One of the conflicts I have with ReSelling is whether to bother about the little things that I love. I see a lot of dealers every week and I watch what they buy. There are those that focus on high end items like paintings, sets of sterling flatware, jewelry and antiquities. There are those that go for electronics to sell on eBay. There are those who really don't care about what they sell because they just are in it for the end result; money. I'm in this business for so many reasons but the main one is that this is the passion that fuels me. Touching, smelling, cleaning and preparing to sell items is candy for my soul. Therefore in some ways, the size/value doesn't matter. I could spend an afternoon pricing little skeleton keys and I would get the same pleasure of cleaning a $300 figurine.
A key is more than a key. It's a mystery, a story of what it could possibly unlock.
I try to convince myself to focus on bigger, more profitable items. Yet I'll walk into a sale, find a box of small keys in the garage and place it in my bag before thinking about it. It's my catnip.
Logically, these small items that I sell at the Antique Society make up a good portion of my sales. The time I spend on them is more like a hobby. Sometimes I'll bring a collection of something to price at the dining table while Keiran is working on homework. There are dealers at the collective that go out of their way to tell me that they can't be bothered with the small items. I'm okay with that.
Art Tools
A part of me wants to sell these items because I want to give Artists an option to buy second hand rather than Amazon or Michaels. When I bought these tools above, I didn't know what I had in mind. I am drawn to anything to do with art and yet the most art skills I have is actually pricing them and placing them in a drawer to sell.
Glass Glitter
One thing that I did decide with this Haberdashery was to fill it with the best quality items. I want to sell lovely, unique things that are special. Not just average craft supplies although I like those too of course. I want them to shine with all the sweetness that they are and to hopefully find the perfect buyer that has been searching for a particular item. I've been told that some artists walk into the store and go directly to my space to see if I have brought anything new in. This just warms my heart.
The cabinet was something I picked up at a local estate sale a few years ago. I paid $35 for it. It was in my office for a year or more holding lots of wonderment and trinkets. I had plans to paint it but never got to it. When my new office floor was installed (due to the fun of the water heater breaking and leaking) the drawer unit was left out on the deck where it became slightly rusted from the moist night air. This last Christmas I had the idea to use it to sell merchandise out of it. I spray painted it with Rust-Oleum Hammered Spray Paint (one of my favorite products at the moment). The drawers were painted Silver and the front and top were painted bronze. The best thing about this paint is that it creates a texture on the item you paint. This meant that it went over some of the rust spots with none the wiser. The drawers were lined with pages from a Latin Dictionary from the 1700's (too damaged to sell in it's complete form).
Vintage Business Cards
Okay...so vintage business cards really aren't a thing. Yet. You can find some valuable ones that sell on eBay if they are linked to someone famous. Overall they don't have much value. I came across a couple of vintage business card collections and when I began to look at them I started to love them. They are a fabulous piece of ephemera that depicts their era with the type used, shorter phone number, graphics and card stock used. I dont' know if a single one will ever sell but I thought I would give it a try. I picked cards that stood out as interesting; an old Travelodge card with sleepwalking bear, the Jones Christmas Tree Farm from Sebastopol, Reynolds Aluminum cards and of course, one with a smiling ice cream cone.
Flora & Fauna Drawer
The name inspired by my newish Pinterest Board.
I tallied up my sales from my Haberdashery Area (including an early 1900's Revolving Hardware Rack) for December 16th-31st and it came to $264. This is about average for me which brings my monthly sales to around $500 for doing something that I purely love. How can I not do this?
I am working to be more focused on high quality items like I mentioned above. What doesn't get the cut goes into my Flea Market box or into a bag heading to a thrift store. I'm also really trying to organize myself better so that my item is used as efficiently as possible.
It's always about balance. It has been since I first sat down to the computer and began Apron Thrift Girl. This business is never something set in stone. I change it every year, sometimes every month. I follow my passion, the trends, business ideas and where best to sell inventory. The most important thing though is that I still love what I do. ReSelling has it's ups and downs, some days are harder than others, but I wake up every day loving my job.
