kitbop
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,623 
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Post by kitbop on Oct 2, 2021 3:06:07 GMT
Welcome to your challenge team for the month of October @zingermack , boymom5 , ComplicatedLady , AussieMeg , jjpeapea , gramma , katiekaty , nylene , kellyr21 , Linda , joblackford , teacherlisa I am participating in a big cardmaking event (virtual) this weekend and our schedule is PACKED. I'm unsure how I will get to the bathroom let alone be around on the boards  But I did want to say an early-in-the-month "HELLO DIVAS!!" because we know how fast these months are flying by  First and MOST IMPORTANT - Go post some challenges!!! If you are a cardmaker, or are playing along with cardtober, please make some challenges that will give you points for your work! Remember, you can assign more than 1 point to a challenge if you think it warrants it. Like a shaker card - sorry, but I would need 10 points to make a shaker card Next - please feel free to touch base here. I love to hear how peas are doing through the month. AND...for those of you who haven't tried a virtual crop yet... these are likely to start being a regular occurrence this month, hosted on google meets - just click and join. It's a very friendly group and it's awfully nice to have "company" while creating. We love seeing new peas pop in. I'm very much hoping this will be a creative month for me. I have this card event to jumpstart me. I have last months sketches to help. Now, who are our cardtober peas??? |
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Post by joblackford on Oct 2, 2021 3:31:40 GMT
Hey there:) Good news - the cardtober challenges are going to be worth lots of points! We figured it out with Grammadee so that we get regular or easy peasy points PLUS cardtober challenge points, so if you make and share an A2 card with the challenge and the twist you can get something like 20 points!  So please come play along. I'll be posting color scheme challenges on Wednesdays, nothing too difficult, just some colors to get you started. No need to do anything fancy. Sticking some patterned paper on a card front and adding a sentiment will do. There are Sheetload of Cards sketch challenges if you need a starting point. You don't have to make a whole batch to use the sketches. And if you need a charity to send your cards to we have a thread for that on the cardmaking board too. I'm going to try to get back into the points counting zone again after a month off |
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Post by AussieMeg on Oct 2, 2021 3:41:20 GMT
I'm not a card maker, so I won't be joining in the Cardtober fun. But having somehow managed to complete every Sketchtember sketch, I feel like I am on a roll, so I hope to get lots and lots of layouts done. And who knows, maybe I'll finally get back to my 2021 Project Life pages. 🤞🤞
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Post by Linda on Oct 2, 2021 3:46:55 GMT
Thanks kitbop for being our team leader this month. Have a wonderful creative weekend! joblackford - I'm so glad you'll be posting easy challenges - today's was NOT easy. But I did it! (let's not talk about how long it took but I could have made 3 or 4 layouts faster) Busy weekend here also - DH and DD14 are going to Legocon tomorrow morning and I'll be using that time to sew a skirt for her for her birthday on Sunday. Then DD14 has a homecoming dance in the evening - hoping to get some photos from that as well. Sunday is her birthday and she has a Girl Scout meeting - between the 1hr drive each way and the 2hr meeting, that takes up the afternoon. We'll take her out to dinner before we head home for cake, ice cream, and presents (hopefully including a mama-made skirt...that she only mentioned this evening...thankfully right before I went grocery shopping so stopped at HL for fabric) I might get some scrapping/cardmaking done in the evenings but it might need to wait until Monday. I am hoping to do the Cardtober challenges - I've struggled in the past with not having the right supplies/tools and today's card was similar - I made do with half-size photo splits (instead of whatever tape was suggested) and using my paper trimmer to replace a score board. edited - hi AussieMeg - I think we were posting at the same time. I always enjoy your layouts so look forward to your shares this month. |
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Post by katiekaty on Oct 2, 2021 5:49:04 GMT
I need to replenish my cards for the next year, I have used up a lot of my stock since there wasn’t much socializing this last year and a half . So, hopefully the challenges will get me moving in that respect. AussieMeg sometimes card sketches make good inspiration for quick and simple layouts! kitbop I have recently started doing online cropping with a FB group and it is a lot of fun just to “hang out” without going anywhere. I have all I my supplies handy , any snacks I want and my friends are there virtually-doesn’t get much better than that! And I am not loading up stuff or driving home in the dark- so it’s a win-win situation. We use %oom. It that similar to google meets? joblackford I am going to try to post a card challenge over the weekend, I just need to work out the logistics I taking better photos and getting the wording down correctly! |
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Post by jjpeapea on Oct 2, 2021 11:34:02 GMT
Just checking in. I enjoyed the Sketchtember challenges and I plan to do as many CARDtober challenges as I can. I need to get my Project Life September pictures ordered. The mornings are a little chilly here in Central Pennsylvania but the afternoons are those crispy sunshiny beautiful fall days. I have to limit the places I go today because there's a football game tonight and the roads will be quite busy.
