Featured Covid-19 impact on antiques business

"I'm hoping there is an outcry from some of the other more vocal vendors."

NOPE.....you gotta be one of those voices !!
& no threats.....just a plea that you all have to work together to come out of this with a whole skin ....him included !!
Do you have a contract with him for rental.....???
Do you have rights to a clean space , that's open for business ???

 

When you've been putting out every little fire for the last century you have a lot of dead standing fuel

 

you must be on a phone..
and type fast..or have fat fingers...

 

I guess I made myself sound like a wimp......
I'm not, really. I can be pretty forceful when I want something. I am going to talk to them tomorrow, and at least voice my displeasure and let them know that they should be damn lucky to have me as a vendor.

 

The first 50 are free on Feebay, but they get you on the back end. I have two accounts in the house and have listed some molasses items on my old buying ID. (they take forever to move)

 

YOU GO GIRL!!!!!!

 

no...not a wimp....at all !
These are strange times, and it's hard to know which way is up.....
but we can't lose faith...in ourselves.....and our own ability to stand up for what's right !!

 

Don't worry about it. In these times perhaps its best to leave some old definitions behind anyway. You'll take care of business despite your feelings....that's bravery!

 

Some of local eBay sellers I know are trying to list as much as possible currently as they are of the belief that the new economic reality hasn't quite set in for many middle class buyers who are at home on the web and are bored. Many buyers are still willing to pay fairly strong prices for things according to these sellers so they are doing lots of buy-it-nows listings. One particular seller who was a VP in a big asset management firm before retiring says that these folks will see the light and will get much more tight with their money soon as more layoffs occur and we get a better picture of the impacts of COVID-19 in about a month. He says the time to sell antiques and collectables is NOW before the 21st century Great Depression sets in.

Your thoughts?

 

I have actually seen a bit of a boost on my Ebay and Etsy sites. Have sold several Aladdin lamps in the last month and they had been sitting on the shelf gathering dust before that. Also books of all kinds, especially cookbooks seem to be good. Even sold some brown furniture on Etsy.

 

Just heard a show here scheduled for June has been cancelled

 

Lot of that going on. Several around here set for June are still "pending" whatever that means.

 

Brimfield May show has been cancelled. July and September are still scheduled as of now...

 

I'm listing a few more pieces but not going nuts. Some people will still be buying no matter what. Hopefully they'l be buying from US!

 

On the news this morning.
Etsy is enlisting home sewers to make and sell masks.
Believe the CEO said there was a pattern available on the site.

 

I'm making but not selling.

 

I thought I'd add my pennies-worth to this interesting forum.
Strangely, I'm selling more on ebay than I had done for ages. It's mostly low value items because my main 'stock' is locked down where I have my outlet. The antiques centre there however was excellent in that they suspended all rents immediately.

I look around home and wonder if there are any of my favourite items that I want to sell but decide no, not yet at least!
I have bought more on ebay recently as I spend more time there now and I do come across those nice little gems that I otherwise would not have found. I have also bought a few, higher value items by making offers. Not wanting to profiteer but it may even help those that actually do need to continue to move some stock. To that end the moral of my rambling is, all keep doing a little bit till better times return as they surely will.

 

better times could be a ways off......................

 

Unfortunately not all are able or willing to do that, just found out that mine expects to continue to collect rent.

 

I decided to vacate the antique mall I have been renting space in for the last four years. They expect to continue to collect rent though they are closed up tight. Sales always suffer in winter so I was barely breaking even there for the past several months including the first month of shutdown. Now that spring sales are non-existent (now) and likely to be weak (for some time), it just didn't make sense to me to keep it going. I'll try online if I can force myself to go through the pain of getting it set up.

I went in the first day the mall had limited hours for dealers - I was the only one there. Strange for so large a building to be empty of people. Looked like no one else had moved out yet. My space was fairly empty since I had been planning to move a lot of items there, but the shutdown happened a couple days before I could move them in - lucky in retrospect. Because of that I don't have that much inventory there, so moving out will be pretty easy. I'm moving everything there to storage, which is far cheaper per square foot and paid for a year in advance so my expenses are fixed. That will give me a chance to see what is happening with the market. Who knows, I may really like selling online?? (said doubtfully).