Anyone have a booth at an Antique Mall?

I hear ya. I'm cheap...I mean I am frugal, too. I actually prefer to use the term "wise with money." LOL.

I probably happened to stumble across the five or six people who never venture out, and are still stuck in the thought pattern that it is just junk. Sometimes, I think people see all of the extremely cool crafts on the internet, and know that they could make them too, if they only had the parts.

In the instance of the license plates, I bet those two women have never realized how collectible old auto plates are, and in their mind, think they should be able to pick them up for 25 cents each, and maybe 50 cents if they are feeling wild with money.

I am guessing that the woman who saw the parts in the bed of my truck, (which sold within 3 days on ebay for almost $100), would have never guessed they were worth that much, and therefore assumed that her $4 offer was a good one.

What surprises me the most is the attitude of how I am trying to rip them off by asking $12 for a chair that I sorely under-priced, and how I am supposed to let them have it for literally chump change. As for the parts that were destined for ebay, the woman said "But I want to make these cool yard art things....and I can't pay that much for them." (But it is funny that a few local artists are making those items and selling them for $25 each.)

Earlier this year, we scored a very large lot of yarn, 99% of it was brand new and in perfect condition. A woman got ticked because we priced that yarn at more than her expectation of 25 cents a skein! We priced the Red Heart full sized at 1.50, which is still a savings over Walmart by over $1. This gal was MAD! "This is a flea market!!! I need that for the dog sweaters I want to knit! It's like worth 25 cents!!!" she exclaimed, as she stomped off.

I shouldn't have let any of this bother me at all...every single item that someone wanted to buy on the cheap sold within days.

I just learned a new word: "deadstock". It's a term for old, vintage items that were never used.

Anyone else seen or used that term?

Clovis when I had my booth I always got a chuckle when some one low balled me.
Cuz they would always come back in a week or so expecting the item to be there and marked lower. 90% of the time the item was gone with in a day of their insulting offer, for full price.

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2Ti 1:7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Luceo non uro

I have.

To me, dead stock refers to new, but unwanted or unsalable items, or items that are hard to move. I think of dead stock in terms of lets say, a Harry Potter book that is brand new, and the publisher or printer has 800,000 copies still sitting in a warehouse in Toledo. They might have sold 91 jagillion of that book when it was released, but are now only selling a few each month. To me, I wouldn't use the term dead stock very much when referring to vintage items, but I reckon a person could.

I use the term NOS, which stands for New Old Stock, or New Original Stock. It is a widely used term in the antique car business, and hear it quite often in other areas of collecting.

I think everyone is just cheap because of the recession and the fact that they have no idea what things should cost. Let them spend the time going to auctions or picking and see if they really think that chair is worth only $2! They'd be charging $40 because they had to put so much work into it. We have the same trouble, no matter what category the item is in, even if it is brand new with the retail price tag on it, and we have it marked 75% off, they'll offer a pittance. It wears you down sometimes and you do start to take it personally. The past few weeks I have been selling school supplies for less than the best sales around here, and women will want a pack of notebook paper for 5 or 7 cents. I have gotten frustrated a few times and told them they were ridiculous, but mostly I just look over the top of my glasses at them and say "uh, nooooooooooooo", and they usually then pay the price I have it marked at. I watch all the other vendors deal with the same thing, so it seems universal. I think I am going to make a big sign that says "It's the FLEA MARKET, not the FREE MARKET"!

BTW, I LOVE Pinterest, but it has the opposite effect on me, I think the items to make the super cute things must be worth a fortune!

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

One thing that I've been wondering about:

What do your friends and family say about your flea market and antique mall ventures?

My family has been supportive. I'm sure that my parents would be more proud had I become a banker, lawyer or successful businessman. I know that they worry about my fledgling business, and some of the risks that I take, but they have not been judgmental or negative. In fact, they are always on the look out for me, and will call me about any good potential pick that they find, which is often.

Most of the people that I meet, though, look at me like I am a three headed monster. The rest of them look at me like I am high on crack, or something. LOL.

For the most part, I don't think that most people can understand how much money a person can make in this business. I don't believe anyone ever gets rich flea marketing and ebaying, but when times are good, there is money to be made.

