Vintage Booth Lessons: Sometimes you gotta shut it down!
So I took a flying leap into starting a vintage booth at a huge local antique mall. It began in June with a one-week experiment and during that week I moved into an ongoing space of my own. Breaking news: I ended it earlier this month.
I’d been thinking for weeks about how much time we wanted to spend on this and the short answer for me is certainly not more time than a full-time job. While we were making more money with each month, the quest for inventory never ends and it’s definitely more challenging when you’re not in a major metro area.
Of course, the hunt is a thrill. But it’s often tempered by jacked prices at the thrifts and estate sales. Once I found several legit antique framed French fashion prints that were pretty small and thought whoa tres chic let’s get them for the booth. But they were priced at $30 each. I couldn’t justify buying especially considering their fragile state. I kept seeing them at the store, becoming more damaged as they fought to survive among the heartier junk “art.” Bummer, man.
This kind of shopping is let’s just say it - it’s not pretty. You got the stink, carts on their last wheels, dust and dirt and the hours (so many hours) spent standing and staring through the garbage to find a score. Additionally, some of our regional thrift stores support religious entities. And great for them. That’s just not a thing I want to give money to over the long haul.
In short, it’s real work to find the gems no matter where you are. And it’s even more work to find the treasures, at least at Goodwill, because their workers are pulling the best stuff to sell online. They're working hard, too. Then there’s getting the items home without damage, doing inventory, cleaning, researching, pricing, tagging and bringing items to the store and display styling.
Numbers nerds here’s the deets: The booth space cost $300 per month and the owners also took 16% of the cost of each item sold. I also paid the credit card fees and $6 a month for insurance. Things sold. The traffic was there. Hence the pressure of filling that booth. I also felt pressure about pricing as the store prided itself on having lower prices.
Let’s look at September. They calculated my total sales of 50 vintage items (from vases to framed art to ceramics to dishes, record holders and even a wooden tennis racket) to be $1489.20. The owner’s commission was $238. Credit cards were used to pay $1050 of the total sales amount so the owners charged me $47.25 for credit card fees. And $6 for insurance. Which leaves $1197.95 for me. If rent had been taken out of that amount for October, I’d be left with $897.68 for the month. Sounds pretty good I suppose until you consider that doesn’t subtract the amount I paid for the inventory.
As I was wondering what made sense for me in this type of vintage realm, I learned that one of the store owners had wrongly accused a customer of stealing. And it might not have been the first time. Let’s just say the encounter and the aftermath could have been handled better. I knew then this wasn’t the right long-term fit for me.
I am grateful for the opportunity because it was a wild roller coaster ride that left me well prepared and with a solid foundation to better work vintage and antiques into my interior design business. I’m ready to get back to home layout/design projects and am researching other options to get high-quality vintage items into the hands of people who will enjoy them for their next chapter. I might even offer a personal thrifting/estate sale shopper service.
For now, we have some things listed for sale online with more listings daily as the holidays approach. Anything interest you? Send me a message! Here's a quick sample (update elephant sold!):
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