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Total Items in Store:
Items Sold: 7
Gross Sales: $660 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $442 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $51
Highest Price Sold: $250 (dog art, thrifted for $14)
Average Price Sold: $94
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $275+ (art at estate sale and flea, Anthro sale)
Number of items listed this week: 0Grateful for the sales this week since I didn’t list. I also grossed about $360 at the vintage market with a half size booth of mainly art. My pop up seems to be morphing into vintage and used art only, as that is what the shoppers seem to respond to, rather than the decor items. They also like tiny critters.
The pop up has been fun, but I need to really list on Ebay. I’ve been doing way too much sourcing and other things and we straight up need the cash flow.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/334913104421 Very happy to sell this very old listing.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/234916931681 This was a Goodwillfinds.com flip. Good sale.
Happy also to sell a couple of Macys.com flips and old items.
I bought two Midcentury paintings today at the flea market for $25. One is by Ruby Civish and one by Ann Bradley. There is a famous Ann Bradley but the signature is different unfortunately. I found listings for Ruby earlier and can’t find them now. However, they are nice pieces and I should do ok.
Wow you are really talented! I am not crafty but created some succulent planters in 60s low pottery planters with Temu mushrooms and I’m working on creating some match holders out of mini bell jars with pretty paper on the lids and a strike sticker on the bottom. I also ironed on some cute patches to my daughter’s sweatshirts for resale. If you would have told me I’d be doing this stuff a couple of years ago I would have thought you were nuts.
I have my mom’s nice sewing machine and I’m following some makers on Instagram who use vintage fabrics to make simple things like tote bags. Maybe someday I’ll get slow enough to give some of that a try. I’m horrible and have no patience for threading the machines but my husband will do it.
We only have about 3 heat waves a year this bad, and it’s really nice now to have the ocean on-flow cooling us off again at night. I watched a lot of tv those evenings and felt guilty about it.
I’m running a clearance on summer clothing at the market this weekend and I should sell enough art to meet the 20 item DP challenge, but maybe not make up for last week. My husband really wanted me to get the car back in the garage and it almost fits, but the hard goods that I’m not taking back to the market need to be dealt with because they are still encroaching a bit into the car area. He’s being really patient with me.
Total Listings in Store: 858
Items Sold: 9
Gross Sales: $577 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $353 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $141
Highest Price Sold: $90 Two new pillow shams from summer Anthro clearance
Average Price Sold: $64
Returns: 1 (Buyer said arrived chipped. I’m pretty certain this new item was not chipped in an obvious place when purchased but I used a stock photo 🙁 They did not report an INAD at least.)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $150+
Number of items listed this week: 0Glad your store and coffee business is going so great! I have just had a lot of life interruptions going on and have been sourcing too much in between and having trouble just sitting and listing. I’ve been spending a lot of time with family and friends, which is nice, and taking care of a lot of health maintenance check ups. This weekend I’m going dancing for the first time in forever to a great local 70s funk band with we old Gen Xers. I just realized how little time I have the last week and a half in September. Two college friends are meeting here for a couple days, I’m seeing the comedian Alli Wong with my baby group friends, then going to the Bay Area to help babysit for a single mom friend who adopted a special needs kid. Whew. All in all, fun but I do need to list in earnest this week and could use the cash!
I have two markets coming up the next two Saturdays and I’m going to shift to a smaller footprint of 6×6 and focus on art and very small items. The heat wave is over and I need to get my butt in the seat and list. I have a lot of great items to put up!
I have been making some local dealer connections both ways – buying from older sellers and upselling to higher end sellers. I had an awkward exchange this afternoon where a dealer offered me a bunch of art for sale. It’s really ugly and she was very enthusiastic about it. She said she has other art, I think my excuse will be I am only picking up very small art. :/ Meanwhile from her neighbor at the flea market I got two listed artist paintings for $25. I love one off guys selling their mom’s stuff.
Hope everyone has a great week on Ebay.
Zero. We had a major heat wave and don’t have air conditioning. Also I’m just struggling to get into the seat and list. Need to do it this week after I have something going on today.
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.
