my day.....

the first .3 hours today were chaos..the gardenwire came...a big trailer full out in the parking lot..it had to be priced and put together and placed in the right places..... ..at the same time many phone calls...and i knew a sales rep was coming and i needed to get 2 big christmas orders finished....dh and jon are worthless on this...jon wants all the money for auctions...dh is pathetically apathetic about it, ...so at least i wanted to show my selections to carol and ruth..before committing to my choices....the rep came and stayed about an hour...luckily i mark the catalogs and dont have to sit there with the rep...

and 3 fairly big groups of women came in...and jon and lisa had 3 big pieces of furniture to move...right in the mid part of the shop....and we hung 2 of our 6 ft wide signs up 12 ft high on the wall...one, my favorite....be nice or leave.....

... it was awful....that was before 2 in the afternoon..... then it got better then about 9 boxes came from cr,...coop....including those locker baskets.....naturally their packing slip didnt have the prices on...why do they do that????

so that was my day.... now home on the couch with dh ....and hercule poirot and later the naughty weeds...

WORD On the street........

heard thisweek...old lady stuff like china and silver....oh dear!!!! good antiques are really in trouble...
french is out and i cant sell it....heard that from a city dealer from ohio...also .. i love my white monotone frenchy room, but maybe i should change it to perky amy butler....my neat castle look, including crowns, isnt exactly flying off the shelves....i just dont know what those amy butler girls would want tho.... and i love the decayed dreamy white castle look...its hard for me to think perky and plain in midtone colors....


WANT TO SSEE SOMETHING REALLY MEAN about the resale and junk world...? GO TO http://www.secondhandnation.com/ SECONDHAND NATION , its a blog, AND LOOK AT .... may 24 2007
all i can say is wow...she has issues....there is so much wrong with this view....
starting with no ability to look into someone elses pleasure or world.....
does she think that these people she is making fun of, someone in an suv and coach bag is some wierd creature ....would it be ok for the coach lady to makes fun of the workers in the goodwill store...or the poor suckers at mc donalds...or the ones punching a clock for 6 $ an hour ?
its like if a hardcore runner started making fun of a couch potatoe quilters legs....or a model making fun of someones clothes...or a button collector making fun of a train collector..... just lame....and blind....
sounds like a big case of jealousy to me....

and this person is in the thrift world....
i found this wild site , above, while going
around the web ...trying to find out what happened between the junk girls ...sue and ki....they wrote that book about junk style a few years ago....and they were in a lot of mags.......remember.?...and on sues website...she doesnt even mention ki.... even when promoting the book they wrote together...so its a little mystery i would like to know about....
i know ki on her fun junkrevolution site.... http://www.junkrevolution.com/ shes so nice and runs a really friendly and interesting forum... a great place to talk to fellow junkers...in the business and not... and people who like to just gather and reuse....i would love to see her big show in minnesota...junk bonanza i think...

i really like the junk world....it has so many different parts....from the uppity and snooty...like my buddy who sells to the big decorators , or the uppity and nice like so many i know in the antique world... clear down the the grandma crafters...and down to the ones who would never pay my prices..and only gathers tuff that was actually in someones trash....

a lot of it is the same stuff tho....

natural progression.....

ive noticed a natural progression...one ive seen so many times and one that often runs the early creators out of business......this time it those neat soldered necklaces.

.i started seeing them about 3 or 4 yrs ago......i just love them and almost have bought the kits to make them....its a picture a piece of glass some words nice silver solder around the glass and a chain....my boughten ones are 19.00.....
the big country wholesaler, pbk is offering some that look pretty neat at 2.50......they are made by the retarded as a project for her company.....at least they arent made in china!!

seeing this tells me not to order anymore at 10$ wholesale.....

a new price might be coming.... i hope the artists who make the really neat ones can get their production up and their prices lower.and stay in the market... .....the real natural progression in this is having them get cheaper and start showing up everywhere and in then in walmart and the dollar stores and then its over...

when i should have done the math

****WHEN it takes 2 workers TO HAUL OUT some HUGE 30$ ITEM OUT OF THE ROUGH ROOM..

****WHEN ITS TOO MUCH TROUBLE , or too busy, TO CALL IN SMALL DAMAGE FROM AN ORDER or to return about anything ..

****WHEN 1/3 OF AN ASSORTED item IS A DUD AND WONT SELL
****when A COMPANY TOTALLY WASTES SHIPPING MONEY...LIKE SENDING THINGS IN 4 BOXES INSTEAD OF 1 BIG ONE....COSTING MORE THAN THE PRODUCT CAN MAKE UP.......
*****when my main salesman gets called from a big furniture looker...to talk about 3$ knobs
****when we scratch something and have to repaint or ????....

