The stars aligned

The Dade City Spring Antique Faire (man, I hate it when they tack on those "e"s at the end of the word fair!) was just a lovely, lovely show. What a pretty setting - one of those rare Florida towns without strip malls, or the mega stores - but the older lay out of the city center has been preserved. Of course, most of the businesses are antique stores! - but that makes for a natural draw for a show. And though the faire itself was held in the town parking lot, it was under the shade of Live Oak trees, dripping with Spanish Moss. No wind, no rain. Truly, the stars, or at least the meteorologists, aligned to make this past weekend's show just about perfect.

We debuted our collection of teapots, and devoted an entire table to about half of them. They really were a feature for the booth, and I am so glad that I went with my instinct on this investment. We sold four teapots - and selling four of anything is pretty remarkable. It's a very encouraging sign, and it did give me a flash of an idea that perhaps I should group together some teacups and creamers and sugars on the table as well, if we have room at the next show.

At the shows we're doing we're starting to recognize dealers from the area. There's one woman in particular whom I remember from our first ever show at the Tampa fairgrounds, because she was so critical of a picnic tin that we had to sell. "Oh, look how dirty this thing is," she said. "And the lid doesn't fit straight - it's all crooked. Do you really expect someone to pay $xxx for THAT?" And off she huffed, leaving me speechless, and regarding this tin, which up until that point I'd thought was a pretty nice tin! It took a while for it to dawn on my befuddled head that it was something that she desired - and she was attempting to get me to drop my price for her.

Well, she was at the Dade City show. And of course she zeroed in on that tin, which has drawn lots of attention but no serious buyers at the shows we've taken it to. It's a bulky enough item that, at some point, you start to get a little concerned that it's going to become shop-worn, with being packed up and unpacked repeatedly. So when the dealer started in with her refrain of the unfavorable condition and high price of the tin, I asked her, "Are you interested in buying it?" and then, "What would you consider to be a fair price?" And so we were off on our negotiations. I asked what her plans for the tin were - I knew that it wasn't something that she sold in her booth, so it would be for her private collection. Well, she had a vision for her kitchen; picnic tins nestled between models of cows, and having antique milk bottles perched on top of them. Our tin was a missing and critical piece of her vision. Once having asked about her interest, there was no stopping her bubbling over in her enthusiasm about the different colors and shapes that the tins come in. We were able to come to an agreeable price and made a transaction - another happy customer, and I made a new acquaintance among dealers.

Aren't people funny? Starting by saying one thing and putting you off, and then, when you gently ask the right question, they open up like a flower, revealing their true nature and desires. I do really love this work. It took a while to get that flower to open, and I wasn't sure that she would at first; but I had the confidence that I had nothing to lose by asking, and if nothing, I would at least learn something (whether or not she wanted the tin in the first place, and what she thought a fair price would be). I was always in the position of being able to say "no" if I wanted to - we've had plenty of people who think that the fair price of any given object is far less than what we think it is. And when that happens, we smile, and say, Sorry, but no thank you. It's our right to decide to sell or not, and we're quite comfortable with it. There's never any shame in passing on what we consider to be a bad trade.

The next scheduled show is the last Privateers Thieves Market on Anna Maria Island, on the 12th of April.