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Post by boymom5 on Oct 2, 2021 13:42:39 GMT
I’m not a card maker as much as I’ve tried, but I am going to use this month to catch up on my pocket pages for 2021 and continue our 2018 album. My goal is to catch up on this years for sure so I don’t forget those stories. I will enjoy seeing everyone’s card creations too!
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Post by joblackford on Oct 2, 2021 17:13:55 GMT
I'm so glad you'll be posting easy challenges - today's was NOT easy. But I did it! (let's not talk about how long it took but I could have made 3 or 4 layouts faster) Box cards can be quite time consuming the first few times you try them, but you did it and you did a great job! I promise my challenges will be easier |
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Post by Linda on Oct 2, 2021 17:15:18 GMT
I'm so glad you'll be posting easy challenges - today's was NOT easy. But I did it! (let's not talk about how long it took but I could have made 3 or 4 layouts faster) Box cards can be quite time consuming the first few times you try them, but you did it and you did a great job! I promise my challenges will be easier  Thank you - I'm not much of a cardmaker but I do try all the Cardtober challenges - it forces me to stretch my skills (such as they are) |
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Post by katiekaty on Oct 3, 2021 2:10:50 GMT
Just added my October Sheetload of cards to that thread. Need to figure out how to count these as points and where they will fit in the challenges. It was a fun way to spend my afternoon will the guys were being grumpy around the house since we had rain and they couldn’t do yard work or “play” at fixing up the old truck.
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Post by joblackford on Oct 5, 2021 1:51:10 GMT
Just added my October Sheetload of cards to that thread. Need to figure out how to count these as points and where they will fit in the challenges. It was a fun way to spend my afternoon will the guys were being grumpy around the house since we had rain and they couldn’t do yard work or “play” at fixing up the old truck. Doing the easy peasy method I think you should be able to claim 11 points per card for making them, plus another 1 point for sharing them (as a group since they were pretty much all the same), and then the 10 bonus points that were offered specifically for using that sketch. And then if you used any other challenges from cardtober so far as a starting point you could claim those points as well. If you're counting with regular challenge points it's a bit more time consuming to check all the categories (which is why I never do it!) Is that how other people would count? I think there's always some room for interpretation. You could also check with azcrafty in that specific challenge thread. |
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Post by katiekaty on Oct 5, 2021 2:15:27 GMT
Just added my October Sheetload of cards to that thread. Need to figure out how to count these as points and where they will fit in the challenges. It was a fun way to spend my afternoon will the guys were being grumpy around the house since we had rain and they couldn’t do yard work or “play” at fixing up the old truck. Doing the easy peasy method I think you should be able to claim 11 points per card for making them, plus another 1 point for sharing them (as a group since they were pretty much all the same), and then the 10 bonus points that were offered specifically for using that sketch. And then if you used any other challenges from cardtober so far as a starting point you could claim those points as well. If you're counting with regular challenge points it's a bit more time consuming to check all the categories (which is why I never do it!) Is that how other people would count? I think there's always some room for interpretation. You could also check with azcrafty in that specific challenge thread. Thanks! For September I printed out the spreadsheet and kind of work off that-had to do the easy easy on a couple things. September was the first month to participate in these challenges, but it did help me get so much more done than usual and I definitely seemed to enjoy it more. So far I am having fun this month too. |
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kitbop
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,623
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Post by kitbop on Oct 6, 2021 1:50:37 GMT
I am sorry, I am not up to speed on how to count card points/challenges! I will need to learn because I've got 25 cards to count up from my weekend event! Great team leader, huh? Question for you guys: if a card I made this weekend meets one of the upcoming cardtober challenges, can I use it to fulfill that day since I did create it this month??? Like, I kinda have a stash here of 25 new cards of varying techniques, colours, themes etc., and I'd love to get points from them |
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Post by joblackford on Oct 6, 2021 1:57:55 GMT
I am sorry, I am not up to speed on how to count card points/challenges! I will need to learn because I've got 25 cards to count up from my weekend event! Great team leader, huh? Question for you guys: if a card I made this weekend meets one of the upcoming cardtober challenges, can I use it to fulfill that day since I did create it this month??? Like, I kinda have a stash here of 25 new cards of varying techniques, colours, themes etc., and I'd love to get points from them That’s something I asked grammadee the first year I did CARDtober and I think she said no, not if we made them before and they just happened to match up with challenges. But I’m not sure. It might be ok since they were made this month… (and if you kept it a secret and then shared them on the appropriate thread who would know when you made them? 🤫 oops, I guess now everyone knows!) |
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Post by Linda on Oct 6, 2021 15:07:20 GMT
kitbop - I think you should be able to get regular challenge points and the making/sharing points if you made them in October (which last weekend was) but like joblackford _ I don't think they count for Cardtober but I would double check with grammadee because sometimes she updates stuff.
