated.

The posts in question were complete with some of the foulest language I had ever seen published by any kind of substantial public publication.

That happened several years ago.

Having tried to fend off Mr. Davidson’s attacks, we could not so instead of jeopardizing those who came to us to manage their estate sales, we decided to suspend that part of our business until we could find a way to address it.

It was clearly a very successful way for Mr. Davidson to eliminate an African American business. His friends must have been proud. What happened is something that used to happen in Mississippi or Alabama or any of the other states which specialize in bigotry at its worse and need to keep blacks out of the corporate business world.

It is way past the time for Facebook to take on its responsibility to make sure those who use its services are not open to being trashed and their lives being drastically changed while Facebook continues on down the road to incredible amounts of money earned at other people’s expense because they do not conduct their business with good business ethics, a good character and accepting the responsibility of making sure they are not invaded by such people. Russia may be what caused this discussion to become so public, but there are also homegrown people who make the lives of many on Facebook miserable. They can either not use the service or suffer from Facebook’s abdication of its basic responsibility.

Our experiences as a minority owned business have been legion and unbelievable. When one talks about the very limited number of minority-owned businesses in existence one needs to talk about and realize the forces that constantly do everything they can to limit and destroy such businesses. They are usually quite successful.
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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

The Smiths – An Estate Sale Family!

Monday, March 19th, 2018

Most of us buy from all kind of stores to satisfy our needs and wants – retail, hardware, clothing, accessories, furniture, jewelry, etc.   Ever-so-often we come across a family or individuals or groups of unrelated people who live together, who have decided to try another lifestyle and live one step under the radar.

They do this through buying food from a commercial store and everything else from estate sales, garage sales, driveway sales, house sales, etc.

We have had many talks with people who think of this from time to time as they pay exorbitant amounts of money for things they want.  We also hear this from people doing wishful thinking when they see something they want, but can’t afford.

Well, this column, written by different people as they experience the ‘estate sale lifestyle’ fully, will tell you the stories of those who live via shopping only at these sales.  For some, they even step into buying food at estate sales.  They can only buy food that is sealed and have to supplement what they buy via going shopping at grocery and other food stores, but they stick rigidly to not buying anything else except at the sales which happen across the country.

We will attempt to give you a peek into how they manage this and you can decide if this is how you want to live.  It is recycle on steroids.

Meet the Smith Family.  Mother – Mary Smith.  Father – John Smith.  Daughter – Dorian Smith.  Son – Jackson Smith.  Mother, Father and two children with a van, living in a White House with black trim surrounded by a white picket fence.  The beginning story of the American dream.

The Smith’s however, are not who they appear to be.  We met them at the last estate sale we went to.  The  family in that particular house was selling everything.  The mother died recently.  She had been living in a nursing home for about two months before she died and now her house and everything in it was for sale. Her children – now grown – didn’t want to keep anything.  (This is the kind of sale we really love).  They didn’t think much of their parents taste.  Wanted everything “new” and were going to get their wishes fulfilled when the house and its contents were sold.

We felt so sorry for the woman who died and especially for her children.  She had some lovely things which would cost a small fortune if purchased from retail stores, but were being sold for a fraction of their “when purchased” price. She also had furnishings which would only escalate in value over the years.  We have met many people who talked about – “oh look, Mama had that and wow look at the price.  We sold it for a fraction of that when she died – we had no idea.”  We sent up a prayer for the woman and her children.  The woman who thought she was leaving a beautifully furnished house for her children to take over and continue to improve and live in graciously, and we prayed for her children who couldn’t wait to get rid of all that ‘stuff’ .

The Smith family showed up near the end of the sale and were very excited about what they found.  They have three fireplaces in their white home with black trim surrounded by its white picket fence.  One thing they were looking for was wood for the fireplaces.  They had been looking for a couple months and wondered if this wasn’t something they would not find and today, here they were beyond their greatest dream with this huge store of oak in front of them.

Before this ‘great find’ they had not used their fireplaces because the cost per fire was too much given their small income and the relatively high cost of fireplace wood.   At the house where we met they had just purchased a ton of wood – cut – dried – stacked on the side of the house and they paid $25 for all of it.

They were in the process of taking the wood home.  They were filling their van and clearly would have to make two or more trips to get the wood home, but that didn’t bother them at all.  They were very animated talking about how they could have a fire every night when the weather dictated that a fireplace smelling of oak would be sensational.  They could toast marshmallows that they made and spend long evenings in front of a blazing fire without hurting themselves financially.  Actually, they could enjoy this dream without even thinking of saving on wood or of burning just a little keeping the fires sparse and maybe only in one fireplace. The wood they were taking home would last two or three seasons.

As we talked further with the Smith family, they told us how they have been living like this for several years.  They were devoted estate sale shoppers and loved the friends they made going to different houses and meeting  people who are ‘estate sale people”  and exchanging stories.  They also loved walking through the houses to see what people had done and how they decorated – taking home as many ideas as ‘things’.

We asked if we could follow their adventures so you will be hearing more about the Smith Family.  Amazingly, their daughter Dorian was the most excited about this way of life because of the clothes, games and other such things she finds which her parents would not let her buy retail, but which she can enjoy via the “sales”.  Dorian is about 12 years old.  Jackson is about 16.

As we paid for our purchases, it was clear the Smith Family was not nearly ready to stop shopping.  We looked back on them filling their van and hoping they could made the trips home and still have time to shop.  Mrs. Smith just shook her head and said it would be next weekend before they did any more buying, but that was alright because it was exciting to find something they really needed and didn’t expect to find at a price they could afford.

So, next weekend you will find us traipsing around town following the Smith Family and writing up their adventures for you to experience through Bettina Network’s Blog.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 

 

How Exciting is This!!!!!

Tuesday, June 24th, 2014

Sometimes life gives you lemons, sugar and beautifully clear water all at the same time and all mixed together ready for you to drink.

