Hocking Hills Antique Barn - Final Report :(

Yep, this weekend me and my stuff left the Barn and hit the highway toward home - toward the big yard sale my parents and I are having this weekend, to be more specific.

It was a hard decision to make, I did like doing it, but the return just wasn't there for me. It's funny, I had to make the decision coming off my best month yet - in July I actually made rent, plus $42.00. But, I knew it wasn't sustainable, so I told them I would move out at the end of August.

I put everything at half off for a week, then at 75% off for the last week. For the whole month of August I sold $61.50. Granted, I didn't add any new items in August, which didn't help, but at 75% off some of that stuff was super cheap and still didn't move! It helped me feel like I made a good decision....

It may be something I try again in the future, maybe somewhere closer. It just wasn't for me right now, but you never know unless you try, right?

Antique Barn - June Report

Rent = $115
Sold = $95
In The Hole (Again) = $20

*sigh*

I had a chat with Max at the Barn about why I'm not selling enough to make rent, let alone anything above rent, during their busiest time of year... Needless to say I am frustrated, and am now officially leaning toward closing up shop at the end of July.

Max said the sellers that do best are in the front of the barn (I'm in the back) and are locals who are able to come in every week and add new items, remove old items, etc. I have neither of these advantages, which is showing in my sales numbers - obviously.

Seeing as how I can't move closer, and getting down there every week with new items isn't something that I am really able to do either... well, like I said, I could be admitting defeat sooner rather than later. :(

I took some stuff to the Barn today...

... and remembered to take photos to show you! I actually bought a couple of things this weekend specifically with the Barn in mind - the main one being this amazing mirror:

It is HUGE and super heavy, with crackly cream paint. I got it hung up in my booth, but it makes me nervous. I asked Max to check on it for me every once in a while and make sure it isn't starting to fall!

The white metal cabinet I also bought specifically for the the Barn, as well as the tin strainer. The McCoy well planter, the white Hull planter, and the Shawnee fish planter my dad found for me, and since planters have been selling fairly well I took them down to add into the mix. The Pyrex mushroom mixing bowls I tried at auction on eBay and they didn't sell, plus I have another set to list that is in a little bit better condition. The black rotary phone I just thought would look cool in my booth. :)

The floor globe I bought to list online, but Will about had a heart attack when he was trying to figure out how to ship it, so I figured I would try it in the booth first. The railroad lantern and the Homer Laughlin bowl my Dad gave me. The Pyrex bowl set is pretty scratched up, it didn't sell at auction on eBay so I figured I would try it at the Barn where someone might want it without the shipping expense...

Keep your fingers crossed for me! :)

Antique Barn - May Report

I can't believe my 2nd month having a space at the Hocking Hills Antique Barn is already over! I just got my check for $98.35 in the mail - which means I fell just $16.65 short of making rent. Better than April, but still not great - especially considering I ran a week and a half long 25% off sale for Memorial Day! I figured I would sell quite a bit during that, but only sold 3 items. :(

So, now I am trying to figure out what my plan of attack for June is... if I can't get it together here in the couple of months I'm going to have to give up the idea, which I really don't want to do!

First, let's look at what has sold and see if there is any pattern:

Sold in April

New In Box Horseshoes Set - $16.20
Tender Heart Care Bear Glass - $4.00
Cheer Bear Care Bear Glass - $4.00
Vintage General Electric Iron - $18.00
16 Piece Blue Flower Dish Set - $10.00
Pyrex Butterfly Gold Butter Dish - $6.00
White McCoy Pottery Planter - $7.00

Sold in May

Floral Serving Platter - $8.00
Blue & Gold Swan Figurine & Soap Dish Set - $12.00
Round Green McCoy Pottery Planter - $9.00
Set of 2 Floral Ceramic Vases - $25.00
Yellow McCoy Pottery Planter - $5.00
Wood Picnic Basket - $12.00
Vintage American Family Scale - $10.00
Green Hull Pottery Planter - $6.00
Vintage Cookie Gun - $6.00
Hull Pottery Green Drip Planter - $6.75
Blue Esmond Serving Bowl - $6.00

Well, the McCoy and Hull planters seem to be fairly popular, but to be fair I did load up my outside space with a TON of planters... Plus I priced them under $10.00, which seems to be the favorite price range of the things that have sold. In fact only 5 things I sold were over $10.00 - even during the 25% off sale the three things that sold were already under $10.00 (or less)!

I have already decided I need to go down there this week and cut some prices, and I guess looking at these results that is probably the right move. The Barn isn't a fancy antique mall, where you expect prices to be on the high end, and I guess the numbers here are proving that in general people aren't looking to spend a whole lot when they are shopping there.

