help and advice needed to arrange a vintage sale

cooltriker

cooltriker

Registered Guest
i was wondering if could pick your brains please for some advice

the situation is, i have turned my hobby of collecting vintage into a business ( textile recycling) i am soooooooo busy with work, i havent got time to put my vintage items onto ebay, or do any vintage fashion fairs...

I am totally running out of space now to keep it in my warehouse, so i thought i would have an open day, and turn the office into a rummage/blow out sale etc...but i dont know where to start:puzzled:

i dont mind trade or general public, as long as i sell some, well loads...lol..

any advice on where to start? I am not spamming honest... i just need some good pointers on how to go about it, advertising.... etc....

would really appreciate any help.... as my hubby ( who now works for me ) is seriously giving me grief about the space the vintage is taking up, and i cant put my fingers in my ears for much longer about it:lalala:
 
If you have way more than you can sell, there are a few suggestions I can make. If you are turning this into a business, think like a businesswoman. From here on out, be discriminating on what you buy. Only buy things that you think you can sell quickly, especially not until you make a big dent in your inventory. Put some of the money you make and buy a few higher quality pieces that would draw people in. Going forward, don't comingle your personal money and business money. Take the money that you get from selling things and put it towards business expenses, hold some aside to hold onto some capital and then pay yourself a small salary and then that money goes into your personal account unless you have another means of income.

I know you are asking how to do a sale, but if you want to stay in business rather than just labelling it a business because you have a lot of things, you have to look at things very shrewdly, especially if you don't constantly want to have huge warehouse sales and want things to be less hectic. When someone says "i don't have time to sell" that makes me think that their buying has gotten out of hand. Even if you only have weekends, if you have too much, the time should be put into sellng. Selling is central to a business and so is carefully acquiring - not hoarding, accumulating - unless you are a picker for someone else.

I would really consider taking your best stuff and if you don't have time to do fashion fairs, get yourself a stall at an antique or consignment place. You wouldn't have to spend a lot of time sitting there. The stuff would be there for folks to buy. You may want to doa blow out sale, but this would give you a selling base so things will slowly and constantl be selling so you aren't sitting on a warehouse - things filter out.

If you want to do a public sale - it is important to be organized. If you pile things on the table with no prices - unless you are selling a "fill up a bag for one price sale" - you will quickly get overwhelemd and lose track. Also, have a helper with you to answer questions and keep an eye on people perhaps depending how big things are. Also, take anything you don't want to sell now OUT and off of the premises. If its there, people assume its for sale and it just creates hard feelings except for things that are clearly fixutres like shelves and things like that. Also, for a sale like that be prepared to sell at low prices. UNLESS you get very organized and send invites out to dealers.

I will think of other things..
 
thanks for the reply..

sorry but i didnt make myself clear in my post..

I started buying and selling vintage a few years ago... cut a very long story short, i now own and run a textile recycling business, all due to my vintage...lol..

basically i buy and sell textiles now, but when the vintage items come through i have been putting them to one side, putting some on ebay etc now and again, but now we are sooo busy i havent even got time to put hte vintage items on ebay, or even do a vintage fair...

so i thought i would do a mega vintage sale at work turning the main office into a shop for the day, but anything i still wanted to keep, could be out of sight.

I have 100's of items, all in builders sacks, the longer i leave it the more i get...lol...

I dont have a mailing list etc, and alot of the vintage fair goers havent got shops so i cant contact them to tell them about my stuff.

thinking of doing some posters and sending then to the university which is about 15 miles away.

but apart from that my mind has gone blank, and i am normally pretty good at marketing and getting new clients etc in work...lol..
 
Yes, I sort of got the picture that you sell textiles, but the part I was responding to was the comments you made about having too much to get too and a whole warehouse full where you can't store anymore. The same principles apply whether you sell vintage dresses, textiles, or car parts. Things can overwhelm when you have way more inventory than you can possibly turn over. I guess i was responding to the "more you leave it the more you get" and that its great to have a sale, but if you keep getting more without it regularly filtering out, you'll be backed up again in no time. I am not trying to sound critical, and hope I don't come across that way, but I have been there with way more than I could put my hands on - you want to make what you got work for you.

If you don't have mailing list - its time to make one. There are email newsletters people can sign up for and you can create a guest register when you make appearances or have a drawing. Also, dealers that go to fairs certainly have business cards that they might offer to you and you can get their contact info that way. This way, when you have another sale, you will have a built in audience and it won't be in a desperation to clear stuff out but you might be able to theme it or do seasonal stuff.

As far as the actual sale, if you are inviting people in to a place of business that is not normally a shop or that the public doesn't normally wander into, I would check to make sure there are no restrictions against an event. Also, I would take the areas that you don't want people to go and lock the walls or canvas and tarp it off. Ropes and signs that say "no admittance" don't work when they see a juicy bit on the other side. Be prepared with change - have plenty of small bills. Decide what your policy on personal cheques is ahead of time rather than contemplating it when you are presented with one. Most sales don' take them, but some will if the person is known to them, or the bank is the same one they use. Just decide ahead of time so you can look confident and people don't throw you off your game. Have plenty of bags or boxes for people to carry away their treasures in. If its clothing, have a few mirrors around so people can try on hats or if textiles hold it up to themselves and see if it suits their skin tone for a future dress. Others can advise on a dressing room, but some sales don't have them. Just depends on what type of sale you want to have - a rock bottom clearance or more of a boutique.

As far as ad, the university is good. Also check out the university paper or the local paper to put a classified in. A flier on the bulletin board of the theater dept wouldn't be a bad idea either. Be sure at the stay to havea guest register so they can sign up with email and addresses and phone numbers to be informed
 
have you considered contacting website owners? I deal with a lot of "pickers" who amass vintage while shopping for what they really sell.....decor, patterns, etc. Maybe you can find buyers that way.