***when we do an hours work on a 20$ item

****when we pick out something to refinish...

****when 3 workers are helping the same person...

the math is our friend!!! even if its mean sometimes...

do the math:::::JIGGLING....

. i can never explain this to dh..hes such a conServative on numbers....but jiggling fits into my math usually at auctions...and thats how ive bought and priced for our store..pretty successfully...and without a calculatort......say i buy 10 things....one is super cheap and one is a big mistake....like if i missed some horrid flaw...a crack, made in hong kong , etc....when i thought it was a good antique, etc etc...

.so to make money on it all i jiggle the numbers together and WALLA the disaster cost nothing and the great deal that i got cheap now has a little higher price in my head wheni price the load...........i wouldnt suggest this all the time...its better if you make good money on your great buys......but it really gets the bad buys out of the way....and if it really was a bad buy it would be hanging around and just cause you effort and space and not sell anyway....

i jiggle in my head if i got a run of things really cheap at auction and then the best thing comes up....if im really doing well at the auction i might pay a little too much for the best thing , just to get it.....and still feel good about the auction....that way i can have the best peiece for the store and in my head anyway that exact auction still makeS great sense money wise....

the down side of JIGGLING might be my reputation.......BECAUSE I BUY SO MUCH..im usually very UNpopular with SOME OF the other buyers.... im very popular with the auctioneers...lol.... its really kind of bad...

.but to me an auction is my job and my income so i just bid on what i want.....anyway THE BAD THING THATS BEEN SAID, the word on the street sometimes, is that i dont know what i paid and sell things for less than i paid...WHICH IS PRETTY MUCH AN INSULT AND BULL S....... and probably third hand since my auction competition doesnt usually come to the store..

.but it could look true sometimes too.... i might have jiggled..

.which makes perfect sense to me....or i might have bought a box lot and counted one thing in it and sold the rest cheap.... so if you were bidding on something else in that box and heard i sold what you liked for less than i bid well you might have missed what i was bidding on and valued in the box...

ACTUALLY I CAN and do PRICE A WHOLE AUCTION load WITH DOZENS OF ITEMS BOUGHT...WITHOUT using ANY RECORD.... which is a good thing since the auction tickets dont really tell you much....like a 100$ roseville pot in a box of planters or a box of clay pots might both be described as a box of pots on my reciept.....

ON THE PLUS SIDE....THE REPUTATION OF low or CRAZY PRICING ISNT ALL BAD....IN FACT IT MIGHT BE GOOD BUZZ FOR THE STORE..

we do price antiques by what we paid a lot more than by book price.....if im low and still making money ...WITHIN MY FORMULAS.... ...im happy...

I CALL IT OUTSIDE THE BOX MATH....

do the math.....

WHAT TO BUY AND WHAT TO PAY IS ALWAYS THE BIGGIE AROUND HERE....

obviously dh is the math person in our business.....but i have to do the math all the time....

HERES A LITTLE NUMBER THAT IS A GOOD REALITY CHECK SOMETIMES...

ITS A NUMBER that really helps me judge things, whether to buy something, what to price something, etc ....ITS is a number he gives me once in awhile..... im supposed to make it lower....the number is the percent of sales our expenses are......

we are usually between 25 and 30%....

HERES HOW I DO THE MATH WITH THAT NUMBER IN MIND....

we pay 10$ for something....operating the store adds 3$, if our expenses are at 30%, so if i double the price to 20$ we are only making 7$...... and that is if we dont discount.....the lower the expenses the more we make....

confusing to me is ....if we buy something for 500$ and sell it fast , like the same day or week, , for 600$....did we make money or not? ....

i also use this number when trying to judge how to use the paid hours in the best way...

i use a lot of general ideas.and consider the numbers all the time and in lots of ways....but

couldnt do our books....and wouldnt want to...

heres a math HERES A MATH PROBLEM FOR YOU....

**YOU ARE IN A MALL

**YOUR BOOTH RENT IS 150$ PLUS 5%

**YOUR MARK UP IS ABOUT DOUBLE.OR WHATEVER....DONT FORGET TO TAKE OUT YOUR EXPENSES

***YOU SELL 500$

THIS IS HOW I WOULD JUDGE A SHOW OR A MALL SITUATION.....AND IT DOESNT REALLY COUNT THE EXTRA TIME IT TOOK, ABOVE NORMAL EXPENSES, TO GET THE STUFF THERE and it doesnt really take in all the other merchandise thats tied up ....it cant really count the good stuff that might happen too...like a big sale at the store later etc etc....from seeing us at a show or mall....there is always a lot of grey areas....thats where the your owners judgement comes in...or for us our consensus on the situation...

