Anyone have a booth at an Antique Mall?

With the Fourth of July weekend almost upon us, don't forget to stock your booths well.

As mentioned before, holiday weekends can be very good for sales.

How did everyone do over the holiday weekend?

We had very good sales, but nothing over the top. One nice thing about holiday weekends is that sometimes, it brings in foot traffic, who see items, and often, they will return to buy it later in the week.

FWIW, my DD is ecstatic. She sold two windows priced at $45 each over the weekend. I think that she has spent the forthcoming $105 (in total), about 87 times already. Yesterday, it was a computer. Today she wants to buy an iPhone. It is fun to listen to her dream...

Yay for your DD, Clovis!

We only went Saturday to the flea market due to family obligations, and the sales were not as great as we had hoped. Just enough to keep us coming back, lol! But it was one of those days that I just had to enjoy.... the weather was good for here (only about 93 and humidity was not too bad), we got to see most of our friends and we had out of town family stop by and sit with us for a few hours, so it was a good day. We have quite a few repeat customers and it was one of those days where our regulars kept us going, buying movies mostly. And I sold quite a bit of the toys I had cleaned out of the "gift closet", so we cleared up some space, another plus!

The only bad side, at the end of the day a man and woman came by and decided they wanted to rip open toys that were still sealed in the package, umm no! They barely speak english and are always up there acting boorish and offering 1/10 of what people have items marked at, so I just told them to get away, I would not sell them anything! It takes a lot to make me yell, but that guy trying to yank open a package saying he wanted to see what was inside (because I guess the picture is not good enough!) did it! I even tried to explain that if they opened it, I could no longer sell it as new, and couldn't get the same price for it, to which he said that was not new (what?!?!) and I could just tape it! There's one in every crowd, I guess.

I hope everyone is enjoying good sales this week. We've been blessed to have a very good month so far. I feel very blessed...but why can't every month be as good as this month has been??

Our booths are pretty full, but I went to an estate auction today. The sale bill looked pretty good, so I figured that it would draw a big crowd. I didn't get to the auction until almost 11:50, and thought that I would have a hard time finding a parking place.

When I arrived at the site, there were no cars there, at least to speak of. I momentarily thought that the sale had been cancelled. I parked in the back, which is normally full, yet there were no cars there. I grabbed an auction number, and was surprised to get #138. Numbers start at #100.

There was almost no one there. They were almost giving things away. I started buying, and bought everything I could for the next two hours. My truck is overflowing, and the car is fairly full. I'll have to make at least two more trips to get the big stuff hauled, and quite possibly, three.

I feel for the guy selling this stuff. Lots of it was being given away. He should have had a big tag/garage sale, and then taken the leftovers to the auction. But, on the other hand, he seemed to be happy enough to be rid of his stuff, and the money it was selling for.

I am now kicking myself for not being at the auction earlier. But, at the same time, hauling this stuff to the IFM is going to be challenging, and I have enough stuff to fill another booth!

So far this month has been ok for us! Booth rent is almost paid for the month and I have a few more large items almost refinished and ready to head there early this week. Last week we received our very first check which was pretty exciting lol. (It was after our first full month)

Clovis I'm so glad you are having such an incredible month, and I'm so glad your DD sold some more windows! My DS refinished a table last month but it still hasn't sold yet, I want it to for him so badly! Lol

Thank you, earthy! My daughter is so excited about the sashes!

I hope your son's table sells quickly!! I think it is great to get kids involved with money making ventures. There are so many valuable lessons in these ventures, and prepares them for the real world.

Glad to hear that you are doing well!!!!!

BTW, are you buying stuff to flip also, or are you just focusing on stuff that you can refinish, and then flip?

Got any tips or items that are selling well for you?

The larger furniture pieces I have i almost always have refinished, I also have quite a bit of antique and vintage smalls. I've only been at this for a month and a half so I haven't seen as much of trends as I would like. Oil lanterns have been a great seller so far, but my milk glass hasn't been touched lol.

What are some consistent good selling items for all of you guys?

Item that consistently sell for us? That would be a long list...

Garden stuff is moving pretty well, but it isn't quite as hot as it was a few years ago.

Anything galvanized; buckets, pails, coal buckets, small cans, feeder buckets...it doesn't matter, as long as it is galvanized, it seems to sell, in any condition. I sold a coal or ash bucket this week for $8, and the bottom was totally rusted out!

I am generally a tool/barn/shed/garage guy, and we have one booth pretty much dedicated to that type of stuff. Long handled tools are strong sellers, especially if you can find better quality tools without issues.

We've been very blessed to have built a decent business in fabric, which we stumbled upon by sheer accident. I had sold a ton of fabric in the past, but for whatever reason, it got to the point that I couldn't give away fabric, even though I was mostly marking it $1 to $2 a yard. We happened upon a ton of fabric that was all cut to 19" X 22", so I called my aunt to ask her how to price it. "Those are fat quarters", she explained. So, now, we seek out fabric when we can get it cheap, and 95% of it gets cut into fat quarters, generally priced at $1 each. You are not going to get rich doing this, but it does add to the bottom line. For instance, we found $2 worth of fabric at a thrift, but cut into FQ's, it retails at $24.

We sold $12.50, almost all of it in FQ's, today alone.

There is another vendor at the IFM that is bundling FQ in the cutest bundles of 4, and tying them up in ribbon for $3.50. She sells those like mad, but I think she is selling too cheap.

