“RETIREMENT”

In 1997, Ralph and his daughter established a not-for-profit educational program called H.E.A.R. the Cry Foundation.  Much of our income and efforts have gone into building this program during the past 11 years.  Between our work for the foundation and our eBay business, we still manage to squeeze in a little time for actual retirement activities:  reading, photography, bird watching, and taking various classes.  For more information about the H.E.A.R. the Cry Foundation, please read the "Full Story" below.

PACKAGING

A few buyers were surprised by our inexpensive, practical approach to packaging so we want to make you aware of our practices in advance.  In order to keep costs low, each lot (or group of items) purchased is enclosed in a clean, recycled baggie and shipped in cardboard packaging.  Don’t worry – the packaging is durable and we have had no problems in terms of buyers receiving broken or damaged items due to our packaging.  We have no control, however, over the handling of the package once it is mailed.  With that in mind, optional postal insurance is available for shipping within the US.

RETURN POLICY

A money back refund will be given if buyer and seller agree that item received was grossly misrepresented in auction's description.  Please note that colors may vary slightly due to camera and monitor settings.

Refunds are for the merchandise purchase price only--not shipping, handling or insurance fees incurred by buyer or seller.

FULL STORY 

Ralph and Vivian Mathey are old hands in the vintage jewelry business.  Both have many years of experience working with fashion vintage jewelry and vintage jewelry glass stones and beads.

In the late 1960’s, while Ralph was in college, he was an antique “picker”.   Attending antique auctions and buying from country folk, he purchased antiques that were collectible during the 1960’s.  Being a poor college student, Ralph could not afford to make any mistakes so he became very good at what he did.  He bought items and sold them to antique dealers in the Kansas City, Missouri area.  This is how he got funds to live on during his college days.  On May 19, 1968, he opened a retail store at 39th and Main St. in Kansas City.  The store was named "Genuine Article".  While Genuine Article was primarily a clothing store, Ralph also sold popular items of the time including posters, black lights, incense, candles, bell bottom pants, leather goods, and a large assortment of other items.  The following year shoppers took an interest in vintage clothing.  Ralph purchased large quantities of vintage clothing in the Midwest and took them to New York City.  There he met Harriet Love who had a vintage clothing store in Greenwich Village.  He sold her large quantities of clothing and Harriet Love later became known as the pre-eminent vintage clothing expert.

In 1970, Ralph and Vivian were married.  During the next two years they opened several more stores in Kansas City.  In 1974, during one of Ralph’s trips to the New York fashion market, he purchased some olive wood beads along with cord and shells and feathers.  Upon returning to Kansas City, Vivian and Ralph began assembling jewelry using feathers and beads and selling them directly to retail stores.  This suddenly became a very popular item and within several months they had 12 full-time people assembling feather and natural jewelry with wood, horn, bone and clay.  Ralph took the items to the "International Fashion and Boutique" market in New York, which was then held in the McAlpin Hotel at Herald Square in Manhattan.  The response to the merchandise they were producing was overwhelming.  For nearly 2 years they had huge growth in the natural fashion jewelry business.  But…all things change.  By 1975 sales had declined, so they began making hammered and hand constructed brass jewelry.

On a New York trip in 1976, Ralph ran into some people who had recently inherited an old jewelry company that was in business from 1915 to 1945.  The company had been closed and boarded shut since 1945.  The merchandise was in the old factory for nearly 30 years.  This company had imported glass stones and beads from Europe and Japan prior to World War II.  The company manufactured jewelry using die struck brass pieces with glass jewels and beads.  While the owners knew there was value to the components, their primary interest was emptying the building and selling the real estate.  Ralph saw what they had, and with his background selling antiques during his college days, he knew that there was indeed value in these old, mostly hand crafted, items.  He made a deal, got a loan from his bank, and purchased the contents of the old jewelry company which was then loaded into trucks and moved to Kansas City.

Vivian and Ralph began teaching themselves how to solder and assemble these vintage goods.  They developed a line of jewelry and presented it to the "International Fashion and Boutique" market in New York during fashion week in 1976.  Their jewelry line was an instant success.  Ralph and Vivian were the first people to introduce to the market finished jewelry using only authentic vintage glass stones and beads.  The demand from the three annual New York markets was immense.  The markets produced more orders than they could fill.  As quickly as possible, Ralph and Vivian added new people to solder and assemble goods produced at their company.  The company’s name was "Genuine Article" - the same name as the original retail store and very appropriate for a jewelry business using vintage goods.

By 1980, they had expanded to include the Chicago gift and apparel markets.  Between 1982 and 1996, Genuine Article expanded into the San Francisco, Dallas, Las Vegas and Los Angeles markets.  In 1995, Ralph Mathey received the "Centurion Award" at the "International Fashion and Boutique" market in New York City for his continual innovation in design and contribution to the fashion jewelry industry.

In 1997, Ralph took his first trip to Haiti.  Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and considered the second poorest in the world.  Ralph found that the conditions in Haiti were very bad with much illiteracy and starvation.  He helped several families and gave some students scholarships to attend the English Language School at the American University of the Caribbean in Les Cayes, Haiti.  Six months later he returned with his daughter and they decided to set up a not-for-profit educational foundation.  This became H.E.A.R. the Cry Foundation (Haiti Educational Assistance & Relief).  The H.E.A.R. program is a non-religious and non-governmental public foundation.  The focus of the program is academic education for children, English language education for young adults, and skill education for illiterate young adults.  The H.E.A.R. Foundation also provides relief efforts through food distribution, medical assistance, house construction, cash grants, and small monthly income for the elderly and handicapped.  There is no free education in Haiti.  In the area of Haiti where Ralph and Vivian work, the people cannot afford to educate their children so there is over 80% illiteracy.  In 2004, H.E.A.R. built a school in Marcabee, an area where there has never been a school.  Today the program pays the teachers at several schools and gives hundreds of annual scholarships to primary-age academic students.  Over 1000 academic students are now annually impacted by the program.  One hundred and seventy-six students have graduated from the English language program at the American University of the Caribbean due to the effort of the H.E.A.R. Foundation.  There are several more students attending medical, engineering, computer and agriculture universities. Much of Ralph and Vivian’s income and efforts have gone into building this program during the past 11 years.  Ralph makes 5 trips a year to Haiti.