any good picking this weekend? 9/22

[grasswire]

The neighborhood Eagles post has a twilight rummage sale once a month, Saturday from 5-9. Honestly, it's a real gas. They charge a buck to get in, and attendees can also buy supper and a drink in the adjacent bar, play pool and other games, etc. A person can even wander the room with a drink in hand. There's a DJ spinning obscure music from vinyl, and a party atmosphere. This is a diverse and welcoming neighborhood in a liberal town, so the people and merchandise are very entertaining.

There are about fifty tables, and they are extremely eclectic, with some excellent bargains from sellers who either don't know or don't care what they have and are willing to sell anything for a buck or two.

Tonight I got a McCoy planter for $2, a vintage italian green felt fashionable hat for a buck (perfect for my sister), a bunch of mid-century colorful crocheted pot holders (you know those cute things) for fifty cents each, some ephemera very cheap, and great books.

The books come from a regular seller who every time brings a truck full of boxes of books, and sells them all for a buck each -- even ones worth much more. He has six tables in a U-shape, and starts unloading his books while a mob of people wait and grab. Looking them up on abebooks.com, my six bucks is now worth about $150 in books. I'm building a classical library for my nephew, and of course grabbing some cookbooks for my collection.

I was in the hall ten minutes before opening bell; a neighbor has a table and lets me in. But even so, someone else was already at a new vendor and buying a bundle of vintage menus. Argh! Damn! (The funny thing is that this new vendor turns out to have a spot in the same antique mall where I have my space. Ha!)

There are two little old ladies who sell paper grab bags. Last month I bought one of the grab bags for my teenage niece. She thinks they are hilarious. Inside this particular bag was a very nice upscale pair of white leather flats, in her shoe size! How peculiar! She was thrilled. So tonight I told the little old ladies about this, much to their amusement. Another old woman does handwriting analysis on the spot. This is beginning to sound like a carnival, I just realized.

I'm telling you all of this in the hope that you will check out obscure places to find goodies. Nursing homes often have thrift shops and sales. Senior centers do, too. And so, apparently, do fraternal organizations.

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. You did well! And it sounds fun!

I definitely need to get out there sale-ing more.

Am getting ready to put a bunch of mostly vintage stuff up on eBay, but I have to ask you...

You said you have a spot at the local antique mall. What do you pay for your spot? Is it profitable?

I ask because have always wondered about it all.

Thanks! :hi:

[grasswire]

3. this is my second mall spot

The foot traffic is pretty good, and that's important. It is profitable and like anything else, the more effort you put into it, the better you'll do. By effort, I mean changing the display, putting new stock in, etc. I pay $125 per month plus 3 percent of sales. The space is about 8x8 feet, with no fixtures. I had to supply those -- shelves, etc. All I do is keep the space tidy and pick up a check once a month. I sell mostly paper items, so I don't need floor space for furniture or display cases.

I found in my prior spot, which was in a smaller town, that once the local population had satisfied itself with my particular wares, sales fell off except for tourist trade. So, location is an indicator of profitability. And self promotion is always a plus! You can put fliers up on bulletin boards, you could take out a small ad somewhere, you can participate in any promotions the mall has, such as the Third Thursday evening in my particular area.

I must warn you that shoplifting is a problem in the retail antique malls. I was too trusting. A box full of individually sleeved and priced WW2 currency from occupied territories was lifted; the whole thing. That hurt. Since then, some things I just won't put in that space, such as better postcards. I could invest in a locked case, but haven't so far.

I'm sure that others here have similar space, and would like to hear from them.

[Whoa_Nelly]

5. Thanks for sharing about your experiences and the info

Have always wondered about the shoplifting part. I have never seen anyone do it, but have often thought it would not be a difficult feat due to lack of surveillance and easy to stash type items.

Will be checking back to see if others contribute with their experiences in this arena :hi:

[Vinca]

2. My weekend pickings were depressing, depressing, depressing.

Friday, I headed out to the hinterlands to a historical society sale in a small, Vermont village. I had never been there before, but I had high hopes. It was, after all, the historical society. Well, they should change the name to hysterical society because that's what this sale was: a bunch of stuff that should have gone to the dump, a stuffed boar's head (I kid you not) priced at $300, an elk's head for $150 and a book of postcards priced at $5 each. I ended up buying a little Hartstone pottery creamer for a quarter. (It won't pay for my gas to get there.) Saturday was nearly as bad. I burned 1/3 of a tank of gas going to local sales and a church sale in the boondocks and all I had to show for it was a stack of Woman's Day magazines from the 1940's. On the plus side I found a few interesting items at the local "recycling facility" (dump): a Holt Howard cat wall pocket, some old auction catalogs including 1 with some stuff from Joan Crawford's estate and a stack of 45's in an old record case. I am so long overdue for a great find!

