The Lucky Indian T-Shirt from RetroRanger

It's iconic...everybody who has ever unwrapped a tootsie pop knows what it
is immediately.

Lucky Indian Dark T-Shirt

Http://www.cafepress.com/retroranger.203638467

Architect Gear Sold on Cafepress

Couple of cool architect items sold on Cafepress today.

Architect Organic Cotton Tee

http://www.cafepress.com/architectgear.195564542

Architect Sticker (Oval) http://www.cafepress.com/architectgear.195564523

Tote For Cool Trombone Players

Tote Bag for trombone players.

iBone Trombone Tote Bag

http://www.cafepress.com/retroranger.174744852

Charles Lindbergh Wristwatch

Now listed at my eBay store, All-4-Corners, is the Charles Lindbergh Classic Watch. Charles A. Lindbergh, first pilot to make a solo transatlantic flight...pictured in the background is his plane, "Spirit of St. Louis."

Technorati Tags: pilot, airplanes, Charles Lindbergh

Whigs in the Log Cabin, Drinking Hard Cider

Those Whigs really had it going on. They stood firmly in support of every American having a log cabin and full jug of hard cider. One can only assume that the Federalists or whoever else was around were all for mud huts and ordinary apple juice.
The is my Log Cabin & Hard Cider Vote Whig Ringer T-Shirt, available at RetroRanger, my Cafepress store. Wear yours to the next big campaign rally and let everyone know where you stand. Which is over by the punch bowl.

Technorati Tags: whig, politics, republican, democrat, cider, log cabin

If Talking Horses Wore T-Shirts

Not sure if Jonathan Swift mentioned it or not, but one night Gulliver went with a couple of Houyhnhnms to their lodge meeting. After which they drank lots of beer and played some pool.
This is my International Order of Houyhnhnms
T-Shirt...available at my Cafepress store, RetroRanger, along with lots of other cool Houyhnhnms stuff.


Technorati Tags: gullivers travels, jonathan swift, satire, horses, houyhnhnms

Trumpets and Tubas - Band Geek T-Shirts

We Are Trumpets Light T-Shirt

http://www.cafepress.com/retroranger.113152535

Sexy Tuba Dark T-Shirt http://www.cafepress.com/retroranger.199826658

Edward Moran's Statue of Liberty Watch

Just imagine how excited New Yorkers were when the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in 1886. I have to think that the scene truly was as bustling as Edward Moran's painting, "Unveiling the Statue of Liberty," depicts. This is my Statue of Liberty Watch available at my eBay store, All-4-Corners.

Oliver on Green Acres

No, not Oliver Wendell Douglas...I'm talking Oliver 88. As in a tough old Oliver tractor down on the farm. Just posted to eBay this new design for a watch, featuring an Oliver 88 tractor over an Oliver logo.
Oliver made boocoos models of tractors and I don't know whether the 88 was the best choice for a subject. But I'm counting on the customer feedback and design requests to determine future Oliver offerings.
Here it is, the Oliver 88 Tractor Watch now available at my eBay store, All-4-Corners.

Stonewall Jackson and W T Sherman

Add a couple Civil War Generals to the inventory. Stonewall Jackson and William Tecumseh Sherman join Ulysses S Grant and Robert E Lee with both watches and clocks.

Here's the Stonewall Jackson Watch



and the William T Sherman Watch

Civil War Generals on Wristwatches

(mx: Ashoken Farewell up and under)
anncr: "Pvt. John Robinson took one last glance at his Ulysses S Grant wristwatch. 3:30. The time was at hand. In just minutes Robinson and the remainder of Hooker's battalion would throw themselves up the flank of Missionary Ridge"

vo: Mrs. Robinson: "My Dearest John, If this letter finds you alive, rest assured that I still dream of the day when I can again hold you and admire that beautiful Ulysses S Grant timepiece..."

music up and out

Enough of this slaving on the internets. I've found my calling. I'm gonna go make documentaries for the PBS.

