Mugs revisited

These two Taylor & Ng Thanksgiving mugs were among the mugs that sold last month - just 4 months later than expected, but hey, who's counting.  The point is - they sold. 

I have talked about mugs being good sellers for me before, and even though I hardly visited the booth at all this last month due to a ski vacation that led to crutches and then the cat nearly dying twice, I returned to my booth knowing that at least some of my mugs would have sold.  And they had.  Along with a lot of other bigger stuff (which was more unexpected, and which I will talk about soon). 

But, again, the point is that I knew that at least some of the mugs would be gone.  I never spend more than $0.99 on mugs, and I always price them at $5 in my booth.  Not the biggest profit, but a decent ROI (and my antique market does not charge commission).  And since they are in seemingly endless supply at the thrifts, I'll take it. 

Maybe I should open up a sister booth and call it Mad Mug?  Something to ponder. Cheers!

It's in the presentation, stupid.

And stupid is referring to me, of course.  Since I moved into my large booth, I had a stack of vintage suitcases that I couldn't wait to set up and sell quickly.  I was pretty proud of myself when I built a little colorful suitcase tower in one corner and thought it looked adorable.  And it stayed looking adorable because they didn't sell.  My customers didn't even open any of then as I could tell from the way I had arranged the price tags. Whatever happened to all the people searching for cute vintage luggage?

Suitcase tower, aka wallpaper

Then, before Christmas, I needed a small overhaul in my booth and was short on space and decided to use a couple of the suitcases to display other merchandise.  The red and blue ones became toy chests, while the brown one displayed office accessories. 

 

 

And guess what?  All of them sold within days!  I am assuming that people saw what great storage solutions they are and also how darn cute they were on the inside.  Something that basically looks like it could be on an airport conveyor belt (albeit a few decades ago) did not have a chance against an open and welcoming treasure chest.  Lesson learned.  For suitcases as for many other other things in life, it's all in the presentation.

 

Have you had something sitting around forever and then changed its presentation and seen it get accepted into the popular crowd?

My biggest seller so far

So, looking at all the kinds of items I have put in my booth the last 6 weeks, I have an emerging winner.  Vintage deviled eggs plates.  I have sold 4 of the kind shown here - 3 green and 1 yellow.

Sells like the devil

However, I have run out of supply - I have a couple more, but I am not purging my entire collection.  Besides I like to serve deviled eggs in retro dishes too.  They just taste better when properly presented.

The other day I found another vintage kind - sort of whimsical and also made in Japan.  I think it is sort of an appetizer plate, where you would serve the eggs along with other snacks.  It is also enveloped in a cozy wicker basket.

It will be interesting to see if this deviled eggs plate is an equally good seller, or if the other styles are the ones people want.  Also, I should mention that almost all my Pyrex has sold too, but it has been various kinds, and some of it sits for weeks, whereas the deviled eggs plates all sold in mere days.

Do you have one item that always sells?





What else would you serve on this?