Pricing things lower isn't really that big of a deal when you look at the grand scheme of things - it is less work for me to sell something at the Barn rather than online, for sure - no photos, no packaging, no marketing... Plus my commission fee is only 7%, which is less than what I pay on an eBay sale for sure. And when you figure that a good chunk of what I have for sale down there is stuff that sat online for a long time without selling, getting anything more than what I paid for it at this point is a good thing!

Other than lowering prices, the only other thing I can do is start shopping specifically with the Barn in mind - which is kind of tough at this point, since I haven't been there long enough to really get a good idea of what kind of things are selling. It all seems pretty random at this point, but maybe after another month or so I will be able to get a better handle on it...

So there's the scoop, I'll let you know how June goes - keep your fingers crossed for me!

Photos of my spaces at the Barn - finally!!

Yes, that's right, I actually remembered to take my camera with me when I went down to the Antique Barn today to pay my bill and add some new items... I know, I could hardly believe it myself! ;)

From the 8th through the 30th of April I sold 7 items for a grand total (minus commission) of $59.71. In other words, I sold enough to pay half my rent. A little disappointing, but I'm going to hold out through May, which is supposed to be their busiest month, plus it will be a full month worth of sales. If I don't sell enough to make rent again, I will have to reconsider the whole plan... so wish me luck!

Here is my inside space. I actually got a new neighbor on the right hand side of me, she really jammed her space full - there is just enough room to step in and turn around. I wanted mine to be more open, I didn't want people to have to squeeze in, or worry about their purses or elbows knocking stuff off the shelves. I get the logic of it though - more items = more money and all that...

The wall is kind if interesting - covered in chicken wire, as you can see. I was going to hang those framed prints I took down there today, but decided I didn't have nails that were sturdy enough.

I debated on bringing that patchwork quilt home to list online, but decided against it - if it doesn't sell this month I probably will though!

Most everything here is stuff I had listed online for a while that didn't sell for whatever reason... Lots of great never used Fire-King, a couple cake carriers, a pitcher and glasses set, etc.

This is my area outside on the covered porch. I have two of these big black shelves, with a bit of room to stand in front of them. I put all the "outside" type stuff here - picnic baskets, planters - plus some other odds and ends that won't get hurt if they get damp.

Here is the 2nd shelf... see the Melmac dish set? Someone left an empty pop can in one of the cups. Wasn't that nice of them?

So there you have it - definitely not on par with the gorgeous booths in the big antique malls, but I think they look pretty nice for what they are... and they definitely look equally as good as the other spaces, so I can sleep easy! ;)

That's what I get for promising...

I took the rest of my stuff to the Antique Barn today - and forgot my camera.

*slaps forehead*

Hocking Hills Antique Barn - Moving In

The last week has been a bit of a whirlwind, between our regular work and getting everything together to take down to the Barn - but we managed, and today we moved in!

Now, I had grand plans to take a bunch of photos - the pile of stuff waiting to go to the car, my car and my friend Gary's truck filled with stuff (thanks Gary!), the spaces in progress... but, of course, I kept forgetting about my camera.

I did remember to take some photos when my main squeeze and business partner, Will, was putting together the shelves. What is it about a man using tools?

See that white table with the chrome legs? $32. I can't believe I didn't buy it - but Will had a point when he said Um, where would you put it?

For some reason, I just kept taking pictures...

I think I could look at this little scene all day...

See that little grin? I think I was telling him how hot he was looking, working with tools and all... ;)

Even though I didn't get any photos, I thought it might be a good idea to give you all a breakdown of exactly what I had to do to get everything ready to move in:

Step 1 - Choosing Items

I went through my eBay store and both my Etsy shops to find items that had been there a while, items that are a bit of a problem to ship, and items that hadn't had very many hits. This took a couple of hours, because as I looked over all of my 800+ listings, I also had to write down each item's inventory number before ending the listing.

Once I had my list of item numbers, I had to go to my handy dandy filing cabinet and pull all of the inventory sheets. To get a more in depth description of how we handle managing our inventory, see the post I did on The Vintage List blog about running a home office.

Will and I took the stack of sheets down to the basement, where all of my store inventory is stored. We found all the items and brought everything upstairs. Making room in the main office for all that extra stuff was fun, let me tell ya!

Step 2 - Pricing and Tagging

This was a huge project - partially because I made a mistake starting out. I thought that because I will be getting a single check each month for sales, I would just imput that number into my accounting software and that would be it.