I do have a neighbor though, who...well, I don't know what the guy thinks. He has NOT been a good person or neighbor, and I don't care for him much. I highly suspect he has some mental wellness issues, but maybe not. He is flabbergasted that anyone could make money in this business, let alone as a sole source of income. I try not to care what others think, but this guy has been extremely vocal with his opinion, and stuck his nose into our business, and I have never once asked his opinion about anything. It is crazy, I tell ya! He has never even been invited into our drive, where we often work, yet he has meandered over many times and run his ignorant mouth about what we do for a living, plus a million other things.

It is nice, though, when once in a blue moon, I run into someone that has an interest in our business, whether it is flea marketing or ebay.

What do your friends and family say?

Most think we're nuts and it's a phase we'll get out of. My parents think I have lost my mind, why would I leave a "stable job" (20 year nursing career), but really, nothing's stable anymore, or I wouldn't have been laid off from the hospital and the government wouldn't have cut so many civil service jobs or had sequestering! I know their core feeling is worrying about us. Everyone does seem more supportive of online selling vs flea marketing, though. Honestly, before we started selling at the flea market, we were not secondhand shoppers, so I thought flea marketers were one step above carnies lol! Now I know it is a lot of nice people for the most part.

They think we just sit home watching TV the things we sell magically pop into the house lol! The saving grace for me is that, I also put DD in virtual school so it's okay for me to not go to a "regular job" because I'm homeschooling her, but DH does not have that excuse.

Now, our friends who resell or work for themselves in any way, are totally supportive! And we have friends who tell us to look for things for them, but they always expect us to either give the item to them or not charge anything for our time, so we're not real keen on that plan!

But, we care less than ever about what other people think, and other resellers and business owners are less judgemental than the hospital crowd, that's for sure!

I used to be part of a forum and that is what 99% of them did to make a living, ebay.
Some had other streams of income, mostly software related, some were on disability but as for a job they were ebay sellers.
Some power sellers.
I sure miss that forum!
I miss ebaying, I just haven't found any worth while items in my yard sale meanderings lately. Actually I haven't spent anything at yard sales in a couple months.

__________________
2Ti 1:7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Luceo non uro

We decided to only go to the flea market Saturday again this weekend due to poor sales, and we sat there all day to make $11 after paying for the booth!

HOWEVER...we saw a fellow who was down here from the north a few months ago (planning to set up a store eventually) and had bought all of our blu ray movies that day, so yesterday we asked if he was still buying movies. We had decided to limit our movie business to collectibles since it is so hard to sell them here now, and had a number of a guy in MS who would buy them all at a discount, we just haven't gotten around to calling him yet (been helping our friend get his new store ready). So we offered this guy the same price to buy as many as possible, and he bought everything we had with us, 1600 movies. Then asked if we could deliver anything else we had to his store he is opening this week So we cleaned out the storage unit this morning and took him another 4000! We thought we had about 6000 in there, but we have sold off more than we thought. Our business model is to take the lots (usually 400-1000) we get from our contacts, slap the good stuff online and then sell the rest at the flea market, but this guy said if we get lots anymore, he would buy what's left after we take what we want out, so he is a good contact! Well worth the hour of driving to deliver to him.

The movies were kind of my department of our business, so I felt a little sad seeing him drive off with them yesterday, but a stack of hundred dollar bills helped console me lol! It also was nice to bring home a half empty trailer for a change, we realized that since we are no longer taking video games and movies to the flea market, we don't even need to tote the trailer, we can just load tubs into the back of the truck. And just go once or twice a month now, so what a relief. This coming Saturday will be our last weekend having a "regular table", we will tell them this week that we will call ahead when we are coming, and if we get a different table, it would be okay, we will just try to stay on our old one due to the friends we have there. One set of friends will be coming this Saturday as their last day, also. They had knocked down to once a month and are now just done with it. So, times they are a changing for us, but it is in a way we had been planning on, it just worked out a little easier than we planned

Shannsmom,

I am thrilled that you were able to liquidate your inventory, and turn it into some cash.

I hope we aren't going to lose you on this thread!

Are you leaving the FM business?

Our family and friends have been very supportive. We've had friends buy some of our pieces as well. And even offer us MORE money then what we were charging. LOL And they are great advertisement. So that is always good.

