My adventures at the Antique/flea market

Sounds good, UGA. I do have to say, having previously managed a small retailer, that it is crucial to have some high-ticket items. They might sit there a while, but it only takes one or two customers to make your month on those high dollar pieces.

That said, I do recall someone online, maybe even these boards, saying that their "sweet spot" was the $10-$20 range. With your rental rates, it doesn't take to many sales to make it worthwhile.

Congrats and fill up that space, brother!

My booth at Southern Pickers is about 6x8 $60 month and 15%.  I am lucky that is next to the check out.  It is about 5 miles away on my way to work.  I like it for selling items that are no going to bring their value at the flea and would not do well on CL or eBay.

I was curious, I ran into an ad for a "Southern Pickers" in Kingsland, TX who was having an upcoming auction.

Is this your Southern Pickers? Are you selling in the auction?

@Money4

My sisster is a lil OCD, so she keeps everything very neat and organised LOL

She's always going behind me and fixing things that I just did!

My booth is at Southern Pickers in Tifton, GA.  Right now I am trying to sell a large quanity of clothes from my last two units.  None of them are the brands that would do well enough on Ebay to go that route.  There is not a consignment shop in Tifton that handles them so looking in nearby towns.  May end up selling them at the flea first Sat. in March.  Thankfully they were stored clean and are ready to sell.

@Money4

My sisster is a lil OCD, so she keeps everything very neat and organised LOL

She's always going behind me and fixing things that I just did!

LOL what ever works. My husband and I go around in circles.  . I hate walking around things (think because I am short takes twice as many steps as him) He always stacks things so you have to walk alllllllll the way around the building, truck, ect. I always say leave a path. 

Got our storage / sort area so I have 3 rows of tables and two walkways so you can get around for the past month have had to move stuff out of the walk ways  . Think he has got it now.  Really he just lets me unload the truck and helps with the heavy stuff.  He is pretty smart. LOL

My booth is at Southern Pickers in Tifton, GA.  Right now I am trying to sell a large quanity of clothes from my last two units.  None of them are the brands that would do well enough on Ebay to go that route.  There is not a consignment shop in Tifton that handles them so looking in nearby towns.  May end up selling them at the flea first Sat. in March.  Thankfully they were stored clean and are ready to sell.

Looked them up they pop up everywhere on google. So good advertising there. 

Good luck on the clothes still struggling with the load we have. Thought I would do box lots of 25 pieces for $10. Got through 2 tubs and decided this is crazy.    If we could do a yard sale this weekend think I could get rid of a lot of them. (has been successful in the past). Looks like rain all weekend  and only half of ours are clean  Need to get rid of the clean ones to have space for the ones I have to clean.

Did not go to the flea even though I had loaded the truck during the week due to weather forcast  Got a call from Cathy at Southern Pickers a lady was there looking for some chairs I had pulled out my booth to take to the flea.  She had seen them on the web wanted to know if I would mind bringing them to the store.  10 minutes later they were sold and 2 end tables I had loaded for the flea  While I was sorting stuff a neighbor came over and bought some jeans  Got to get back to sorting and cleaning.

Got a call from Cathy just sold the antique truck from my booth   Got a space to fill Monday have a desk that is a perfect fit

We made the mistake of listing to the weather man.. No rain 


 Sounds like you have had a great weekend.   Your space is really working you and working for you 

Called the Antique place and have to wait until Tuesday to find out about there booths. (really don't like this place.)

Will be in town tomorrow will stop in on one I like and see if they have space.

**UPDATE**

I got my monthly invoice for Feb.

$403.50 toatl sales for the month.
-$90.00 both rent for 2 spaces
-$3.00 credit card surcharge
-$40.00 close to for the %10 commision for the mall

Over all my cut was $270 and some change for basically for 3 weeks of selling.  I have now put some larger ticket items in the spots.   I think I can make $600 in gross a month easily.

Thank you for the update and any profit is great!

I  visited several malls last week and have decided to bite the bullet and put myself on the waiting list for one - they all had a wait for a spot, some as long as two years! All of these folks have got to be selling enough to make it worth their while....hopefully they aren't paying just to store their "treasures"!

The one I chose was the busiest and most reasonably priced. I will pay $110 for a 6X8 space, they take no commission and only deduct rent plus credit card fees from your sales. They told me that the wait would be about a month to 6 weeks. I am not too excited about the location....it is on the second floor in the front of the building. This area is accessed by a small staircase in the corner of the store as opposed to the main stairway which is very visable as you enter the store. There is no lease just month to month, so I felt is was worth giving it a try for 2 months.

The sales at the swap were not too great last Saturday. We cleared $120 profit as opposed to $325-$350 but I took mainly small knick-knacks and some kitchen stuff. Maybe gas prices at $4.25 a gallon had something to do with it as most vendors were down in sales also. I will try again this Saturday since we have an antique auction coming up the following weekend and need the extra $$ and the room!

**UPDATE**

That is great glad it is working for you.

@ bulldogmom good luck on your space. 

We can't find a space for under $200/ or close enough that the gas want eat us up.

Our sales were bad this past weekend also.

I has said I was going to put out some bigger items, I have put out 3 different big ticket items (Furniture), all have sold in a less than a week from time I put them out.   As of today I have made $256,  more than half of what I sold last month.  LOL    And I have bought 2 more units I haven't started selling yet.     LIFE IS GREAT       Seriously, since I have decided to put forth some real effort we have been doing really great, but I could be putting in some more time, and doing better, I haven't been to the flea market in 2 weeks.

I forgot,  I also sold a framed WW2 service record for $75

Ok now you are bragging.   



Just kidding. That is great.

 
$256!! Whoo - Hoo! Keep braggin', I enjoy hearing the success stories. It is what keeps everyone else going.