What’s Selling in Vintage & Antiques March 2018
Hi there! I hope you had a nice weekend. I had a lovely couple of days with my sweet husband. On Friday, we hit a garage sale and Salvation Army for a little vintage shopping, followed by a drive into Albany to take a tour of our Capitol.
My first job out of law school, I worked for the Legislature, so I know the Capitol well, but my sweet husband (who hails from the Pittsburgh area) had never been. It’s a grand old building, and I hope to post about our visit soon. If you follow me on Instagram, then you may have already seen a few photos. I posted our tour of the city of Albany a while back and it includes a photo of the building.
Saturday we slept in and then ran a few errands. We have three weddings in May, and I badly needed a pair of comfortable black shoes, so we ran into Marshall’s to see what they had. I found a pair on sale for just $18 that I loved, but they were slightly too big. Sigh. I decided to turn the corner and walked down the other side of the clearance aisle, even though they were way too small for me, and low and behold, I found a pair of my shoes in 9 1/2. Yippee!
But you’re not here to read about my latest shoe find, are you? You’ll be wanting to hear about what’s selling in vintage and antiques. So, let’s get started.
My Antique Booth
A stylized wooden cat napkin ring sold for $4 (cost: 50¢).
A set of four ruby glass goblets sold for $12 (cost: $1).
A large, watercolor painting of a red barn sold for $40.50 (reflecting a 10% discount) (cost: $5.00).
A vintage dresser scarf sold for $4 (cost: 50¢).
Another vintage dresser scarf sold for $4 (cost: 50¢).
A vintage incense burner in its original box sold for $6 (cost: $1).
The book, Grandpa Nog, sold for $4 (cost: $1).
A third vintage dresser scarf sold for $5 (cost: 50¢).
An English ironstone butter dish (Burgess & Campbell) sold for $12.00 (cost: $1).
A chippy toolbox sold for $18.00 (cost: $1).
A fluted, French pan sold for $12 (cost: $1).
A small vintage vinyl suitcase sold for $8 (cost: $1).
A tortoise shell sold for $18 (cost: $5).
A hanging scale sold for $32 (cost: free from my sweet friend, Linda).
Not shown:
English ironstone coffee pot, $48.
Hand forged tongs, $40 (1/2 price).
Small hand made pedestal stand $5.
Salt-glazed sheep, $18.
Small crock, $4.
English plate, $10.
Gardening book, $2.
3 postcards, $3.
Whisk broom, $6.
Linen towel, $2.
My Vintage Blog Shop
A Mason’s transferware cup and saucer (cost: $1) sold for $13.50 (reflects lifetime 10% given to subscribers).
A piece of costume jewelry–a triple strand of Trifari pearls (missing one rhinestone on clasp) sold for $20 (cost: $1).
1948 Cinderella sheet music sold for $5.00 (cost: 25¢).
An antique Easter postcard sold for $2.70 (reflecting 10% discount).
Another antique Easter postcard sold for $2.70 (reflecting 10% discount).
Two vintage maps of Texas sold for $5.40 each (reflecting a 10% discount). [Didn’t have photos of Texas, so substituted with NY!]
A partial packet of c.1950’s school photos sold for $5.40 (10% discount)(cost 50¢).
A set of vintage subtraction flash cards sold for $5.40 (reflects 10% discount) (cost: 50¢).
On Ebay
A first edition (1965) Betty Crocker’s New Boys and Girls Cook Book sold for the BIN price of $24.99 (cost: $1).
A set of five Railroad time tables sold for the BIN price of $14.99 (cost: 50¢).
A collection of vintage sewing notions, including thread and a darner, sold at auction for the starting price of $9.93 (cost: $1).
A collection of eight Wade figurines sold for the best offer of $8.00 (cost: free).
That’s it for this month, friends. March was a so-so month for me, but I’m not complaining. Ebay sales were down because I didn’t list much due to my focus on making goods for my “line” of Adirondack Girl products for our local Shaker museum.
The museum held its grand re-opening the third week of March, so I had a deadline to meet. I will share those earnings quarterly, when I receive them from the museum. During the “gala” I sold two pots of my Wood Salve, a sign, and a watercolor painting; hopefully that bodes well for future sales. I’ll be sure to let you know 🙂
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Diana, don’t you also have other fees associated with each of your venues you’re selling in, such as credit card, and service fees? Our mall deducts those costs too, as well as a mgt % (besides rent) of all sales. Our state also incurs a business and occupation tax on all gross sales, and our mgt deducts that too. Not to mention costs of shipping (boxes, wrap, tape, etc.)….as my husband says, as long as you’re still having fun doing it….
