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Gross sales were $420; net $270. Sales poor week before and during vacation. I just turned my store back on yesterday but haven’t listed yet.
@thanks everyone. Sharon we have amazing picking here for sure. If I let myself go to more estate sales the quality will just go up. Alas, have much accumulated inventory to get through.
its a bit hard to price for shows, especially art. VL do you use a fraction of eBay solds ? People are buying on impulse and my buyers are younger where I normally sell. Not sure the customer base for this next event but I’m hoping there are LA people there as they are used to paying up.
https://imgur.com/gallery/4Tz5mqc
we made it to the goodwill bins in Boston. Had just 30 minutes before closing but it was a small bins location. Delighted to rescue this guy. He has some damage and his head is kind of floating off the shoulders but the face is nicely done. Found a Wedgewood creamer and small leather bag. I found a valuable but heavy antique German lobster serving dish that was an almost. So fun.
We will go back another time, but earlier in the day. Interestingly, their bins are priced per item based on type and not by the pound. We paid about $1 per item.
Hi all. I’m so sorry about the hard things some of you are going through. Take good care of yourselves.
I’m on vacation and it was a crazy week before I left. I haven’t really listed much in a couple weeks and it’s been a horrible month of sales.
The pop up booth was worth it. It will be quarterly and was well attended with a lot of foot traffic. I didn’t feel well prepared but I’m getting the hang of it and didn’t pack as much unnecessary stuff. https://www.instagram.com/p/C4HMKM9vDjF/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
After posting this reel I was accepted to a new fancy market 4/12. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DE8T-3FS_jq/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
I’m quite nervous that I bit off a little more than I can chew. My goal is to get rid of some larger art and hopefully some decor at this one. It’s nice because I get to set up the day before BUT my husband will be working and I’ll have to rent a van. Plus it was fairly expensive. Since I don’t have furniture to sell I hope it’s profitable. I’ve never been to this one, it’s only 2x a year and 45 minutes away. But people seem to enjoy art and I can swing farmhouse with some of my decor. I have a lot of prep and organizing to do, plus my COGS for taxes.
@VL what have I done!? Feel free to share advice. Also I gave up on cute hanging stamped price tags and started using stickers. It’s a lot faster. It’s nice after set up they host a farm to table dinner for the vendors to network.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>On vacation in Boston this week. My daughter was thrilled with the college area Goodwill selection of smaller sized clothing. The thrift prices are as much as half off where we live in California. Gas is $1.50 less as well. Will go grocery shopping today before checking into our Airbnb so we will see how those prices are… Today we are going to the bins but will have to be quite selective as I didn’t bring shipping supplies. Seeing a lot more Americana / transferware than I am used to. Always fun to pick a new city.</p>
I haven’t been consistently listing either but I did start working my taxes.
I sold both sets of Denby plates I talked about in the scavenge of the week posts, so that didn’t take long.
Best sale was this painting, and it’s been listed a while. Buyer was quite a haggler. https://www.ebay.com/itm/235819204348
@Craig it’s so awesome how your business seems so under control. I hope to get there. Also very cool how your products are uniform and small.
This week I had a couple of days where I thought I should not go thrifting and went anyway, only to not really be rewarded. Another day I did better. I found a matching $3.99 new Pottery Barn pillow for our couch, a $150+ glass Waterford vase for $20, 4 Baccarat cocktail glasses. I feel like what I picked up is solid. I’m trying to be thoughtful, leave more things behind, and I’m taking time to look some things up and check out the margins.
I did find a piece of peacock art for $40 – a splurge. I definitely questioned myself – I couldn’t tell if it’s a watercolor original or signed print, it’s quite large and has glass (why did I do that?), and that is really more than I like to spend. I hope it pays off. I haven’t opened it up to check it out yet.
It seems like there are a ton of estate sales cropping up – probably because Spring real estate season approaches – but I have been good at staying away from those in general.
@VT so sorry to hear about your circumstances.
@Amatino it’s just dish packing foam. I use that and then large bubble. The only times in the past I had something break is before I used the foam and when I used too small of a box. I ordered some from Amazon before but it’s thinner so I like the uhaul. Miraculously I found a HUGE roll at a thrift store that will last months. I hate that it’s not biodegradable but paper would be much more expensive and it helps me use less bubble. Hopefully customers are reusing.I’m an extrovert but super camera shy. I’d have to do it with only my hands. I hear that you have to be really consistent to get traction live selling and it takes a while to get a following. It’s not somewhere I want to invest my time. It would be nice to get multiple sales st once though of course.
@VL I don’t have a lot of glass either. I usually pick up only Scandinavian glass, which is hard to find here and it sells fine on Ebay. I do have my family’s costume jewelry hanging around. Totally not my thing. Are you selling BIN jewelry over there? I imagine it’s fairly saturated by now. I will ship glass – my secret is dish packing foam from Uhaul. Never double box.
I listed 25 items this week, plus added a few imported drafts to Mercari.
@Craig we’ll see. Their prices were higher at a different sale. There was nobody around when she gave me that big bundle price so I think it may have been kind of the timing – or the fact that the house was so packed and lower end. We’ll see. It’s not a bad strategy to go later on a packed house since I have my piles. I feel like I have enough knowledge to find things I have sold before or know about. On other houses it would be a complete waste of time.
A little preview for tomorrow. Sales are HORRIBLE. I’m running a sale, promoting, making offers (not many available), and listing. Oof.
Sounds like everybody is cleaning out and organizing. 👏👏👏
@VL I forgot to mention that I only have BIN on Niknax and VAMP. It’s really dead over there. Once in a while I get to send an offer. Seems like mainly a live platform. I have notifications off on district but lmk your handle and I’ll try to catch a show.
Scavenge of the week was an estate sale I went to at the very end of the first day. I have known this company to be a bit too expensive for my taste, but the lady was exhausted and the house was super full of less valuable stuff. She said “I”m going to give you the deal of the day” and it was $20 for everything. I had a full Ikea bag and a brand new Pottery Barn jewelry box – Arabia and Le Souk pottery/ceramics, frames, Pottery Barn linens, a few collectibles. This seems to be one of the cheapest and least professional families running our local estate sales. They are pretty lazy about pricing things in the less fancy homes. They do a lot of pile eyeballing and don’t really organize things. I’ll keep checking in on them.
Yes, I think it’s a lot about consistently making new listings. I’ve heard and believe that’s got to be a heavily weighted factor in Cassini.
February is always my worst month, and we have a lot of uncertainty this February. @Craig you have March Madness coming up and I usually have good home decor sales in March and April.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/235819204348 Sold a painting by an unknown artist for $90.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/235819201475 Great sale! Has been listed forever and went overseas. Not my usual but I know to look for this.