That is how we feel this morning in Bettina Networks little community.

Why?

Something very small, but very important in the way we live and are with each other.

At the end of a Bettina estate sale, everything left goes to the Bettina Network Foundation and we look for those who are in need and work with them to help them establish a better, more productive lifestyle.  We prefer helping those who are recently homeless, because they have the greater need.

Well, one such person established a new policy with these sales.  It is called “When you are given something, give back.”  No matter how little you have you can always find a way to give to others.

One young woman, in difficult circumstances, was given a dining room table and chairs from one of our sales – something that didn’t sell.  She called the person from Bettina’s who gave her the gift and said “I would like to help on your next sale.”  And help she did.  She didn’t help in the actual sale, she helped during those evening hours after the sale when we pack and move what is left to clean out the house and leave it ‘broom clean’ for the next inhabitants.

We couldn’t have finished our last sale without her help.  What she did was to make it possible for someone else to receive a gift as she had and to make sure the gifts could continue to be given because we were fulfilling our obligations to those who were ultimately providing these gifts.

At the end of her work evening – and she worked unbelievably hard – she decided she wanted to join our small band permanently.  She liked what we did – the way we were with each other – and felt she had a lot to contribute.

She also wholeheartedly joined the rest of us who do this work for the benefits of weight loss and the exercise it provides.  We don’t have to join a gym to work out we have our own calisthenics and weight loss machines to help us reduce fat and move it around the body from one place to another:)   I won’t give her name.  You will see her around Bettina Network activities and hope you will reach out to embrace another human being who has decided it is time for all of us to look out for each other – without agendas.

We all need to give back.  No matter how independent we think we are and no matter how strongly we consider ourselves ‘self-made’.

Sometimes, we just don’t know how to give back or to who.   Well, Bettina Network Foundation is providing a way for you to do that.  Join us and help us to help more people get their lives on a new footing.  We are lawyers, doctors, management, sales people, bankers, therapists, psychiatrists and the very young learning to live in a way that we thrive realizing and committing ourselves to make sure that others thrive also.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Bettina Network Estate Sales

Tuesday, June 10th, 2014

I had to send in this blog and hope you will publish it.  I really had second thoughts about sending it because I don’t want too many people to know what I have discovered – don’t like the competition, but you have an openness that I have seldom found in this world so  I will depend upon your wisdom because of the many benefits I am receiving from being a part of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

We recently asked you to manage our parents’ estate sale because we have inherited a houseful of furnishings and I thought you would be the best person for the job.  When we asked you I was a little taken aback by your ending requirement that what is left over after the sale be given away, first to those who are members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community and then to those who purchased at the sale.  My natural instinct is to want all of what is mine and give away very little to others.  In addition, I want others to give to me.  I don’t know how else to put it.  That makes me sound pretty bad,  but it is true and clearly my sentiment is shared by many.

My wife and I talked about this and we realized that we have benefited from your ‘give away’ policy.  There are several items we needed to furnish our apartment when we had very little.  I went to one of your sales with $5 to spend looking for a birthday present for my wife.  I bought a pocketbook.  You wrapped it beautifully in the wrapping paper that you gave me and my wife was delighted.  More recently, we wanted a microwave.  When we received the invitation to come back for the free part of your sale, there was a microwave and we brought it home.  That is when we realized the genius of what you are doing and we want to be a part of your business so I called this morning to ask you to take on the management of our estate sale for my deceased parents and whatever is left over at the end of the sale we will gladly give to whoever comes along who needs or wants some of those items that did not sell.  At first, we wanted to limit you to only giving away small items and you would not accept the sale under those circumstances.  We realized we would not have our microwave oven if that were the case so yes, we want you to go ahead under your terms and just drag us along albeit kicking and screaming all the way.

We were also at your sale when a couple came along looking at the rosary beads you had on the table with other things for sale.  They were not priced.  When the woman eyed the rosaries, picked up one and asked for the price we were floored when you said you would not sell a rosary, but she was welcome to accept it as a gift from the owner.

What do I know now?  I will be more giving and I know when I need something I will look for one of your sales, bring my Bettina password and just maybe there will be what I need waiting for me when my money is short and my need is large.  It takes a lot to survive this life to the end.  It takes even more to thrive.  With a little help from my friends I will get through.  I certainly didn’t expect genuine help to come from a commercial business.

I think I will just hang-out at your next sale.  I loved those moments.  Keep up the good work and may God bless what you are doing.

A fan and now a follower – Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ed. Note:  We removed the persons name because we are hyper about privacy and would like to respect the privacy of others.

Thank you very much for those kind words.  It is nice to know someone gets what we are doing and not only approves, but enjoys the process.  We will do our best to continue to earn your respect and will work very hard for you with the distribution of your parents lifetime collections.

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

The Morning After

Monday, April 29th, 2013

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2013

Estate Sales should be staffed by psychiatrists and psychologists who are looking for material to use in writing a book about all of us.

At some time or other we all pass through – either an estate sale or a bed & breakfast.  We pass through as a guest or as proprietor of a bed & breakfast (defined in the old fashioned sense of a private home which welcomes guests) or the owner or executor of items sold via some kind of estate sale.

Our goal, the Bettina Network’s goal, in this business as in our lives is to be truly responsible to the environment; to quality in all our offerings and the way we offer them; to diversity, acceptance, equality and especially respect of others.

That said – we would like to pass on to you some of the lessons we have learned – and we will certainly take them to heart and do our best to incorporate them in our lives going forward.

One incontrovertible fact – the estate sale, scattering sale, antique sale, moving sale, art sale are social events.  Many people come to meet and greet; to see what is offered; to talk about themselves and their lives; to travel-in-place exploring the neighborhoods around the sales finding new places to eat – to visit – to enjoy.  What has been obvious to us for decades is the fact that antique people, estate sale people, artists, bed & breakfast people have some very similar personality and character traits in common.  So much so you can spot a ‘newbie’ in a few seconds.  Interestingly, that ‘newbie’ gains experience and moves up in the ranks very quickly.

