Progress

 I made another $12 today - sold some Staffordshire saucers to someone who makes wreaths with them.  We bought them at an estate sale, but upgraded to some with an actual British scene on them (Lochs of Scotland) instead of the Colonial American scenes. 

 Of course, on the way to meet the buyer, I stopped at Goodwill.  Vintage puzzles were found, for a whopping $3.11 each.  Also a trifle dish, and the loudest Hawaiian shirt that I own (so far).

 

I've also started weeding out the Hallmark ornaments and listed about a dozen.  I also got the Mickey Mouse band and Angel Choir off the basement shelf, tested them all, and listed them on a Hallmark buy/sell group.  These were a thing Hallmark came up with.  Four or five "players" in a band, they link by radio or wi-fi somehow, and they sing songs.  Each player has two songs, and if you've got the whole group, you've got 8 or 10 songs total that they sing together on.  The stores would have a different one each week, feeding into the "gotta have them all" urge. Anyway.  I've got a nibble on the Mickey band, and I hope it's not a tire-kicker.  Mickey's gang and the angels were maybe displayed once; otherwise they've been in the basement for the last ten eyars.  I'm keeping both Peanuts sets, for now.  If I can get the house decluttered to a decent state, then we'll have room to get them out at the holidays and enjoy them.   

 

 

More puzzles

 I've got more vintage puzzles on the way.  Someone online got a bunch of vintage from a friend, and doesn't care for them.  I posted about a vintage one I'd finished, and she asked if I'd like these, if I paid the shipping.  Yep. 

She's sending them in two boxes, for cheaper postage, and couldn't fit them all in, so I"m getting 7 or so of these.  I know I'm not getting the 3000-piece one on the right, but I am getting the oval one on the left.  Hoping I get the ship in the center.  

Watch this space for an update.  Ha ha.

I also bought these three on eBay, after asking very odd questions to make sure that the Eurographics Mediterranean Harbor is one with a random cut, or at least not an all-H cut.  All three of these met the criteria, so that's two more Euro and a Ravensberger added to the stash. 

Puzzle non-defeat

I bought still more puzzles on eBay recently. I found a Eurographics version of the Mediterranean Harbor puzzle that I gave up on over the summer (the Runlycan version was very low quality). I'm the odd person who emails eBay sellers to ask for pictures of the puzzle pieces in the box, because the puzzles where all the pieces are the same basic two-knob, two-hole all-H shape are not my friend. So I made sure that the Eurographics version had a more variable cut. The other two puzzles in the group are a Euorgraphics of the Rialto Bridge in Venice, and a ravensburger puzzle, the Bella Positano.

Puzzle defeat

 I gave up on a puzzle this morning.  I got the edge together, and then I realized how much of a pain it was going to be.  Gorgeous art, but not worth the headache.

This is a Runlycan puzzle, a brand I'd never heard of.  Very basic box, although it did have a photo on the lid (the Anderson Design Group puzzle was in a plain box).  No puzzle dimensions inside or outside, but there was a small poster of the artwork included.  This one has an alphabet grid printed on the reverse side, which is helpful.  But the fit was so loose that even picking up two connected pieces was impossible, so the grid isn't going to help a whole lot.  And the bottom edge had a flaw in the alphabet, where multiple pieces didn't match the grid.  Not sure if pieces were swapped from another puzzle, or if there was a glitch in the printing, or what. The pieces were also very flimsy and thing. 

Puzzle: Eurographics Egypt

 Finished yesterday:  Eurographics, 1000-piece variable-grid cut.  This one was pretty easy, thanks to all the words.  

I believe I bought this one at the Kansas City Union Station Science Center, when the King Tut exhibit was touring about 5 years ago. 

Another puzzle - Euorgraphics' vintage Canada series

 Finished this one over last week.  From the Eurographics "Vintage Canada" collection, a collage of travel posters in 1,000 pieces. 

This one is very new, just bought from Amazon.  Euro has apparently switched from random cut to grid cut, and the finish is more satin-matte than glossy now.  I've heard that the switch to grid cut is because of the increased demand for puzzles, so they're using whatever cutting dies are available.  I hope if this is true, that they switch back to random cut pieces soon.  

