EBAY AUCTIONS INFLUENCED THE WAY WE SHOPPED FOR ANTIQUE AND COLLECTABLE INVENTORY
IN MANY WAYS, IT TAUGHT US TO BUY ITEMS OF SENSIBLE PROPORTION, TO THE TASK OF SHIPPING WORLD WIDE
EBAY AUCTION SELLING CAME AT A GOOD TIME IN ALL OUR LIVES HERE AT BIRCH HOLLOW. WE WERE EXHAUSTED BY OUR TRAVELS TO AND FROM SHOWS, SALES AND SPECIAL EVENTS, WHERE WE HAD BOOTHS. AS WE SOLD PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING IN THE ANTIQUE SPECTRUM, ESPECIALLY BOOKS, IT'S FAIR TO SAY, WE DID VERY LITTLE IN THOSE DAYS THAT COULD BE CONSIDERED EVEN MILDLY SENSIBLE AND PROPORTIONAL FOR OUR YOUNG FAMILY. WE WORKED HARD, AND THE YOUNG LADS GOT THEIR SUMMER MONEY HELPING US JOURNEY FROM VENUE TO VENUE, ALL AROUND OUR REGION AND A TAD BEYOND. WE ALWAYS HAULED TOO MUCH, THINKING WE'D BE LUCKY THAT DAY, AND SELL IT ALL BEFORE THE PACK-UP AT THE END OF THE DAY. MOST OF THE TIME, WE HAD AT LEAST AN HOUR IF NOT MORE, OF RE-PACKING BOXES, AND JAMMING UNSOLD INVENTORY BACK INTO THE VAN.
IT USED TO TAKE US SEVERAL WEEKS TO RECOVER FROM THE PHYSICAL EXERTIONS OF VENUES LIKE THE ANTIQUE BOAT SHOW HERE IN GRAVENHURST. EVEN THOUGH WE ONLY LIVE A COUPLE OF BLOCKS AWAY FROM SAGAMO PARK, WE USED TO BRING SO MUCH INVENTORY, THE DISTANCE BETWEEN HOME AND SHOW MADE VERY LITTLE DIFFERENCE WHEN IT CAME RIGHT DOWN TO EFFORT EXPENDED. FOR THIS SHORTER DISTANCE, WE ALMOST DOUBLED OUR INVENTORY. THE POINT IS, THE PHYSICAL GRIND OF THE ANTIQUE BUSINESS, HAS FELLED MANY DEALERS DUE TO ITS DEMANDS. EVEN THOUGH WE WEREN'T HAULING LARGE CUPBOARDS AND HARVEST TABLES, THE FORTY JAMMED BOXES OF BOOKS MADE UP FOR IT. IT WAS OUR TRADITION, TO BEAT OURSELVES TO A PULP FOR AN EVENT, AND TAKE THE NEXT TWO WEEKS TO RECOVER BEFORE THE NEXT SUMMER SALES EVENT. WE LOOKED AT THIS, AT THE TIME, AS BEING A MODEL OF EFFICIENCY.
AT THE STORE WE GAVE UP, JUST BEFORE THIS, WE WOULD SIT FOR HOURS AND HOURS WITHOUT SEEING A CUSTOMER. ALL FOR AN AVERAGE PROFIT. AT THESE WELL ADVERTISED AND WELL ATTENDED MUSKOKA EVENTS, WE HAD INTENSIVE ACTION FOR SIX TO EIGHT HOURS, AND THEN THE WRAP-UP, HAULING THE REMAINDERS OF THE DAY BACK TO BIRCH HOLLOW. WE WEREN'T BEING TIED UP SEVEN DAYS A WEEK, AS WE HAD BEEN RUNNING THE FORMAL SHOP, AND THAT MADE US A LITTLE COCKY. THE MONEY EARNED WAS PRETTY GOOD, EXCEPT THE FACT, IT WAS A SHORT SELLING SEASON. THE SHOP IN THE SHOULDER SEASON, WAS PRETTY QUIET, BUT THERE'S NO QUESTION IT MADE MORE MONEY THAN THE SHOW CIRCUIT. WE JUST PREFERRED IT, HAVING A YOUNG FAMILY. OUR BOYS GOT TWO-PARENT-ATTENTION CONSTANTLY DURING THIS PERIOD…..AND THEY GOT WORK AND PAY WITHOUT HAVING TO FLOG HAMBURGERS AND FRIES FROM THE TAKE-OUT WINDOW. THEY ALSO, MOST IMPORTANTLY, GOT A CHANCE TO LEARN THE ANTIQUE AND COLLECTABLE PROFESSION, BEING AS CLOSE AS YOU CAN GET WITHOUT HAVING YOUR NOSE CAUGHT IN A CLOSING BOOK.
