Friday, June 20, 2014

New goodness on Etsy - medical quackery illustrations!

I scored a really neat set of original illustrations, not prints, that appear to have been done for a book about quack medical practices - I wasn't able to find out the name of the book, or anything about the artist, Merle Ollum, but still, they are pretty damn awesome! Here's a few of my favorites, click on over to check out the rest!





Sunday, June 8, 2014

Antique Mall Booth Update - May 2014

To say that I am getting frustrated with the booth is probably a slight understatement. While I didn't lose money in May like I did in April, I didn't really make any money either. In fact, I had 0 sales during a weekend where the mall was packed with people, due to Delaware having it's annual Arts Festival right outside its front doors.


I talked to the mall manager, and his thoughts were this - most of the mall shoppers are looking for items that are older than the 60's and 70's, which is mostly what I sell. I do manage to sell some stuff because a small percentage of shoppers are into my kind of things, but for the most part I'm never going to reach the rest of the shoppers unless I start trying to carry older items.


It's a problem. The main reason I don't sell many older items is because they aren't what I love. I'm a mid-century girl through and through! So trying to shift to finding stuff from the 40's and earlier would be a challenge, and finding enough of it at prices I can afford would likely be an even bigger challenge. I know I see "antiques" at the sales a lot - and usually they have a hefty price tag attached to them. I've spent my vintage selling career in the buy low, sell high trenches - I try to put out as little as possible on the front end, in other words. Buying high, to hopefully sell a little higher, has never been my cup of tea.


So I'm still trying to figure out what to do. I do love having the booth, but if I can't make it work, there's just no point in having it...


Here's the breakdown for May:

Wire Plant Stand - $12.80
3 Glass Apothecary Jars - $30.00
Black Telephone Stand - $27.00
Tupperware Cake Carrier - $12.00
3 Vintage Cookbooks - $15.00

Total Sales:  $96.80
- Rent - $72.00
- Commission - $7.19
Total Profit: $17.61 (not including cost of items and time spent working)