A Look at the Booths (Part 1)

I'm still working on the other spaces.  I decided to stay in and rest yesterday, since it was raining,  I've been trying not to have too much downtime post-treatment, but I really do better when I have a day or so off.  I'm heading back over today, so maybe I'll have more pics after that.

Typical comments about the horrible lighting at the place apply.

Anyway, here's what's been done so far:

This is my main vintage/primitive/decor booth, which is one of my most popular.  This is the right half of the booth.  I've been working on thinning it out, re-zoning the merch, adding more small furniture, and cleaning things up.  Since I took this pic, the chair and wicker hamper have sold, along with the green chairs in the back.

 This is the end of that booth.  The first shelf here is all Louisville Stoneware and Bybee Pottery.

This is the left side of that booth.  That white shelf in the foreground is what started the whole process.  I sold the shelf that was sitting there and did not have one to replace it.  A vendor friend was looking to unload that white ine cheap, so I took it, only to find out that it was six inches too long to fit in the spot where I needed it.  This prompted a game of Booth Tetris to get the shelves in the right places, which meant I had to take some things of of them.  At the point I was thought: "In for a penny.  In for a pound."  And the booth re-do began!

 This is my salvage booth, which now needs more work done on it, because I added a bunch to it with the Junk Set Out haul.

Finally, there's a rent special on right now.  Rent a new booth for two months and get the third one free.  I decided to do it, because we were anticipating getting some large items from my mother-in-law.  That has fallen through, but I've ended up making several trips a week now to the Mount of Sorrows to haul stuff off of it, so it's working out well.  In this pic, the rolling cart in the foreground left has sold, along with the chair beside the painting of the lady.

If that last space looks kind of familiar, that's because I rented it a while back, but gave it up because I could not deal with the fire extinguisher pole.  I took it again, because it was the only space in my aisle that was available.  I'm not willing to walk any further than I have to when I am stocking and cleaning.  This space will go away once the rent special ends.  As long as it helps me clear a bunch of stuff out, it will have served its purpose.

 I have a goal set to move into a smaller storage space by June of this year.  At this point, I only have three large items left standing in the way of that move.  Thanks to this new space (and the booth re-do), things have been moving along pretty quickly. 

I'll share the set out stuff tomorrow.

Presenting......

Finally, here is most of the booths with their newish looks. 

I wasn't able to get everything I wanted to do done, due to some unforeseen difficulties.  I still have tons of fine tuning to do, so don't look too closely at any one pic.

Yes, I know that's a lot of stuff.  Sometimes, to sell a lot, you have to carry a lot.  Besides, like I've said before, my aesthetic has always been equal parts clutter and (barely) controlled chaos.  I am the 21st century version of that odd little man with the junk store down the street that was crammed full of wonderful stuff, but you could barely move through the aisles.

Let's look at the pics, shall we?

Before we start, just a reminder how the bright overhead fluorescent lights bouncing off the white tile floors make getting good shots difficult. 

First up, my new salvage booth.  This one is for a lot of my curb finds--windows, doors, etc.  Also, tools, wood boxes, metal boxes and anything else that might fit the theme, along with two shelves of books, because I got overflow!

In the white cubbies, you can see these matted prints that explain what various names mean.  (Mine means "Sexy Nerd Dude with Glasses.")  They were in the back corner of another booth and never sold.  Since I moved them to this place right on the aisle, I sell several every week.

Next up, is another new space.  I picked this one up, intending to incorporate it into the long space next to it and create a furniture corner for the long booth, but that had to be scuttled, because I have salvage overflow that needed to go there instead.  I left it as kind of a catch all space for all kinds of junk.

This is my endcap double space, which is for primitives, vintage stuff and things that fit that vibe.

The hand-painted "Rick's" sign was a curb find during junk set out.  Here's a close up.

This is my tiny, vintage Christmas display, which features my vintage two-tiered table Christmas tree!

And finally, the book and comic booth.  I moved the DVD's from inside the booth to the aisle and those sales have really picked up too.

I'm not totally done with the long booth on the aisle, which is where my religious stuff, barware, and assorted junk is.  Most of my Christmas will also be there too.  Those pics will have to come later.

This concludes the guided tour.  For the moment.  Please feel free to find a souvenir or two or twenty of your visit in any of the booths and purchase them at the register.