Estate sales have three kinds of merchandise – the ‘real’ antique and old masters art, the collectible items, the new stuff being sold so it can be replaced with more new stuff.  Mostly, or should I say historically, those items are segregated into “classes” and sold separately in different sales.  Our way of doing business is to offer them all at once so you have the experience of seeing what one person has deemed important and collected over a lifetime or over the time they have spent in a particular house or profession.  One of our goals is to break those barriers and offer a Rembrandt and stainless steel spoon in the same sale.  We now have enough appraisers, art historians, consultants who are expert in just about every item out there working with us to be able to do that with confidence.  We hope as we move forward, you will gain enough confidence in us and in our ability to bring to you the best way of selling your art, furniture, collection, musical instruments, jewelry, cars, houses, stocks, bonds, other financial instruments and more, that we are the first and last people you call to engage to sell any and all of your earthly possessions.

Currently, the  ‘real’ antiques and old masters art works are the joy of every collectors heart.  They don’t even have to be able to afford the prices, they just like to look – to touch – to feel – to smell the items they have read about, would love to own but can be satisfied just being there to hear about the owners – where the items came from – how they were acquired – how they were taken care of, etc.  These folks love a bargain, but will pay a fair price because they know what they are buying will only increase in value over the years and they hope it will become a family heirloom and their inheritors will cherish those items left to them and will pass the stories surrounding the items down through the generations.  These are the dream clients.

The collectible items in sales appeal to a whole other group of people.  These are the people who are looking for that big score.  Finding that item for $1.00 which will sell for $100,000, but they will be content adding the 999th item to their collection of Disney, or old spoons, or interesting picture frames, or Victorian furniture which used to be in their grandmother’s house or…..  These are good clients, but their conversation is very different and their approach to an estate sale is very different from those looking for that exquisite work of art.   You don’t have a community forming with this group.   That strong bond forms with those looking for the antiques and old masters art works.  But you also don’t have the intense competition and extreme jealousies which can form around those looking for those antiques and art works even as their sense of community forms.  You do, however, have a lot of bragging going on about 195 items collected with only  804 to go to have an entire “collection”.  Out of this group can come those in whom a switch is flicked and the hoarder appears.

The third group is problematical – both those who own what is being sold and those who buy.  These are the people looking to furnish and add some luxury touches to their homes and generally they want to do it as cheaply as possible.  No problem with that, nor is that a negative.  Some of the people selling have bought items for their own comfort and enjoyment and want to recoup some of what they spent as they move on.  Others have done the same but want those buying this used merchandise to pay close to full price because they have their faces turned around and are so focused on ‘taking’ that ‘sharing’ is an unknown and unknowing concept to them.  There is not often a two way street here and there is very little recognition of anything except their need to squeeze everything and everyone around them dry, leaving nothing behind and even taking from those who don’t have much to give.  These tend to have bought and are selling poorly manufactured merchandise, have lived with it very hard so it can be quite damaged and want others to pay a lot of money for their – no longer new and well worn goods.

Once you walk out of that nicely decorated store with its offer of interior decorators to help you place the items, choose colors, materials, window treatments which they make and more, the value of what you have bought and are probably having delivered drops immediately in value by at least 50% and each year thereafter that you keep that new merchandise, the worth of it drops ever more sharply.  The penalty for purchasing merchandise which is not beautifully crafted; not able to withstand the test of time over its design attributes; is poor material camouflaged to look like something it isn’t is the low price you get on the resale market.

To not recognize that fact and want others to pay for your enjoyment of goods you purchased which are not worth what you paid for them in the first place and which you have worn hard is a very unrealistic place to be and is either a naive or ignorant expectation.  This group is usually made up of those who are up-from and who turn a hard cold face to the world – responsibility and respect are not attributes which can be used to define their character.

And then there are the customers.  These are the ones who make psychiatric history.  Some of the antics we have observed should only be in books – fantasy books, unreal books, novels when one needs to create drama, or really – Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.

The customers who are most intriguing are those who come in to a home, find what they want, take out cash – usually about 10% of the price of the item – and wave it around in front of your face saying something like  ‘look, I have cash money for you right here, right now”.  I am never sure of their expectations.  Is the response to that supposed to be one where you put your tongue out as you hyperventilate because you are so eager to grab the cash you will do anything?  Are you supposed to follow their waving the cash around with longing looks in your eyes?  Do you faint on the spot because you are so close to cash and its affect is so overwhelming you just lose all control and all consciousness so they can rip you off before you can recover?  Or maybe you are expected to dance around them excitedly because they are so willing to pay so little to get so much?  Whatever the expected response, what they are showing are the really negative character traits we all recoil from and what is so, so sad – they don’t even realize – the emperor has no clothes and his/her real ugliness, rudeness, arrogance, disrespect of self is showing and neon signs are flashing out all kinds of messages for the world to see.

It gets even better!  An estate sale is the place to go to understand what large retail corporations have done to American Society and to other societies around the world in the name of competition, branding, marketing, advertising, selling strongly to people who don’t need what you are selling -can’t afford what you are selling – have lost the ability of discernment in things they think they need and struggle to buy and don’t know about the secrets some retailers are hiding behind those fancy packagings.  The need to bring non-profits into the picture, which is so commonly done today, blows smoke into your eyes. You need to gain back that lost discernment, but not yet – this feeling of your giving to those in need while buying what you think you want continues to cover the emptiness in you with the money you are spending for so very little in return.  The non-profts, in return, are losing their soul and their mission in that same process.  Their real, direct contributions drop.  The number of people knowing about their mission, committed to it, working to help bring about their goals drops dramatically in this process, but the mirage has been created and we all fall for it like 16 year olds whose hormones are raging.

