Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Antique Store Wisdom: 3 Stores. 3 Months. 3 Trends.

Maintaining three antique mall booths is a tall order! Even though all three are on the small side, it's still difficult to tag and switch out all of the merchandise while keeping on top of everything else I need to for my business. But I'm learning with each mistake! Here's what I've learned while maintaining three antique mall spaces.

Resellers know: The process of obtaining and pricing merchandise, it never ends! 

1) It's Unpredictable: Many people ask me if I think their particular items will sell. I always answer, "Try it!" What will sell is truly unpredictable. We've all bough that one special item that we though would sell immediately only for it to sit on the shelf for months!

2) Each Store is Different: You have to get a feel for each store and what the audience wants, and curate accordingly.

I can't wait to revamp my spaces! I'll update with before/afters and how it effects sales.

3) Dare to be Unique: My off-the-wall quirky finds sometime sell the fastest. If it grabbed your interest, it will likely grab someone else's!

The Update, in short: Keeping up with my spaces is tough, but rewarding. I'm eager to keep learning and improving every day. Practice makes perfect and I'm getting better at it every day. It's time to get ready for the Christmas sales, so I'm going to be working as much as possible to get my booths and online shop (not yet launched, working on it) ready for the season!

What trends have you noticed with reselling? Let's help each other stay successful!
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28 comments:

  1. Thanks for the update and the tips!

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  2. You have some FAB stuff in those booths!! have you checked out This Vintage Grove blog? She is a HUGE thrifter and has a booth too. I think you ladies would hit it off!

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  3. I like buying multiples of stuff....I grin from ear-to-ear when I find something fab and several of them from the same buyer. I think it makes a great "selling" impact in a booth space. You may have noticed that trend in my booth....sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but I have fun!

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    1. I love how that looks in your booth, I don't find multiples too often but when I do I'm on them. They make great smalls the package and displays.

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  4. Those booths are looking great! Great tips!

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    1. Thanks :) ! More tips and updates be coming soon, these are just the top three I've noticed lately.

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  5. Booths tend to expensive here in Australia from my experience and most antique centres require you to have a secondhand dealers license which is well over $600.

    I often see quirky items and am happy to pick them up and try for resale in them. But I'm always hesitant with scary, spooky sort of pieces, they just don't move well.

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    1. That is crazy expensive just to get started! I can see your hesitance there!

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  6. I really like your item tags. Graphically pleasing and easy to read!

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    1. Thanks Chrissi! I wanted to make it as easy as possible for customers to see the price since "How much does this item cost?" is their #1 question.

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  7. Having opened a 2nd booth last month, I find it nice to be able to take something from booth #1 that hasn't sold and put it into booth #2 and see if it sells there. So far, booth #1 is the better money-maker for me, making me almost sorry I opened booth #2. Let's see how I do when I add a few more holiday-themed items next week.

    Love the way your booths look!

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    1. Thanks Jenny! That's another thing I like about multiple booth aspect, you can switch things around to see what works. My first booth outsells the other two, but I'm striving to make it all work.

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  8. Love reading your updates about your booths. Living vicariously through you. Booths close to me are way to expensive.

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    1. I'm lucky that I can invest a little into rent each month for my spaces, I can imagine the booth in Toronto would be super expensive! Do they do really well to demand the high prices for rent?

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  9. When I was at my first location and just in the case, I sold a lot of Pyrex, but now that I have a booth at a different location, I have noticed that my other items are selling equally well. It is a bit early to tell for sure, but I think my new tags have helped. I took a tip from you and did big tags with good descriptions and suggestions for the item. It is more work, but worth it.

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    1. It really does seem to help improve sales when you go the extra mile and add extra information, and even fun and whimsy, to your item description. You have to help them visualize how they'll use the item in their lives.

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  10. I love these tips! I don't think I could keep up with THREE BOOTHS!!!!!!! I am in awe!

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    1. At least all three of mine are smaller than some people's ONE booth, but driving from store to store is tricky!

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  11. Some of my kitschy Christmas items have been selling in my Etsy shop CamronD, I like that, my vintage clothing shop OsoVictoria has been very very slow these last two months. I think a lot of that has to do with not listing items regularly, I'm hoping anyway that is the reason and not googles algorithm changes.

    I noticed that industrial and mid-century modern looking items tend to sell fast. Wire egg baskets, wire telephone stands, but with a brick and mortar site that could depend on the region.

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    1. I've noticed the same trend with industrial items, they really do tend to fly off the shelves when I find them. I need to make a habit of investing in them more.

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  12. Inspired by your booth update, I made a booth update of my own on the blog.. It was a good way to remind myself how far I've come!

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I love reading your comments. Thank you for adding to the discussion! I always reply to any and all questions.

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