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gramma
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,114
Location: Sacramento, Ca
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Post by gramma on Oct 6, 2021 16:50:00 GMT
This is from the points spreadsheet - - - hope it helps
EASY PEASY:
After you have calculated in your creating (1 point) and sharing (1 point), you claim a flat number of points for each creation, depending on its SIZE
****Give yourself 20 points for every creation that is at least 8”x11”.
***Give yourself 15 points for each creation that is between 5”x7” and 8”x11”
**Give yourself 10 points for any creation smaller than 5”x7”
If you create multiple cards with the same design (let's say 10 for this example), you can show us ONE of them. Then you would claim 10 for creating and 1 for sharing before going on with other points. (11 points in the example)
* EASY PEASY, just go by points for that size (let's say 15 in this case) and multiply by number of cards (10), add on your points for creating/sharing (11) and your total would be 161 points for ten cards.
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Post by joblackford on Oct 6, 2021 16:54:59 GMT
I am sorry, I am not up to speed on how to count card points/challenges! I will need to learn because I've got 25 cards to count up from my weekend event! Great team leader, huh? Question for you guys: if a card I made this weekend meets one of the upcoming cardtober challenges, can I use it to fulfill that day since I did create it this month??? Like, I kinda have a stash here of 25 new cards of varying techniques, colours, themes etc., and I'd love to get points from them The good news is that you have easy peasy 25 x 12 = 300? points just from making and sharing them. If they do qualify for the challenges you could have up to 20 points per card (assuming you somehow qualified for the challenge and the twist) which would be nice. But 300 points for making cards is pretty nice! |
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Post by grammadee on Oct 6, 2021 17:53:46 GMT
kitbop - I think you should be able to get regular challenge points and the making/sharing points if you made them in October (which last weekend was) but like joblackford _ I don't think they count for Cardtober but I would double check with grammadee because sometimes she updates stuff. Question for you guys: if a card I made this weekend meets one of the upcoming cardtober challenges, can I use it to fulfill that day since I did create it this month??? Like, I kinda have a stash here of 25 new cards of varying techniques, colours, themes etc., and I'd love to get points from them
The good news is that you have easy peasy 25 x 12 = 300? points just from making and sharing them. If they do qualify for the challenges you could have up to 20 points per card (assuming you somehow qualified for the challenge and the twist) which would be nice. But 300 points for making cards is pretty nice!
You gals keep calling me into a thread where I don't belong...
But I agree with Linda that the points don't count for CARDtober if you shared them before the challenge was posted.
BUT kitbop... you not only get to claim the points joblackford mentioned, but also a quick 40 points for the 12 card challenge.
PLUS, I think that participating in all those hours of the SCT event should count as cropping with other people, so score that at 10 points per hour...
