About Us - Howard & Kathryn:
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About Howard:
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I am a retired disabled old guy, who,
due to many back surgeries. eBay,
Amazon and my own website, have
provided me an outlet to focus my
limited energy on. I am not a
"business" with 10, 50 or hundreds
of employees. It's me and my wife -
that's it. Because we run this ourselves, we are apt to listen, understand and take any action(s) necessary to keep our customers satisfied, all without having to go through the red tape you would find with a large company, or worse, dealing with China! Resolving conflict is the last thing anyone wants or needs. We expect sometimes there will be issues that arise with your purchase. All we can do is to be as honest and forthright with you and the items we sell.
This all started after my 10 hour back operation involving two 18" titanium rods held in place with 1.5" screws to my spine. During a long 6 month recovery, all I wanted was to decorate my TV room with some Lord of The Rings swords and banners. Before I knew it, I was receiving hundreds of swords, banners and other collectible items. Within 3 years I had no choice but to expand with now our premier collection of rare statues and other fine collectibles.
I do at times, resell items I may find from closing businesses and help sell off their inventory. I also at times purchase items at wholesale and resell them to help with my personal financial needs. I am not the manufacturer of these items nor am I the wholesaler. The specifications about items I receive comes directly from them. Any questions you may have about products that are not explained in the listing, may take time for me to chase down. However, I shall do everything possible to get you answers. Keep in mind, there are many collectibles, I cannot open so as to keep the item in "new" condition.
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I describe products to the absolute best of my ability to ensure you have the best possible description to satisfy your requirements prior to purchasing the item. Should you have a question, please feel free to contact me.
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About Kathryn:
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I met Kathryn in late 1998. We immediately knew upon meeting each other (matchmaker.com) this was meant to be. After tasting a homemade candy she offered me, I said "Girl, first we gots to get married and the we need to sell this candy...". After 18 months of R&D, in 2000, we moved to Charlotte NC from LINY, married, and immediately opened up our candy business known as HoneyByrd Sweets - The Best Chocolate-Covered Butter-Crunch Toffee" - with over 150 varieties of Barks, Brittles and Toffees.
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After 15 years of testing the market on Long Island, NY and then selling in the Charlotte Farmers Market and a dozen or so local stores, we had to close down in 2013. Kathryn's Rheumatoid Arthritis took a "hard grip". On top of her RA, she required elbow surgery on her stirring arm, after falling one Saturday morning at the market. With my bad back and her elbow and RA, we had to officially close down after the holiday season in 2013.
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But all was not lost. We revitalized our candy business name from HoneyByrd Sweets to HoneyByrd Hobbies.
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Kathryn stays involved with my venture, by handling most all correspondence as well as other administrative duties.
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Together, we continue to drive each other to do better. Kathryn's background came from working for more than 2 decades as an administrator of a larger Western NY college. My background comes from manufacturing, being a manager of one of the largest companies in the world, Siemens telecommunications, plus being a CFO of a Charlotte based marketing research company.
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Together, we work as a team ensuring our customers receive everything they deserve with their purchasing experience. From pre-sales to completion, you shall receive honesty, clarity and quality.
Our Story:
It was October 30, 1998 when I traveled 404 miles by Amtrak from Suffolk County LINY to Rochester NY to visit Kathryn, whom I've only had communications via Matchmaker (now Match.com), texting, emailing and telephoning for the 3 months prior. The day I met her it was destined for us to live out our lives together as we shared so much in common. However, the one thing we did not have in common, were birds.
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Kathryn had 15 birds upstairs and another 15 downstairs who were in the care of her very dear good friend and past partner, Andy (R.I.P.).. I was in her kitchen waiting on her to get ready for our trip to Niagara Falls. As I waited, 6 of her most treasured cockatiels were flying around her apartment. Back and forth from their cages in the living room, to her bedroom and round into the kitchen just to repeat many many times.
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As they all landed at their meeting place on top of her refrigerator, on their perch, I decided to get a picture of this with my good 'ol 35mm camera. As I took it out of the bag, Kathryn saw what I was doing and said not to do it as I would scare them off. Well, if she was going to learn one thing about me, it was "independent thinking". So, very slowly, I lifted the camera out of the bag. There they were all sitting on their own perch, of which I thought was too good to be true for a picture. I knew I had only seconds to grab this shot and so with a flip of my hand and with an instantaneous push of the button, I snapped the shutter.
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Within that instance, the birds flew off very much angry with me as was my future wife ;). IT WAS WORTH IT! Back in the day, before digital cameras - or should I say "good" digital cameras, I had no idea what the picture would look like until I had the film developed. We were in AW! when we got them back (in the mail - yup the good 'ol days - like I said.
Nobody believed this was not a photoshop'd picture. There they were, all majestic as they could be. Years later, I enlarged the picture for Kathryn on our 10th year anniversary. It now hangs in our kitchen across the refrigerator (as there is no space above it).
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As I write this paragraph, 18 years later, our one bird, Mickey, is still with us. He's more than 25 years old or perhaps older. Jake is also still with us who is a few years younger.
We have 2 other new cockatiels that joined us over the years. It was sad to see our mascot Foxy pass so soon after I glorified him for our candy business logo HoneyByrd Sweets. Micky was our 1st logo, but that was when digital pictures weren't all that great.
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Since the closing of our candy business in 2013, we reinvented HoneyByrd into HoneyByrd Hobbies, which is mostly run by me. Kathryn spends most of her time with her 4 little cockatiels along with her 3 cats, one indoor cat Moe, and the 2 outdoor cats Larry and Gurly. We were going to name her Curly after the 3 Stooges, but since she was a girl, I wanted to spell her name Gurley. Years later we had found out she was in fact a male cat and we could have named him Curly. But after all this time, it's difficult to switch. We still don't know whether to say "she, or he".
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If you were wondering where HoneyByrd came from, it was the nickname Kathryn gave to me upon meeting me.
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The story continues...