It is at the estate sale where the customer goes to project upon those selling their feelings of anger, anxiety, being ripped off which they acquire when they are buying retail.   Some go to the estate sales to gain back the power they have lost in the greater society by parading around like the great and powerful of yesteryear, treating others as though they are the servants and have the job of mopping up what they leave behind.  It is to the estate sale we go to crap on the people selling because we can’t do the same to the large multi-national retailer ripping all of us off in the name of making a profit, because we don’t have the strength of character to be able to put blame where its due.

At the same time, the loveliness of shopping happens at estate sales because they are very personal and at the sales are the customers who have beautiful spirits and share some of their lives.  They share who they are, what they are looking for and why and who want to stay within their budgets and pay as little as possible but also want you to thrive and make sure, as best they can, that what they are buying and what they pay for what they are buying seems fair to all.  Sometimes, they share some of their dreams and visions of the future, what the world could be like, their problems, their great families, their ungreat families who have sent them out to strangers to share what’s in their hearts and I could go on for quite a few paragraphs.

Accordingly, having learned these lessons and a whole lot more, we are responding in a way which lessens the pressure on those selling with us (our staff) and which makes our days in this business much less stressful:

1)  We have established a “watch list”.  No we aren’t watching for thieves, they are the least of our worries.  We put on our watch list those who are ugly in spirit and want everything for themselves and enjoy ripping off others to get it.  They can’t do this in a larger context because it would be defined as a criminal act and they would have penalties to pay through loss of their freedom.  So we will use our “watch list” to exclude them from all future sales;  spend no time with them and discourage them from coming to Bettina Network Sales.

 

2)  The only people we will put on our ’email’ list, a list of those to whom we send notices of our sales – invitations to special events – invitations to previews of sales before they are open to the general public – will be people who are fully human; who understand and promote equality and diversity; who have reasons for buying other than to hit the jackpot by ripping off others.  How will we know these people?  Experience.  Work an estate sale for a few hours and you will also know!!!

 

3) The last day of our sales will be split in two.  The first half, items left will be half-price to those who have previously purchased items from our sales and the second half will be entertainment, refreshments and what is left given free to those who have receipts for having purchased previously or who have checked with us about people they know who are in need and who could use some of what is left.

 

4)  As time goes on, this list will get longer.  But for now it is a beginning.  We hope it is a beginning of the Reformation of retail in this world.  I can’t say in this American Society because it is not limited to the U. S. A., it goes across the world and is getting stronger.  An ethical, responsible, strong and good character is what is needed to overcome the greed, avarice, jealousy, obscene profits, now driving this and other industries.  If that is what you have – join us!  We would love to manage your sale; house your travelling guests; be a lifestyle reference.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Great New Year’s Resolution

Monday, January 7th, 2013

copyright 2013 Bettina Network, inc.

We encourage you to follow our example.

OUR RESOLUTION FOR 2013:  we will no longer buy at retail stores, shopping malls, etc. – except on that very rare occasion when we can’t stop ourselves – but as time goes on we hope our faith in the system sustains us and we can make it through with this new way of life.

In 2013, we are only going to buy from Estate Sales, House Sales, Yard Sales, etc.:)  Fantastic.  It is about time someone tried that.

While this may sound a bit self-serving, since a part of the Bettina Network is about managing public and private sales, this idea has been hanging around far longer then our business.

Society looks at people who try this as those who do it out of desperation and can only afford to buy at “used goods” sales.  Even those who can only buy this way feel sorry for themselves and pine for the day when they can shop the malls and all the other retail places to shop.  They have been pitied by most of us for having to live on such merchandise. Those who are wealthier tend to buy at “antique sales” – showing their upward mobility and class status change, especially if they are buying at antique auctions of the New York and California variety.

We used to go to such sales to buy the choice pieces which couldn’t be found anyplace else.  And then one day we noticed there was a screw driver – practically new for only $1.00.  The exact same item was much more expensive in the Hardware Stores because I had been looking and pricing them trying to figure out average, better and best –  so – hey – why not buy it here, especially since the one I was looking at was one deemed the “best”.

And then we began to notice other things and began to really enjoy the sales.  We buy all of our clothes at estate sales now and we dress beautifully – mink coats, rabbit jackets, racoon long coats practically dragging the floor (because they were made for someone taller, but it looks much more lush on us), fake fur capes, leather gloves and more.  We even buy our stockings and undies at sales.  AND – before you make ugly comments, they are all brand new with the price tags still attached and with the stockings, they are still in the sealed plastic wraps.  Most people seem to buy more than they need so they won’t run out – and they don’t – death catches them before they run out of stockings or other such things.  We even find an enormous amount of clothes – brand new – with price tags still attached – and some are more than 30 years old.  They have been in someone’s closet forever and never worn.

I love to find houses where the people who lived there for years had their everyday items, which they used all the time – and their “good” items, which were never used.  I can go through those houses and come out needing help to carry stuff to the car and have spent about $70 to $90 instead of the four figures such things would cost at the retail and luxury stores.  The luxury stores are where most of  the “good stuff” comes from.  The everyday heavily used items have come from the discount stores and aren’t good for much except discard.  The “good stuff” has generally been purchased at great personal cost because it shows an upward movement and is not used because the people buying it and using their everyday stuff while saving the “good stuff” know they can only afford to buy such once in a lifetime so it can’t be used.  A dilemma which has shown up some interesting new habits throughout this consuming society.  The “good furniture” in a middle-class home was traditionally covered in plastic.  That habit has come in for many jokes and for much poking of fun, but think about it.  If you can only afford to buy a beautiful sofa once in your lifetime and know you can’t afford to have it recovered and it can be cleaned only with great difficulty and high expense you have to do something to preserve it.  The alternative is to live with a lesser item and that doesn’t work in this upwardly mobile, consumer ridden society.  We always aspire for more then we can afford – and generally overlook real gems under our noses which would give us a better and more elegant lifestyle.

