Posted by My current experience selling vintage stuff (mostly online) may not be typical of many sellers. I am definitely not sourcing and buying as much as I did in the past (no need) and I don’t go to the post office every day. I work 15 to 18 hours a week which includes sourcing, researching, listing, packing orders, going to the post office, answering messages, and doing accounting tasks. But I am not trying to grow my biz. While I wouldn’t mind more sales, I am not trying to take it to “the next level.” Absolutely not! This is meant to be an enjoyable retirement biz. And for the most part it is.
Here’s what my past week looked like.
Monday
Packaged up my weekend orders and my husband offered to drop them off later at the post office. Was in the mood to do a little sourcing at my neighborhood thrift store so I headed to the store. I was feeling “lucky” after finding the 1800s Minton-Boyle plates last week. And I did find some stuff, but nothing was good enough. The cranberry cut-to-clear candy dish is likely Egermann, vintage but not antique, and a bit light weight. It resells in the $25 to $40 range (Goodwill priced at $8+). The vintage crystal ice bucket with metal lid was another nice item, but unbranded and valued around $25 to $30.
These ceramic fish thingys were kinda interesting but I knew they’d take forever to sell, if at all.
This antique frame was one to consider but in the end I left it behind. It was quite large (shipping would be a nightmare), not particularly exciting, and priced at $28+. Ouch. (Plus the photo creeped me out!)
So I left the store empty handed. Which is not unusual.
Later I found myself dealing with time-wasting messages from potential customers. One gal messaged me offering me $300 for a $500 item. Holy smokes! Why do people do that? Naturally I declined and she followed up asking what’s the lowest I’d take. Since the item hasn’t been in my store long I let her know I wasn’t offering discounts right now. But FB Marketplace took the cake. I had listed a huge lot of vintage lab glass attractively priced at $100 and was inundated with messages–“I’m interested” and “Is this still available?”–but mostly I got ghosted after I responded. (I think that’s fairly typical for FB.) I had one hopeful local guy who wanted to pick this lot up on his bike. Not sure how he thought that would work–the glass is in three big cardboard boxes! So it’s still available.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Totally different kind of days. No sourcing. I stayed home and focused on listing and redoing older listings each morning. Pulled a few more items that I’ll donate. Felt productive compared to Monday’s wheel spinning.
My listings included a few more religious medals (bought two years ago!) like this antique French one for Pope Leon XIII. A neat item for the right person.
And charms, like this old sterling silver four-leaf clover. My charms have been selling well and I’m working at getting all my stash listed.
Also sold the lab glass lot on FB and the guy came to pick it up.
And I sold a loaded charm bracelet on Etsy for $160.
Friday
Today I worked in our garage reorganizing my used shipping boxes and random bits of packing materials that friends have donated to me. (It was a hot mess.) Some small bits I threw away or recycled because I knew I would never use them. But most of this donated shipping stuff has proven to be a godsend over the years.
While working I also unearthed five more boxes of vintage lab glass!! Didn’t realize I had quite that much left. I pulled together this lot of 28 round-bottomed test tubes in varying sizes that I listed on FB Marketplace for $30. We’ll see if there is any interest.
This weekend I’ll figure out what to do with the rest of the glass! I want it gone soon.
I have lots more work to do in the garage, but it was good to make a start.
Saturday
Started the morning receiving a couple of sales including another loaded charm bracelet. (So happy to see my bracelets finding new homes.) Later after an appointment I hit up two boutique thrift stores on my way home. Honestly though, I’m trying to figure out how they can even call these “thrift stores” anymore. I liked this vintage, metal sugar shaker from France, but it was $17 and a thrift store price IMHO should have been $5 or under. I found one on eBay being sold for $19.99.
I also adored a small cloisonne vase but it was $75. I was naively hoping it would be $25 or less! So I left both stores empty handed and there was no inventory bought this week. Which was fine though I’m sure to some vintage sellers that must seem like craziness. So many in the biz seem to be constantly buying. But I know I don’t need to be. I still have stuff to list at home and I still want less inventory.
Didn’t feel motivated to do store work this afternoon so I didn’t.
Sunday
A few more sales including a large painting which will likely require me to assemble a frankenbox! But I’ll save that for tomorrow. Time to rest.
And that was that. Another week done.
Karen
Hunting for Vintage 