As well, I think most quilters and crafters like to be able to select their own colors and fabrics at $1 each, instead of being forced to buy 4 in a bundle.

We generally use our rainy days to cut fabric, should we stumble into large lots of it. Again, you won't get rich selling FQ's, but it sure helps the bottom line.

ETA: I just added up our fat quarter sales for this month, and we have sold $46.50 so far in July.

The owner of a store where I have a booth had a vendor like this; he sold LPs but they were not displayed properly. He pulled his booth after a couple months (yes, he assumed he'd get rich doing this ) and used a bunch of profanity while pulling it.

He will not be welcome to return, that's for sure.

Hey everyone! I have read this whole thread and have gathered A TON of fantastic information. So thank you for that.

I just opened my own booth last Wednesday. My husband and Mother in Law are involved as well. So it's been a fun family affair so far. We have sold 3 things in less than a week. So I'm pretty excited about that. Seeing how business doesn't usually start "booming" until around the end of September since it's so hot here (I live in GA). And our Antique Mall doen't have A/C. LOL So even working my booth has been exhausting in the heat. But I have enjoyed the whole process, thus far.

I hope everyone continues to have a great month and I look forward to getting to know you all

Welcome to HT and to the thread, DanyellL!! We are happy to have you!!!

What type of stuff are you selling? Are you focusing on any one thing?

How is the foot traffic in your mall?

We are selling the home decor mainly. I'm a mirror junkie and can't stop buying them. lol So lots of mirrors & framed art. We have 3 small furniture pieces in our booth now but we just went picking through an old collectors barn and purchased TONS of chairs (I'll upholster the seats & paint the frames as accent chairs) and some other furniture items. So once we get those finished we will put them in there I love refinishing furniture so that is our main focus once we sell some of the smalls and get the furniture done.

The traffic is really great. It's in a big district of antique malls. I've been visiting this mall since before they opened in this space (Old Cotton Mill). And they have since been bought out by the current owners. They also have a huge antique auction once a month that we have been going to for about 4 years. As far as the traffic is just the slow season right now. It really picks up the end of September

Here are some pictures of our little booth so far. Hopefully the pictures attach properly. LOL

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See, this is why I can't go in antique malls, every time I see one of yall's pictures of your booth, I want everything in it lol! I love your booth, DanyellL! And welcome to the thread!

We decided not to go to the flea market last Saturday because there was a huge air show that day (100,000 in attendance!) and several of us vendors compared our previous year's calendars and saw there are no sales on those days! We did go Sunday and had decent sales, so of course we started second guessing ourselves about skipping Saturday. I don't think I will ever get over the second guessing, because there's almost no way to predict how things will go. This Saturday should be a great day, but before thinking about it, we told some friends they could use our 2nd booth, so hopefully Sunday will be good as well. We really like our friends and look forward to seeing them, so that offsets the extra table I have tried to find some new cool stuff this week to put out Sunday to help boost sales and make up the difference.

We have added school supplies and craft supplies to the items that we sell, so it is interesting to read that fat quarters sell so well, Clovis. I am almost ashamed to admit, most of the craft supplies we are selling are my own I never used Some also are kits my Mother gave to my DD and she was just too old for them. We often run across fabric in our searches for merchandise, and I had made myself quit buying it so it wouldn't pile up in the house (unless it was reeeaaallllly cute!), but I may venture into reselling it.

Welcome DanyeIIL! Your booth is very cute! I'm in GA also and juuuust starting out :-) we moved into our booth May 20!

Over the years, we've done well with most sewing supplies too. Any time we can get new zippers, buttons on cards, uncut patterns, elastic, lace, ribbon, etc., they typically sell well if they are priced right.

As for the fat quarters, I've found that the old adage of "The more you have, the more they think you have" is true.

Even though we only have two shelves stuffed full of fat quarters, I'd buy another 100 tons of good fabric if I could find it cheap enough.

FWIW, we basically focus on fabrics that can be used in a quilt, and generally speaking, forget the other stuff, unless it is a great fabric. We do buy upholstery fabrics, but often, they can be slow sellers.

I've done quite well with uncut patterns, especially those for toys or home decorations. The ones that are on Amazon are listed there, and the ones that aren't are in my booth, priced at $1 or $2 each, and I have sold some.

FWIW, as I have been sorting through the craft/sewing supplies, anything with a barcode on it, new or barely used, I check on Amazon, and have found a bit to list there for much more than I could sell it at the flea market. I did that after my sister told me she sells craft and cake books on Amazon. She's not generally a reseller, but was pleased she could make some decent money selling these books there. I sure wish I had known about buying secondhand back in my "consumer years"!

[QUOTE=shannsmom;7151654]See, this is why I can't go in antique malls, every time I see one of yall's pictures of your booth, I want everything in it lol! I love your booth, DanyellL! And welcome to the thread!

Thank you! Good luck this weekend at your booths!

Yay that is awesome! Where in GA are you??

How is your booth doing so far?

Dang! Got up this morning and they're saying 70% chance of storms tomorrow Now it seems a good thing our friends are paying for the 2nd booth we let them use, we won't be out so much money, as it looks like we won't make much due to the weather. So we will just put up our "tarp city", take a lot of snacks and enjoy the company! Some days that's all you can ask for.