Buying the Perfect Boat©Written by Valerie Giles
Why is it, that when you are looking to buy a boat, you can never find one that suits your needs? This is what happens to many people every year and in particular to ourselves. It’s just like buying a house. When you are selling, it is a buyer’s market and when you are buying it is a seller’s market! This year my husband and I decided that it was time to buy our first boat.Now we have been boating with our friends on their Bayliner for many years. They pay for boat expenses and we bring food and drink in exchange. Not a bad deal we figured, until we got boat bug ourselves. Now we want to own our own boat. After six years of boating and as many seasons of boat shows, we decided to take a boating course. So a couple of winters ago, we signed up for a rather lengthy boating course of 16 weeks. We decided that firstly we wanted to be safe boaters and secondly we wanted to protect our very expensive boat investment when time came. Week after week of classes, lesson after lesson of plotting and tying knots came and went and finally it was time to graduate and try our luck at boating with all this new found knowledge. We decided first to try out our expertise on our friends’ boat, but discovered that was like having two cooks in same kitchen. Things don’t really run as smoothly as one would like. Tie a knot. Have someone retie it for you! Hang fenders over side. Have someone reposition them! So after several weekends of unsuccessful attempts, decision was made to buy our own boat sooner rather than later where we could tie our own brand of knot and observe channel markers way we had been taught! So we started to look. What happened to all “For Sale” signs that we had seen only weeks before in every marina that we cruised past? Where were all those perfect boats that we had seen in every cove and tied up to every dock? They were no where to be found. Finally after perusing yachting magazines and journals, talking to several boat brokers and searching many internet boats for sale sites, we found what we thought to be perfect yacht for us - right in our own backyard. Only five minutes from our home there is located a marina with lots of power boats. Last year there were many for sale. But as luck would have it, we were not looking then. This year, there were fewer boats for sale. But on this one particular morning as we drove through marina parking lot, we spied perfect boat. We hopped out of car and walked over to take a closer look. The boat had been pulled out of water, so we were able to look it over from all sides including bottom.
| | Rare Depression Glass PiecesWritten by Murray Hughes
Depression Glass - The Rare PiecesDid you know that if you happen to have a crystal (clear) and pink Depression Glass refrigerator bowl in Crisscross pattern in good condition and with its original cover, that it’s valued at between $300 and $335? Or that Shirley Temple cream pitcher your grandmother keeps in back of her upper cabinet could bring up to $1,250 at auction? If you didn’t, then you’ve been in dark about rare Depression Glass pieces and their values! Here are a few pieces for which knowledgeable Depression Glass collectors stay on constant lookout: The Ruby Red Aladdin Beehive Lamp Made for only six months during 1937, this lamp currently brings anywhere from $700 to $950 – if it can be found! Most collectors owning this piece understandably do not have any interest in letting go of it, which makes it even rarer. The color of glass in Aladdin series of ruby lamps varies from a light red with an amber tint to dark, rich red, with deeper reds fetching more interest with today’s collectors. So if you have this lamp with trademarked “Aladdin” on it wick-raising knob, you’ve truly got yourself a prize! Cambridge Glass Company’s Blue Cleo Etched and Footed Sugar Sifter Although Cleo pattern, introduced by Cambridge in 1930, was produced in a variety of colors such as amber, green, crystal (clear), peach, and gold, it was and still is blue that attracts buyers. Along with oil bottle with its original stopper, footed sugar sifter proves to be hardest to find and, subsequently, most costly when it is unearthed. These sugar sifters, usually seen only in books or magazines or, if you’re lucky, in a Depression Glass club member’s private collection, can be had, reluctantly, for anywhere from $900 to more than $1,000. So if you encounter one in person, just look -- don’t touch it!
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