Ang
 
hi heather! it's amazing how easily it happens. ang is correct - have u2u'd you. also if you have things that aren't necessarily worth selling individually i had considered doing a rummage style sale at my shop. maybe you could do similar at the university? get in touch with the students union and see what they think. All you'd need are a couple of long trestle tables and shove it all in a van. Only because i find students often don't have transport, or even much local knowledge so if you're a little way from them they'll be less likely to show up - but on campus you'd have a captive audience for probably very little outlay.
 
patentleathershoes.... thank you, you have some really good pointers

I now have contracts with certain councils etc, where i buy the unwanted textiles generated, we sort and then sell on, BUT with the vintage i have sort of kept on to it, as i didnt want a lovely vintage dress going over to africa (sorry no offence) we have approx 15 tons a week coming in, so we do get a small % of vintage coming through, so good, so bad, etc

T he office is sperate to the warehouse, so no one would be able to get ito the main area, unless i take them there..

cheques ??? as long as they got a quarentee card, i think that would be ok....

Harriet... didnt think about the travelling thing with the uni, thinking about that idea, i could also take the old levi's and goth type clothes too:clapping:

Dorotheacloset, i did email a vintage fair organiser to see if htey would pass my details on to the stall holders, but i guess it would be a good idea for me to spend a few hours and email vintage websites and bloggers


I have got a sort of website...lol... as i think this is going to be a regular thing... i think i should get a proper website done, to look professional, with a mailing list. Anyone good at websites? i will pay the going rate to get a good one done...
 
One suggestion for the long haul is to set up yourself up as a vintage wholesaler in the UK. Contact vintage website owners, stall sellers and brick and mortar shops in the UK, explain your textile business and tell them they can pick from your stock at whole sale prices by appointment.

Hollis
 
Originally posted by pastperfect2
One suggestion for the long haul is to set up yourself up as a vintage wholesaler in the UK. Contact vintage website owners, stall sellers and brick and mortar shops in the UK, explain your textile business and tell them they can pick from your stock at whole sale prices by appointment.

Hollis
Click to expand...

Good idea, i think at the moment this is my best and only option, the next thing is what to charge for wholesale prices?

as some examples what about these

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the wedding dress does need cleaning, as its gone that dust grey colour...
 
I've recently had a woman email me from Ireland who is setting up a vintage shop, if you'd like you can u2u me your info and I can pass it along.....she was willing to buy from the US and pay shipping, so won't be an issue that you're in the UK....

Angela
 
There is a vintage shop in my area who run a textile business, and that is how they get all their vintage clothing (it's a big shop too) they don't buy from the public at all.

I agree that selling at the university would be a good idea. Or maybe you could set up a pop-up shop in a empty shop in your town, for a weekend?

Setting up as a vintage wholesaler might work for you. Again, there is a vintage clothing store near me who buys all of their vintage this way, always UNSEEN, which i find crazy. How do you put together stock for a store, where presumably you have a target customer in mind, when you don't even see it? But I think they butcher everything a bit with alterations. The vintage wholesaler they use charge £4 per dress, but it's all the newer stuff, (60s-90s).

When i have too much stock, I usually just sell straight to vintage stores. Each store has it's own preferred style of vintage, so i always try and take along the things that fit into their shop.

Good luck, not that i think you'll need it, that first dress in particular is beautiful!
 
Your example pieces are beautiful, and I agree that selling wholesale to vintage dealers in the UK would be a terrific idea! I have heard from other dealers and customers there that it is getting harder and harder to find nice vintage--being that the UK is a rather "closed" area from a geographic standpoint.

I have no idea what prices would be; I think that in general prices for vintage are a bit higher in the UK than here. If you check out some shops and online sites based in the UK, and get a feel for what dealers are retailing similar pieces at, and work backward from there, keeping in mind that markups have to be pretty high in order for a dealer to make a profit. And the markup percentage is probably higher for online sellers than for shops (to account for all the photographing, writing descriptions, posting them on the 'net, waiting lengthier times--in some cases--for them to sell, et.). You might want to invite a handful of dealers in (one at a time, not altogther!) when you are put together enough to have a showing, and get a feel for what they are willing to pay, what you think the items are worth, and coming up with a mutually acceptable pricing arrangement.
 
Hi,

I am new here, and was just reading this thread. My website will be up and running by the end of May, and I am always sourcing new pieces, I deal mainly from the 30s to 50s.

I would be really interested to purchase or attend a sale that you may have - willing to travel. I also know quite a few dealers at portobello etc, that would also be interested.

Perhaps you could send me a u2u - the other thing you could also consider is putting them into auctions. I know this would be time consuming, but it would certainly maximise the profits.

Many thanks.
 
Hi you are so lucky to have access to this great vintage clothing! I think there are quite a few of us out there who would love to come and have a rummage through! If you ever have any vintage swimsuits I am always on the look out for them! The affordable vintage fashion fair has a kilo sale where customers pay a certain amount for a kilo of clothing. It would probably be more profitable for you if you put them in to auction though. Several of our local auction houses hold ' vintage interiors and textile auctions' twice a year and maybe there is similar in your area. The last one I went to there were 2 suitcases of vintage dresses (maybe about 12 or so) and they sold for about £170. Another option which wouldn't be profitable for you but would give you the feel good factor would be to donate some to Oxfam. They are on the lookout for vintage clothings and have a special vintage website they have just set up. It would help raise money for a really good cause. If you got in contact with them via their website it might be better than giving them to the local shop. The website could put you in touch with their vintage specialist who I'm sure would be interested. I think there would be lots of keen people everywhere. I wish I lived a little nearer to you and could help but I am in the East!
 
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