You Know You're a Junker When

You get to the mall, with all this to do:

And the first thing you do is make a purchase.

Two vintage metal cabinets, a bookshelf, and a primitive shelf

Close up of the metal cabinets.

I have no earthly idea where to put these.

And the other shelves.

I love that one on top!

I really did need that small bookshelf.  All I have left on Mount Sorrow are full-sized shelves, but I have a few small shelves in the booth that need something to be stacked on.  The other shelf will replace the small green shelf that I mentioned had sold in Monday's Ramble.  I am always looking for shelves of this size.

And I still got a lot of the work I needed to do done.

Now I just need to figure out where the hell to put the two metal cabinets.  Back to the drawing board!

Monday Rambles

Oh dear!

Absolutely nothing to ramble about.  I spent yet another week (third in a row!) on the great booth overhaul and redo.  I'm still slogging on and the task is still never ending.  Surprisingly, it doesn't seem to be hindering sales, which are pretty strong.  This weekend was a bit of a dip, but I'll have more on that later.

Maybe we should have some fortune cookie wisdom before we move on.

Oh, stop!  You're making me blush.

Since it's the booth on my mind and in my time so much right now, let's do a tour of what I have done.  I'll go ahead and admit that these shots are all shitty.  I blame the lights at the mall.  Those glowing beams you see at the tops of some pics are not the Junk Gods showering my endeavors with their blessings, but glare from the lights.  Still, some of you are really wanting to see the spaces, and I don't think the pics are going to get any better.  Sorry about that.

Here we go!

We'll start with a new feature:  The Incredible Wall of Canisters and Containers!  I've been selling so many of these at the moment, I decided to group them together for a while.

Salt and pepper shakers, miniatures, tiny ceramics and pottery reside on this mirrored curio shelf.  You can also see my Things in Jars shelf.  Nothing sells junk like putting it in a jar!  I am contemplating swapping this stuff out with my vintage Christmas stuff, which is not working on the shelf where it lives at the moment.  (Hence no pic.)

I finally decided to make a barricade at the end of the shelf on the right to stop folks wandering through the tiny gap and making messes.  I wanted a junk blockade, rather than another shelf, because I wanted to keep it feeling a little open.

Here's the frontward aisle-facing display.  I spent a day and half working on it.  This is the spot where that wonderful, primitive cabinet sat, and it sold weeks ago!  I just shoved some crap there and put off actually making a new display, because I was totally bereft of ideas.  (Doesn't sound so dramatic?  I was bereft, I tell you!  Bereft!)

I think you can make it out as a unit a little better in this sidelong shot.  (Isn't my vocab getting fancy this time around?  First "bereft" and now "sidelong."  I just need to find a way to work "bodice" into this post and I'll be too fancy for my pantsies.  Or something like that.)

Another vendor, who is also a friend and extremely talented when it comes to staging and styling, complimented me so nicely on this one.  He actually told me that he had learned how to work better with smalls by looking at what I do.  I was totally floored, since I'm totally convinced that I have no talent for this sort of thing whatsoever.  All I know how to do is keep cramming stuff everywhere there's an empty spot.

My ode to dressing tables and vanities.  Anything that might be found on a lady's or gentleman's  grooming spot is here--Avon decanters, perfume bottles, watches, jewelry, even corn cob pipes.  It goes all the way the up those shelves you see here.

Aisle side view.  My Asian section is at the very end on the wicker shelves.  In the middle is my Americana section.  The light green shelf in the foreground of this shot just sold, which means that I am on the hunt for another small shelf.  Sigh!

 My new Salvage section.  I've been finding and moving so much of this lately, that I thought it would be good to go ahead and make it a new section.  I want to put up a sign calling this "The Salvage Land" but only the comic nerds would get the joke.  And they never come into this booth.

They spend their time in this booth!  Ignore the boxes blocking the way on the right side.  I took care of them the day after this pic was taken.

I added this shelf to the top of the end of the comic box table.  (Got that?)  It enabled me to move the nerd toys out to the aisle and has boosted those sales.

That's two booths down and one to go.  

Move along!  Nothing to see here!

Uhm, the tour for that one is going to have to wait a while.

I'm going to try and whip a little bit of organization into this one today.  I have treatment tomorrow and really want to take this week off from the booth and rest.

