What’s Selling in Vintage & Antiques
Hi there! I’m happy to report that October’s vintage and antique sales added up to a nice tidy sum ($734.27), particularly those from my antique booth at the Gristmill Antique Center. If you’re a vintage seller, then I hope your sales were good too! In today’s post you’ll get to see what’s selling in vintage and antiques [October 2019], including sales from my antique booth, my Vintage Blog Shop, Etsy, and eBay.
This business is not an easy one, is it?? But it’s SO satisfying on so many levels: buying beautiful things, bringing out their beauty, staging an antique booth, and engaging with customers. I love every part of it. Except for the “sales are not always so good” part.
For most of us this vintage biz is a side hustle that compliments our family income, rather than serving as our family income. To earn the big bucks, like those antique dealers on Antiques Road Show, you need several art history degrees and a shop full of high-end antiques. That’s not really me, you know?
For example, in today’s post you’ll find the kind of fun garage sale and thrift store finds that I sell pretty regularly, including things like baskets, books, and jewelry. They are the meat and potatoes of my business, though I always work to “upgrade” and buy better quality items whenever possible. It’s a constant learning process, for sure.
Maybe you’ll pick up a tip or two as we take a look at last month’s sales.
Other posts that might interest you: What’s Selling in Vintage & Antiques September, August, & July.
![TEXT: What's selling in vintage & antiques [October 2019]](https://adirondackgirlatheart.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/whats-selling-vintage-antiques_whats-selling-in-vintage-antiques-october-2019-adirondackgirlatheart-com-800x800.jpg "Whats Selling in Vintage & Antiques October 2019 adirondackgirlatheart.com")
What’s Selling in Vintage & Antique Sales at My Antique Booth
A large vintage laundry basket sold for $35 (cost: $5). I am a basket-lover from way back, but for me they are not fast sellers. This one took most of the year to sell and I had to mark it down from $45.
Related post: Basket Price Guide
A wicker market basket sold for $22 (cost: $2).
A vintage oak-splint basket sold for $20, marked down from $25 (cost: $3).
A vintage train case (missing its center latch) sold for $12 (cost: $1). While vintage luggage regularly fills the pages of flea market and farmhouse style magazines, the prices garnered here in Upstate New York are relatively low. That means I shouldn’t spend a lot of money on any given suitcase, because the profit margin would be low.
Related post: Clean & Care for Vintage Luggage
A nice old cutting board sold for $16 (cost: $5). I have to admit that I keep a lot of cutting boards for my own personal collection. But because I limit them to one location, if I decide to keep a new one, one of the old ones has to go. That’s what happened with this one.
Related post: Clean & Care for Vintage Cutting Boards
A vintage copper ladle sold for $8 (cost: 50¢).
An antique cow bell sold for $22 (cost: $2).
The smaller ball and pean antique hammer sold for $10 (cost: $1). I personally love buying and selling tools as I think they have a real sculptural quality about them, especially once I’ve cleaned up the metal and treated the wood.
Related post: 12 Terrific Tools
A newer portable wooden chess set sold for $12 (cost: $1). NOTE: I pulled out the rest of the paper liner to make it a bit neater before selling. I always buy every reasonably priced chess set, chess board, or set of chess pieces I find because they sell well for me.
You may remember this piece from a post I published a couple of months ago. I used it to demonstrate how to frame like a “professional.” It sold for $35 (cost: $2).
I bought this print of a German “scherenschnitte” design (paper cut) eagle at a thrift store over a year ago, feeling confident that it would sell quickly. I had to mark it down to $10 from $26 to finally sell it (cost: $3).
Perhaps it’s too colonial/primitive looking, though I thought it had more of a patriotic farmhouse look. Sometimes I’m just plain wrong, LOL.
Related post: Collecting Vintage & Antique Artwork and 12 Terrific Vintage Art Finds
A first edition copy of Miracle on 34th Street sold for $10 (cost: 50¢). Some first editions, as you know, are extremely valuable, this is not one of them, unfortunately.
I’m selling some of my daughter’s souvenir bell collection. The Big Ben example sold for $3.