AROUND OUR WORLD

ITS TOUGH OUT HERE BUT WE ARE DEFINITELY HANGING IN THERE.....a few things on my mind....

* IM RESISTING LOTS OF THE DATING PROGRAMS we are BEING OFFERED..... my goal is to make do with lots less new christmas this year..... and still be a wow thing...also i hate paying for stuff after its over....

*I DONT THINK THE 3/ 50 IDEA IS WORKING VERY WELL..we didnt sign up for it......IT TAKES TOO MUCH THOUGHT ON THE CUSTOMERS PART.... THEY HAVE TO BE EDUCATED ON WHAT IT MEANS....I LIKE THE ...KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON ....A LOT BETTER...ITS simpler and MORE POSITIVE AND STRONGER ..and easier to catch on to... i love the idea of the 3 50 ... people do want us to survive i think...in a way....if we meet their needs....

..................WHAT SEEMS TO BE WORKING NOW......

*BACK TO OUR ROOTS ..jon and i have been out buying antiques together ......even going to the neat smaller junkier places......and thats been so good .....i know the smalls so much better so i need to be the one out there..im going for cute and cheap and also for THE REALLY good if its at the new lower prices........this really is enriching the store.....

. and jon is going to yardsales again...... thats how i started the business., while dh had another job........ and already we are getting lots of compliments on the flow of stuff and the new incoming is selling fast.......the rough room is packed again..you can barely walk thru....WE ARE GETTING LOTS OF GOOD FEEDBACK.....its made me realize more how important the thrill of the hunt is to our customers...... they love that experience i guess.... and its showed me how observant and interested they are in the store...

*ETSY.....not big money by any means but it is working pretty well and has brought in a couple of thousand $$$$ in the last couple of months.... http://www.gypsymarket.etsy.com/

\
*MALL BOOTHS........i wish we didnt need to be in them....its so much work ....but the checks are really nice and im glad to get them..... we are in 2...countryside and borkholders...

*THE GIFTS!!!!!....this is saving us so far this year....the furniture is way down and the gifts are pulling us thru..... i know they still like our furniture but lots of folks arent wanting to spend over 200$ right now....im working hard and paying attention to the gifts....
and i have marked down lots of things that were too high and turned them into cash...

*SOMETHING BIG AND FABULOUS IN THE MIDST OF THE REST........ like our big signs....the big parrot butler in the key west room... the gazebo amongst the 30$ planters...the 6 ft cherub screen in the frenchy room....our gigantic fake clock...etc etc....the biggest best thing in every part of the store.... its good and reminds them they arent in hallmark!!!

*DISPLAY ....i hate that this is so important....BUT IT IS....for instance..we just gathered all our clocks together in one place...making a big dramatic clock area....and have sold several.... IM TRYING TO DO THIS better in every area...

* A GREAT EMPLOYEE IS BACK!!!...IM VERY HAPPY ABOUT THIS... and i feel like i can leave easier..to go junking or maybe just to go out in my garden or have the grandkids over.... she can sell!!!! and fluff...

ITS DEFINITELY HARD OUT THERE FOR US ....BUT I FEEL HOPEFUL..

..AND I KNOW A FEW STORES WHO ARE STILLLL DOING GREAT...BARELY FEELING THE DOWNTURN..... YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE... THEY BOTH HAVE lots of THE RIGHT THING FOR THEIR MARKET.... AND WEIRDLY NEITHER ONE HAS MUCH DEBT...one is totally focused on her seasonal market....shes in a beachy situation on the atlantic...... and the other is focused on a certain demographic ,,,,upscale 20s and 30 yr olds, who like what shes offering them....both are smart and flexible .

.. its so good to see something thats working....somebody going up instead of hanging in there or going down....

THINGS WE HAVE SURVIVED;;;;;in just the last 5 or 6 yrs, except for the antique worLd...which totally changed about 10 yrs ago...

.....the almost total collapse of the antique world around here...... nearly every shop has closed and most of the malls are struggling...or gone...that was our main business....and now almost gone...

....dropping the wholesale shows..... about 80,000$$$$$ a year....we had to do the math...

....dropping our pictures....which got copied and made in china, ours were handmade by carpenters here and just too high.......ours have been in several magazines, in our customers rooms...we had to do the math...

....losing our ebay....we have a 4000 + feedback rating and cant make it work now...we tried in vain...

