Because We Love To See What Other People Buy

Because we all love to see what other people buy to resell, here’s this past weekend’s loot. While not a truckload, there were a couple of moneymakers. Well, I mean, they all should make some money, but a couple will do better than the others.

Whether you’re a reseller or a shopper/buyer, you’re probably as curious as I am about what others buy. If you’re a shopper, you want to be the first to see what’s new. If you’re a reseller, you want to see what another reseller bought and why they bought it. Do they really think they can sell that?? Were they desperate for something to buy and anything would do? Did they buy it because it was cheap? You know how it goes. So here’s what I bought this past weekend and why I bought it.

One of my favorite finds was this set of Scottie dog bookends.

They were outside among the tools. I honestly thought they were rusty tin. Didn’t realize until I got home that they are hammered copper. And handmade. I’ll be putting them in the blog shop today.

Why did I buy them? Well…. they’re Scotties! I’ll buy all things Scotties. They have loyal owners and a large collector base. I’m hoping for around $50 for them.

How about these adorable instrument playing elves?

I won’t be able to get a lot more than I paid. They were one of those, “gotta buy something” purchases plus, they were too cute to pass up. I also got a heart cake pan at that sale that I didn’t bother to take a picture. It was also of the “gotta buy something” category.

From the same sale as the elves was a box full of brass.

Why did I buy that? It wasn’t especially cheap. I bought it because the other day I ran across this old Etsy sale of mine.

13 brass candlesticks that sold for $72.00. That lit a fire under my feet and I couldn’t wait to find more brass candlesticks! How had I forgotten about that?!

Here’s a little brass, perpetual calendar. They usually sell, although not for very much. But I like ’em.

I’ve sworn that I would stop buying linens and buttons. I have too many of both. But when they put the buttons in this cute embroidered bag….. I couldn’t resist! They’ll stay with me. At least for awhile.

(There’s at least as many more buttons in the bag as you can see in the picture. Set me back $5.00.)

Crummy outside shot of a new-ish wire plant stand, an old plant stand with plastic flowerpot and a new-ish book shelf thing with drawers. All three are in the booth at Angel’s Antique Mall in Opelika, Alabama.

Sock darner. Nothing much to see here.

White pottery. I don’t have a good reason why I bought any of these or the sock darner. They’re just, I dunno, kinda like staples.

The little spaghetti poodle was apparently the only surviving member of a family tragedy. She has the little wire loop that connected her to her momma and siblings. She’ll go into my collection. And I had to pay a dollar!

Warning: another embarassingly bad picture below. Two more, actually.

Some other things I’m not sure why I bought. The snail, sure. It’s rather large and would be fun in a flower bed. The urns? They would be great for the fall with mini pumpkins on them, don’t you think? I rarely buy baskets. I find them a hard sell and I can’t tell the difference between old and new. The beads on this one appealed to me. These things will probably go to the booth. I may hold the urns until fall and put them out then.

And finally, two nice men pulled this down from the ceiling of a shed for me. They battled spiders and dirt. They were such perfect, southern gentlemen! Their momma’s would have been proud. They did their good deed for the day right there.

Another terrible outside picture but I believe you can at least tell what it is. A surveyor’s transit, two measuring sticks and two poles. These are also in the booth at Angel’s.

By the way, my booth is in the middle of the back wall next door to Angel Fire Nuts. You can’t miss it. Well, you can if you’re mesmerized by the gorgeous booth, Classic Cottage across from me and you likely will be.

I don’t like to tell how much individual items cost if I’m going to sell them. But I will tell you my total expenditure for the weekend was $64.00.

So you might have noticed I’ve not blogged in a few months. I took a long break, basically from internet work, trying to get acclimated to my new life. The new house and new town. And it was good to not be sitting in front of a computer all day every day. I even contemplated never going back but in the end, I knew I couldn’t just give up that part of my life. I still like to sell online. I think I’ll limit my time to half a day, though.
(Note: I seem to have lost the few, questionable at best, picture taking skills I had during the break!)

One change I’m experimenting with is totally focusing on the blog and blog shop rather than Etsy. In my own space I have full control. Of course I’m very stringent on myself as far as customer satisfaction but with my own space, I won’t have anyone telling me what I can and can’t sell and nobody is forcing me to sell in a way I don’t want to. Like the mummurings that Etsy might force free shipping. Or pull you down in search if you don’t do what they want. Or more fees. That kind of thing. Ya know? Is this cutting off my nose to spite my face? Probably. It’s much harder to get people to find your item on a single, stand alone site and harder still to gain their trust. So I might tuck tail and slink back over to Etsy. I’m not proud. LOL

Would you have bought any of that? What would you have passed over? And which things would you have passed on because in your experience they don’t sell?

My half day of work is almost over. Better get going adding some of these things now!