Harsh Realities in a Vintage Biz

Lately I’ve been pondering all the things I didn’t realize when I opened my Etsy vintage store 12 years ago. And boy there were a lot of them.

Here are just a few…

Items can take a long time to sell

I honestly thought all my stuff would sell within a year. I believe in my items. Some are more on trend than others, but they are all “good.” Sadly some have taken years to sell.

Case in point–I bought this vintage celluloid mantilla comb with red rhinestones from a cousin-in-law’s store back in New York state in 2017. It was out of my wheelhouse, but it was lovely and knew there was a market for these, albeit a small one. It’s now 2024 and it just…JUST…sold!!! I’m relieved but when I subtract the cost of goods, the listing fees over the years and the transaction fee I will make about $7. Sigh! Frankly though I made several mistakes with this piece. First I overpaid. Second, I should have given it a fresh listing years ago. One with better photos and search terms.

Fact: Sometimes “list it and forget about it”
doesn’t work!

So now I am laboriously going through all my older listings. Some items are getting brand new listings. Others are going on sale. Others may go to different sites/venues, like eBay. Some are going bye-bye. Sellers really can’t “list it and forget it” anymore.

Online site fees will keep going up

I suppose that’s inevitable, but it’s not something you think about when you start. And it gets painful. When I first started on Chairish five years ago, sellers paid 22% in fees if they had 10 items or more in their store. It’s gone up to 30% for 10 items or more and 45% if you have less then 10. Yikes! (I am no longer active on that site.)

Etsy fees have gone up too, but are still some of the more reasonable for a major site: 6.5% transaction fee and 3% processing fee. (The transaction fee includes the shipping which I think is mean.) The listing fee is 20 cents per item for four months or essentially 5 cents a month. Which doesn’t sound bad, but it adds up when you’ve got hundreds of items.

Fact: Fees will only continue to increase.

Bad customers happen

I thought if I bought good/interesting items, priced them well, photographed and described them accurately, offered returns and provided good customer service that buyers would be happy. And mostly that’s been true. I’ve had wonderful customer interactions. But not always! There have been a few bad apples.

Case in point–A gal left me a 1-star review because she said her item never arrived. She didn’t reach out to me first. After leaving the review she sent me an angry message asking what was I going to do about it. The tracking information showed that the item had been delivered to her address the week before. So either she was lying to scam me for a refund or the item was stolen/mis-delivered.

Here’s the thing, once an item is tracked as “Delivered” sellers are under no obligation to refund a customer. We’ve done our job. After she learned I wasn’t going to refund her, I never heard from her again.

Case in point–More recently, as some of you know, a buyer decided that a batch of 100 original snapshots she received were copies that I’d faked. The allegation was so ridiculous and clearly not true that it was laughable. But she didn’t reach out to me to return them, instead decided to leave me a one-star review to hurt my business. Wow.

Fact: You can do everything right
and still get clobbered by customers.

I wish I had thicker skin, but it always takes me a while to shake these off these false allegations. Nowadays I do keep a list of “problem customers” though. If they buy from me again, I cancel their order. There are no second chances. Burn me once, we’re done. And yes, I have canceled orders.

Competitors can be unscrupulous

Obviously I knew I’d have plenty of competition on the selling side of the biz. Too much really. But I never really thought about my competition when out sourcing.

When I first started going to estate sales (usually getting there early to wait it line) I saw it in spades. Once the doors opened and folks were allowed inside, it was bedlam. A contact sport at times. But mostly I started to see deviousness. Shoppers blocking access to areas or tables until they were done looking. Sometimes I saw people working in tandem at that. Others slapped their own SOLD labels on stuff with record speed, not with the intention of buying it all, but to hold it until they could examine it later. I’ve seen folks trying to swipe stuff off of HOLD tables and one time I had to scare away some guy pawing through stuff in my HOLD box. He shrugged sheepishly. And don’t get me started on the shenanigans around sign-up sheets.

A few years back at a yard sale I was examining a crocheted tablecloth and a guy came up, reached out his hand to take it from me and said “I’d like to look at that.” I pulled back, confused, and said “Well, I’m looking at it.” The cheek! I ended up buying it.

Even at my tiny neighborhood thrift store there’s a regular shopper (he sells at flea markets) who gets inside help from an employee. This employee alerts him to good items and tells him exactly where they are on the shelves so when the doors open he makes a beeline to them. It’s not a level playing field.

Fact: Some folks in the biz have no moral compass.

But that’s not much you can do about it so these days when I’m out sourcing I get in “the zone” and just ignore my competition. The best I can do is be laser focused on what’s in front of me.

---

That’s a few of the things I never considered when I first started in the biz. Certainly it’s not the full list, but the things that tend to bother me the most.

How about you? What frosts you?

Karen