The sidewalk sale was practically a bust.  I only made about 35 bucks and didn't sell very much.  I'm bringing a lot of the stuff home to put in my own yard sale.  Some of it went into a Free Cart at the sale, which took it away and made me happy.

It was a slow day overall.  I think we fell victim to the start of the nice weekends.  It didn't rain this weekend and I think yard work won out over the Peddlers Mall.  Sales were down in the mall too.  This was the first weekend in forever that I didn't break a hundred in sales on either day.

That's about all for this week's Ramble.  Have some music for your Monday.

Some Updates

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for hanging with this blog through the silly season of this past week.  I'll go ahead and warn you that there will be some more of the same coming up in the weeks to come, but hopefully not as constant.  There's something wrong with my head in that I kind of like doing that sort of stuff, but it also buys me some time to get some longer pieces written (or, as in the case of this week, work the booth every day).  It's not easy being me, but, apparently. someone has to do it.

We interrupt this update to being you a picture of a cute blue birdhouse.

 
That little "thank you" you're hearing right now is coming from your soul.

Sunday, in the Mazda post, I promised cuteness and awesomeness in the Monday Rambles post, but there was no post on Monday.  (Boo, me!)  Let me make up for the lapse now.  Also, let me assure you that there will be a Ramble this coming Monday.  I'm not sharing everything in this update to make sure it happens.  Sneaky me.

Anyway, as to cuteness and awesomeness, prepare to be blown away.  I hereby present:

KAWAII

The idea is get you to look up nerdy Japanese terms.

KAIJU AND SENTAI  (AND MECHA)

SUMO BUTT

This whole set folds up into its own little carrying case

There was a lot more of each, but I think you get the idea.  The most unique church sale in town happened last week.  It's not one of my gold standards, but it is one of my favorites.  One of the churches in town also sponsors a Japanese church, and that Japanese church has a fund-raiser sale every year.  It's a really fun event, complete with food, music and cultural demonstrations.  Also, great stuff for sale at great prices.

It can be a really good source for manga and anime, both untranslated and translated, which is one of the reasons I like to go.  Another is the availability of really cool imported toys (like the above) at not imported prices.  It was well worth going.

I've been doing more diving into the renovation dumpsters up and down the street. Well, except for the one that is too tall to get into.  I mentioned this mirror before, but I wanted to share a pic after I got it cleaned up.  It's a beauty.

It's also quite heavy.  And was found at the bottom of the hill.  The cool, heavy stuff is always at the bottom of the hill.  The dumpster was full, but this mirror was laid neatly on top, as if the demo folks wanted someone to find and take it home.  Glad to accommodate.

I found these counterweights at the same house on the way to the bus yesterday.  I also seem to have a knack for finding awkward heavy things when I am on the way to catch the bus.  All I had to try and carry them in was a plastic leopard print bag.  If you can't be practical, be fabulous!

As I mentioned above, I have been working pretty much non-stop for the past week re-doing the booths.  After seven days, four of which were entire days, I am still not done.  I needed a break, however, so I stayed home today.

Here's a preview.  More pics to come when I'm done.  In the back on the right, you can see the new Wall of Canisters that I created!  It's been an exhausting week, but I've had some interesting meetings with some of my regular customers.  I'll write more about that on Monday.

A little girl of about eight or nine pointed to this Raggedy Ann doll and yelled:  "Hey Mom!  Look at this clown!"  What are they teaching kids these days?

More to come! 

Until then:

Monday Rambles

Gentle Readers--

(I've always wanted to say that!)

We are aware that last week lacked the usual Monday Rambles that many of you have come to expect at this blog.  The truth is, a Ramble was started, but someone forgot to finish it there were technical difficulties.  We regret the situation and will endeavor to make it up with an extra rambly, Ramble now.

Life is pretty good here in the Ohio River Valley right now.  We're still having frequent rainy and cool days, but also lots of sunny, warm ones.  And sometimes some sunny and cool ones.  Snow showers keep popping up in forecasts, so I know winter may still have one last blast up its sleeve.  After all, I can remember a Derby Day with snow in my adult life!  (For those who don't know, that would be snow on the first Saturday in May, also known as Free Comic Book Day in nerd-dom.  This has been the first official mention of FBCD at this blog in 2016.)

