A Visit To My Booths - January

Welcome 2015

I am going to share a bit about my booths at Village Antiques Mall at least once a month. I am proud of the collections I have put together, the many eclectic bits and pieces that make up my stock. There are always surprises while out searching, finding something unique or funky or something that needs TLC before it is ready to resell. Painting. Cleaning, Polishing.

 
I started out 20 years ago, a neophyte in reselling but not in collecting. I've been a collector of ephemera, linens and china since childhood, adding vintage Canadiana later.

Amazingly naive in the beginning, amazing learning curve over the last 20 years I've been a reseller of collectibles at Village Antiques Mall. 

Always there is something new to learn. The business portion of being a reseller involves a lot of record keeping and all the related tax work. Paper, files, lovely office supplies, a decent camera, a decent computer, space to work, for me a great many books on Antiques and Collectibles. I also need vehicle that can haul furniture as well as lots of boxes full of stock.

Photography is a nice off shoot of collecting. There are always fresh items to use for a painted project before and after, for a vignette, for a collection/group, to use in a post.

Having a great love of reading, sewing and painting and doing paperwork in a timely way is useful for a reseller of vintage collectibles.

Wood, metal, cloth, vintage. A few painted projects. There are always great ideas on pinterest that often lead to new ideas for display, upgrading, embellishing, creating.

Sometimes repurposing. Reselling collectibles involves finding and storing a great amount of wonderful vintage objects. The finding of stock involves purposeful acquisition - that means scouring thrift stores, estates, auctions, garage sales, flea markets, watching for pop up sales, on line sales, being ready to follow up on leads, invitations to make offers, so much more. A great deal of personal time is involved in finding stock.

A great deal of washing of china or kitchenware, cleaning of metal pieces (and sometimes not cleaning them), cleaning, repairing if necessary, waxing and sometimes painting of wood, hours of research for pricing, writing tags, packing, hauling, grouping. You have to enjoy doing this sort of work (and I do).

Always, there is work to be done in one's booths. Lots of shelf dusting, china dusting, furniture dusting or perhaps polishing. Rearranging stock. Checking linens to see if they are 'shop worn' from handling. Decisions about where to put fresh items, how to freshen the shelves and vignettes, seasonal stock, storage. Boxing up stock that isn't popular or that is out of season, deciding to donate or store. Sweeping/vacuuming floors, picking up any messes, checking for spiderwebs/spiders and making sure the light bulbs are ok are included. The jobs that enhance the look of booths is another must do for successful reselling.

What do I do after I bring new stock home? Before stock is ready for sale it needs to be prepared and more often than not my kitchen is the paint shop, work shop, washing shop and office. My home works around the business. Organization, decision making, cleaning, fixing, painting, photographing, recording (I use spreadsheets for my inventory), pricing, tagging, packing, hauling, unpacking, placement in my booths in attractive configurations are all part of the job of buy the stock to place the new stock in my booths.

Thanks for visiting.

Featured by Jillian @ Bella Rosa Antiques
Beverly @ How Sweet The Sound

Linking with

Hey Mom Whats For Dinner, How Sweet The Sound, Chic on a Shoestring, The Charm of Home, Shabby Art Boutique, Nancherrow  The Cottage Market, From My Front Porch To Yours, The Shabby Nest, Embracing Change, Sir Thrift A Lot