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Hmmmmmm…it appears that some of us were in the glumps this past week, myself included. For me, I think part of it was realizing that it was the first week of September and all the Summer projects I didn’t get done. I have a LOT of pressure on me in the next few weeks, with my show rapidly approaching and some unwelcome news from Amazon FBA (that I don’t even want to talk about! Ugh!) and so forth and so on. The shining light of the week was going picking Friday and Saturday and finding so so so and I mean so much good stuff. Saturday Charlie and I kept going to sale after sale and finding boxes of treasures at each. It was unreal and so much fun. I can’t remember a picking day where I was still finding amazing things at 1pm, several hours after sales had opened. At that last sale I found a first edition Wizard of OZ book, and a box of vintage Christmas, including a herd of vintage reindeer. I was gobsmacked. I tell you this because I will say that it definitely improved my mood and inspired me to feel better about everything.
It’s funny how that works!
So what would work for you? A good book and some quiet time? Chocolate? A nice long hot bath? Hunkering down and doing something you really don’t feel like doing and then rewarding yourself afterwards? Lunch with a good friend who makes you laugh? Whatever it is, I wish that for you this week. Be gentle on yourself…this too shall pass.
(oh, and I listed 64 items. Sorry.)
Hey Vintage Treasures, you made your goal for the month of August, so yay you! Sometimes, that’s all the matters, right? I’m betting September will be a better month for you.
Very quiet nose-to-the-grindstone week for me. Organized a death pile bunch of fabric that was bugging me and it feels so much better to have it organized. Other than that, and going out picking yesterday morning (and finding tons of cool stuff for the show) it was list list list. 84 listings for me. And I shipped several boxes to Amazon FBA.
Happy September everyone….here’s hoping for a great month ahead for all of us.
Vintage Treasures your kind words came just at the right moment as I was having a rather challenging day! Thank you so much. Please do come for a visit! I’d be shy at first but then become my usual goofy self. I am sure we’d have loads to talk about. As would everyone in this group. We all live such different interesting lives.
Last week I was caught in the dilemma of both trying to be the coolest aunt on the planet and getting ready for my biggest show of the summer. My nephew is in awe of me after I introduced him to Stranger Things and we binge watched Seasons One and Two. It’s all he could talk about. But I was burning the candle at both ends, staying up until the wee hours trying to price and pack and so forth. It was a fun show yesterday but my aching bones today! We had to leave at 4am, as set up on the main street started at 5am. We finally finished unloading our rigs about 7pm, hot and sweaty, but with much less to unload. My most fun sale was a vintage pull-down schoolroom world map. Bought it for a dollar at a barn sale a week previous and sold it for a crisp hundred bucks. They go for a bit more than that on ebay but I really didn’t want the hassle of having to ship it. I was happy, she was happy.
All this to say that I managed 5 listings last week. I’ll be back more on my game this week.
It looks like a British Bobby policeman and the vibe is 60s/70s.
How can it be the middle of August already? Argh! Hello all, I am posting early too as my 13-yr-old nephew arrives today for a week visit and I will be busy doing auntie things with him. This coming week will be a challenge, as we’re going to go on several adventures, including visits to the beach and a science museum so we’ll see what happens. Good thing I like to post late at night.
I had a good week and listed 57 items. I am trying to get more done this summer, as last year I tanked during the last quarter of the year and didn’t have good listing weeks…the most was a week I posted 19 items. My goal has always been 50 a week, so any I can do over that helps me later.
Amatino….come on up to Oregon! We’d have an amazing time together…I’d take you to estate sales and bins bins bins. It’d be a blast. The invite extends to everyone. 🙂
Vintage Treasures, my brother lives in Colorado Springs. It’s a gorgeous part of the country! Sharyn, best wishes in getting your daughter ready for college!
Hope everyone has a great week!
This is prime picking season for me now and had the most excellent weekend, with carloads of treasures found. I’ll stop going out the beginning of October since that’s the start of my busy season and won’t resume (other than the occasional bin binge) until March so building up inventory is crucial this time of year, especially with my big show coming up in October. Last weekend I found an 8 ft tall windmill that will be the centerpiece of our Farmhouse Christmas display at the show and that was quite a thrilling find….until we hit an amazing sale yesterday. It wasn’t even on our list!
We saw balloons and signs and decided to detour, and it turned out to be several sisters selling their grandma’s stuff. They hadn’t listed the sale on Craigslist, so we had the sale almost to ourselves and the whole dang yard was filled with tables and boxes and piles of stuff they hadn’t even unpacked yet. WELL. I love a good digging sale. Nothing had prices on it and both Charlie and I started piles on their porch, that kept growing bigger and bigger. There were quite a few boxes of fabric, but most were little bits and scraps..but I did make a stack of about a dozen pieces that were definitely vintage. My big pile of treasures cost me $23. When I got home I looked at the fabric and discovered that most of it was from the 1930s and 40s…which sells for good money. I listed it and within minutes, a piece sold for $45. And then two more sold. Ca-ching ca-ching. It was very exciting to have it sell so quickly!
We went back today to dig some more and I brought home a pile of vintage fabric twice as big as the first…..and have been on a listing frenzy. I had already done a fair amount of listing earlier in the week too…..so I listed 73 items this week. And have 21 Etsy orders to ship out tomorrow! Woot!
I am so sorry you had a rough week VT. I totally get the need for thrifting therapy. I do it too. But just think of how your sales are going to skyrocket in September when overall sales start picking up!