As the weather warms up, so do the yard sales.  There still aren't many taking place in actual yards, but the listings get a little longer every week.  The church sale scene is hopping right now!  Two of the four best church sales in the city have already happened, along with several other favorites.

There was also a Big Flea this past weekend, and I got a chance to go to a special place.  I don't want to spoil it, because I am working on a post about it, so let's just say that it rhymes with "Boot Hill Cow Pet."  Sort of.  Kind of. Maybe.

The booth is humming right along, as tax season continues to unfold.  After this past weekend, March could turn into my best month ever, depending on what happens as we get closer to Easter and people start thinking more about buying plastic eggs and chocolate bunnies than junk.  For the record, I do have a small stash of plastic eggs that they're welcome to.  The chocolate never seems to make it to the booth. (AHEM!)  Even if sales end up slowing this week, I'll still have one of my top months, so I'm happy.  I'm taking HUGE Mazda loads every week now and working several day stretches to keep up.

So what is selling?  Here's a recap.

COMICS  Stacks and stacks at a time, it seems. I have priced and taken every one I have in the house, So I need to go get my last two boxes of Mount Sorrow.  I have a feeling that I'll be doing some major restocking on Free Comic Book Day (second mention).  This last Big Flea trip disappointingly yielded only three (!) comics.

BOOKS  I only have maybe six books left from that old book buy I mentioned a few posts ago.  My children's books got cleaned out a couple of weekends ago.  I've been working the booth on several recent occasions as younger guys walked out with armloads of books.  It's always kind of cool to see the Kindle generation buying words on paper.  

RELIGIOUS STUFF  Like I said in my last post, it's taken a while for my religious section to catch on, but it finally seems to have clicked with customers.  The book sales extend to the religious titles, especially hymnals.  Everybody loves a good, old hymnal.  Yesterday, it seems like I must have sold half my religious stuff, according to my report.  Another thing to dig off the Mountain!

SHELVES  First it was big shelves.  Then it was small shelves.  Then it was that cool white cabinet.  Every time, the booths had to get a makeover.  I think I've ended up with a slightly new look every week this month.  I kind of ran out of time last week to finish up, so I'm planning to stay at the mall for the rest of the week and rework it all, again.

CHAIRS  Adult-sized.  Kid-sized.  Dining Room.  Side Chairs.  Easy Chairs.  Stools. Folding Chairs. When the month started, I had a surplus of chairs.  All over the place.  Now I only have a handful left.  Another trip up Sorrow Mountain!

BAMBOO  You might remember a bundle of bamboo poles from a recent Mazda shot.  They're gone!  As well as the ones I found to supplement that stash.  I got them because I thought they were cool-looking.  I had no idea I was on to something.

METAL BOXES  File Boxes.  Cash Boxes.  Card Boxes.  Recipe Boxes.  Candy Tins.  Tool Boxes.  Tackle Boxes.  If it's metal, I cannot keep it in right now!

WOOD BOXES  Crates, small boxes, card boxes, and such made of wood are also selling well.  Not quite as strongly as the metal ones, but they're definitely moving.

I wish I could get baskets to move as well as the boxes.  They're just sitting right now.  A couple of days ago, it looked like a vintage toy spree was about to begin, but it's a little early to make that call.  What's selling for you right now?

In other words, it's a good time to be a junker!  Wheeeee!  I hope your sales and finds are also going well right now.  I need to ride this wave while I can, since Spring Break is coming the first week of April and that usually means a slow-down.  After that, the Derby Festival will be starting. Another slow-down.  Last April was not as slow as I thought it might be.  I think being in Indiana, rather than in Louisville, helped.  Things don't get quite as mad on that side of the river, but for some events, the bridges across are blocked, which does have an effect.

My plan this week is to work it, work it, work it.  I'd like to get the booths squared away enough that I can spend next week focusing solely on the Mount of Sorrows.  That's actually been the idea behind the last couple of weeks, but it's not played out quite that way, due to the strong sales.  not a bad problem to have, except that I really, really want (and need) to work in the storage unit.  Sometimes, it's hard to prioritize when you're a one man show.

Finally, a query.  Does anyone know who these little guys are?

 I got them in a baggie of toys from a church sale.  They're marked "Saban" on the bottom, but I didn't turn up anything on a Google search for Saban characters.  Saban was the production company that unleashed the Power Rangers on this country in the 90's.