We also began to notice we could buy all of our cleaning needs at these sales for $1.00 and sometimes even as little as $.50.  We found Gel Gloss – new and unopened, which costs much more than the fifty cents we paid for it. And on and on and on.

And then we started picking up all other kinds of things we hadn’t thought about buying at house sales.   – Last week at a sale there was a new piece of heavily quilted and tufted aluminum foil.  We didn’t know what it was for,  but it looked ideal to be cut into pieces to put behind the radiators to keep the heat reflecting back into the room – thereby saving energy.  It cost us $2.00.  As we were leaving the woman who organized the sale said – “hi, are you going to insulate your hot water heater”?  Wow – we realized that is what it was for,  so instead of cutting it up, we went home and wrapped the hot water heater so it would be insulated and reduce our gas and electricity bill.  Wouldn’t have known that – and before arriving at that particular sale, I was thinking about calling a plumber to get our hot water heater wrapped.  As we were leaving the sale, an elderly gentleman, realizing we knew nothing about wrapping hot water heaters, and was observing when we discovered I didn’t even know what it was that I was about to buy, gave us a lesson on how to do wrap the hot water heater when we arrived home.

So now, we are really on the look out for EVERYTHING and realized – if we went to the sales with a list of what we need – we might not find it at the first sale, but shortly thereafter we will turn up what we need at a fraction of the cost.  All of my Christmas presents came from house sales.  That was fun and I didn’t have to break the bank to celebrate Christmas – and my love is giving handcrafted, unusual items as gifts.  The sales let me do all of that.

History buffs should love this way of buying.  I have learned so much history in the process, that I can’t believe  I have come so late to this way of being a consumer.  And the real treat is to be able to look around other peoples houses to see how they live.  I have picked up decorating ideas, organizing ideas, – have seen lifestyles I didn’t dream existed and more from traveling around to house, garage, yard and estate sales.

I guess you might say we are becoming estate sale addicts.  Can’t go the week without finding a sale.  And you know you are addicted when you buy a size 9 boot when you actually wear a size 7 because it was $5.00 and you saw the same boot at Neiman Marcus for over $300.

There is – surprisingly – a community that forms around these sales.  You get to know other people at the sales because you travel around shopping this way and they are far friendlier than the people I see at Bloomingdale’s.  Even the store clerks at Bloomies treat me arrogantly and I bathe every single morning.  When they talk down to me I almost want to say – ‘I have more money than you do – so there’.  But I am far too old to let my inner urgings take over.

The people selling at estate sales are quite a different crowd then the retail clerks at the Macy’s of the world.  They know more – for one thing.  They generally can tell you all about the merchandise they are selling because they are collectors of antiques and other items and have to love and know history to do that.  I have learned so much about life at these sales.  There is always an anecdote that has to be told.  The sales conducted by the family are just as interesting because you get to know when and where particular items were collected and how grandmother loved that vase and you hear the story of the clock grandpa bought or the piano where they had to have soup for years thereafter because they spent so much money on it, but they wanted their children to have a piano and the best they could buy – and now were selling it because the grandchildren weren’t interested in it – they wanted a new piano, much more poorly made, with a lesser sound, but which looked “new and modern”.  A little olive oil rubbed into that ‘old’ piano for a few months would make it look beyond ‘new and modern’, it would look old, treasured and exquisite.

One of my grandchildren expressed the appallness of her parents about my buying shoes someone else had worn.  So I have developed a recipe for all of you to use when buying used shoes, boots, clothes, etc. and it goes like this:

For shoes, take cotton – or old newspapers – and sprinkle it liberally with essential oil of lavendar – preferably organic essential oil of lavendar.  Stuff the shoes with the cotton or whatever you are using.  Drop them into a plastic bag, of which you have many from the store – don’t go out and buy new bags – and let them sit on the side of a storage room or other out of the way place for a couple weeks.  Anything in that shoe will have vanished when you take it out of the lavendar-scented bag and your shoes will smell heavenly.

For used clothes – we buy “dryel” or “woolite”.  We buy “dryel if it is something we think needs to be cleaned in a plastic bag or “woolite” if we just need to purify the items.  Put the clothes or afghans, draperies, or whatever you have purchased that needs cleaning,  in the “dryel” bag and put it in the dryer for a turn on the “normal” setting.  When the dryer stops, immediately take them out of the bag or the dryer and let them hang until the odor of the dry cleaning substance begins to fade.  Then you can either send them to the dry cleaners if they need spots and such removed or they are ready to be put in your closet without fear of whatever contamination by another human being worries you.

Essential oil of lavender, which you use in the shoes,  is a disinfectant and can be used in many other ways.

I needed a stand for my television set and nothing I found seemed to fit.  Everything I liked was over $100 – way over – and made of pressed paper.  However, browsing an estate sale I found a beautiful Oriental cabinet, just the right height – with bamboo trim, beautifully lacquered and painted with semi-precious stones worked into the painting for $45.  That was my final sign that this was the way to go.  I was thrilled – brought the cabinet home and it was perfect.  It had drawers in the front so I was able to put all of the things I stored in the present tv stand I was using, in the drawers and the look dressed up the room unbelievably!  The old tv stand that I needed to retire was made of pressed paper (that imitation wood) and was beginning to just fall apart – as such things do after only a few years.

I could go on for pages.  We have converted several Bettina Network host families to stop shopping in retail stores – so we will tell you the stories of their adventures or misadventure as they happen and will also try to introduce the topic at breakfast to see if any of our guests find this a great lifestyle or if they find us crazy.