This souvenir balsaam pillow sold for $5 (cost: 50¢). I think because I live on the outskirts of the Adirondacks, I’m able to regularly sell these wonderful-smelling pillows.
This blue oil can sold for $9 (cost: $1). Oil cans have typically sold very well for me, but for the past six months or so, they’ve been slow. I’m hoping this sale signifies that that market is picking up again.
A fish pamphlet sold for $1 (cost: free).
Little Golden Books:
- Rupert the Rhinoceros (VG condition), 3rd printing, © 1972 sold for $3 (cost: 50¢).
- Katie the Kitten (P), 1st edition, © 1949 sold for $4 (cost: 50¢).
- Ben & Me (VG), 1st edition, © 1954 sold for $10 (cost: 50¢).
Related post: Collecting Little Golden Books
Little Golden Books:
- Circus Time (VG), © 1948, 55, sold for $8 (cost: 50¢).
- The Cow Went Over the Mountain (P), © 1973, sold for $2 (cost: 25¢).
- The Color Kittens (G) © 1971, sold for $4 (cost: 50¢).
Related: Subscribe to my blog and get access to my Member Library, which includes a Little Golden Book Price Guide
The Wonder Book, Cinderella, © 1954, sold for $3 (cost: 50¢).
A pressed glass, panelled pitcher sold for $6, marked down from $12 (cost: $1). This poor piece hung around my booth for years before it finally sold. I don’t typically allow pieces to remain in my booth for longer than a year, but I guess I have a love-hate relationship with nice old glass.
20 years ago, when I first got into the business, this pitcher would have easily sold for $25-30. But the glass market, particularly for clear glass, has completely crashed. As dealers, it’s something we simply have to accept, right?
This newer enamelware baking pan sold for $15 (cost: $2).
Related post: Collecting Vintage Enamelware
A nice old enamelware coffee pot sold for $22 (cost: $2).
Related post: Vintage Enamelware Price Guide
No pictures available:
Vintage poodle figurine sold for $6 (cost: $1)
Wooden beaded garland sold for $9 (cost: $1)
Vintage leather change purse sold for $3 (cost: free)
Sterling star and moon earrings sold for $12 (cost: $2)
Vintage rhinestone brooch sold for $15 (cost: $2)
Vintage floral rhinestone brooch sold for 20 (cost: $3)
Large pressed glass (Moon & Stars) apothecary jar sold for $65 (cost: $3)
Vintage Christmas tags sold for $2 (cost: free)
Vintage Torquay pitcher sold for $7 (cost: $1)
Vintage bell sold for $6 (cost: 50¢)
Antique mirror sold for $7 (cost: free)
Child’s set of pressed glass serving dishes sold for $18 (cost: $1.50)
Assortment of vintage Halloween cupcake picks sold for $10 (cost: $1)
The Adirondacks: A Special Place sold for $6 (cost: $1)
Antique E & C Challinor ironstone platter sold for $12 (cost: $1.50)
Antique bottle brush tree in very rough shape sold for $5 (cost: free)
3 costume jewelry rings sold for $3 each
Benjamin Bunny figurine sold for $18 (cost: $2)
The Pooh Story Book © 1965 sold for $8 (cost: $1)
Cherry Ames Senior Nurse sold for $3 (cost: $1)
“Good Housekeepers Mason” jar sold for $10 (cost: $1)
“World Traveler” binoculars sold for $10 (cost: $1)
Vintage & Antique Sold from My Vintage Blog Shop
These five imperfect enamel “flower power” pins sold for $19.99 (cost: $3.00).
Related post: Collecting Vintage Enamel Flower Jewelry
A pair of vintage enamel clip on earrings in pale pink sold for $9.99 (cost: $1).
Two pair of vintage scissors sold (the stork pair and the ones to the left) for $10 each (cost: $1 each).
Related post: Collecting Vintage Scissors
Vintage & Antiques Sold on eBay
A 1958 edition of the Girl Scout Handbook sold for the Buy It Now (BIN) price of $14.93 (cost: $1).
A collection of eight Classics Illustrated sold for an offer of $10.99, down from $15.99 (cost: $2).
