A question on selling antiques

I've had an old organ in my booth for the past several months, no one wanted to buy it but I enjoyed it because everyone came by and looked at it, and it increased my traffic and my sales of smalls. Well, someone bought the thing a couple of days ago, and now I can't figure out how to arrange my furniture to draw traffic anymore.

It seems crazy to grouch about selling something, but I had the same thing happen a year or so ago. I had an unusual looking table, and once it sold my sales dropped quite a bit until I put the organ out.

Do other people have this experience as well, where a somewhat unusual piece brings in traffic and sells everything else? It doesn't seem that it has to be a particularly valuable piece, just something a little different from what everyone else has sitting in their booths. I was just curious if others experienced the same phenomenon or if this was just a fluke, before I went out and looked for the strangest looking antique I could find.

Richard Ward

Doesn't necessarily have to be unusual. A large sideboard or dining table may not sell all that quickly, but it can help sell sets of plates or other dining items. An antique cradle is generally a useless item in this day due to safety issues, but you can use it to display pillows or toys. I just bought a high backed Victorian bed that I wouldn't expect to sell quickly, but it will add interest to the shop. Usually these things that are the wrong size for most homes still work very well for atmosphere and display, and you can get them for a good price.

As far as strange items, they generally sell quickly - and the weirder they are the more quickly they sell. And the best part about really strange items: You don't have to listen to people tell you that ' grandmother had one just like it'.

Richard

Too bad I didn't know about you when I was trying to sell an antique piano. We ended up giving it away.

As an antique shopper, I do like it when someone has things displayed creatively as they might be used. And although I sympathize with the owners, I find nothing more uninviting than shops where everything is either under glass, or has strings, ribbons and whatever tied on it and notes saying 'don't sit .... don't touch .... you break it, you buy it.' All it does is make me want to leave!

Paula

Hello Sweet Gal,

You definelty have a point about the antique shops. I would like to introduce www.buynsellit.com to you to broaden your horizens in your endeavors for antiques. Check it out I have a number of great antiques for sale on there.

Richard, I have had little experience selling, but I had a vision of what I wanted my booth to look like at my recent 'debut' at a local antique swapmeet. I had a large amount of kitchenware from the 30's to the 50's as well as a few odds and ends I had picked up in my hardware trolling. One thing I brought along to use as a part of my display, and had no real intention to sell was a two-foot tall wooden 'firescreen' to add a little warmth to all that cold glassware. As I was unloading my van, at o'dark-thirty in the morning, I pulled the screen out and unwrapped it from the blanket and set it on the ground. A fellow with a flashlight swooped down and bought it right there-much to the amazement (and delight) of my husband. Later, a set of egg cups became the star attraction. Each time a person picked them up, admired them and asked the price, each time I told them the price and explained that one had been repaired (a very clever repair-but a repair nonetheless) and they were set back down. Almost always though, that person would find something else. It was a very successful day!

My wife and I just closed our Antique Store last August. Display is everything. Generally speaking there are hot and cold spots. Usually the hot spots are within the first area as people walk in. Front corners opposite from the entrance are probably the worst selling areas, we would disrupt the flow of trafic to make people go by the cold spots. This special item, such as the organ, that draws people, we would price quite high, until we found another drawing card. People tend to look staight ahead, so we found that upon entering people would be drawn straight to the back, if we had a nice item there. Move that item in the back to the other side and it would go unnoticed. I liked to keep an old crank gramaphone near the front, people loved to play with it, and I would play it when people were in the store. All our old clocks were set just a little behind each other, when they started to chime, everyone noticed. We sold a lot of clocks that way. We would also rearrange the store on a regular basis. Something that was sitting unnoticed in different spots in the store, would bring a response of 'when did you get this' and we would also hide items that did not sell within 90 days, in the basement for a month or two and then bring them back out. We would send the items(except for the exceptional ones) to an auction if they hadn't sold within a year.The basement also worked as 'we have one in the basement, but it's not for sale right now' people love to snoop in your private areas.(no pun intended)