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Selling your Stash (part three)


So you are moving in to your booth...Plan on it taking several hours, and I have an SUV, not a truck, so I have to make multiple trips when I load into a new space.

I have been in five different antique malls over the last several years. I found some got zero traffic, some just were not a good fit for me, and some simply closed their doors and I had to find a new spot.

I am currently in two separate shops in two different towns. Each are about 20 miles from where I live. One is in a town known for it tourism featuring the Amish that reside in that area. The other is a small town just outside of a larger city.



I have two spaces right next to each other. I like the space in the lower photo because it has two walls. It is difficult to hang things on the brick wall, but the reclaimed wood wall has worked out well.


When I was at my booth this past weekend, I found I had sold a lot of items off of the wall and I had not brought enough new items to fill it in. This is always a struggle. I have a few friends that are dealers and we help each other out by taking photos of each other's booths and sending them to each other when we are in our booths. It helps us see what has sold.


I found this old baking rack at a garage sale. It is great for shelving and it is also for sale. I have put a really high price on it. I am willing to sell it but since it is so useful for shelving, someone would have to really want it and be willing to pay $$$ for it.


This shelf is great for holding my postcard racks. There is also plenty of cubbies for other items.



Speaking of postcards...sales of postcards pay for about 20% of my rent every month. I sell ordinary postcards for $1 each, booklets and specialty postcards (holiday, birthday, cartoon) for $3 to $5. They are always messed up when I get to my booth so I have to spend some time tidying them up, but they are well worth having in my booth.


I have several vintage ladies hats in my booth. I showed how I made these displays here.


I also have repurposed a basket display rack to showcase my hats.


I found this barrel wine rack and knew it would be great to display my rolling pins (but the wine rack is for sale also!).


This is one of my pet peeves. Every time I go to my booth, my linens are scattered everywhere, in complete disarray, and wrinkled. I spent a lot of time ironing these things!


I always keep this shelf stocked with vintage cookbooks. They always sell.



You need some showstoppers in your booth. Items that customers will ooooh and aaaaaaah over. The Chris Craft picnic set in the above photo is complete and is a perfect throwback to when times were simpler and picnics were common. The primitive handmade rocking horse is another crowd favorite.

You need to move things around in your booth quarterly. Moving things around gives fresh eyes to customers that come in on a regular basis. You may have not added anything new, but moving it around will draw in repeat customers. They will definitely see things they haven't seen before. I always see a spike in sales when I have spent the time to rearrange.

That's it for the series. I will post photos of my second booth in a future post. Feel free to reach out for questions. I am happy to share my experience!

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