Hopefully, we will come up with tips to help you as you take up this new passion.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Dr. Alice Amsden’s Commemoration at MIT

Saturday, November 3rd, 2012

Dr. Alice Amsden, Barton L. Weller Professor of Economic Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Over the weekend of October 20, 2012 MIT held a commemoration/memorial for Dr. Amsden and it was recorded and published.  One of  the Bettina Network Community members called to ask that we post the email on Bettina Network’s Blog that we sent to those who purchased at Dr. Amsden’s Scattering Sale.  She had forwarded the link to a couple friends and they said the content of the weekend should have a wider ciculation and encouraged her to have the commemoration put on the blog.

In that spirit, the link follows and we invite you to take a look.  It was a tremendous couple of days and an opportunity to both pay tribute to Dr. Amsden and to learn about her ideas, work and family.  We came away with a much greater understanding of what she was about and a different set of ideas about how the world could work.

We sent the following message to those who purchased items at this sale and decided to share it with the Bettina Network’s world.

http://amsden.mit.edu/program/

http://ttv.mit.edu/videos/21431-alice-amsden-commemoration-part-1

“A couple months ago you purchased items at a Bettina Network Scattering Sale which were from the estate of Alice Amsden.

There was a memorial service for Ms. Amsden at MIT recently, which is now on-line.  We have included, at the top of this email, the link for you to use to see this service.  It is a fantastic tribute to Dr. Amsden and it gives you an idea as to who she was, her work, ideas, colleagues and more.

Some of us keep as much of a provenance of the items we buy as possible.  We assume you are one of us and would like to have this information that you can peruse as you wish.  There are six parts to the video and it is excellent.

Thank you for being a part of the Bettina Network Community and for the purchases you made at the Alice Amsden Sale.  We hope this video becomes a part of your collection and you keep it with the items you purchased from Dr. Amsdens estate.

At Bettina Network we are working on building a research library which would include such information on all the items we sell so the next generation will be able to search for and find the art, furnishings, everyday items and more of those who meant a lot to them.  I still wonder what happened to some particular items from my grandmother’s estate.  I would very much have appreciated being able to search for those items, so we are working to give others that opportunity.

We also hope the research library will be used by researchers, appraisers, historians and others to gain an idea into who owned what, why, its value when it was sold and its history before it was acquired by that particular person.

We hope this video is as meaningful to you as it was to us.  Besides the ideas and discussion in this Commemoration, the video about Alice Amsden from baby to the end of life was beautifully done as was the tribute to Dr. Amsden by her family.

We commend it to you with our best wishes and thanks!”
_______________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Who Won the Prize at the Bettina Sale?

Sunday, August 12th, 2012

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2012

The Bettina Scattering Sale for Dr. Alice Amsden has come to an end.  It was a great experience.  Many lessons learned to carry forward to the next sale and many, many people to thank.

First, we want to thank all of you who came, looked,  bought and those who clicked into the ‘on-line’ part of the sale and put in bids.

As you know, everytime you put in a bid your name was put into the computer box which keeps such and today we had the computer tell us who it picked to win the night at a bed & breakfast in a Bettina Network home in Concord, Massachusetts.

That person was Christine Gilbert.  Congratulations!  We will be in touch with you to tell you how to collect your prize.  The family of Dr. Alice Amsden and the Bettina Network, inc. thank you for bidding. We appreciate your participation and we appreciate everyone who helped to make this a success.

We look for you at the next sale.  Make sure you are registered on the Bettina Network’s web site so you can be the first to be notified when the next sale takes place.  Lots of changes coming with the next sale.  This was our first sale using the new software and it worked beautifully.  We had a couple glitches in the beginning, but it took only a few minutes to get it fixed.  Susan Buck and Nicole Noll of Web Start Women did an outstanding job with the software.  They are off putting their heads together to make the program we use that they wrote – better, easier, and of course,  elegant.  You must come to the next sale to see their changes.

We also want to thank Louise Botero and Alexandre Hawley for playing wonderful duets on the viola da gamba on Sunday afternoon at the Amsden house.  We have security cameras that we set up all over the house during our sales.  Maybe we will try to figure out how to use one to make a video that we can post to the blog to share with all of you.  A small buffet followed the recital and in the process we learned how to make the next event, at the end of a Bettina Sale, a really special time.

Thanks also to all of you who inundated us with suggestions for the next sale.  I had no idea we had so many friends who want us to succeed and who have taken a special interest in what we are doing and how we are doing it.  It will take time to sort through all of the suggestions, but I know you will see some of them implemented soon.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

 

 

A Bettina Network, inc. Scattering Sale

Friday, August 3rd, 2012

  A  BETTINA NETWORK, INC SCATTERING SALE

Available “on location’

In Two Parts:  (See Press Release at bettina-network.com/blog/ to understand how Bettina Scattering Sales work.)

First Part – On-Line. from July 31, 20112 through August 4, 2012

Available thru On-Line Auction

 

 

 

Second Part – On Location. From August 3, 2012 2pm thru 7pm Thru  August 4, 2012 10am thru 5pm

Front View of Desk

 

The location is:  36 Irving Street, Cambridge, MA. 02138 Harvard Square off Kirkland Street (Irving is a one way street)

When you place a bid in this Silent Auction, your name is entered into the “Gift” pot along with others who bid at this sale.  The Gift given to the person whose name is chosen is a one night stay in a bed & breakfast in Concord, MA.

We know you will be respectful of the neighbors, especially since parking can be a problem in this neighborhood.

The worldly goods of Dr. Alice Amsden,  Professor of Political Economics at MIT in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and Researcher at MIT Center for International Studies are being offered to you.  The things with which she surrounded herself to make her life more comfortable.   Dr. Amsden’s collection includes Japanese, Korean, Chinese and English furniture which she inherited from her family. Other items in this sale include: books, posters, cut glass, porcelain, jewelry, wall hangings, Korean platform bed, American futon bed beautiful wood, REF INF1200 – boxes unopened, Jevity 1.5 cal cans – six unopened boxes, dozens of VHS tapes from Japan and U.S. – still in the shrink wrap, dozens of VHS tapes custom taped of sports events-historical events-unusual stories dating from 1986, interesting objet d’art, stainless steel pots, iron pots, lots of porcelain bowls-plates-other forms, leather jackets, suede jackets, Japanese smoking jacket, new tennis shoes, other clothes, books, CD’s, paintings, lots of Japanese Lustreware and more.

