Come to our Vintage and Kitsch Sale at (address Edited out after the sale), June 2 & 3 from 9-4! We’ll also have some household items, power tools, plants, and general miscellaneous. I’ll have “free items” section and restock it periodically too.
Here are the 5 Ws about this sale, plus some!
Who ?
Karen and Russ have a vintage and more Etsy Shop called Six Degrees and the basement stock rooms have gotten out of control. We’re having a stock reduction sale for anyone who wants vintage, kitsch or antiques, most of it at about a 75% (or more) discount from what it would cost to order online.
What ?
Could be anything, really. Guys, sometimes I buy things because I don’t know what they are and I want to find out.
We have so much stuff we probably can’t sell it all in one weekend. But, as long as it’s moving, I’ll keep unpacking and setting more stuff out. If you want something that you don’t see, ask. It’s worth a shot. I may have it, I might even know where it is
My favorite source for vintage and antique items is the estate sale of an original owner of a 1950s brick ranch style home. That’s because those owners began housekeeping when world population was a quarter of what it is now. Resources were thought to be unlimited. Things were built to last. Materials were high quality and the post war boom was inspiring design and technology. So, I’ll have a significant number of things showing that preference. Russ tends toward 1960s and 1970s
We’re most interested in moving stock that is expensive to ship, things that are heavy like sewing machines dish sets, cookie jars, glass lighting shades, large vases and heavy pottery or large trays and Lazy Susans, or bulky things, like Baskets, Globes and Lamps. We have one Stiffle.
We bought a lot of wall art to sell in an antique mall with cast iron, but we signed up for a wall space this time, not a booth. Once we got the space, the store didn’t want us to hang cast iron on the walls. We couldn’t make the commitment to a high rent booth (where other sellers were hanging cast iron pans and heavy decor on walls supported with the same construction) so, there will be a variety of prints, paintings and stitchery or ephemera and other decor that we still have on hand.
We have a collectible pottery, studio pottery and glassware, plus all kinds of miscellaneous.
You can go to our Six Degrees Shop to see a very limited selection of some things. Right now, it’s mostly more expensive items that are listed. You can also search the shop name in Google to see previous listings for things that may or may not have sold.
We have hundreds, literally, of Wilton special shaped cake pans and as many ceramic shortbread or cookie molds.
We have a few big ticket items like a 1950s steel kitchen and furniture, a Table and Radial arm Saw. We also have a lot of stuff that would be great for set staging, like 50s card tables and poker sets.
There will also be some standard yard sale items like clothing for adults and children and toys, garden and pet items and live plants, indoor and outdoor, some native.
It’s hard to absorb the cost of shipping on really inexpensive things too, like small collectibles, housewares, small planters and floral, craft supplies, fabric and smalls. We need to ship priority for the tracking, but the lowest priority rate is $9.35. We’ll be selling a lot of the things that are $8 and less because few people want to pay $20 with tax for an $8 item. I wouldn’t want to, and I don’t like not being able to offer better options. On top of that, taking a loss on things that the buyer paid dearly to receive is particularly frustrating. Listing takes a lot of time and things that have a low price, well, customers think you’re making money on that, but if you’re not taking 20 low cost items to post at once (and I never am) the driving expense alone puts you in the red. It’s time to be out of the loose/loose program.
How day 2 goes may depend on day 1. It will also depend on weather. Saturday I may not bring out things that didn’t sell Friday. I’ve organized stock by different categories over time. Once I have all the Wedgwood or Frankoma, or what ever maker’s stuff that’s left at the end of day one, I may pack those things up by maker rather than function and bring out different things the next day. We’ll still sell Sunday, even if we were rained out Saturday. We’ve been planning this sale since before Russ lost his job in January, so it’s a go unless something really big happens.
Yes! we’d be happy to make a single price for everything, pack it all up for transport and deliver it if you want it all.
There will be some free items, but not a lot for the 25 cent crowd. I get it. There are things that are interesting, but you don’t have enough time and space in your life unless they are virtually free. We have a designated future home for things like that. If I have items that didn’t sell on the last day, and I can’t bear to pack them back up and drag them back in the house again, they’ll go to friends, relatives or gifting groups like Buy Nothing, Trash Nothing, or FreeCycle. These groups are about community, keeping things out of landfills and sharing. Some things could go to charities that help people out of homelessness like Simple Needs.
Where ?
Our place, 460 Laurian View Court 30075. it’s near where Cherokee, Cobb and North Fulton meet, or if your thing is cities, it’s where Marietta, Roswell and Woodstock meet.
When ?
June 2 and 3 from 9-4. We won’t run you off if you get there at 4:15 and we haven’t put it all away. Rain Date 2 weeks later. But, the long range forecast looks good and our first date was in January, so we’re really hoping this goes on the 19th.
Why ?
This sale has been planned since it was just intended trade my basement full of vintage for advertising money to promote our Kickstarter. Now? Well, now we’ll be dancing a jig if it just covers some of the unexpected big ticket expenses and losses we’ve dealt with recently.
The goal is to make life organizable and ready to move on to better things while offsetting unexpected recent costs like a large Car Repair, unexpected Unemployment, the New Phone (‘Cause He Doesn’t Have the Company Number Anymore), the Broken Computer,the other broken computer, Karen’s New Tooth, Russ’ New Tooth (stress shows up as clenching and grinding sometimes), Video Project Advertising Money, some smaller medical costs and random other things like bike repair.
The plus, we hope, is that we will be able to Take Back Our Basement and our Sanity while Getting Rid of the Storage Unit fees.
What a list! What a few months we’ve had!
You know, some people have a lot more to deal with. We’re grateful for all of the things that aren’t falling apart and hoping the sale will be a good all around fix for some things that did fall apart.
Pricing
With some exceptions, stuff is going to be basically 75% off of market prices. It will be easier to let the stuff we never spent 2 hours or more cleaning, researching and listing go for bottom prices, but we’re here to sell this stuff, not keep it.
People have all kinds of thoughts and strategies about pricing stuff. It can be motivated by good intentions, bad intentions or sheer desperation. Extremes can clash, the seller who wants full retail or better for a regretted purchase after they broke it or lost parts isn’t going to get on well with the buyer who wants to pay a quarter for something “worth” hundreds, or thousands for bragging rights in social media groups.
Pricing guidelines can bring the extremes closer and increase the chances of an exchange. The linked article says the most unpopular pricing method is “make an offer”. I hate that too, and for the same reason quoted in the article, you don’t know where to start or if a meeting of the minds is even possible. My sale is going to be exactly that though. “Make me an offer”, but I’m going to tell you exactly how to offer me something I’m very likely to accept.
Two Ways to Make an Offer
The Easy Way
Is it worth a box of ‘Nilla wafers? How many boxes of ‘Nilla wafers is it worth to you?
The Market Way: The Discounted Market Based Approach
Search Ebay (or other) sold prices. Average the last 3 sold prices. Show us your search and offer half without the shipping. For most things, that will be 75% off of what it would cost you to order online. For some, it may only be half price, but for others, it will be more like 90% off.
Show us your search if you want help. In most cases we’ve searched the items, but we may not have done it recently.