Of course halfway through I realized that when taking inventory at the end of the year that single sales number wouldn't be enough - I need to be able to figure out the cost of goods sold vs. cost of goods unsold, which means each item at the Barn would still have to be treated the same way as each item we have online. I can still imput the sales number just once a month, but I need to keep inventory sheets together for everything that sells so I can get the numbers I need at the end of the year.

So, I had to go back over everything I had done and add the inventory number to the tag, and tuck the inventory sheet away into a For Sale At The Barn folder in the filing cabinet. Each month I will move sold items to a Sold At The Barn folder. Make sense? It does to me, but just barely!

Pricing was also pretty hard work - I did price research online like I usually do, but often got stuck wondering, is that too much (or too little!) for what people will pay in real life, where they are able to touch the item, and they don't have to pay for shipping? I think pricing for the "real world" is just something that I will have to become more familiar with over time, with some experience...

So in the end each tag had to have all of this information on it:

- Item description: I tried to be as specific as I could, to give buyers the most information possible, and also to reduce the ability of some sneak switching tags out to get a lower price on an item

- My initials and dealer number

- Price

- Our inventory number

- Date added to the Barn: I want to be able to look the items over in a few months and know what has been sitting and needs to be removed and sent to Goodwill

Step 3 - Pull Items From Waiting To Be Listed Shelves

I also pulled some items from my waiting to be listed inventory - stuff that wasn't really worth listing so it had been sitting around for a while, or stuff that I thought might do well at the Barn - a patchwork quilt I got last weekend, for example.

I had to do all the same things for these items as I did for the items from online, except I had to create new inventory sheets for each one to put in the For Sale At The Barn folder.

Step 4 - Pack For The Drive

The Barn is about a 40 minute drive from my house, so I had to do a bit of wrapping and creative packing to make sure everything would arrive safely, and also that I would be able to fit it all into my car! I am happy to report there was no breakage! :)

The shelves wouldn't fit in my car, so that is where Gary and his truck came in - what a lifesaver!

Step 5 - Assemble & Fill The Shelves

We (Will, mostly!) assembled the shelves outside. Thank goodness we had good weather!

To be perfectly honest, we ended up just kind of sticking everything on a shelf - it was getting close to closing time, and I knew I would be back with more things (and without Will) so I could spend some real time arranging everything to my liking on my next visit. I imagine I will do quite a bit of shuffling around from where things ended up today to where they will be for the final product.

I'm heading back down tomorrow or the next day to finish up, I WILL remember take photos of the final product, I PROMISE. :)

Hocking Hills Antique Barn + Vintage Goodness!

It's official - next Wednesday I will be moving into my brand new space at the Hocking Hills Antique Barn!

You may remember me covering my trip to Hocking Hills last fall - it is a *gorgeous* area here in Ohio that attracts a lot of tourist traffic. It is only about a 40 minute drive from where I live in Columbus, so when I started thinking about trying out selling at a mall, I made sure to call around to all the ones in the Hocking Hills area.

Happily, my favorite one was also the most reasonably priced - so I am taking the plunge!

The Hocking Hills Antique Barn is located right off of Rt. 33 in the Hocking Hills Market complex. There is a large antique mall behind it, as well as a flea market, an awesome retro diner, a country store, and more... It's just the perfect spot for my first venture!

My space actually consists of two spaces - one inside and one on the porch.

The inside space measures about 4.5' wide and 6' deep, so I am going to have two tall bookshelves (2' wide, 9" deep, 5' tall) on the right hand side and two short bookshelves (2' wide, 9' deep, 2.5' tall) on the back wall so I can hang stuff up above them.

The outside space measures about 6' wide and 3.5' deep, so I am getting two large shelves (36" wide, 18" deep, 6' tall!) for that space.

Rent is $115 a month, with a 7% commission. They are open 7 days a week except during the winter months, when they close on Wednesdays (rent is only $100 a month during that time to compensate). Their rent was the lowest I found, and their commission is right in line with what the other malls in the area are charging.

I also really like the owners - Chelsea and Max. I first found Chelsea back when I hung out on Live Journal a lot, she keeps a blog there.

They are so young! From her blog I gather that Chelsea is around 24 years old? Amazing!! I haven't met her in person yet, I have only chatted with her a bit through emails... Max is the one who showed me around the barn and helped me with getting measurements and all that fun stuff. They are both incredibly nice and I am looking forward to partnering with them!

Of course I will be writing about the entire adventure here on the blog - so if you have ever wondered what it would be like to sell in an antique mall, stay tuned - I'll be covering the good, the bad, and the ugly from start to finish! ;)