[grasswire]

4. was the weather good?

Even if you are skunked, a drive in the Gorgeous Vermont countryside is a joy in itself! Wow, I love that area. It seems that every turn of the road brings a more beautiful scene than before.

Speaking of dump -- the old Pioneer Auction in Amherst MA used to have an afternoon sale and then just dump all the leftovers into the trash bins outside! So when patrons would come for the evening auction, there were plenty of freebies. That was fun. Another fun aspect of that place was that toward the end of the evening they would sell whole tabletops of stuff as a lot. Perhaps five bucks for a whole long table of smalls or glass or books or stuff. Hilarious. And at the Deerfield auction, they would sell whole lots of perhaps twenty big packing boxes of stuff, closed up, for just a few bucks. I always wanted to get one of those, just for fun.

There must be a way to get some goodies pried loose in your area. Do people list on craigslist there?

[Vinca]

8. The weather was the saving grace of the day.

Are you familiar with Hogback Mountain between Brattleboro, Vermont and Bennington? I drove over the top and it was spectacular. The fog had settled in the valleys and the leaves are already changing. A really beautiful sight.

[demgrrrll]

6. Tell me more about the dump. I have been doing this for a long time

but I have never been to our local dumps. I would go in a minute but I just never thought of it. Are there rules or can you just show up? Is it dangerous, are there rats and mice and small animals? Thanks in advance.

[grasswire]

7. I suppose it's dependent on the size of the town

I have been to a town dump in the tiny hamlet of Chico Montana. It was just a small area on a small road outside the town. I found terrific things there. A horse collar and blinders, enamel ware, sun-aged old bottles, old hand tools, and other stuff I don't remember. My friends thought I was nuts -- we were there for a weekend at the hot springs and I begged to go to the dump.

I can't imagine that anything is accessible in the city I live in now.

Two extremes. Tiny village, big city. I hope someone else has more info.

[Vinca]

9. We have kind of a high class dump - LOL.

It's actually a place where you take your trash, toss it into gigantic containers and it's compacted and hauled away to somewhere else. We also have a little shed where people can leave stuff they don't want that other people can use and another one for used books. That's where you can sometimes find good stuff. I don't know if I'd be up for crawling around a real dump with orange peels and stuff (unless, of course, I spotted a Grueby vase in the distance - then it would be "move over rats").

[demgrrrll]

10. Yea I'd be pushing those rats aside too. Gang way. I will look into

our area dumps to see what is going on. I was also wondering about some people who dig for old bottles. That particular enterprise seemed very ambitious to me.

[Vinca]

11. Our house was built in 1772 and I've been searching for a bottle

dump for the past 10 years! I even bought a metal detector for that very purpose, thinking I'd find metal remnants with bottles. So far I've got lots of nails and a button. Someone told me they are often found where old outhouses used to be and are usually pretty close to houses. I've found a few pottery shards in the garden, but I'm still searching for the 200 year old trash pile.

[grasswire]

15. I'm envious of your house.

My mother's family left New England for the west in 1924 after being there for hundreds of years. I so wish for those old family homes and the roots that were left behind. Treasure your home!

[Vinca]

18. It's a nice, old house. We've been trying to undo the damage

the previous owner did by trying to modernize it ca. 1970. (Picture Colonial New England meets "Laugh In.") It's got great features worth saving - a big, old fireplace with a beehive oven, wide pine boards and hand hewn, chestnut beams.

[demgrrrll]

17. I just remembered watching a show where people dug for bottles.

Somehow they got the first old maps or surveys of the property and on those maps the "privy" area was marked on the survey and they dug there. They went around town and asked people if they could dig and offered a percentage? or some kind of fee for digging. I know people in my area do this I just never figured out where they were able to obtain the maps.

[Vinca]

19. Another thing I keep an eye out for is meteorites. It sounds dumb,

but when they cleared land in New England, they piled the rocks into stone walls and people have found meteorites in the walls. I haven't found one yet, but you never know.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

12. I used to know a couple of guys who dug for old bottles.

They were very successful. Unfortunately, I haven't seen either in years & never queried them about it. The only thing I remember them saying was that they looked for old homesteads & then dug around the outhouse. Not much help, I know. I haven't a clue where one finds old homesteads anymore.

[zabet]

13. My only purchase this weekend..

was a tiny piece. I believe it is a master salt. It is silver,
hallmarked and has a beautiful cobalt glass insert.
Looks like a teapot without a spout. Has a hinged lid with a tiny
slot for a tiny spoon. $1 at a consignment shop near our beach house.

[grasswire]

14. that was a good find

Yippee!

[demgrrrll]

16. That was a great find. I love little silver things.

eom.