Hello, my name is Mike Osella and I'm the owner of i-Cellar. I think you'll find our other pages more informative and exciting than this one, but if you're determined to know my background I invite you into my past...

 

My father, James Osella, was an antique dealer, so I was always exposed to (and sometimes had no choice but to attend!) garage sales, auctions, estate sales -- you name it, throughout the Pittsburgh area. When I was four years old, he ran his first antique shop -- out the very same house that sits in front of my eBay consignment shop! He opened his second shop not far from where the Galaxy Theater used to be right here on Washington Ave. When we moved to Carnegie, he started making trips to England to buy Vintage cars and would ship them back here. I was exposed to a whole new group of antiquer's, the Classic Car enthusiasts, who seemed endless in work ethic, people networking, and knowledge consumption. He eventually opened "The Canonsburg Antique Mall" and began the firestorm of "Canonsburg, City of Antiques" which is now well known around the country. He made his living working tirelessly with cars, antiques, and people, and I was raised around many old-school antique dealers who could teach classes in universities about how to buy, appraise and sell valuables. I picked up priceless advice and information about many aspects of resale, and many aspects of people.

 

I met a man named Tony Monseur when I was eleven in the early 80's. He traded my father his Commodore64 computer for a car from my Dad. That began my *serious* hunger for everything related to computing, and Tony was an infinite source of computer genius at a time most people barely knew they existed. He was always willing to teach me, and I drove them nuts going over his house as often as he or my father would drive me, but it became the foundation for my adult career. I spent my teen years plugging away with computers while trying to figure out how I would possibly fit into my fathers footsteps.

 

Now it's 2009. I spent the last 20 years working in the Computer Industry, a few in the Antique Business, and as much as possible on eBay helping my wife with http://www.vestments.us. I was in the Air Force, in the Canonsburg Antique Mall, with the Texas Lottery, Crown Castle, and self-employed consultant (but I get my hands dirty!).  I'm a Network Engineer by trade, and still run http://www.computerandinternetsolutions.com. But in 1997, I transformed my father's business. Well, he transformed it, but I was his foundation to a different way of doing it - I got him on eBay! I took vacation when working in Austin, Texas, bought him a digital camera, came up here and spent the better part of two weeks setting up his computer and training him how to sell his stuff on eBay - pretty much had to force him! Long story short, while I didn't fit in his shoes, I helped him size 'up' his own, at a time internet auctions were fledgling. I found a way to give back just a little compared to what he sacrificed to give, and he's still going strong with his eBay business. I've helped many people size 'up' their own over the years. And not just with eBay, or computers, or careers. I look for every opportunity to help others in their endeavors, and it's always translated equally well for my business.