Doing some Shopping, and Looking Ahead

We're going to an estate sale tomorrow afternoon. What a luxury - a sale during the week and without a show facing us! It's been a while since we've felt the absence of any pressure to restock, but we have officially ended the show season. We won't be doing anything until an indoor event in Fort Lauderdale at the beginning of August.

So now we are able to catch our breath and really take a close look at what we have left from the shortened season that we just got through. I want to do a review of exactly what has sold well for us - I bet it won't be what we think it's been. I know that Bob gets excited every time we've sold something that takes up a lot of space! even if it hasn't been of high value; he's also been pretty happy when something heavy has sold, because it's meant that he wouldn't have to lift and carry it again... So does that mean we should only be buying light, fluffy things??

I can see us developing several different levels of merchandise. One level for outdoor shows, where people expect to find and see the "bargains" of the collectibles world. The $5 table at the Treasure Island show was truly a good thing for us, because it allowed us to pull together a bunch of items that we wanted to clear out of stock and reduce their prices to sell. It was the right thing to do, and it created some room for us.

Bob and I want to start doing indoor shows, which cost more to participate in - usually three times the cost of doing the same show out of doors. But you don't see the same merchandise indoors as outdoors - once inside, you see a higher quality of merchandise, expect to see higher prices, and you might not even negotiate on the prices as you would outside. All this just for airconditioning!

The good news is that we won't have to buy all new (old) merchandise in order to start selling at these indoor shows. We already have a broad range of prices and values in what we offer. We will have to go through the bins and decide what exactly is appropriate for the indoor show, and what we should leave at home - and that brings up another point: we'll likely have less space, so we'll have to be more discriminating in what we bring.

I'll also take a look at table coverings that can help make our lovelies pop! The right color and texture can make a big difference. At the higher end of the shows you see retailers getting into elaborate displays, spot lights, and cases. Again, since this is our first year, I'll be trying to keep things as simple and inexpensive as I can for now.

Realistically I think we'll be doing both types of shows, as weather permits, and where it makes sense to do business indoors and where it will be expected that we show outside.

Meanwhile, eCrater awaits. I've been toiling on putting the correct values into the dreaded Shipping Matrix, the place where you can make or break your own store. I've read easily 20 pages in their online forum about the subject, so it's worthy of extra study up front, before I get too deep into this new store. Once those values are in (how much to charge for shipping by weight), then I can start to enter some items into inventory, which will require me to enter a weight in for each at that time. If I don't have a value for weight, then I can't enter an item. Luckily, I just happened to have bought a postal-grade scale when I was setting the shop at at That Other Internet Place - which we didn't end up using, but should have, in hindsight.

But first things first. Shipping Matrix. Then I get to pass go.