English Regency-style Drop Leaf Table

On-line at www.bettina-network.com, you will find a silent auction part to this sale which ends August 4th at 5pm.  The items offered in the silent auction are different from the items for sale on location.  They are all in the same location and can be viewed online now or starting August 3rd at the Amsden Scattering Sale location. Both sales end at the same time.

The items in the silent auction will be sold to the highest bidder.  All bids for the silent auction must be made on line.

Exquisite Rug

For more information see Bettina Sales on our web site at bettina-network.com

The second part of the sale is on-location at 36 Irving Street, Cambridge, MA. 02138.  That sale starts August 3rd from 2pm – 7pm and August 4th 10am through 5pm.

The on-line and on-location items are both located at the same place in Dr. Amsden’s Cambridge – Harvard Square home.

English, Spanish and French spoken to help you get as much information as possible in a language you know best.

Purchase an item at this sale and you are invited back to the house for a small Sunday afternoon musical.  Bring your receipt – which is your invitation – look around the house and take with you whatever you would like which has not been sold as a gift to you at no charge and help us leave the house in a ‘broom clean’ condition.  At the same time, enjoy a bit of wine – tea – coffee – pastries and the flute music of Orlando Cela, well known, accomplished, classical flutist.  

=======================================================================================================

Bettina Network, inc. is looking for people interested in working with us on estate sales.  You must speak at least two languages – one English – and have a love and understanding of elegant, different and unusual lifestyles.  A knowledge of art, antiques and history is a definite plus.  The work includes cleaning, researching, styling, greeting people at the sale and selling. You must have a strong need to grow and learn and can add to our vision of a Bettina Network Community.  The pay is low, the opportunities high and possibility for advancement has no cap. ===================================================================================

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Press Release from Bettina Network, inc.

Friday, September 23rd, 2011

Bettina Network, inc. is moving closer to its goal of becoming a community of people who are interested in sharing a simple, elegantly creative lifestyle.

As we expand the Bettina Network Commuity of people and services offered, we re-discover everyday that it is an elegant and very gracious lifestyle that allows one to build a personal and professional network with meaningful information to share and many ideas on living outside the overprocessed, overtechnologized society we all seem to be helping to build.

 

We are addressing how to live simply and minimize one’s footprint on this earth while not compromising comfort, convenience, graciousness  or elegance. How to live in a beautiful home with the house providing income to subsidize itself and with a constant stream of interesting people sharing our lives for a brief period of time, is how we started.

 

We are taking that concept along and adding more as many guests nudge us in the direction of a Movement.
The latest addition to this movement is Bettina Network Estate Sales. The estate sales part of the Bettina Network’s web site is up and will be added to and improved as time passes.

 

We hope you will give us your feedback on what you would like to see happen in this part of the Bettina Network.

 

Bettina Network Estate Sales will have “Moving Sales” ;”Total Estate Liquidations”; “Small Training Sales” – for our people, “Concert and Content Sales” and more. You will be able to go to the home or other site where the sale is being held and see what is for sale. Those in the Bettina Network Community are invited to the concerts and other small events which tie into and promote the sales and the artists.

 

The small everyday items will be there for you to purchase immediately and take with you. The rarer antique, art, music and other items will be on the Bettina Network Estate Sales web site for you to see and bid on for the duration of the sale. At the end, you may either pick up your items at the site or we will pack and ship them to you, – or,-  if you are going to eventually be in the town in which the sale is being held – we will store them for you at one of the bed & breakfast homes in the Bettina Network until you are able to pick up your purchases.

 

It is all great fun and the really exciting part of this is yet to come – stay tuned – or sign up for emails from Bettina’s to keep up to date on what’s happening.

 

To join the Bettina Network community you must have either stayed in a home in the Network; you must be a host family in the Bettina Network of bed & breakfast homes; or you must have used the Bettina Network, inc. to manage your estate or liquidation sale. Until that happens, we will communicate with you on LinkedIn and the various other places we network or you can read Bettina Networks’ Blog. We frequently add to the blog with all kinds of different information which we collect throughout the Network on what is happening in Bettina homes and other places in the Bettina Network – sometimes it is quite exciting. At all times, the blog entries are helpful to someone. It is an exchange of information to help you graciously and elegantly get through this life. ”

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tidbits from A Scattering Sale

Monday, June 15th, 2009

copyright 2009 The Bettina Network, inc.

