Comparing Books and Buttons

Our daughter is a book seller, and I am here to tell you that when it comes to pricing books vs pricing buttons, there is no comparison. Most of the time when Valerie lists a book for sale online, what an advantage she has! She just enters the ISBN and up pops a suggested price and a list of prices that other people are currently asking for it. Wouldn't it be nice if buttons had ISBNs? We cannot pick up a button and read a title or find an ISBN printed on it! It is OH, so nice if we recognize it or find it online or in a reference book. But even when we know the name of a button, prices are all over the place.     Let's talk about this Weeber button as an example. When I found it, I looked at it and remembered the realistic tomato that I  sold several years ago. I didn't have a clue back then that it was a Weeber.  In fact, I had never heard the name Weeber associated with buttons. But I remember when I offered that tomato for $8.00 it sold very quickly. Not only that, there were many inquiries, "is it still available?" From the interest it generated,  I knew I had let that tomato go for way too little.

Since confession is good for the soul, I called my aunt and told her I had made a mistake with her tomato button. Her response? "Don't worry about it, dear. I'm happy for them. I always love it when I get a good deal and I love it when somebody else does, too!". (That took some of the pressure off).

So what about the lovely one pictured here? I couldn't find it online or in the Big Book. So I turned to the Buttonbytes folks and they seemed to agree that it is a Weeber -- the leaves were the best evidence for them, they said. "Great", I thought! Then I got an email, "If you are planning on selling that Weeber, I would like to have it." I thought I'd like to have it, too. But that is the case with SO many of my Aunt's buttons and I simply cannot afford everything I like. So I decided to sell it to the inquirer.

The quandry was "what do I charge?" I'm told the fair price is what the market will bear. But where do you start when you don't even see another one like it? In this case, the buyer and I settled on $30.00 and I am still not sure if the "Price Is Right". The buyer is happy, though, and so am I (just as my Aunt would want).