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It’s really nice to see people discover these items in person. Very different experience than selling online and I do meet a lot of people. Some of the vendors are early retiree ladies around my age, some are people kind of down on their luck. Everyone is very friendly. The pop up vintage market is a nice happy medium between the low low prices buyers expect at the flea and the quite high prices inside the antique malls. So people are happy to get a curated experience and pay less than a fixed mall price. Nobody else is doing art like me so it’s cool. I also enjoy the merchandising
Nothing exciting from last week, but going back a bit further I sold this discontinued Anthropologie shower curtain for the original new price (paid $4?) https://www.ebay.com/itm/235649468353
https://www.ebay.com/itm/334882034928 Also sold this vintage bank, which could pass for just a figurine on a tiki mug shelf.
My favorite scavenge this week are some vintage tinted photographs. The paper around them has water damage, so I will need to add custom mats but I liked them enough to go for it at $25 for the pair. They look something like this https://www.etsy.com/listing/1623422529/vintage-f-e-garrett-hand-tinted-antique?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=old+hand+tinted+photos+photographs&ref=sr_gallery-1-9&frs=1&content_source=00315f5dc5b78ef67ecb54ac8e841fc5e26cfae7%253A1623422529&organic_search_click=1
I’ve been selling a ton of art in my pop up booth and so now I’m really on the hunt for that.
Total Listings in Store: 867
Items Sold: 3
Gross Sales: $245 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $165 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $29
Highest Price Sold: $80 New Lug Bag
Average Price Sold: $81
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $80? thrifts + $50 (Temu repop for Fall booth. PB clearance)
Number of items listed this week: 0Also sold about $120 of our clothes at the flea market, grossed about $450 at the pop up market (less on the holiday weekend than the two weekends before). Also sold a $100 MCM plate to a local dealer off Ebay who I am developing a relationship with.
Last week was quite busy with two markets and a wedding. Labor day weekend was slow on Ebay as usual, but I did forget to start a sale event before I left town. Started one at 25% when I returned and business immediately picked up.
I’m having a hard time sitting back down to list in earnest after pretty much doing live sales and other things for the summer. But I do know that now is the time, if ever, to pump in listings and I have PLENTY of items to list online. They need a good sorting and the garage is a mess of piles at the moment.
The RA is just not as good as it used to be, but that’s probably a good thing since there is plenty to source elsewhere. I had fun at two of the thrift stores that put out their Halloween last week, though not a huge haul from that. I ran across a couple of old timey dealers selling off inventory at a yard sale and bought some cool European vintage postcards for my booth. Some of them I am cutting and putting in mini frames I got for 50 cents at my favorite thrift store.
People were quite cheap at the flea market and loved the dollar bins. I didn’t sell too much off the higher end rack, but got it all sorted while I was there. I held a few items back to sell on Ebay or Mercari (North Face Jackets, etc.) and a bag or two to try to flip at my Fall markets. I do plan to sell live a few times in the Fall but primarily focus on Ebay. I may take a bunch of old purchases to the flea market in early December and try to get my money back on things that I don’t want to list ($10-15 ebay items). Anything below that I think has already been purged at my previous yard sales. I’ve now done the pop up enough to know what sells well. Unfortunately it did not correspond with the items I’d most like to get rid of from my death piles.
I also am close to making a deal to start a large display case consignment arrangement in a local antique mall that hosts our live booths. The mall is newer and is one of the lower key tourist areas but is struggling a bit after growing very quickly. I wasn’t willing to pay fixed rent but I do have some things I can try in there and remove from my unlisted piles. He said 50% is standard commission but I think he will do 35-40%. Now I need to decide what might work for that case. I have low expectations.
So all in all, I’m kind of focused on paring down some of my inventory and ramping up on Ebay, with a little live selling every 2-4 weeks sprinkled in. I’m excited to be able to focus on the business in a way I haven’t before. I have a lot more freedom since my youngest moved out. Also need to set up a regular routine and work in some more exercise. I miss the podcast dearly. Would have loved to hear more of your thoughts but I do appreciate the forum posts.
Zero listings on Ebay for me last week. Sold well over 20 death pile items between the flea market and the pop up market. Also dontated a lot of our clothing left over from the flea market.