...losing over 60% of our wholesale.... they went out of business or are broke...hopefully they will remember us when things get better....and we are so thankful for the ones still buying right now......

just saying ...

its a BIG MESS...

.AND HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO REINVENT OURSELVES?

CHRISTMAS IN RETAIL

right now in retail its all about CHRISTMAS.....im getting catalogs and lots of calls from the reps... ITS TIME TO MAKE THE DECISIONS AND MAKE THOSE ORDERS....BUT FIRST THE HARD PART... its time to figure out what i want to do this year, what themes, how much money , and take my wild guess about the mental climate of our customers this year...... will gm fall and leave the whole midwest in deeper doodoo?
and i have to try and remember whats left from last year.....LOTS....and lots of it is still really good....plus i just bought a 1000$ pile of really high end christmas from a store going out.... 100 $ garlands and stuff like that that i wouldnt normally have..... I DID TAKE GREAT AMOUNTS OF CHRISTMAS NOTES... LAST YEAR..and should know what sold out and what didnt go........
im just pretty overwhelmed....and wish i had someone to go over all this with.....dh just cant even go there..and jon just rolls his eyes.....they know we need all that money but thats about as far as they can go on making the plans......the staff mainly wants to do what i want....every year i wish we had a A FLORIST ON BOARD....they know what im talking about....

i never do budgets....i have no history of that..... but i know we sell about 40 to 50,000 of christmas product mainly in november and some in december......so i plan to get enough to do that again....roughly.my number decisions go like this: .. my best guess is that we and have about 10,000 of good christmas product on hand and if i buy another 10 that makes 40 retail so i better add another 5 or 10.....i figure to get to 40 i need at least 50 on hand.....
so thats my number....thats what im trying to spend in the smartest way possible....
so far my real buying is aimed at more towards gifts and what will still be good in january.like clocks frames useful stuff......and a little less in actual christmas...... i am so over cheap looking christmas crap made in china that my country customers with kids and budgets are supposed to pay 9$ for... like resin a nd lots of the ohio wholesale type stuff......and wont that kind of thing be in hobby lobby at half price in october? but what does that leave to buy????

SO MY GOAL HAS TO BE REALLY NICE CHRISTMAS THINGS THAT FIT EVERYONES BUDGET AND DONT LOOK LIKE HOBBY LOBBY.......
and also to really think thru some of the good promotions ive heard about.... and pick the right ones...

AND REPEAT OUR HUGE CHRISTMAS OPENHOUSE AND THE WOW FACTOR....we had such a good turnout last year.... even tho the economy was on everyones minds.... and we got so many compliments....its a big challenge to pull it off again....

one more problem....in past years ive always been on a retail chat room with other stores that talked and talked about this huge retail subject.....and this year i dont have that....i miss it a lot.....i have learned so much from my cyber retail chat places and the great people on them....mostly gone or scattered now.... all this was on country business forum...the old one ....now its all different and not anything great like they had before......and of course they removed all the christmas discussions when they threw away the archives.....

now im planning to join giftbeat..... it sounds pretty good....even if a lot more mainstream and inside the box than our store.... but ive heard good things about it..

our etsy plot.

we have tried so many things over the years....and every year..... ebay, mall booths, shows, all kinds of different ideas and promos in the store....lots of different marketing ideas..... so many things havent worked.... even after lots of thought and the best effort we could come up with, most things just dont make it.......but thats how we get to the good ideas.....

... now one of our new ideas is actually working pretty well ..its not a big money idea, but in this economy we have to be grateful when an idea reaches someof its potential.......

...the new idea is OUR ETSY PLOT http://www.gypsymarket.etsy.com/ .... the idea is :

.... to sell vintage parts and pieces / suppplies to the the altered artists, the junk artists, the steampunk people, the gothic artists, the scrapbookkers...junk art robot builders....etc etc .. ...

.....to have the price at nothing below 20$...we cant afford to work for a 5$ sale. ...

.....to offer big piles of raw materials .... mostly antique...i figure there are some buyers out there who would like to get the real thing for their projects....and thats what i might have or can find....

anyway its actually working.... we have sold over 80 groups.... i still have very limited understanding of how people navigate thru etsy..you can put in lotsof search words....so many that it seems like a big blur.....its nothing like the detailed and focused ebay search engine....but it seems to be working for us ....

also i love expoloring on etsy....and seeing al the neat things artists are making....

=============================================================

back at the store

WE HAVE BEEN SELLING PRETTY WELL AND IVE BEEN ORDERING......
I NEEDED PLACEMATS AND FLOWERS AND PILLOWS FROM ONE COMPANY....OUT OF ABOUT A 400$ ORDER I GOT 2 APRONS AND 3 FLOWERS... ABOUT 70$...LUCKILY I MADE REALLY BIG ORDERS FROM THEM IN JAN, SINCE THEY HAD THIS PROBLEM LAST YEAR TOO....INITIALS...GF...

