Monday Rambles

It was so nice last week, I rode my bike to class every day.  Hard to believe it's just now February.

I did notice something while I was riding, though.  This class was downtown, and the street I take to get there is always really busy.  Really busy.  But, once you get downtown, a couple of the cross streets ever have traffic on them.  We're talking major cross streets in downtown and no traffic.  How does that happen?

Anyway, I'm teaching at a site further out this week, but I'm still going to ride as much as I can.  I just need to leave home earlier.

So, with this post, I have now exceeded my output for all of 2004!   Watch out 2003, you're next!  Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I should hit 700 posts sometime next week.  It's only taken almost 10 years to get there.

It was a good week for thrifting.  Found some cheap vintage Tupperware and yet more graphic novels at Goodwill.  I also found a popover pan in someone's curbside recycling on the way home from that Goodwill trip.  I was riding by on my bike, saw it, and thought "There is no way that's a metal popover pan.  It's got to be a plastic planter set or something."  So I turned the bike around and YES! it was the real deal.  A trip home and some warm soapy water later, and it's on its way to the booth.  You cannot plan these opportunities, but you have to take advantage of them when they (ahem!) pop up.

There has been an awful lot of stuff appearing on curbs of late, too.  Most of it is total crap, which is not surprising.  It is odd to see this much stuff when we're still four months away from our next curbside junk pick up period.

I just wish I knew what to do about the flood of Annalee dolls (ugly, creepy things that they are--sorry Shara!) that have hit all three branches of my favorite thrift.  I've bought everything I feel comfortable getting, but there's a lot left.  And everything I took to YesterNook has already sold out!

I'm just waaaaay out of my depth here and the prices (which may actually be quite reasonable) are more than I'm willing to pay when I'm waaaaay out of my depth.  I'm taking a "wait and see" approach, since this is a thrift that has monthly half off sales.  We'll see what happens.

Yard Sale Queen has a tutorial on removing price tags without damaging items.

Belated get well wishes and thoughts for continued recovery to Ms. Jackie of Ms. Jackie's Junque.  She had a rough time over the holidays.  I'm glad you're back on your feet and blogging and boothing again!  You should see the photos of her booths.  She can foof like nobody's business.

I'm always a little jealous of folks who can throw together these displays that look effortless.  Most of mine feel very labored and overworked.  Here's another one.  And, of course, the aforementioned Shara.

By the way, that big doll house from last week?  Gone!  Sold!  Outta there!  I was actually at the booth working when it happened, to boot.  I carried it out to the car for the woman that bought it.  My uncle was there too, and he told me later that the woman who bought it came there with the intent of buying it.  She already knew it was there and she wanted to get it.  Score another hit for Craigslist!

I also sold a set of candlestick holders that had been there so long it was giving me the blues.  It is amazing how an item can go from "Gee, this is so cool that I can't wait to put it out and see it in my booth with all the other wonderful merchandise" to "Geez, is this damn thing ever going to sell???" to "What was I thinking when I bought that?" to "I'm going to be buried with it.  I just know it!"  So, I've been doing the happy dance, needless to say.

Good, good sales at both sites lately.  I like tax season.  Of course, now that I'm selling furniture, I almost can't keep up with it!  I don't have a good place to store a couple of larger items in reserve.  I tried keeping them at one booth for the other one, but they sell when you do that.  Sometimes, my reserve sold out before the items I was reserving the reserve to replace did and then those items sold and there was no reserve!  This junk stuff is waaaaay more complicated than it looks, folks!

The weather has been so nice lately that I'm a little surprised that there haven't been any honest-to-god yard sales.  You know, the kind actually in the yard?  With cheap stuff?  Don't people know that there is a world of yard sale junkies out there going through withdrawal and jonesing for a fix who would gladly storm a yard and buy every last damn thing in it, just for the general principle of going to a sale in the dead of winter?  C'mon people!

Instead what we've been having are indoor benefit sales that promise the moon and then turn out to be really lame.  Seriously, if you're trying to raise money for a beloved cause, wouldn't you want to make sure that you had enough items for sale to actually, I don't know, raise some money?  

Pardon me.  Lack of good sales makes me grumpy.

One last boothing note, and I'll be gone.  The Peddlers Mall that I am in (and only that site) is reducing space rent to $99 monthly for an 8x10 space.  (Starting next month, existing vendors get the reduction, which is exciting to me!)  The price will be good through all of 2012, so if you've ever wanted to give this junking thing a try and you're in the Louisville area, this is a good time to do it.  Contact info at the link.  (And if you are interested, but don't know how to get started, I'll be doing several "how to" posts about selling in a vendor mall over the next few weeks.  There's never been a better time to get started.)