WWII USAF Italian Marble ashtray w/ names of lovers

We've had this romantic mystery item for quite a while now and could not find anything to compare it to. We searched and searched but couldn't find any info. on it. But thanks to Auction Wally and his professional Antiques Appraisals, we now know that the reason we couldn't find anything like it was because it's one of a kind! There were many love stories during WWII and Elvin & Norma were one of them.... more info. on Auction Wally's site "What's it Worth". Just click on title above or on our "Check out these blogs..." link list further down.

Vintage Designer Costume Jewelry coming soon....

Starting this week we will be listing several pieces and sets of vintage designer costume jewelry. From names like Sarah Coventry, Trifari, Napier & more. Along with a vintage enamel mod daisy pin that is still sealed in it's original package! Brand new vintage! I'm thinking at this point that they may go into auction at our ebay location. So if designer vintage costume jewelry is your thing, you may want to contact us or just check our ebay store through out the next week or so at.... Vaudeville Vintage & Collectibles.

SALE!!!

20% off any item in either store! Lasts till Tuesday April 15th. Follow links at top of blog to either store and if you see something you like, just contact me before you check-out so I can adjust the price to the sale price for you!

Ghetto Postal

I have had nothing but problems with my local post office. I live in a nice neighborhood but in New Orleans you can be in front of mansions on one block and in the ghetto 2 blocks later. So my local post office has a level of professionalism that is comparable only to a ghetto McDonalds. The problems these postal "professionals" have caused me would take waaaayyy too long to describe them all. But here's a few just to give you a general idea...... 1. RUDENESS and bad attitude of course, every time I go in there. 2. GETTING IN MY BUSINESS....When I am dropping off a package that the shipping label has been bought online and so has already been paid for, they have no reason to put it on their scale. They are just supposed to take the box from me and put it in the bin. But these women are so nosy, that they end up making fools of themselves. They'll weigh the package even though I've explained that it's paid and set to go. Then they'll VERY LOUDLY exclaim that this isn't paid for and needs another 30 cents. They'll keep this up until they finally figure out that ...um..."The labels are cheaper online". OOPS! Then with out even appologizing for trying to embarrass me but succeeding only in embarrassing themselves, they just take the box and say nothing. 3. CARRIER PICK-UP....When I request pick up online(put in an order for a postal carrier to come by your home or business to pick up outgoing packages) they could not get it right! They would never show up and I would call at 5 pm and have a supervisor run out to pick up my packages. This would go on for months. Then we had one that instead of just checking the pick up orders in the morning, she would come knock on my door every single day to see if by chance I had packages and wake up my napping toddler every single day in the process. My favorite is when we weren't going to be at home and so we would have to leave the boxes on the front stoop directly below the mailbox. We would come home and discover that the postal carrier had actually stepped over the packages to put our mail in the box then stepped back over them to leave....with out them! He later explained that he "Didn't know he was supposed to pick them up". I said next time just tell him to check the U.S.P.S. logo on his uniform, then check the U.S.P.S. logo on the boxes, if they match and if the address are outgoing, then you know it's for you. 4. DELIVERY....Our mail sometimes takes weeks to show up. If you're familiar with Netflix, then you know that you get your movies in the mail by the next business day. We are signed up to get 3 at a time(silly, because we never have time to watch them) instead, we get the 3 movies but staggered across the course of 2 or 3 weeks and sometimes broken. 5. WHERE'S MY MONEY? One time we were expecting a check in the mail which at the time we desperately needed because our landlord had failed to mention that there was a problem with our central air, causing a $1,300.00 electric bill. Of course, our local post office never lets us down, once again we waited, freted, made calls as weeks went by with no check in the mail. We assumed they had just stolen it but what they did this time was...When the check arrived at our local post office, they decided that our address was not our current address, stamped our OLD address on it and sent it back to NY. Funny, considering we had been at this address for months and had filed a change of address and gotten all of our mail(although very late and broken)at our current address for 5 or 6 months by then. So our power was shut off, and we had to wait for the check to meander all the way back to NY and back down to New Orleans again. That little decision of that postal worker caused us almost a month of stress & suffering. 6. HACKEY-SACK......When I drop off packages at the post office, they ask you if there is anything fragile in the boxes. I say yes, they stamp it "FRAGILE" then pick it up, give it a little twirl at their fingertips then toss it into the bin. See as I've said earlier, this is only part of the issues they have caused! No really, there's more! But it would take forever so I will finish up with the most recent and the reason that I've decided to write these things down....... GHETTO POSTAL INC. It started a couple weeks ago. I got a package in the mail. I got a knife to open it. I slid the knife along the taped edge as you would an envelop but the knife just slid right through with nothing to slow it down. As I inspected the package, I realized that the other side was taped but this side had already been slit open with a knife as though someone was looking for something worth stealing. But inside, the item was so covered with bubble wrap that I guess it seemed hopeless to go any further. Oh of course I had some doubt, it was one package maybe it was an accident I wondered. Until a few days later, another one of my packages showed up the same way, the tap slit open on one side. But this time the edge of the box was also bent upwards as though they took it one step further and tried to bend the box flap up a little so they could see what was in there. Then it happened again, and again, and again yesterday. I filed a claim with the postal inspector- a fiasco in and of it's self complete with rude phone assistants, the run-around, mis-information. When I called to follow up on my claim I was told......"It says here that THEY spoke to SOMEONE". I'm like..."THEY spoke to SOMEONE? .....WHO spoke to WHO? What does that mean?" Anyway, "THEY" are supposed to be looking into it. So in the meantime, I had also been told that if my packages show up like that again, take them straight to the local post office. I had to say...."Well, Ok But I kind of suspect that they are in on it". So I took the most recent theft attempt down to Ghetto Postal Inc. and spoke to the supervisor. And judging by his smirk, attitude and demeanor, I now believe I was right. He tried to act like this wasn't happening, he told me that "this kind of tape rips on it's own". I told him..."This never happened to me in my life until the last 2 weeks, now it's happened 5 times, that doesn't look like an accident, and as for the tape, there's been several boxes with all different kinds of tape including the kind with the fiberglass strings through the tape, which can only be opened with a knife or scissors"(the box in front of him, the one that he said could easily rip, had that very tape!) . I guess he couldn't play it off any longer so he said..."well If that's what you think is happening, then what people are doing is calling the postal inspector, here's the number". I just smiled, said thank you and left. My suspicions confirmed. You know, when you start a business, you imagine all sorts of other things that may go awry in your business but I never imagined the hours I'd have to waste on a one-woman-crusade against my local post office. Luckily, this is a local issue, None of my customers have had this happen to any of their packages. It's just incoming packages. It's going to be resolved, I've still got a few more steps I can take!