Here's my new U S Grant watch and also the Robert E Lee watch for those who lean to the South.

Sherlock Holmes Mousepad

I've been working on Sherlock Holmes designs for eBay sales today. The idea is to have an entire array of different products featuring some Sherlock Holmes related artwork. The Sherlock Holmes Mousepad incorporates a wonderful old theatre poster graphic that I found at the Library of Congress. This would make an excellent gift for any Sherlock Holmes fan.

Sherlock Holmes Belt Buckle

Just listed on eBay is the Sherlock Holmes Belt Buckle. This incorporates the same Sidney Paget art I've used on some other Sherlock items...the lighter and watch. A quite elementary, and stylish, way to hold your pants up.

Rudolph Valentino - The Fire Within

OK, you're going to need to keep this away from grammy.

Here's a brand-new lighter design I just rolled out on eBay...the Rudolph Valentino Windproof Lighter. This incorporates a great studio photo showing Valentino in his most famous role, The Sheik. Valentino was definitely the source code for future Latin Lovers.

eBay Now Monitoring Users Computers

eBay Security made an announcement a couple days ago that gives me real problems. But I don't hear any other voices raised. so maybe its just me...does no one else have a problem with this announcement from John Canfield?

To protect the Community against this type of fraud, beginning today, eBay will start noting which computers members typically use to conduct their buying and selling activity. After our data collection phase, sometime in June eBay will begin verifying our sellers when they list an item to ensure they are logging in from the same machines they have successfully used previously – usually a home or business computer.

If you are a seller, and you attempt to list an item from a different computer – for example, from a PC you are borrowing in a hotel or library – eBay will make an automated call to the phone number you have registered with us to confirm it is really you. We may also prompt you to verify your identity in other ways.

So eBay is monitoring users, and if we use different computers from time to time it will flag their crook-o-meter? I don't get that at all.
I'm looking forward to doing some traveling this summer and I know I'll be accessing my auctions from public computers and bumming from friends. Can I expect a call to my home phone from Guido in eBay Security? Too bad, I won't be home.

Can somebody explain this to me?

Charlie Chaplin Under City Lights

So I was talking to my Dad, and I mentioned that I had put The Little Tramp on a wristwatch. He tells me that he would prefer if I kept family out of my designs.

Fair enuf, so she comes off and on goes Charlie Chaplin, silent film actor and director. Shown on the watch face is "The Little Tramp," Chaplin's most famous character. I've done it in silver and black and think that works with the subject pretty well.
This is my Charlie Chaplin Watch and you can find it at my eBay store. If there isn't one currently running track me down on twitter or Facebook and I'll get one listed for you.

Technorati Tags: charlie chaplin, silent movie, watch, wristwatch

The U S Navy's First Modern Battleship

I'm a big fan of the art of Rufus Zogbaum. Zogbaum was one of the leading historical artists of the late 1800s and early 1900s...doing lots of military, maritime and western scenes. I think his western stuff is every bit as good as Remington and Russell.
I just put together a windproof lighter for eBay sales which features some Zogbaum art. This is the USS Indiana, the United States Navy's first modern battleship commissioned in 1895. Zogbaum did this piece for Harper's in 1896 and I have a great original print of it. The only change I made for the lighter is to add the "USS Indiana" at the top. Otherwise its just as Zogbaum saw it.
Find the USS Indiana Windproof Lighter at my eBay store, All-4-Corners.
I also have the Indiana art on a really cool cigarette case that I hope to roll out sometime next week. Keep an eye out for that.

The Girl in the Red Metropolitan

When I was a young buck I took a little trip to Boise to visit some friends for a few days. There I met a girl who drove a red and white Nash Metropolitan convertible. What a sweet girl...pretty blue eyes, intelligent, articulate. Loved music. Loved to laugh.

I wonder what happened to the car?

Here's a new offering on eBay. This is my Nash Metropolitan Lighter.