The only thing my mom has been hesitant on is me leaving my job. I've been here for almost 10 years. And I'm young. I'm only 28. So she feels me being at my job for 10 years is really good for my age. And that I need to stick it out. Even if I just go to part time (which is something I will look into). But I commute to work. It's almost an hour one way. And I'm just tired of it. Corporate life isn't for me. lol The only reason why I haven't left yet is my husband wants to buy land and start building our "dream house" within the next 6 months. So we will need my stable job throughout the loan process. He already will be leaving his "corporate job" in the next 6 months to start his business. Actually it's already started. They are just getting to the point where they are so busy they can't work both.

But I'm thankful so far we have had the support behind us. It really makes a difference. Now "outsiders" or my coworkers think I'm crazy. Although they love our work. So I don't know. Some people get it. Some don't.

How did sales go for everyone this weekend??? Sales from our booth didn't do well. But we took on another custom order. And we are still working on this stupid church pew. LOL It is taking longer than expected. And the customer keeps adding more stuff! lol She already paid up front. So maybe she will be so excited she throws us another bill. LOL

We've had the worst week in sales since starting up... Which really stinks but it also followed the best week we've ever had so I'll take the wash.

We went to a large local flea market this past weekend and found 2 amazing end tables, we didn't know they were amazing at the time. They had good "bones" but were pretty dirty and beat up. Come to find out they are Habersham Plantation pieces, with serial numbers on the bottom and everything! Possibly our best pick to date! We only paid $10 a piece for them!

We did a big rearranging overhaul on our booth on Saturday morning so hopefully that will draw more people in as well.

For us, my DH is career military so most of my friends and family see it just as a hobby of mine. Which is fine, with 2 kids and a baby at home I can see why they think that lol. I don't expect it to pay any bills right away but we do hope to make more and more as time goes on and for it to be a good supplement when DH retired :-)

That is awesome about the end tables! Sometimes people just don't know what they have! I can't wait to see what you do to them!

Hi I'm new to this site but I sell at the flea markets. It is to supplement mine and Hubby's income. I usually go to garage sales and pick up items I think will sell. I'm not familiar with antiques so was wondering what y'all could tell me about this item . I paid 50 cents for this lamp.

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Hi, my I join you? My sister and I have a booth in an antique mall. We are new at this. We started out a couple of months ago in a little town near me. I did well there, making double my rents + from the beginning, but my sister never sold more than $8 a month there.

We added another space in a different town last month. This little town has lots of traffic and draws shoppers just for antique shopping. I hope we do better here.

We closed the first space since I couldn't carry us both for very long. I know it doesn't make business sense to pull out so fast, but it is what it is.

I've learned a ton of stuff from reading this site. I appreciate everyone sharing. Here is a link to our Facebook page....https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bird-...1767837?ref=hl Tell me what you think.

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formerly known as HaloHead
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"... And what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Micah 6:8

Clovis it's really interesting reading about your business.If it's not to personal ,may I ask are your booth in small towns or a big city? And which location does better,if you don't mind my asking . Have quite a few friends and my daughter we love to shop in AM,not so much outside Flea markets,and we always wonder where are the best places!?Indy area! Thanks

Jaclynne, were is mineola Texas. What large city is it located in. Your Boothe is very pretty.

Thank you for the kind words!

We have two spots at an antique mall in the big city. The nice thing about that place is the foot traffic, and people seem to be more well heeled there. My difficulty is trying to figure out what those customers are looking for; it is a trendy market and a fast moving place. This is where we take our best stuff, at least the stuff that we'll think that will sell.

We are at another huge antique mall south of the city. I swear, I can't figure that place out. It was stellar a few years ago, and now, I can't seem to give anything away in that place!

The indoor FM is far and away, the best place for us, which is in a small town, relatively speaking. This place is huge too, especially for a FM. This is our bread and butter, and we live on the sales we make there. When our sales are slow for the month there, we hurt pretty bad.

I'll PM on some great places to shop.

Welcome!!!

It is great to have you here!!! Please post often...we all can learn from one another. I have learned quite a few things in this thread, and have been able to look at the business with a new perspective.

Brendafawn,

It is wonderful to have you join this thread!!!! Welcome!!!

Don't be afraid to join in the discussion, ask questions, and share whatever you want...this thread is a great place for all of us to learn.