Here's another look.

Let me know.  Thanks.

Have a good week.

Monday Rambles

Wow!  What a week!  Sometimes you just have to say it.

Before we get started, please wish blog friend Roger a speedy recovery from his surgery last week.  Roger is my oldest blog pal, and one of the things I really want to do one day is meet him face to face.  Get better soon, buddy.

I'm kind of trapped in the middle of the never-ending booth project from hell right now.  I intended to spend two days working on it last week and be done.  I ended up spending four--and still not finishing.  Every so often, my spaces take on a mind of their own, and I have to muster all my forces of awesomeness and bring them to heel.  We're in the middle of one such pitched battle right now.  I spent the weekend learning new attack phrases and acquiring new battle points and powering up, so I don't think the rebellious booths will know what hit them.

BOOTH ARRANGE SPARKLE CLEAN UP!

I'll need everything I can muster, because I had the most awesome sales weekend ever.  Saturday set a new record for me, much higher than I ever thought I would do on one day.  Almost three hundred dollars!!  I nearly passed out when I got the email.  Before I would believe it at all, I re-added the total myself.  I was sure it had to be a mistake or maybe the monthly total got printed in the wrong slot or something.  I never have days like that!

The wildest thing?  There's no furniture at all in that total.  The most expensive individual item that sold was $12.99.  I sold a ton of stuff.  Happily, it all seems to be coming pretty evenly from all three of my areas, which is what I really like to see.  It also seems to be coming from pretty evenly from various sections in those booths.  As much as I like to see a god run on, say, comic books, evenly spread sales mean sustainability.

I hope you all don't think I'm bragging or anything.  I'm just really excited and had to share.  One weekend into the month, I have rent made.  Seriously, this never happens to me.  I have to keep reminding myself to stay cautiously optimistic and not get carried away.  This is an unpredictable business.  I could not sell another thing all week, which would completely deflate all the momentum from the weekend.  I don't think it will happen, but I have to keep that thought in the back of my mind.

We had a cold rainy Saturday on Highway 60, but I still found some great stuff.  The quantity was down., but the quality wasn't.  I'm going to tease out the finds bit by bit this week, then finish it off at the end with a big flourish.  I am very behind on sharing my finds here, so I'm designating this as "Eddie-torial Comments Fun Finds Catch Up Week."  I'll share some recent finds and stories through out the week, with a little Highway 60 tease, then wrap it up with the rest of the 60 stuff.  Deal?

I will say this, I went out with a small list of specific things to find:

Comics
Vintage wooden ironing board
Blow molds
Vintage Christmas
Any Christmas at all
Long sleeved shirts for me

Most of my long sleeved shirts are shot, so it's time to revive the wardrobe.  Of course, I'm not going to go buy new!  The shirts turned out to be the only thing on the list that I found.  I am so low on Christmas, especially vintage stuff, that the fast on-rushing holiday season scares me.  I've already put out a dab of stuff, which I plan to add to bit by bit until it's all out.  I just hope that the "out" point doesn't come in the middle of October.

Here's a bit of what did come back with me.

I need more shelves and chairs like I need more holes in my head.  But that shelf was so sturdy and cute that it had to come back with me.  As it turns out, I sold a shelf last night, so this one will slide right in the empty space.  I also could not resist the wrought iron lattice work back on that folding chair. (See next pic.)  I had to ask my uncle what the thing with the handle was.  The prices were definitely right.  Everything in this pic cost less than ten bucks!  

My uncle had a yard sale over the weekend, and I always buy his leftovers the Sunday after.  The cute little plant stand on the end of the cart in this next pic was part of what I got from him.

I'm starting a silly little project for the month of October.  It seems like every time I go out for a walk here recently I come home with some kind of find.  Junk, it seems, is where you find it.  I am challenging myself to find some free, sellable junk every day in October.

The rules are simple:

1.  I have to look for something every day that I leave the house.

2. Legitimate finds only!  No stealing out of someone's front yard or porch.

3.  Stuff in the house also counts, as long as it wasn't something originally purchased to be resold.

I am hoping that last rule will encourage me to keep up with the downsizing that I've been doing.

Calvin and Hobbes were right, you know.

My life motto

I'll do a wrap up post with a list of finds at the end of the month.