Sherlock Holmes Lighters - You Decide

I just think mine look better.

Pickletoon's Sherlock Holmes Lighter

Zippo Sherlock Holmes Lighter

I just think mine look better

Wild Bill Hickok Windproof Lighter

Here's something I put together last night. Another of my flip-top lighters, this with Old West gunfighter, gambler and scout...Wild Bill Hickok. I was wishing I could work some Aces and Eights in the design for the poker players, but just couldn't make that work. The Wild Bill Hickok Lighter is listed at eBay.




Technorati Tags: hickok, old west, gambling, poker, lighter

Handy Andy - Every Kid's General Contractor

I love this shirt

Handy Andy Dark T-Shirt http://www.cafepress.com/retroranger.120726069

French Horn Ballcap

Sold today at RetroRanger

Horn Star Cap

http://www.cafepress.com/retroranger.177438570

Rather Be Playing Trumpet While Driving Car

A few weeks ago I worked up some license plate holders at Cafepress. I'm
not sure how much volume they do in such doodads, but I was bored and
needed something to do. Happy to report that I've sold three so far,
including this one today.

Rather Be Playing Trumpet License Plate Frame

http://www.cafepress.com/retroranger.243596287

San Francisco Giants on Twitter

Since I nothing else to do to fill every waking hour, I've taken it upon myself to feed SF Giant updates to twitter. I'm doing this through a new twitter account at GiantsofSF. I encourage all who want to keep up to date on the Giants to follow GiantsofSF on twitter. I've also got it feeding into the sidebar here at Gnu Makins.
I'll try to give updates within all games, but can't go so far as doing play-by-play. And I'll be including a news feed for DL info and stuff like that.

Captain Nemo Lighter on eBay

Just listed on eBay is the new Captain Nemo Lighter...features Jules Verne's intrepid submariner, Captain Nemo of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. This scene aboard the Nautilus as Nemo and passengers marvel at a giant octopus...original art by Alphonse Neuville which I've carefully colorized.




Technorati Tags: nemo, nautilus, jules verne, cigarette lighter, lighter

New Video for the eBay Store

For a long time I've been meaning to put together some videos to use in my eBay listings. Product demonstrations and such to let the folks know that I am a real person with real products.
Today I finally got around to putting something together. I did this demonstration of my flip-top lighters with my little Sony camera and Windows Movie Maker...about as basic as you can get. I think it came out nice and accomplishes what needed to be done.

Long Tail Drives Product Creation

When it comes to designing belt buckles and other products for eBay sales, I think the key to making sales is having a product with a good narrow focus. I want a shopper to see one of my items and be amazed that someone even took the time to create the product.
I have had a couple of different accordion-themed belt buckles for sale...a Black Accordion over Red Candy Burst design and an Accordion Idol design.

Today I received requests for variation on both of these buckles. One guy wanted the Accordion Idol design but with a push-button instrument. The other request was for a Cajun Accordion over a green candy burst. It took about an hour each to work up these:

So I spend an hour on each one and make 10 bucks on each. Not really a productive use of my time. Except that I now have two additional products to offer for sale to other accordion players. And these two new designs were driven by actual consumer input.
This I think is the secret to producing items that will sell. Because, truth be told, I don't know beans about accordions.

Do you ever carry a flip-top Zippo-type lighter?

New poll at ask500people.com. Take a minute and vote.

"Do you ever carry a flip-top Zippo-type lighter?

Ask the Question - Get the Answer

I'm loving Ask500people.com. Its an online polling site with some great web2.0 community building features. I think it could be a boon to researching markets and also see potential to drive traffic or even impact sales.
I am having a problem embedding their polls onto this site. Maybe its a blogspot problem, maybe its a pickletoon problem. I can't get the polling map embed to work at all, and the polling widget shows shows the current front page poll and not my question. Perhaps that's the way it is supposed to work.

