Getting ready today for our sell off of whistles in Portland. Really nervous this time. We have been reducing our own antiques there by selling them off too, so we don't have so complicated a life here at home.

THIS time we are going all out with whistles !!! Nothing but whistles !!! We have expanded to FOUR glass cases and some other things like T-Shirts and posters with our name on them 🙂 ( you can write for them direct too…. )

So, what if we bomb out ?? Dunno…. Time to make the jump though.

So one case will be for new arrivals for sale, one case for VERY rare whistles for sale,  the third for rare whistles — variety  AND the fourth is 'the collectors case' for rare makers ( police and GSWs ).

Then there are two double back boards like in our reference collection with inexpensive utility whistles up to and just short of rare ones. We also have sections for sports whistles, scout whistles, boatswain whistles, beaufort whistles, Porteous whistles

Well, you get the picture. Should we sell off our growing collection of Horn, Antler, Bakelite whistles ?? I am up to 9 now ?? I am soooo ashamed !! Yup I have sold out to the dark side, NON metal !!!!! But they are sooooo cool !!! And they can come a lot larger many times. Four or more inches !!! Next will be ivory and bone If not careful —- help !!!

We'll see how it goes …. Friday is early sales for the most eclectic…

Yup, another show in Portland Expo Center is in another week.

We will be there all three days, selling off whistles. Some we have are duplicates. Some are triplicates !! Then there are all those we have picked up just for resale that we don't even keep for ourselves.

Not everything we see do we collect, yet may be someone does ?? If it is a whistle we look it over at least. Don't want to be a whistle snob right ??

We will have a whole section of cost only whistles. We pick them up for practical reasons. They bring people to the tables for one thing !! Besides that we like knowing that many boaters, hikers, walkers, joggers, shoppers hunters..( .the list keeps going ) all need whistles for safety and we supply them.

Then there are the bread and butter sales boards that aren't tooooooo expensive, collectable and have some very nice variety. Somthing that everyone can get into.

This year we are expanding to two more glass cases ( three total ) for all the rarer ones. Police, cycling, sirens, fire brigade, rare makers. These are not cheap,  granted, but gotta make the good stuff available too. Besides that,  everyone can get a chance to see the rarer whistles this way.

It helps to see what the more expensive ones top out at. After all they are a lot cheaper than corkscrews !!!! 

C YA there ???

yah, really sunny in No. Cal. this weekend. The show at the naval base in Alameda was very nice. Lots of people and interest in whistles !!! We used a 20 foot long booth and set up a couple boards along with a 'collectors' box for the more collectable models. NOTHIN BUT WHISTLES !!! 

Why post or write about it ?? Just to mention that the growing interest sometimes needs more than the internet. So we may have to travel some to promote this low flying, under the radar hobby. Yeah, not really worth it for the sales. But meet a lot of folks and get the word out what is happening in whistle world.

Many times we hear the comment that "I need to FEEL" the weight and smoothness before I buy. Well, that works great if you can find 'em !!! But there just aren't that many booths selling whistles now are there ??? So eventually the internet has to become the channel to whistle exchange…we hope 🙂

Will be loading up the FOR SALE page next, —- perhaps this week after deducting what was sold. Good news…the cycling whistle still here for sale !! The pewter dog is gone though (was bought in seconds actually ) Sold half the torpedo boat whistles to one customer. And of course lots of police whistles. Also sold a couple books left of MORE WHISTLES. I have just three left and then they are ALL gone !!! Hope Martyn reprints.And we still have a great Yates dual chamber 1870s with pewter mouthpieces.

Got in late today, but a few hasty notes till rolling again…..

well, got rained out of California and the show was put off till next weekened. So much for Sunny Cal !!! Almost left early to get there too and rechecked the weather, whew, that was close.

Oh well. more time to catalog whistles for the FOR SALE page 🙂

For simplification we settled on just four levels of scarcity.

1) common
2) uncommon ( not very original I know )
3) rare
4) very rare ( yeah, the opposite )

Hopefully this will cover everything.

Beyond this is the description work…

Manufacturer
Circa
Price
Scarcity
Description

Again hoping to not leave out any essentials ?? Then there are the pix. The files contain mostly just plain shots that I took for record keeping only. So there may be some rather poor angles. Then I suppose there will be requests for closer or different angles ?? Oh well, gotta get them posted and just go from there.

trivia question : How many sizes of shotgun shell extractors are there ?? I know of three, 10,12,16 guage. Well,  with whistles integrated anyway. Are there others, more guages with whistles attached ?? ( just provoking you to write in. If you do I will post it 🙂