Congrats Sharyn and Amatino…you both are on a roll!
You ladies are hilarious! Sure, gang up on me and see where that gets you. 🙂 Everyone is forgetting that Sharyn came on strong the second half of last year and actually won the YEAR. I’m keeping an eye on HER. (grin)
I listed 26 items last week. I had a vintage flea market to get ready for, which took a bit of time. It was yesterday, in 93 degree weather and we were miserable, but trying to make the best of it. First time doing that particular show, and the customers turned out not to be our base. A bunch of lookie lou’s and bargain hunters. The booth next to us were a father/son team selling items they couldn’t sell on ebay. They had a $1 table and a $3 table, if that tells you anything. We did sell quite a few vintage books, which somewhat redeemed the day. A customer was kind enough to point out to us that we had a black widow spider climbing on one of our display tables. Ugh. Nothing like your scorpion stories, but still…I don’t do spiders well, and that’s a story in itself.
Amatino, just reading about the scorpion on your braid gave me the willies. So glad it didn’t sting you! I can see why you were compelled to spray the whole house the next day! And VT, I have a confession. Your scorpion story was horrifying (and that awful awful houseguest!!!) but it was also darkly humorous. I just had that image of you slogging your way to the pharmacy counter with drool dripping down your chin and it reminded me of a Monty Python skit. It’s a GREAT story. I am so sorry that it happened though, and that the effects were so long lasting. And I am also waiting to win one of those vacation sweepstakes you entered me into…..so funny.
Hope everyone has a great week ahead….no stinging/biting creatures allowed.
I love this thread! Kindness matters. If you’ve ever put on an estate sale yourself you know just how hard they work and they are already tired by the time they start the sale. I know they appreciate every little bit of consideration they can get. I certainly have, at the ones I’ve worked on.
It goes both ways too. I have left sales because the people working were so rude. A month ago I heard an anti-semitic remark by a worker at a school rummage sale and it upset me so much I left and wrote to the principal, expressing how offensive the remark was. To her credit she wrote back immediately and apologized and wrote a very thoughtful reply.
Thanks Sharyn!
You are so right….it’s much easier to list similar items. With the fabric I was able to copy a previous listing, scan the fabric twice (once with a quarter to show scale of print), measure it, weigh it and change out the title slightly (depending on color, manufacturer,and other differences), change a few tag words and done.
Easy peasy. And fabric is SO easy to ship!
I’ve mentioned before that I used to be a folk art doll artist, and that also means that I have (or Had) an enormous stash of fabric from those days, all stacked neatly in boxes in the upper part of the garage. In the past I have pulled boxes and listed them but it’s been a year or two since I have done that. People are starting to buy fabric to sew for fall projects so I decided I needed to get more of it listed. So I got out the ladder and climbed up to pull down two large boxes of flannel and 30s reproduction prints, both great sellers and the fabric has been languishing in my garage for way too many years. With the gauntlet VT threw down….now was the time. I was further encouraged when once I started listing, the fabric began immediately selling.
I spent all last week listing that fabric, many hours (it was pretty much mostly what I did) and have sold over $400 worth already. Extra bonus is getting rid of two boxes of death pile items.
The result:
I listed 125 items.Best listing week ever. Thanks VT! And everyone!
I hear ya, Vintage Treasure. Bring it. 🙂
Gosh so sorry to hear about your dog Amatino and your cat VT. Our fur babies do tend to make life more interesting. And Sharyn, great haul! I meant to take a picture of my full minivan but forgot. I found some vintage 1950s coloring books at the Sacramento Faire and listed them right away last week, and the Halloween one sold in two hours! Very motivating to get more of the picking trip treasures listed.
I listed 48 items last week and plan for even more this week…you listening Vintage Treasures? (grin)
Hope everyone has a less eventful week…some peace and quiet for all.
One teeny tiny little listing for me last week. I left on my picking trip on Tuesday and just got back this morning. Had a fabulous time and filled the minivan up floor to ceiling, front to back. Since I am a writer I love vintage typewriters and the holy grail for me has always been to find a vintage turquoise portable typewriter…..and I found TWO. TWO!! At the Sacramento Antique Faire. Different models so I will try out both and see which one I like best and sell the other. Maybe. (wink)
The most popular booths were selling either Farmhouse or Mid-century Modern. I haven’t seen anything else coming along to replace either of those trends, although there were a lot of African carved wood pieces, linens and artwork. More than I have seen other years.
Vintage Treasures, so sorry to hear about your family member. Sending you good thoughts and a hug.
Wishing a good week for everyone ahead.
Worked my tail off last week and plowed through a huge stack that had taken over a corner of a room. Priced and boxed up a bunch of it for the street fair in August and listed a bunch too. It’s lovely to have that corner back. Listed 50 items.
Leave tomorrow for the picking trip in California but do plan to list like crazy today, so should have some numbers to post next Monday.
Vintage Treasures….you are funny! I rather thought of you as darling…so let’s share the title. 🙂
Hope everyone has a great week.
I have never been called a vintage darling before. It made my day!
I have the house to myself this week so I have a HUGE project under way, pulling all the bits and pieces of various picking excursions out to the living room, sorting, cleaning, pricing or listing, and boxing and getting on top of it, hopefully once and for all. Hard to do with my usual limited work space so I am taking full advantage. We normally try to keep the living areas relatively merchandise free.
Hope you are having a blast on your vacation Sharyn! Charlie and I are going on a week-long picking trip to California next week so my numbers next time will be WAY down…but this week I listed 44 items.
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