Sherlock Holmes Deducing on a Tee

I'm on a Sherlock Holmes kick. Here's a literary character, solidly in the public domain, with a fan base of millions. Seems like a prime subject for a variety of products. I'm thinking I may actually set-up a Sherlock Holmes storefront should I put together enough products.

The is my iDeduce shirt. Sherlock Holmes in the style of an iPod advert. I'm showing the green design here, but also available in iPod yellow, pink and purple. Find the Sherlock Holmes iDeduce T-shirt and everybody's favorite Cafepress store, RetroRanger.

Chief Shooting Star Firemaker

An urban myth that really should have been true.

When I was a kid is was common knowledge that if you had a Tootsie Pop wrapper with the picture of an Indian shooting a star you had something a value. Our belief was that "Chief Shooting Star" appearing on a wrapper meant that you could get a free candy on your next visit to the store...which in my case was Cook's Drive-In Market.
Now, I don't know if my mom was slipping Old Man Cook a nickel on the sly, or maybe the store ate the nickel, but I do know that it was an undisputed fact that Chief Shooting Star meant free candy.
Sadly, the truth of the matter is that the Tootsie Roll company never had a promotion like that. Nope, despite the beliefs of million of American kids the free candy promotion was a myth.
Just think how big it could have been if Tootsie Roll had ran with it. Bigger than "Win a Bike by Selling Greeting Cards!!!" TR could have published a catalog with all kinds of cool kid stuff...sea monkeys, superballs, submarines and x-ray glasses. Us kids would have saved our Chief Shooting Star wrappers and redeemed them by the millions.
We're all grown up now. Chief Shooting Star is just a politically-incorrect memory of a simpler time. A heartless little boy in a Native American costume, firing a deadly arrow into our innocence.
Hey, check out Chief Shooting Star! I've put him on a cool Lucky Indian Lighter!

COOQY eBay Widgets

I've installed a widget in the sidebar of Gnu Makins that comes from Cooqy.com. Cooqy widgets make it possible for eBay sellers to advertise their entire eBay inventory anywhere on the web with their customizable, eye-catching Showcase widget and Storefront widget. They also have a widget for sellers with a hot little search feature, but its a little too fat to fit my sidebar.
The widget I've installed is the Showcase widget and shows some of my watch offerings. Pretty cool!

Heroes of the Alamo Lighter

Here's a new item I've got running on eBay...this is my Heroes of the Alamo flip-top lighter. A very cool windproof lighter featuring an original design incorporating portraits of three of the Heroes of the Alamo...Col. Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett...along with a silhouette of the Alamo. I have these lighters made for me in China, and the company does a great job of taking my artwork and enameling it to the metal lighter. Quality work. If I still lived in Texas I would carry this lighter. Proudly.

Johnny Depp as John Dillinger

No, I'm not a huge Johnny Depp fan, but I am looking forward to seeing the new movie now filming, Public Enemies, in which Johnny Depp plays notorious gangster John Dillinger.

Grabbed this picture of Depp as Dillinger from Film School Rejects,
This is Depp the first day of shooting a few weeks ago up in Columbus, Wisconsin.
Depp's a pretty boy, definitely, but Dillinger wasn't the worst looking bum himself.


I have a few different items that I sell on eBay that feature John Dillinger...a watch, a clock, a belt buckle and a flip-top lighter. The art I use is actually adapted from a mugshot from one of his run-ins with John Law. If Johnny Depp can capture that same cocky smirk he may have a winner of a movie.

Pony Express Messenger Bags

One of our great items at RetroRanger:
Pony Express Messenger Bag http://www.cafepress.com/retroranger.115517602

Amelia Earhart on American Experience

A great biography of Amelia Earhart on Public TV's "American Experience" tonight. What a fascinating person she was. A star of her time and would have been a superstar if she had lived in today's world.

I have a couple of Amelia Earhart items that I sell in my eBay store...All-4-Corners.

I offer an Earhart Watch and an Earhart Clock that use the same face design. In the works are some other items, including a flip-top lighter and other timepieces. Will update when those are completed.

