Collecting, The Hunt

Vintage candlesticks and tea set

For Business and Pleasure…

Collecting and collections have always been very popular here in the US, in Britain, France and in most parts of the world. Even in prehistoric times, things were collected.
In many cases it’s a hobby, in some cases it’s an obsession. For others, it’s a living and a passion.

For me, collecting is enjoyable because it’s something to do. And I fall into the latter category of hunting for both pleasure and profit. Although, like many a vintage or antique seller, I too often end up buying with the intent of selling but then not wanting to part with my purchase. This results in a cluttered home, but sometimes that’s just the way it is. I’ve gotten better but I’ve not been cured.

Collecting and selling gives me a reason to go weekend antiquing, or while on vacation, walking the French flea markets, or spending hours on eBay looking for that perfect something.
And I enjoy this in a way that I would not if I didn’t have a reason for doing it. Like I said, I do it to re-sell, but your reason may be to collect or to furnish a new home, office, etc.

Can you still find Finds?
Yes, but the internet has been both a help and hindrance.

Take the rare/used book seller for example. There was a time when people got really excited about first editions. Then the internet came along where anyone could find what they wanted in short order. And what they found is that some books were not as rare as they had imagined.
Have you seen the documentary, The Booksellers? No? If you’re interested in the book world, you should, it’s terrific.

On the flip side - sellers have a whole world of customers that they would not have reached before.

Advice is always given to collect what you like, even if you intend to sell it.

This makes sense because if you’re only interested in profit, you won’t enjoy the research, and you’ll most likely pass something by that was a real something.

Where is the best place to find things?

In my opinion, thrift stores.

I personally think these are the best places, and not just the big chain ones. In fact, some of the well known stores have gotten pretty savvy and either overprice things that shouldn’t be or sell the good stuff online themselves. That’s not to say you can’t find an overlooked gem.
Found a Henredon Campaign style dresser with brass hardware for $100 at one of these stores and turned around and sold it for almost $2,000.
In a small one-off thrift store I found a pair of faux bamboo chairs for $12 each – I made a beeline when I spotted them across the room – and sold them for $595, plus shipping (of course!).

Elkhorn Flea Market in Elkhorn, Wisconsin

Other places to find pieces include estate sales, auctions, antique malls, flea markets.
Almost every estate sale that I have been to has been organized by a professional set up and in my experience pieces are never really a steal. However, if you’re buying without the intent to re-sell, you can get some beautiful items at a good price.

Upscale Vintage & Antiques Mall

Antique Malls are sometimes very good places to find items that have not been properly valued. Most booth proprietors are not experts in everything and sometimes, like everyone, they get tired and don’t do the research. So, finds can be found and I think these spots are actually better than flea markets many times.
Still, flea markets are fun, they’re a day’s outing but they’re very varied, meaning some are good, some are bad.

Auctions - we have a small regional auction house by us. It’s fun to peruse the preview and if you see something you like, put a bid in. You never know if it will be the only one and you’ll get something at a fabulous bargain price. Most auctions allow you to bid online now so you don’t have to hang about all day.

Where is the best place to sell things?

In the past, I have sold in an Antique Mall. It was actually a place that allowed me to sell my greeting cards too, so it was more vintage/antique/craft mall, but the majority of the booths were all vintage and antiques.

I no longer do this because I didn’t have the extra time to put into the upkeep of my booth. That said, it is a fun experiment and if you’re good at it and like it, you may do very well in a booth. It’s also a great way to sample brick and mortar retail before taking the much larger step of opening your own store.

Selling Online

Now I sell online.
It’s more lucrative in some instances though still a lot of work.
But instead of relying on the foot traffic that comes through the mall - a hundred people would be a cheerful estimate, and that number might be more realistic on a busy weekend day, you’re selling to the world.

Let me give you a few examples…

I had a vintage Mah Jong set in my antique booth and it never sold. I mean I had marked it down to nothing, like $10, and I think when the mall had a building-wide sale, it was down to $8.00. So basically, it spent a year in an antique mall, without ever moving.

When I left the mall I put it online and sold it in 2 weeks for $95.00 plus shipping.
Same thing with a turn of the century wood stool I bought for $35.00 at a flea market. I put it in my shop after seeing it online for $220.00
It never moved, but when I put it online, it sold for $295.00 plus shipping.

One more example. I had a table that I bought at thrift store for $20. I put it in my antique booth for $68. It never sold. And it was cute – it had diagonal slatting underneath the top for wine bottles. It was made of rattan.
We had a garage sale, we put the unsold table in it for $10.00.
Did. Not. Sell.

Finally, I put it online for $175, and cha-ching. Sold. Plus shipping.

The place you don’t want to sell your stuff is in a garage sale atmosphere. You can buy there, yes. But not sell - unless it’s just to get rid of stuff you don’t care about.

This is the reason that you can sometimes find real treasure at garage sales. Because people having these sales often just want it OUT. And sometimes the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater, so to speak.

Buyers that would think nothing of a table selling for $150 in an antique mall, will balk at the same item priced for $20 at a garage sale.

The Downside to Online Selling

The downside to selling online, is the listing process.
It’s very tedious writing up descriptions, taking measurements, photographing, coming up with your key words so you can be found in Google search etc, etc.

And there are questions.
Selling online is a 24/7 venture whether you set business hours or not. You will still get emails with questions, complaints and compliments at all times. It does begin to feel like you’re never off the clock unless you really adhere to self-set strict work hours. Still, people’s expectations these days are not like those of the past, everything is NOW.

This is the case for any online venue - you have to do the work and then once it’s sold, you have to ship it.

Compared to writing a price tag for your item and taking it to your shop or booth and arranging it, it seems like more work. Especially if you’re really selling a lot. If you only have one or two items, no big deal. But if you’re thinking of making this into a part time or full time business…it is a big deal.

As I said, both options have pros and cons.
If you’re selling very fragile or big, heavy, hard to ship items, then perhaps in store is better.
For myself, before I started selling vintage, I was already shipping a lot. I had accounts set up with USPS, UPS, Fed Ex and it wasn’t that difficult, but if you’re new to all this, it’s a bit of a learning curve and you have to consider storage. Not only for your inventory but all of your shipping supplies too.

Where to Sell Online
There are so many specialty sites to sell on depending upon what you sell. For general, anything and everything, the big one is, of course, eBay.

For high quality furniture there’s 1st Dibs, Chairish, Etsy to name a few.
Then there a plethora of other general antique sites, along with the idea of your own online store front.
If you’re starting out, I would go with one of the big sites listed above to get your feet wet and to start making contacts and customers. Opening your own online shop with your on hosted site (i.e Squarespace, Wix, Shopify) is difficult unless you have something so unique that people can’t find it anywhere else because you will need to drive traffic to your site vs the instant traffic of the big sites.

Now, lastly - what to collect and sell?
That’s up to you:)