A working vtech phone system sold for an offer of $18, down from $22 (cost: $3). I’m always on the lookout for electronics and gadgets that may sell well on eBay. I will typically look up “Sold” eBay listings for items I’m interested in to see how/if they’re selling.
People often fall in love with items like these that are no longer in production and will pay good money to replace one that has broken or just plain died. This was the case with my buyer. She loves this set and hers had died.
At the time I purchased it, this exact model was selling for $25-30, which is why I decided to pick it up. It only needed a light cleaning. $18 isn’t fantastic, but it’s fine.
A pair of Sterling silver, Celtic design earrings sold for $12.99 (cost: $1).
Vintage & Antique Sold on Etsy
A Sterling silver MCM bar pin sold for $18.99 (cost: $2).
That’s it for my October sales; I hope you enjoyed seeing each piece, learning what I paid for it and how much it sold for. It’s my hope that this helps you in your vintage business or your personal enjoyment of vintage and antiques. Happy vintage shopping!
Speaking of which, if you missed last week’s post, I made a Vintage Gift Guide for Children that you may enjoy perusing. Now through midnight Thanksgiving, take 20% off of everything in the post, along with everything in my Vintage Blog Shop (except digital and Amazon products)!! Enjoy 🙂
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Thanks so much for sharing your life and shop with us! It`s really a joy to read and very interesting for me since I have an Etsy shop that specialises in vintage and antiques (www.brockistop.com). It also gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to hear something from the east coast. I`ve been away from it, living in Europe for 19 years. Keep your lovely stories coming!
You’re so welcome, Nancy! That blesses me to know that you’re enjoying my blog 🙂 I’ll have to check out your Etsy shop for sure (I’m over there, too!). Something else we have in common–we lived in England ofr two years and loved it. We’d have stayed longer if we could, so I’m a little jealous of your 19 years. Would love to know what country you’re in…
It is so interesting to see the regional variances in both goods and pricing, Diana. That train case, for example – I sold one for $45 sometime in this past year like yours (granted, center clip was intact, but still…a pretty wide swing in price). We don’t do well at all with vintage jewelry (perhaps too much competition in our mall with other vendors), so we practically give it away in small bags in a basket, $2, $3, $4 a bag. Americana items like your scherenschnitte do well for us, as do oil cans. I find keeping my eyes peeled for the mantiques has served me well in the past few years, and they’re typically easy to handle (metals, woods, etc), so that’s kind of been my area of focus and interest lately. I gave away so many linens to my sisters during my purge, simply for the labor of cleaning, pressing & storing, I’m trying to stay away from those now (but my sisters still our shelves stocked). You sold some great baskets, and at great prices!
True, it’ll never be a source of a living, but the searching, staging and customer (and dealer, I might add) interaction is what keeps us going. Thanks for sharing!
$45! That sounds so crazy to me–wish we could get that price here. We recently made a HUGE purchase of jewelry (to help out a friend, really) and I’m slowly figuring out how to sell it. I bought a china cabinet for my booth, lit it up and have been starting to get some good sales, despite a jewelry seller with multiple cases in my shop. Selling it on Etsy & eBay, too.
Linens are another poor seller for me, unless I can price them super low, which I do when I pick them up for next to nothing. It’s too bad, cuz I do like them. Framed cross stitch sell well but I have to get around to framing them, LOL.
Thanks for popping by, Rita 🙂
As usual, I just love seeing what you have sold. The selling prices continue to amaze me. One of these days, I feel like I’m gonna hit my booth and mark my prices UP and see if people THEN think they are valuable. Can’t get those kind of prices here in this part of Maine. I did better in Oct. as a woman who was furnishing rental homes swept thru and bought piles of stuff from everyone! And leaf peekers! It is cold here today and we are expecting freezing rain; good day for projects!
It might be worth a try Kathy! If you undervalue your merchandise then customers may, too. Maybe try it with a few items and see what happens. I always think of Maine, NH, and MA as the heart of the antique world, having the best antiques to offer, so it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea that prices may in fact be lower than here in Upstate NY??
I’m so glad October was a better month for you–here’s hoping for more big buyers!
Congrats….always feels good to sell things. I think I have many of those things hanging around the house 🙂
Thanks Terry! We definitely have similar taste…:)