So many wonderful and not so wonderful things happen at a “Scattering Sale.” We would like to share with you a few things that happened at the last sale. Our common humanity, good-bad-and indifferent, shines through!
We took this sale in spite of the fact that the water had been shut off. This was a first for us and we weren’t sure what would happen, but – nothing ventured, nothing gained. We knew a little of the life of the young woman whose estate we were asked to scatter and decided this was something we wanted to do to be a part of her ending history.
Within minutes of arriving at the house to set up for the sale, a neighbor came over with her hose and an invitation for us to use her bathroom anytime we needed to. She gave us the key to her house since she was going off to work and didn’t want us left in a bad position. That was wonderful and totally unexpected. Our biggest concern was laid to rest. She wanted to put the hose through the window so we would have water. We demurely declined because we didn’t know how we could use the hose without wrecking the house and everything therein.
Her reason for being so generous? She remembered the time when the woman who owned the house we were selling had water and they had none. Her water was off and this person (now deceased) offered to let her use her hose and bathroom. She wanted to return the favor.
The entire weekend went like that. We realized that future sales would rise or fall on how the person whose estate we were liquidating lived their lives. That is a scary and a great thought!
The most traumatic moment of the sale was finding a wig which our host had worn during her cancer treatments. When we took the wig out of its box, one person at the sale lost control and had to go outside to gain her composure. It was very emotional for her because she knew the owner of the wig and they had many jokes they shared about with wig and without wig. While she was out recovering from the emotions brought up by the wig, a neighbor was delighted to have found it and wanted to buy the wig for her elderly mother, who she knew would absolutely enjoy this new addition to her wardrobe. Joy and sorrow in a few short moments. We decided the wig should not be sold so we gave it away and the delight at that went to a much higher level.
A man and his 12 year old daughter came by. The daughter was wise beyond her years and her parents had schooled her well in the art of estate sales. She jumped right in, found items she wanted and bargained for them like a pro. Having put away her stash of really fun items, much to our amazement, she turned around and started to help us work the sale. She stayed quite a while. We enjoyed her company and she clearly enjoyed working at an estate sale so we think we’ve found another person to add to those we call on for help from time to time. Her pay for her time – a make-up bag with lots of lipsticks, eyeliners, eyeshadow, eyelash brushes, etc. which she couldn’t buy, but she could get past her parental inspectors if it was a gift. Can you imagine the fun she had with that bag.
Part Two of “A Scattering Sale” happens two days after the sale ends. We send out e-mails to everyone who bought something inviting them back to help us clear and clean the house and in the process to take with them whatever they saw and wanted – at no charge. That is a popular time and the time when we make many new friends. It never ceases to amaze me the new purpose to which people can put the most useless looking items. Before the day ended we had a new infusion of imagination which carried us for a couple weeks. It is so much fun to take something – for free – which looked as though it was at the end of its life and find a new use for it. That happened over and over again.
There is always a downer to the “free” part of the “Scattering Sale”. In this case it was my forgetfulness in putting my camera down without thinking that there was nothing to distinguish it from what was truly being given away and not realizing until the end of the day that someone picked up and walked off with the camera and all the pictures from the sale which we normally use to make a scrapbook for the family. A lesson learned – leave pocketbook, camera and any other items not being given away, locked away. It wasn’t stolen since everything in the house was free to whoever had a use for it and there was no sign on the camera to say it was already taken and we were encouraging everyone to “take, take” – “can you sweep out the garage”, “can you pick up the basement”, “can you help this person get their items home”, “thank you for bringing us that iced tea, it was great and really needed”, and so the camera got lost in the shuffle.
The biggest treat of all – the samosas a neighbor made for us with a sauce that still has my tongue burning. Exhausted and sitting on the outside stoop wondering where we were going to get the energy to even get up, in comes one of the neighbors with these hot samosas which were a new taste for us and they were good to the last crumb. Once we’ve had a chance to test the recipe we will share it with you. We know it is a healthy addition to your food list because it contained much cabbage.
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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

The Bettina Network, Inc’s Expanding

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

copyright 2009 The Bettina Network, inc.

We are expanding our business to include Estate Sales and Liquidations.  It is a business which helps us move one step further into vertical integration.
Several people involved with the Bettina Network have had much experience with antiques, estate sales and related matters, some for over 40 years, so this should be a great time for all.
The sales will be held all over the country depending upon who contacts us and whose estates we agree to liquidate.  To find out what is happening in this regard Bettina’s Sales will be listed on the website under an “Estate Sale” category.
Much of what we sell will be via silent auction.  There are some items – antique and otherwise – where you really don’t have a fair retail value so we will let the market decide.
You can shop either at the home where the sale is being held or you can shop via the internet. If you have the winning bid and are not in the same city we will mail your purchases to you.
Unlike many antique auctions, which take place at a definite time and place, the silent auction allows you time to look over the items being sold; to think about whether this is something you would really like to own; it gives you time to do a little research as to the items history and value; and then it gives you time to put in a bid.  You can even reconsider and come back with a higher bid if your best friend slipped in a bid behind your back.
You will be able to register on the Bettina Network’s web site to receive notice of new sales as they open and you will be able to register to bid.
The items in each sale are unique to that sale.  In other words, the Bettina Sales will not be a travelling antique shop.  For each item you purchase you will receive as much information as we have about the item – its provenance, in other words – even if it is a shop tool from Home Depot.  (Who knows what they will be worth to the next generation).
There will be a permanent ongoing sale as a part of the Bettina Network Sales web site which is for items we have been asked to sell outside of any particular estate or house sale.  There are people who have only a few very lovely items they want to sell, we will be open to selling those items in a special place, not as a part of any person’s estate sale.
There are three categories of sales:
1.  “A Scattering Sale” – A sale which offers the contents of the home of someone who has died and whose family wants their things “scattered” to those who will help bring closure to that person’s life and to those who may find some use for those “things” left behind.  It is always interesting to see and sell the “things” with which we surround ourselves to make life more interesting and comfortable.   A “Scattering Sale” is also a treasure trove of ideas on how to live with and use “things”  and very unique decorating ideas.  Come for the sale or come to look around for ideas.  Where a person has left favorite recipes, sayings to live by, etc. we will share those with you.
A “Scattering Sale” generally includes those things purchased to use, rather than collected for investment purposes.  It can also include items inherited from family over the years and gifts from friends.  They almost always include wardrobes from many decades and books by the gross.  It could include automobiles, houses, etc., the entire estate.
The other two categories go upscale with the third being rare and beautiful antiques, art, and very unusual items.  Needless to say, the prices accelerate with the level of sale.
So many truly beautiful things happen at these sales we thought we would include a story or two from the sales on the Bettina’s Blog for you.  If they get to be too many we will probably break this off and create a separate blog for the sale stories.
Payment at the sales is by cash, check or credit card and we accept MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover Card.
Hope to see you at one of the sales.  If you want to come and help to be a part of the action, let us know and we will include you in a particular sales staff.  We need sales people, display people, artists, photographers, clean-up crew and more.
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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 


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