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Post by joblackford on Oct 8, 2021 16:46:36 GMT
I'm steadily working away on cards for CARDtober challenges (mostly my own samples so I won't be sharing until later) but I really need to get Halloween into high gear somehow. I'm really craving one of those days when I can just churn through things and finish a bunch of cards, but I seem to be stuck in loops of overthinking and overworking them. This happens about 3 weeks before every holiday when I realize I won't be able to get them into my shop in time to be bought and used unless I hustle. sigh... And really all I want to do is just finish a bunch of random cards that I have half-done. Too many tasks, not enough time. The massive plate collection I brought home from FIL's place to sell is always at the back of my mind. I try to designate different days for different focus so I don't spend 2 weeks working on junk and completely neglect my house or shop or fun, but it's a challenge to leave something unfinished again until next Tuesday and be OK with that. Thank you for listening... writing this stuff out is like therapy |
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Post by Linda on Oct 8, 2021 20:28:16 GMT
((((Hugs))) joblackford - I think you're smart to designate specific times for working on stuff but I hear you the leaving undone for now - it's hard. DD15 isn't feeling 100% today so we're all staying home and hopefully she'll feel better tomorrow so we can go and see DS (he's on detachment about 2 hrs away briefly). I should work on Cardtober challenges and/or my album but I decorated for Hallowe'en and did some organising of my scrapbook space. It doesn't look too much different because I mostly cleaned out/organised drawers and re-worked the small bookcase I use for tools and some supplies. I did re-do my die and clear stamp storage - I didn't care for the stamp binder I bought but I salvaged the inner pages and while I love the artbin magnetic sheets, I needed vertical rather than horizontal storage - so both are now vertically in an old plastic shoebox w/o the lid. And I've decided that I need to use more and shop less |
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kitbop
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,623
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Post by kitbop on Oct 13, 2021 14:09:57 GMT
Linda - getting your stamps and dies out into the open is such a great move! I use mine so much more now. I still have 2 binders of stamps that are close to 20 years old. I should get them out too although a lot of them are alphabet stamps and journaling shapes that I wouldn't use anymore. The magnetic sheets are so expensive these days - I need a bunch more, but the price has doubled on amazon. I bought 8.5x11 sheets and cut them, but they didn't go far! joblackford - I keep thinking of you and your etsy store! I am not an entrepreneur so any "shop" idea scares me. But I'd love to be able to sell some of what I'm making these days. Does Etsy charge a lot? You mention that "block" that happens when deadlines approach, and that does scare me a bit from making any business out of my crafting. When I was on design teams, my mojo suffered from deadlines and being bound by kits and seasons. Your FIL's collections never end, do they? Are you at least profiting from all your work? I agree, writing out the woes is very therapeutic - puts it in perspective and lets you take a look at your chores and organize yourself. How's everyone doing? I've done NO scrapbooking, only cardmaking! I have a few Christmas card designs made. I wrote out a bunch of ideas for designs, and am trying to use all my dies/stamps at least once on a card. That's a bigger chore than it sounds Didn't like the one I made last night and I'm not sure what it "needs". This is it, just took a picture:  card ornaments seasons greetings by kirstendrew, on Flickr And now looking at it I think I might a) stamp/emboss a snowflake on each ornament or b) turn 1 or more of the ornaments into little shaker elements.
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Post by Linda on Oct 13, 2021 15:59:40 GMT
cute card kitbopI haven't been crafting at all - sorry guys. Hopefully I'll get back to the scrapbook table soon and get some points |
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gramma
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,114
Location: Sacramento, Ca
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Post by gramma on Oct 13, 2021 18:31:50 GMT
kitbop I love that card! I suppose you could turn the ornaments into shakers but wouldn't that be a LOT of work?
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Post by jjpeapea on Oct 13, 2021 18:54:14 GMT
kitbop, I like your card, how it is arranged. "Season's greetings" looks great, is it a sticker from a sticker pack? I've been keeping up with CARDtober to have something to look forward to each day. And each day I deep clean one wall of one room (plus routine cleaning elsewhere...). I have a swollen spot next to my knee, so I'm trying to be kind to that and not bike ride or take long walks like I like to do.
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Post by Linda on Oct 13, 2021 19:21:18 GMT
jjpeapea -hope your knee feels better soon I did make it to the scrapbook table today but not to scrapbook or card make. Instead I made paper pumpkins after watching a video tutorial www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJJaK7l-Gn8 I don't know if they'll garner any points though. I only used 2 sheets of cardstock and 2 old PP (one is HOTP, lol) plus 6 brads and 2 scraps for the leaves. 
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kitbop
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,623
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Post by kitbop on Oct 13, 2021 20:00:00 GMT
Linda - super cute! Great way to use up old pp too. jjpeapea - the "Season's Greetings" is a stamp that I embossed (it's Silver, the lights made it gold looking in the photo). It's a Simon Says Stamp set that has a die for it, hence the neat cutting around it. I matted it on the red and fussy cut that.
