Bit the Bullet

I did it, I bit the bullet and agreed to move to a much much much bigger space at the Antique Store... The rent is going from $60/month to a whopping $230/month! Its insane, I know. But the space is about 10'x10' and the amount of junk I'm going to be able to shove in there is going to be incredible!

What I love about this shop is that its not just antiques and vintage that; its more of a "lifestyle" store so its a mix of old and new. Those cool things you see on Pintrest that you want to make or do? You can find those kinds of things or the things to make the things at the Whitehouse so I'm hoping that my new sales goal of $400/month isn't going to be too ambitious.

Right now my goal is $150 minimum and I've surpassed the goal every month except one and I've never not made rent. The lady in the space now needs to downsize so we are switching and she says last month she pulled in $600 -- my fingers are crossed and hoping I'll be able to sell more furniture in this space now as well so I can sell more of my project pieces like this chair...

This is another item that I picked up off the side of the road for free. I didn't even sand it just wiped it down, painted with an awesome mint chalk paint, distressed and waxed it; then recovered the seat with a cool coral and navy print. Mint and Coral is super in right now so I'm hoping it will do ok and sell quickly!

Speaking of selling quickly, that cute dresser I refinished from my last post sold within a week for my full $100 asking price on craigslist!

In other news, consignment sale season is finally a wrap and it was my best season yet! Between 2 sales I'm bringing home over $700 just by selling my own kids outgrown clothing and yard sale finds! I probably invested only around $50-60 in the items I bought to resell. I probably should keep better track of what I do spend but its so little that most of the time I only pay about 25 cents - a dollar per item. Now to start collecting for the spring sales! I also dropped off all of my leftover fall clothes at the consignment store today so I should be able to pull out even a little more before its all said and done!

Sorry I don't really have any exciting sales to show you from the online world lately. I have sold a few things, mostly bread and butter stuff you've all seen before but I have been getting consistent sales and I'm almost totally caught up on all the old inventory!

I'll leave you with a BOLO today; this was a pretty good find! I originally purchased it to rob it of its tiles so when I looked it up I was pleasantly surprised!

Be On the Lookout for these big guys! There are 6 games in 1 cool wood box and it is HEAVY! I paid $8 for it, luckily it was new and never used other than the box being all bunged up and it sold within less than a month (Once I finally listed it, its been sitting in my kitchen for months!) for $100 with free shipping! It was heavy though as I mentioned so the shipping was a big one at $35, after fees and shipping my profit was $42 though so totally worth the hassle of shipping! I probably could have held out for more money but I was happy to see it go it took up a lot of space!

Happy Almost Halloween!

Keep Chugging Along!

The photographer's "Tax Season" as I call it is just getting underway for the year. I call it that because so so many families contact me during this time for family portraits which is wonderful and I love doing it, but man, its busy! Most of my weekends are filled with photo shoots then my weeks are filled with editing of those shoots and not a whole lot of time for everything else! I love photography, but sometimes really wish I had a slower pace of life and a little more time on my hands to do things like this:

 

I got this absolutely awful dresser last week at the VV for 10 bucks. My friend even made the comment, "You paid for that?!" But after a little sanding, some chalk paint and a bunch of money spent on cool knobs its now an adorable little shabby chic piece of furniture that will hopefully fetch way more than $10!

 

I love painting furniture and frames and I am also having so much fun sourcing for my little antique booth and creating pieces to go in there. Things were a little slow the last month or so. I still made rent but my check was small. I get my next check today or tomorrow so we will see how September went, really hoping for another big month of sales in October especially since I'm considering moving to a bigger space. This would double my rent at least if not much more so my measly $150 sales goal every month would have to at least double that.

 

Its not a lot of money but let me tell you - the peace of mind is so much nicer! There is no shipping, no positive or negative feedback, no returns, no photo taking or even really dealing with customers at all other than my work in shop days which are lots of fun and a nice "Mommy Break"! I like it a lot and I feel like I'm shying away from the online world a little more just because the stress and pressure of selling online is so much greater. I'm constantly worried about returns and bad feedback so much so that I can't even enjoy when I get a good sale!

 

Speaking of online selling, I'm continuing to move out my inventory, they haven't been huge sales but sales non-the-less, I had 7 "Cha Chings" over the last weekend. We are hoping to move into a new house sometime in the next 6 months so I've been in the process of Operation Prep The House. Which means packing things away and trying hard not to bring more home. This is also the nice thing about having a space to sell at because when I get new inventory for the store I can just bring it there right away vs storing it til it sells!

 

Well there's my adventures in Re-Sale for the week, I'll leave you with a couple of fun costume sales I've had and hopefully you all are having great weeks as well!

 

These are 2 Disney Store costumes I bought for a slammin' deal last week. They are both in excellent condition so I messaged the lady and asked if she would sell me both costumes for $20 ($10 each). She agreed so I ran and picked them up the same day and listed them the next. Pocahontas sold within a week for $28.95 with free shipping and then Rapunzel sold the day after for $34.95! I made about a $25 profit on both costumes after shipping and fees. Not too shabby!

 

They are shipping today, both to U.S. addresses (I've had a few international issues lately so I'm nervous about them now) and I risked my Top Rated status and marked no returns on Halloween costumes because of my Little Einstein's costume debacle last year and that I have heard people return them after Halloween so hopefully for the sake of my nerves these costumes go to 2 little girls who will love and use them well!

Mugs, Mugs, Mugs!

Anyone else having a rush on mugs these past couple of weeks?! I literally have almost sold out of all my mug supply! I am actually looking in my cabinets for more to see if there are any I want to sell from my personal collection!

Bought this Starbucks Sumatra Tiger mug at a yard sale for $4 over the summer and it went into that  "save for fall bin" and got forgotten about! I usually don't pay that much for mugs at yard sales ever but this one still had the price sticker on the bottom and was brand new. Sold about a week after I listed it for $30 giving me a profit after fees and shipping of $16!

 Bought this one at Value Village about 2 or 3 weeks ago for $3, it was my inspiration to get all my other ones out and get them listed, sold within a week for $35 with free shipping! Nice $22 profit after fees!

 Ariel I have had for a while, she's too cute and I figured Naomi would love it if she never sold. She sat for about 3 months with no activity. I lowered the price to $20 last week and she sold right away. I only paid 70 cents for her at a little thrift store so it was a decent $10 profit after shipping. It was a Disney Store mug, Disney Store is just one of those sure fire brands. It may sit for a while but worth the wait!

Here's another Disney item I have had for a while! This is Pocahontas' friend Meeko. I paid $5 for him at a consignment sale over a year ago for Naomi. She never played with him after the 1st day so I decided it was time to clean out and Meeko went to a new home this week for $19.95 with free shipping to California. Not a great profit on this since it wasn't really bought for resale in the first place but I'll take a couple of bucks profit on an item over donation any day!

How was your week? I'm busy listing costumes today; hopefully its a good week or two with those!