There was a long line to check out at the estate sale this morning so Terry and I started chatting with the gentleman behind us. He told us that he dabbles in buying and selling and showed us pictures on his phone of some of his finds. It was a little of this and a little of that, mostly antique, anything he found that he thought could be valuable. (That kind of sounds like the intro to a t.v. show we all know and love, doesn't it? 'We'll buy anything we think we can make a buck on.')
After he learned a little about our business he said something like, "You guys probably know a lot more about what things are worth than I do." I thought about that for a second. Maybe we do?? I mean, we see a lot of vintage and antiques being sold so we've absorbed some knowledge about value and profit potential. But that's not really how we choose what to buy. Put simply, we buy what we like. If we like something and think it's a good price, we get it. It's a strategy which comes naturally and helps keep our space looking planned and cohesive. If we like it, that means it probably fits with the other merchandise in our booth or our barn. It might be something that sells well for us (like cameras or ironstone) or it might be something we've never had before but catches our eye (like a soap box derby car!). Regardless of what it is we usually have an idea of value and believe we can sell it for a decent profit--that's the name of the game, after all. It's not foolproof and we've had some failures, but it almost always works.
It's the same approach that works when decorating your home. You choose items you love and--with the help of paint, fabric or other design elements--it comes together into a great room. You might call it curating. Booth building is a lot like home decorating which is what makes it so fun! But it's also challenging, especially when our 'home' is around 200 square feet and everything is for sale. It's a challenge I love and I can't wait until next month when we get to do it again. We'll be in Kearney, NE at the Nebraska Cattlemen's Classic Feb. 17-18 and Loveland, CO Feb. 23-24 for the Rebel Junk Vintage Maket. Maybe we'll see you there. :)