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Post by jjpeapea on Oct 13, 2021 20:06:55 GMT
Linda - super cute! Great way to use up old pp too. jjpeapea - the "Season's Greetings" is a stamp that I embossed (it's Silver, the lights made it gold looking in the photo). It's a Simon Says Stamp set that has a die for it, hence the neat cutting around it. I matted it on the red and fussy cut that. Wow your Season's Greetings looks so neat, lovely embossing and lovely fussy cutting. |
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kellyr21
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,002
Location: California
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Post by kellyr21 on Oct 13, 2021 21:36:32 GMT
Hey everyone! Just waving hi to all of you and reading the post to see what you all are doing. This month, I haven't scraped or made any cards so far. So, if time permits, I might work on more holiday cards.  |
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Post by joblackford on Oct 14, 2021 4:40:55 GMT
I keep thinking of you and your etsy store! I am not an entrepreneur so any "shop" idea scares me. But I'd love to be able to sell some of what I'm making these days. Does Etsy charge a lot? You mention that "block" that happens when deadlines approach, and that does scare me a bit from making any business out of my crafting. When I was on design teams, my mojo suffered from deadlines and being bound by kits and seasons. Your FIL's collections never end, do they? Are you at least profiting from all your work? I agree, writing out the woes is very therapeutic - puts it in perspective and lets you take a look at your chores and organize yourself. Regarding the Etsy store, the creative pressures can be rough and Etsy rewards busy stores (lots of updates, new products, behind the scenes messing around) with more traffic and quiet stores are kind of left to die. They definitely take their cut when you list and when you sell, reward stores that offer free shipping which further cuts into your profits, and there are other costs to consider. The big issue is keeping track of your materials and inventory - the US tax man wants to know the cost of the goods sold which means you have to document each element that goes into each card. You don't just get to expense a paper pad when you buy it and be done, you have to document when you buy it and then assign each sheet that you use to a product so when it sells you get to expense that sheet, but if you use a sheet for a scrapbook project that's withdrawn for personal use... etc etc There's a free ebook you can get here although it might be different for Canadian taxes. The cost of this software is a monthly expense for me, more than I earn some months, but totally essential for me for when I do sell stuff, without having to learn Excel and spend ages doing accounting. If I had it to do over again I might just sell a few cards under the table to friends and donate the rest of my excess. Making cards to donate is so much more relaxing. As for the collections... no, they never end. Technically I'm selling my late MIL's collections, she was a collector of collectibles, and my husband is mostly selling stuff from FIL. So he's sold 11 ladders that FIL was given for free this summer, something like 5 inflatable boats that washed up abandoned, wheelbarrows and furniture, he just got a case of commemorative beer for free from FIL's friend who moved. Might be worth $25 a bottle! My stuff is a lot of $10 items that cost them $80 in the 90s, and they're filthy and out of fashion  Some were yard sale junk that's still junk. The volume is the killer. So so so much stuff. But yes, we get half of whatever money we get, which in my case is $5 here and there, but FIL is very generous and gives us half even when we barely do anything. He had a neighbor come over to choose some Polish pottery yesterday which saved me from having to (clean, research, list &) sell so many pieces and he's giving me half of the money anyway. And every so often a collection is worth some real money (or one was - the glassybaby). This is the end of the second year of de-stashing the house. I brought home even more decorative plates yesterday, and Polish pottery. And a dead bird painting, some animal traps, and a small cauldron. As you do |
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Post by jjpeapea on Oct 23, 2021 12:45:10 GMT
Hey Divas, how is your month coming along? boymom5 how are your pocket pages coming along? I finished mine for September but they are kinda lame. Mostly just little captions on pictures, a few embellishments here and there. Maybe next month I'll make it more special. But that's exactly what I like about pocket pages. Not feeling it? Just capture the memories. Feeling it? Embellish your little heart out. joblackford my DH is cleaning out his mom's house and like your plates, they are saying, "What are we going to do with all these crystal bells?" The bells are going to a consignment shop but we don't have a lot of hopes for them. kellyr21 I miss checking in on you on the exercise thread but I'm trying to be kind to my puffy knee and ouchy foot. It's gone on long enough, it's the doctor for me on Monday. linda cute pumpkins! They'll look great as a grouping on display. We went to the PSU homecoming parade last night. Best one I've been to in years ... get it?? It was so great to see people marching in a parade, waving, laughing. It was so spread out that it took longer than usual. |
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Some were yard sale junk that's still junk. The volume is the killer. So so so much stuff. But yes, we get half of whatever money we get, which in my case is $5 here and there, but FIL is very generous and gives us half even when we barely do anything. He had a neighbor come over to choose some Polish pottery yesterday which saved me from having to (clean, research, list &) sell so many pieces and he's giving me half of the money anyway. And every so often a collection is worth some real money (or one was - the glassybaby).