So I'm finally getting around to reporting my experience as a first-time vintage vendor-- I teamed up with my friend Albert, a seasoned flea market seller, and we split a booth at the first ever Vintage Bazaar organized by Katherine of Backgarage & Libby of Alexander Salvage. Being a vintage seller is much harder work than I could have ever imagined-- while I have tons of 'inventory', I had to sort through my goodies to see what I could part with, clean/wash everything, decide on reasonable prices and figure out how to display and merchandise the booth.
The day started at 8AM for us and thankfully it was a quick load-in to the flea market space, the 5th floor of the historic Dank Haus in Lincoln Square. Things were going well until we attempted to put together the cheap metal clothes rack I'd bought at the Family Dollar store (folks never buy a clothes rack at a discount store!) and it ended up not being able to hold the weight of the dozen or so dresses and coats I'd brought to the bazaar.
While we definitely had a panic moment, I ended up buying duct tape at a nearby store and we proceeded to wrap the entire rack in tape and also had to tape it to the store to 'anchor it'. Definitely ingenuity at its best!
Albert definitely did the majority of merchandising, never realized how bad I am at store displays, good thing I scrapped the idea of being an interior designer back in jr. high!
When the doors opened at noon we were shocked by the FLOODS of people that jammed every free space in the hall, we heard later that lines were around the block to get in with 20 minute wait times! I've never seen people wait in line just to shop (unless it was a crazy designer sample sale but even then it wasn't that bad) so it was exciting that so many people were hungry for vintage! It really shows you the power of social media and the Internet and the savvy marketing skills of both Katherine & Libby. It didn't hurt that it was a relatively nice day for a February in Chicago, it was in a convenient location (right near an El stop) and it was FREE to get in (unlike that other pricey market in the city).
It was exhausting dealing with the crowds and Albert and I couldn't both stay in the booth at the same time so we took turns taking breaks. Had a delicious tamale and cupcake from the refreshments area and also indulged in a vintage style cocktail.
[A customer who bought 2 of the horse racing ribbons to wear]While I didn't have much time to go through the other vendors' wares I was happy that some of my vintage blogger friends were there, including Diana of Garage Sale Warrior and Lara Jo of Pretty Quirky, a fellow Arkansas ex-pat who I got to meet for the first time in person! She had amazing housewares and jewelry for rock bottom prices, I was tempted by many of her things but tried to limited my purchases that day as I was there to SELL rather than BUY for once. That said I still bought the items pictured below, a pair of black cat eye glasses that I'll put my prescription lens into... I'd been on the lookout for a metal pair as my plastic '50s cat eyes that I wear now have warped from use. :( I also bought a pair of delicate 9K gold German rings, one with a diamond chip the other with a teeny pink ruby (maybe a garnet?).
All in all an interesting experience, 2000 people made it to the market! The first things to go were items I thought were kind of 'ugly' and the items I liked the best-- including several dresses-- ended up coming home with me. Pretty much all the jewelry sold but I only sold one of the dresses. If I ever tried my hand at being a vendor again I'd only sell sunglasses, jewelry & purses as they're small and don't require any major setup!See more accounts of the Vintage Bazaar from Pretty Quirky, Accumulata,Manly Vintage , Max & Chloe Vintage and Study LLC .