THE ALTERNATIVE SEEMED MUCH MORE EFFICIENT - BUT JUST AS MUCH WORK - THIS TIME IN CYBER-SPACE
What I liked most about the EBAY buying experience, was that it made me focus tightly, on those items I found out on the hustings, that were worthy of an auction market-place. I could avoid buying general inventory, which you require with an antique shop, (to meet the diversified interests of customers), and concentrate on those articles, such as books and ephemera, that I knew would be of interest well beyond the region of Muskoka. So I was able to spend more efficiently, and eventually, I began shopping with an EBAY-only outlook, which helped me a lot when it came to buying discipline. Buying to please customers to your shop, is ridiculously extravagant at times, because you want to please everyone who drops in for a walk-about. On EBAY you "target sell," which gave me more incentive to look for items that would benefit from international exposure, and any niche markets where bidders were highly active. Old and rare issue cookbooks for one. We sold many of these, and the profits for good quality books and booklets, were higher than on any other published materials.
Buying for a cyberspace audience, for me, was the kind of discipline I needed, to be a better antique and collectable hunter. It demanded a keen sense of proportion and sensibility, and over time, I stopped buying honking big paintings and cream separators, to sell via online auction. I started to hunt paper nostalgia, old photographs, documents, and books, that needed a much larger audience in order to sell for a substantial price…….but they were so darn easy to pack and ship. Suzanne loved this aspect most of all.
I found that during this period, my sleuthing for finds had improved immeasurably, and I could walk by a pine cupboard without even a momentary lapse of concentration. I'm a sucker for pine, especially primitives, so admitting that I could stop spending on furniture (unless for our own use at Birch Hollow), and concentrate available funds on vintage pieces that would appeal to an international audience, made so much sense, for so long, that honestly, I assumed Suzanne and had found the perfect retirement business. It was rigorous, especially the technical and physical aspects, and demands, as I've explained in previous blogs, but it was much easier than either the shop routine, where we were tied to one location, and the travel adventures of the dealer-kind from sale to sale throughout the region…..which was back-breaking and always vulnerable to adverse weather. We were rained out numerous times, and with several thousand books beneath a flimsy canopy, in a gale force wind, these junkets cost us dearly in financial terms and emotional. The panic of watching rain hitting old books is gut-wrenching for bibliophiles like us. So honestly, working with EBAY auctions to carry on our business, was progressing better than expected, and earning a significant profit annually. Not enough to live on, but certainly adequate to cover the costs of living for retirees. Lots and lots of retirees took advantage of EBAY selling, during our period online. We'd meet up with them in the post office, sending out our parcels for the week. Like us, they weren't running mega businesses out of their homes. They'd have a computer desk, a table for wrapping parcels, some scales, bales of paper and rolls of packing tape; and of course a shelf to hold current articles being auctioned, and the wrapped parcels ready for next day shipping. It was industrial but convenient. We could do EBAY work even if we weren't feeling well. The computer is right next to the bed. After listing items, or conducting the routine emails after the conclusion of sales, we could fall back off our chair, and be caught by the gentle embrace of the bedstead. I thought we had found the perfect business to pursue to our own infinities, and none of it required heavy lifting, slivers, paint stripper on my clothes, or a hernia from lifting hoosier cupboards.
The reason we gave EBAY a pass, for several years, was due to a sudden and unexpected shift in their listing protocol, that put small businesses like ours in a difficult position…..which demanded certain cost absorption for shipping, we simply couldn't afford. It became necessary to provide shipping costs on our auction listings, without knowing where the parcels were going to be shipped, and this threw us of our own business procedure, of waiting for a sale to be concluded, to pack, wrap, measure, and weigh, as required to get a postal estimate, plus entering these details into a shipping arrangement to the buyer's mailing address. It just got to complicated and risky for us to continue in our old and trusted format. We could sell through the auctions, as we had been, as long as the items could be picked up by the purchaser from our main street Gravenhurst business site. This just doesn't work for a lot of collectables, so we drifted back to the shop format, attaching our antique interest to their vintage music retail…..which so far has been an equal mix of fun and exhaustion.
I'll have a few more insights about EBAY selling in tomorrow's blog. We still buy from EBAY regularly, even though we don't use it as a sale venue at present.
Thanks for spending some time with me today. Please plan a return trip.
Please visit my other blog at http://muskokaaswaldenpond.blogspot.ca/
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