You are certainly on top of it! There are always those “extra costs”!
Hey there, Rita, yes there are other fees, but while they end up being about 10% of my profit, I make it back due to a slight overage in shipping charges.
So rather than make these calculations every month (when I can get them for the whole year come April 15th at the press of a button), I decided to leave them out from now on. Putting together these “What’s Selling” posts is pretty time consuming, so the time savings is helpful 🙂
The owner of my shop just started allowing credit card payments and he is charging each dealer depending on what they sold via the cc. So far it’s been minimal. Other than that, I only pay rent ($200/month in my new booth).
I’m lucky regarding shipping as I have two friend/suppliers who give me all the bubble wrap, air pillows, and peanuts I need from their workplace! I collect small-medium boxes everywhere I go, for free when I can, and for cheap when I have to.
There are many costs that I don’t write about monthly, like mileage, supplies, blog-related fees, etc. That’s all more detail than I’m interested in getting into. Suffice it to say, I’m not getting rich off this side business and the government certainly doesn’t make it easy for small businesses to succeed.
As your husband would say, “I’m still having fun!” And truth be told, I LOVE it 🙂
I admire your organization….these posts are very useful for what sold, as well as encouraging newbies…to keep excellent records. Great post.
One of the few blogs where I read every word. That’s really sayng something for me.
WOW! That means so much 🙂 You literally made my day. Make sure to stay in touch–
But Diana, we ARE interested in your comfortable black shoes! Post a photo for the inquiring minds who read your blog?
LOL! You literally had me laughing out loud, Jana 🙂 I will definitely post a picture. Probably not on my blog but in my weekly newsletter–do you get It? I send it out on Wednesday.
So happy to cause you to laugh, Diana. I don’t get your weekly newsletter but will look for a signup place on your site. Dying to know. . .
It’s always fun to see what is selling, Diana!
Thanks Linda!
Nice work Diane! I love your website!
Thanks Kelli!! So glad you like it 🙂
I want to know! Did you use your wood salve on the turtle shell? It was soo shiny! I covet that string of pearls! Yeah, and I love hearing about the rest of your life, including new shoes! A friend and I today signed up to share a small double booth in a new antique/vintage place on a heavily traveled road 20 min. from home. She has a lot of furniture. I have smalls. She describes herself as anal retentive; I’m not. She is afraid of ruining a friendship. She has great booth design skills. I gave her permission to tell me off! I’m psyched. If I can empty a storage unit, I’ve got the rent covered!
No! I didn’t, Kathy, but it would probably work on an unfinished shell. The shell was polyurethane by the flea market dude I bought it off of. Apparently, it keeps them in good condition.
I promise to post my shoes as soon as I get the chance–probably in my email newsletter, though, not here on my blog, LOL.
“Heavily traveled” is what you want for an antique shop–sounds great. I love that your friendship with your partner is so healthy that you can have honest conversations about getting on each other’s nerves. I bet it’s going to work out really well. Would love to see some pictures of your new space 🙂 Good luck!
Yeah, about those shoes…I have a pair of comfortable black shoes and I want to know if they look like old lady shoes beside the ones you bought! My feet give me fits because of my arthritis and I have really narrow feet so I can’t buy shoes many places and sometimes in order to get comfort I end up with borderline ugly shoes. Add to that the fact that as a teen and young woman I loved, loved, loved shoes and had quite a few. Now I’m down to about two pairs that I can be comfortable in. Geez, the things we have to give up when we get old! My girlfriend and I used to have this saying that all we wanted in this life was World Peace and Cute Shoes! Sure would make ME happy! So show us your shoes!
I enjoyed this post as I always do and was surprised that you got so much for the water-color of the red barn. I mean it’s a nice painting but the frame is nothing special but I’m glad it did well for you. And it was fun seeing how all the small or seemingly un-extraordinary items still together came out to a nice little sum.
Like the other reader said, I always read every word of your posts! So I’m looking forward to the next one as usual!
Hope your week is off to a great start, Diana!
I’ve always been a bit of a shoe hound myself, but I have finally admitted that the real high heels just aren’t working for me anymore. I finally got rid of them all (well, most of them), hence my need for a new, lower heeled pair. I promise to reveal them ASAP (look for them in an email newsletter, not here on my blog, though).
Glad you enjoyed the post. The barn watercolor sold almost immediately. It had a nice quality and the frame wasn’t horrible (I always replace “horrible” frames), but it wasn’t anything special, as you said.
Thanks for being such a lovely, loyal reader, Naomi! You’re a blessing to me 🙂