The garage is still pretty full, but I really need to turn some attention back to Ebay after our relatives leave Tuesday.
Not listed yet but I found some pieces in this pattern. One of them has a chip but I only paid $12 for the set. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380680.m570.l1311&_nkw=staffordshire+hunting+scene&_sacat=0
I liked the graphics. I’m generally moving a little bit away from the grandma-chic esthetic but this pattern is crisper somehow.
@thriftshift I’m following you on Insta. What great items you are selling. I follow some others who refinish furniture and it does take a lot of effort. Maybe if you connect on Insta, your local dealers will want to create relationships. I’m doing that here with some art, flipping to upscale shop dealers. I don’t mind being a link in the chain, and they do the cleaning right.
I also now have the time to reframe art and might even start refinishing frames. There are a lot of great art pieces in orangy 70s wood or ugly 80s metal frames. Finding new modern or even vintage frames is like shooting fish in a barrel – nobody cares. Likewise, I sometimes find great frames with ugly artwork.
PS. The Insta video quality is poor – I had to rush in to avoid people in my booth! I was also running tired so it was kind of an afterthought posted late.
Total Listings: 877
Items Sold: 3
Gross Sales: $245 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $166 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $30
Highest Price Sold: $80 (new travel bag)
Average Price Sold: $81
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $240 (RA, thrift)
Number of items listed this week: 6I’m glad you guys had good weeks! I’m still in the doghouse with low sales. AND I totally messed up Friday. Went out of town – traffic was horrible coming home and I got dinged for late shipping. I’m going to have trouble getting back to TRS after those ghost listings in January. Not smart on my part to wait to ship after the morning.
On the plus side, I did the pop up vintage market again and grossed about $700 with a possible follow up $60 local sale to another dealer who saw this Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/C_FIVeHOSun/?img_index=1. No huge sales, just a lot of sales. It was really fun and I like my fellow vendors very much. I always bring projects to do and I got in 16,000 steps that day. I have an out of town wedding this Sunday but I’m really tempted to go again Saturday (Labor Day weekend), hoping a lot of people come up from LA for the holiday weekend. The tourists may drop way off after this weekend.
The dog show was this past week at the fairgrounds so I’m still planning to take the other clothes finally this week to the flea market. Selling live is kind of exhausting but fun. Most of my buyers are young adults, so I need to keep that in mind when sourcing. I’m learning each time what people will buy on impuse and look through.
I also went to the Goodwill bins once. It was less crowded since the high schoolers are back in school. It was interesting and I enjoyed it. Nothing to write home about but it was nice to have a little more time to look.
It’s going to be busy but I really need to list in earnest and do a sell similar on my store. It felt hard to go back to the desk again after such a long break.
https://www.ebay.com/mesh/ord/details?mode=SH&srn=4122&orderid=24-11972-01116&source=Orders&ru=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsh%2Ford%2F%3Ffilter%3Dstatus%253APAID_SHIPPED Highest sale was part of that big flea market QVC lady pick up. Paid $1-2
https://www.ebay.com/itm/235650762633 I’m proud of this sale because I’ve been challenging myself a bit with clear glass lately. This sold quickly and the person was really happy to replace their broken bowl.
@Amatino thanks! Yes definitely having some issues with being tired and keeping my booty in the seat and listing. I only got 6 items up that day. Some things going on this week, flea market, vintage market and a wedding but I hope to have a couple of good listing sessions.
If we are counting the market, I’m good on the 20 items for sure. It was a great market. Got rid of a little bit of inherited costume jewelry, clothing, unlisted art work.
Ugh so hard to get going with listing after a long break. I just got a pumpkin spice latte (only one pump) to fire up. Hope you all are finding it easier.
My thoughts are no exciting sales of the week. However, I’ve been watching her channel https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tuitionaintcheap as I mentioned and picked up one of her commonly sourced items. It did sell super fast. I also needed a mop replacement for ours and couldn’t easily find it, and thought – I get it. https://www.ebay.com/itm/335465376150
If it has a bar code, I might think about picking it up again and listing with my phone even though it’s low dollar.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/335083780171 estate sale find. Paid pennies and it took a couple of months to sell.