Flame On - Jack Russell Terriers & Blue Heelers

Couple of new flip-top lighter designs up on eBay starting today. I thought I'd give dog breeds a try and see what the demand is.

So, here are the Australian Cattle Dog Lighter and the Jack Russell Terrier Lighter...

I really have no feel for the market for dog designs.

On one hand, every breed has a legion of fans. On the other hand, there's tons of stuff out there.

Addendum - The Heeler lighter sold about 30 minutes after listing on eBay. There's a reason I've always loved those little ankle biters.

Booty Hunter Hat a Favorite

A continuing best-seller at RetroRanger...
Booty Hunter Trucker Hat http://www.cafepress.com/retroranger.96965286

HIPPIE LOVE BELT BUCKLE

Sold: HIPPIE LOVE BELT BUCKLE Buckel Mod Retro

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160226388896

Pickletoon Lighters on eBay

Some of the lighters I'm currently offering on eBay

Red WILLYS OVERLAND PICKUP LIGHTER Flip Top Great Gift

4/3/2008 2:51:34 PM

AL CAPONE LIGHTER Flip Top Chicago Scarface Gangster

4/3/2008 2:50:54 PM

JOHN DILLINGER LIGHTER Flip Top Gangster Public Enemy

4/3/2008 2:50:41 PM

Yellow JEEPSTER LIGHTER Flip Top Willys Overland

4/3/2008 2:50:08 PM

These entries are a cut and paste, one at a time, from an rss feed to newsgator.

This works much better than the previous experiment. Just some minor tweaking of the layout.

New Watches & Clocks on eBay

Some new watch and clock auctions starting today on eBay

L FRANK BAUM WATCH Wizard of Oz Author Wristwatch
2 hours ago

JIM BOWIE WALL CLOCK Alamo Knife Texas History Gift
2 hours ago

DOUGLAS MacARTHUR WALL CLOCK Return to Philippines WW2
2 hours ago

DOUGLAS MacARTHUR WATCH Philippines WW2 WWII Wristwatch
2 hours ago

Red NASH METROPOLITAN WALL CLOCK Hudson AMC Great Gift
2 hours ago

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART WATCH Cool Music Wristwatch
2 hours ago

EUCLID CLOCK Greek Mathematician Great Math Geek Gift
4 hours ago

WILLIAM TRAVIS WALL CLOCK Alamo Texas History Gift
4 hours ago

Blue NASH METROPOLITAN WALL CLOCK Hudson AMC Great Gift
4 hours ago

This entry is a cut and paste from my tumblr, the info being an RSS feed. Let's see how this scribefire submission lays out. Could be a simple way of getting current auction information onto my blog.
Addendum: Not satisfactory. Lay-out was all wrong, way too much white space. had to go in and manually clean things up.

Funky Red NASH METROPOLITAN WATCH Hudson AMC Wristwatch

 

 

Sent to you by Richard via Google Reader:

 

 

Funky Red NASH METROPOLITAN WATCH Hudson AMC Wristwatch

via (watch,clock,buckle,lighter) on 4/5/08

US $19.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Saturday Apr-12-2008 15:46:43 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $24.99 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list

 

 

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Marching Band License Plate Frames

Got the first sale today of a Marching Band License Plate Frame. I've
been offering these a couple of weeks at RetroRanger. Sold was a I'd
Rather Be Playing Saxophone License Plate Frame

http://www.cafepress.com/retroranger.243644188

Should do some side promotion of these and see if I can't boost some
sales. But the first sale is always the toughest.

Charles Darwin T-shirt on Cafepress

Another look at the new Charles Darwin T-Shirt I've currently got for sale at RetroRanger, one of my Cafepress stores.

Al Capone Flip Top Lighter

Here's a better look at the Al Capone Lighter I have for sale on eBay

John Dillinger Flip Top Lighter

A better look at the new John Dillinger flip-top lighter I have for sale on eBay