The woes of clutter, the wolves of Ebay and the great Dane. (Part 2)

So continuing on with the story...

As mentioned, it was quite upsetting to see all these things I grew up all of the sudden up for sale at the world's larget online auction entity, Ebay. Attached are some of the details I was receiving from DJ, Joe Bourne in regards to the items being sold on Ebay:


Summary

This is a 12 by 11 1/2 inch photo album from the estate of Jimmy Raney, the renowned jazz guitarist. It contains 82 photographs, some color but most black and white, that were taken from birth to Raney's senior years. It includes large pictures of some of the bands and groups he played with, including Woody Herman and Artie Shaw. Raney lived here in Louisville and I will admit that I don't know some of the people in the photographs. There are photos of his parents, his toddler years, as a teenager, adulthood, and his senior years. He is pictured with his guitar in a lot of these. If you are a Jimmy Raney fan, what a great collectible to go along with his music albums! Weighs 5 pounds before packing so buyer pays actual shipping from zip code 40222 plus insurance. M.O., cashier's and personal check accepted with clearance time for the latter. Sorry, no Paypal. Thanks.On Jan-03-06 at 14:07:20 ..

JIMMY RANEY, UNFINISHED SELF PORTRAIT, OIL ON CANVAS Item number: 7569495680

Summary
UNBELIEVABLE FIND IN LOUISVILLE AUCTION!! JIMMY RANEY PHOTOS, ALBUMS, AND HOMEMADE TAPE, PAPER MEMORABILIA AND A TEST PRINTING ALBUM ALL BELONGED TO JIMMY RANEY!! ; UNUSUAL, UNFINISHED! OIL ON CANVAS DONE BY JIMMY RANEY "SELF PORTRAIT" DATED 1992 ; Measures approximately 35 X 24.; Unmatted, unframed.; Canvas only!; This is unfinished, but dated 1992.; On the back it says it has Ray Parker emblems.; Great piece of memorabilia for the fans of this giant jazz legend.; Please put me in your favorites.; I have alot of Jimmy Raney and his son, Doug Raney, personal photographs, and more coming up for auction this week!! Check out my other items!Be sure to add me to your favorites list! TO ALL BIDDERS: I combine shipping on items that end within 24 hours and will invoice accordingly, saving YOU money. Feedback is a very important business tool and I appreciate all positive feedbacks....



I even recall that someone was selling a postcard that was supposedly sent from actor/director Danny DeVito to Dad saying hi and giving kind comment about a Bradley's performance. I had no idea Dad knew him.

The first twist in the right direction:

Joe Bourne the DJ bid on and won an item. He's a real nice guy and he offered to send me what he bought.

Here is the correspondence:

"Jon—

...Yesterday I sent a money order to (name withheld) to cover the 4 items I bought from her: a Childhood photo, Thurber Carnival Cast photo, Silver Sessions book (in Japanese), and Jimmy and Attilla Zoller 1986 LP, Live at Quasimodo. Let me have your address and I will forward them to you. (I will make a CD copy of the LP for me).
I hated to see the price jump so high on the photo album the other guy sold—couldn’t compete with that.."

Because he was so up front and generous about these things, I deferred on his offer. I may ask him for some copies of pics and post them at some point.
The self portrait painting was bid on and won by a collector in Denmark. Ebay security/protection rules forbade me from contacting the bidder.

The second twist:

Because of my increasing presence on the Internet with my interconnected website, forum and especially my blog which includes a great deal of Jimmy Raney doin's, I began attracting many visitors and fans of Jimmy and Doug Raney. Then I got this correspondence:

Hi Jon!

As a huge fan of Jimmy Raney I purchased a photo collection on Ebay last year - unfortunately not the old photo book which was also on sale but a collection including photos from Jimmy's tour of Japan and some from a Holland tour with Doug.
Many of the photos is family photos of no interest to me.
I would like to contribute almost the whole collection to you
so that you may use it for your site if you want.
I am keeping some photos myself but will include scans of them.
I just need an adress and the photos will be on the way.

I also bought a painting by Jimmy - an unfinished self portrait. I've always wanted a painting of his ever since a saw the one on "the date" album...

The painting and photos found me!

Here is his second correspondence. The photos he attached are the great Jimmy Raney photos that are now gracing the Jimmy Raney stories at the Jon Raney blog. He also made good on sending back all the photos at his own expense. These photos I received are now proudly displayed on my "Jimmy Raney wall" that was arranged and reframed by my wife, Yajaira (photos coming!)

Hi Jon,

Here is some of the photo scans. I haven't scanned the family pictures with portraits of Jimmy (without guitar) and
other people I don't know, since I really don't need them. I will be sending you all the photos I don't need. Including
all the ones in the photo album.

I don't know how many MB's your mailbox can receive so I'm only sending a few files at a time.

Best regards,
Christian



This was the first of many things Christian has sent me and there is even a better twist coming next time.

Stay tuned!