WITH ANOTHER COMPANY I MADE A GREAT DECISION WHEN I SAW THEIR BOOTH IN CHICAGO AND BOUGHT HEAVILY.........VERY NEAT METAL FLOWERS...THEY HAVE SOLD OUT FOR US AND ITS ONLY JUNE...SO I TRIED TO reORDER AND THEY ARE COMPLETELY OUT....BIG LOSS ON THIS ...

ANOTHER NICE BIG ORDER DID COME ALMOST COMPLETE....BUT WITH ABOUT 6 LANTERNS WITH BROKEN GLASS...... NOW THATS WHEN ITS NICE TO HAVE A GOOD REP WHO VALUES YOUR BUSINESS...ONE OTHER DRAWBACK WITH THIS ORDER.... IT WAS ON A TRUCK AND 2 PALLETS....BUT IT CAME ON THURSDAY, WHEN WE ARE CLOSED..... I WAS OUT IN THE GARDEN AND SAW THE TRUCK.....WE ALWAYS TELL THE COMPANIES NOT TO SCHEDULE US ON THURSDAYS....BUT I GUESS THEY DIDNT PASS ON THE MESSAGE to the trucker .....LUCKILY JON SAW IT TOO and we both got to the parkinglot before he left, and WE UNLOADED THE BOXES ONTO OUR BOX TRUCK....ABOUT 50 BOXES....

another company is offering a great dating program...90 days and percents off for big orders..... dating gets me in trouble..... in the antique world it was always cash and carry no credit....you never left the auction owing any money...the spending was very closely related in time to the money coming in...thats the rhythm im used to......so then comes these companies and the dating programs...it sounds good and i do it some.....but it does mess up our money, with that debt lurking in the background.... of course in the antique only days i didnt have to buy all the christmas that we need now....

ANOTHER COMPANY SENT ME ABOUT 20$ OF STUFF....MAKING THE SHIPPING ABOUT 50%....THAT IS SO WRONG.... I REALLY TRY TO SAY NO BACK ORDERS.....DO THEY GET THE MESSAGE?do they even look? how do you prove it when you order on the phone? MY MESSAGE to myself IS DONT ORDER FROM THEM AGAIN...

AND THEN THERE ARE THE SALES REPS .. A NEW COMPANY is approaching me .she wants my order., im willing.......SHE WANTS TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT A MONTH AHEAD....I CANT DO THAT..maybe the rest of the world can plan a month ahead but i dont... ... THATS HOW SHE SCHEDULES ...SO I DONT KNOW HOW THATS GOING TO TURN OUT....I TOLD HER TO CALL ME CLOSER TO THE TIME..she acted like that was very wierd.....

we have 2 more big orders coming this week....creative coop....and a big metal garden order...
retail and smalls are whats keeping us going right now....so thats what im buying....
thats about it with us and the companies this week..
things seem to be getting quite a bit better around here..

an expensive day

we broke down 50 miles from home and had to be carried back...........i think we barely got under a viaduct on the way home....our truck weighs over 10,000 pounds....

the steering wheel quit working..we figured it out while still inthe parking lot....i guess it was a real close call...

at least we got our stuff loaded before the disaster...

make your money count.....

we just saw our may numbers....not pretty..... but the good part was retail was still very good and mostly around smalls and gifts........ furniture and wholesale are still way off for us ..
so i have been trying to spend my money in the retail and gift area...instead of more furniture...
so...
big orders this week for
MORE LANTERNS, they sold out at the garden party
A BIG CREATIVE COOP ORDER, some black, locker baskets,bird stuff, some chandeliers, most will be good all year...
A BIG GARDEN STAKE ORDER ,this was mostly filling up the big gaps left after the garden party....
all 3 of these orders made sense to me and will add a few extra percents of profit when they sell.....because i got between 10 and 25% off because of the size of the orders..... in the long run that really will add to our profit... and help me keep the mark up good without pushing my prices into the clouds... i try not to go for lots of little orders..
im spending a lot, but im trying to really pay attention too...
im getting lots of old inventory out the door, by repricing lower or putting more in the half price room, but i sure dont want to look less than full, especially our staples, like stars, placemats, garden iron,....etc etc

talked to my buddy the show dealer yesterday and also another one....both reported upturns in the upper levels of the market....so thats good... also hearing lots of travellers are pushing up the prices at the auctions .....so there is good activity going on somewhere...