Notice the grid layout.

Here's the thing with a good grid-cut puzzle - all the pieces are still different.  This shows the possible piece shapes, roughly speaking.  You can have anywhere from 0 to 4 "nubs" on a piece, and a piece with 0 or 1 nub can have 2 or 4 of what I call "spades" - the little triangular bits.  

Some grid-cut puzzles have only the 2-nub shape, and hopefully there's some variation.  I've got one puzzle that I need to check, because I'm pretty sure that the pieces are all identical.  

Next puzzle:  Egyptian Treasures, another 1,000 piece Eurographics.  This is one I bought a few years ago, so it's a random cut.

More puzzles

 First, there's a second Sam Savitt rodeo puzzle on eBay right now.  One is priced at $134.99 (eek!).  The second one, bidding starts at $99.99, or the Buy it Now is $169.99.  

Good grief.

As far as ongoing puzzles, I bought two at Upscale Resale last week or the week before.  One is a Springbok, a 500-piece photo of someone fishing. 

The other is a Eurographics 1000-piece collage of seed and fruit catalogs.  I paid $8 for that one (Upscale seems to be upping the prices), but I finished it yesterday and all the pieces are there.  So, the $8 wasn't wasted.  But used puzzles are always a gamble, so I try not to pay too much.

Last weekend, I also finished a Mudpuppy puzzle called Slowpokes.  500 pieces.  These are decent puzzles, the pieces fit together well, but the cardboard seems kind of flimsy.  

And before Slowpokes, I put together one of the new Springboks from the Orscheln sale, a 1000-piece puzzle of retro soda cans.  Springbok still has good random-cut pieces, but the fit isn't as good (mostly because of pieces that don't get cut cleanly), and the cardboard seems thinner than it used to be.

More puzzles

 The first puzzle of 2021 is finished, finally.  

 

 

 

And the second one as well.  This one is a 500-piece Okta-puzzle from Springbok, circa 1967, with art by Sam Savitt.  It's called "Mares & Foals" for obvious reasons.  

I love any puzzle company that makes pieces shaped like these: 

And the third one is in progress.  It's a vintage Whitman puzzle with a photo of the Grand Canyon. 

 

 

This one is tricky - about half the pieces don't actually interlock, the curves just fit together.   

  

 

Pandemic puzzles - Owls

 I started a new puzzle for the new year.  Cobble Hill puzzle, picked out by people who have a very high opinion of my puzzling abilities. 

Pandemic Puzzles - Backyard Birds

 Started a new puzzle over the weekend.  This one is brand new (not secondhand), made by a company called Cobble Hill.  So far I'm liking it overall.  Pieces are smaller than what I've been doing lately, because it's a 1000-piece puzzle instead of 500.  It's a random-cut, similar to Springbok, but I'm not sure if all of Cobble Hill's puzzles are random, or if they do some that are ribbon-cut.  Their version of random is a bit less diabolical than Springbok's, though - no pieces that divide in the middle of the inlet, at least, and no pieces that look like edge but aren't.  I also approve of a decent-quality image on the box, and of the small (box-sized) poster of the image included inside.  Otherwise, the Cobble Hill logo would have totally hidden the Junco in the corner. 

 

It's similar to a collage puzzle, since it's fairly quick to start doing each bird individually, especially if you start with the obvious ones like the cardinal and goldfinch.  Now I'm down to things like leaves and bird-feet, so progress is slowing down.

 

Pandemic Puzzles - The Castle of Eileen Donan

I've been doing a lot of puzzles this year.  Finished this one last night - The Castle of Eileen Donan from Springbok. 

This one was a challenge as far as the edge, because so many pieces looked like edge but eventually weren't. After a while, I gave up on finishing the edge and went for the castle and the boat. 

 

Another challenge was that while I like the tight fit of most Springbok's, this one was tighter than usual.  It also looked like the cutting die wasn't quite sharp enough, because a lot of the pieces had scraps and extra overage around the edges. 

 

Finished it December 3rd, and it's complete.  This is one from the B&G auction lot, and so far all of those have been complete.