First show - *GASP* - of the season

Ah, autumn in Tampa Bay (or, more precisely, Dade City), where it still feels like the inside of a pair of pleather pants after a night of salsa dancing.

I'd say doing an outdoor show in September is pushing the season by at least a month. It's sweltering, it's a crap shoot with the weather (which we utterly lost this time), and people who choose to walk around a parking lot in this kind of heat are just plain crazy. Well, perhaps not as crazy as the people who choose to set up their booths and stand there before them...

Big bro Steve, though, did great business at the show. Our photos sold well. I did well studying last year's sales figures and we took the correct items for the show. It made for a relatively easy set up - fewer items of china, porcelain, and glass; and more fiddly things like the jewelry. It made (thank goodness) for easier cover up and break down when the storms came. We gave up and went home early on Sunday after the third storm had just started; I had already changed once out of my completely soaked clothes, only to go through it again. Neither of us was mentally prepared to do it one more time, and frankly, it takes a toll on the stock that is not weatherproof. A couple of torrential rains came through on Sunday, and Bob and I had preplanned how we would move the tables for quick cover up, and had the tarps to the ready. Some other dealers were not so fortunate, including the man across from us, who had books lying on the pavement on blankets. When the ground turned into a stream, he lost a fair amount of inventory. But, as he noted, he had plenty more where they came from. (At this remark I shook my head mentally - I can't abide throwing any of my hard found treasures away!)

At one point we were down to a single table all piled with bits and pieces of items that hadn't yet been packed away, under our tent. Bob was methodically wrapping and packing the bigger stuff, and I was trying to make sense of what was left on the table so it wouldn't get all tangled up upon unpacking once we got home. We pretty much had just a straw basket of earrings and a tray of bangle bracelets that I was trying to get put away. In the midst of this chaos a Mexican family - mom, grandmother, and 3 small kids - started rooting through the basket and trays. We sold 5 items in the last 15 minutes to them, while we anxiously looked at the approaching clouds. It was one of our best sales of the day.

Now we have a 2 week respite before, thank goodness, an indoor show in St. Pete. It's still quite early - the local population will not have swelled to its seasonal numbers yet - but we'll be comfortable in the air conditioned splendor; and it will be an opportunity to show off what we've collected since the last season.

Seasons change, and so do we

One of the two stores closed. We're in Patty and Friends still, and in two booth spaces instead of one. August was our best month yet, and we ran a glass sale to further things along during this the slowest season. It helped us to wean down our impressive (read = overly large) glass inventory that came with the original purchase of the business. There are only so many vases and bowls that you can carry to any given show! And we never seemed to whittle down the numbers.

The glass sale did the trick.

In the meantime, my brother Steve has sent on an incredible quantity and quality of jewelry to us for selling. Some truly exquisite items. Looking at our past record of jewelry sales, it makes sense for us to expand the selling space of this type of merchandise. I've been sourcing display ideas, trying to stay away from the conventional locked glass cases that you see, crammed with everything under the sun. Yes, they are easy to travel with and set up; but as I pointed out to Bob, they are visually overwhelming, and when was the last either one of us stopped and asked a dealer to unlock a case in order to take a closer look at something? The answer is: NEVER. We just keep on walking.

I think for us the key is accessibility, good visual merchandising, competitive pricing, and keeping the items sorted by color, type, or perhaps customer preference. We now have enough cuff link and heavy chain necklaces to have a "Manly Stuff" case, and we'll see how popular that proves to be.

The other experimental approach we are doing is working with another jewelry designer who will incorporate elements of our jewelry into organic, woven bracelets and necklaces that she makes herself. We are always left with bits and pieces of jewelry that have become separated or broken off from where they started; Cecile will be able to repurpose those items into new pieces that retain their charm.

The website has been stumbling along, with no help from me (as evidenced by my lack of posts here). I'm averaging a few sales per month, with international sales to Canada and Australia starting to happen. I have some great Wedgwood pieces that we found this summer and also Bunnykins that I have yet to add to the site.

As I feel better and sometimes not so well, I devote my time and energy to the site, to blogging, and to the business overall.

This picture is of a Wedgwood Queen's Ware vase, flared and fluted, with blue oak leaves in bas relief and glazed overall. This type of stoneware was reintroduced after 1946 by Wedgwood.

So you sit.... and you wait...

Our stock is in the two stores.

I'm adding a couple of items to the website every week.

This is what we call the Slow Time. A time for tweaking, critiquing, making refinements, perhaps taking another look at the pricing policies. Are they way out of whack with the current reality? We are seeing the errors, perhaps, that had been made in the past year of buying. Not saying that I Told You You So, but - not sure just what niche some of these items belong in now, that we've defined ourselves a bit more clearly. It's all part of of that learning process.

I've had a few inquiries from Australia, but had to tell them that the cost to ship to such a destination actually exceeded the cost of the item :-( (Which is why I don't have the country as a option for shipping - who would want to double their cost for ANY desirable item?)

Still, it's nice to be getting emails from so far abroad.

Venturing into Retail - Antique Stores

Bob's decided to take the plunge and put our wares into two local antique stores. The first is a locked cabinet space in Patty and Friends Antiques in St. Pete, a business that's been established for a long, long time in the area. The cabinet has narrow shelves with short spaces, so we've had to think small in setting the retail area up. The store is in the process of doing a lot of upgrades cosmetically, so it's nice to be part of a refreshed retail environment.

The other place we've literally set up shop in is in Hannah's Antiques and Retro, which is in the Grand Central District of St. Petersburg, close to the revived Kenwood neighborhood, with its beautiful Arts and Crafts era cottages. We've got an open cabinet space there close to the check out area, with stock scattered throughout the shop as well.

We've had a small sale at Patty's already, and it's going to be a challenge to keep the areas in these stores looking fresh, interesting, and relevant. This is pretty much Bob's area as I am sticking to my guns of concentrating on the website (which had two sales in a single week once I restarted working on the site - wonderful).

I'm continuing to work with my health care team and trying to become more productive, as at the moment I'm able to do about one task a day. (Not really what I'd like to be able to do.) Medication adjustments, wait and see, patience - not my best virtue.

The photos show our current set up at the Patty and Friends store, showing how we are trying to utilize as much of the space as possible.

Evolution of this Blog

Trying to stave off those feeling of guilt for not having posted for so long! We had a fantastic show in Dade City - the best we'd ever done - in spite of having had the most challenges to date. First off, our wonderful Live Oak tree that provided so much welcome shade and retro "Old Florida" feel to our booth was gone! As were at least two others, upon suspicion that they might have harbored some dread tree disease :-( :-( :-(

And the second day of the show, Sunday, was not the best of weather - intermittent showers, and gusts of wind. It all cleared up around 12:30pm, and then we had to start packing up at 3. But in spite of these downers, we did very, very well.

We also got to get to know another couple of dealers a little better, by going out to dinner with them. We pretty much yapped and laughed and screamed and finally remembered to order our food before the kitchen closed. I think we were all surprised by how much we enjoyed ourselves.

That show, at the end of April, was the end of the season for me. I've been working slowly but steadily on the website again, after a break of (gulp) four long months.

And I've been so quiet on this blog front, and so much has been going on, kind of like this extremely strong undercurrent that's been commanding all my attention and energy, yet it hasn't seemed to be the correct venue to address the subject here, either. But I've come to the conclusion that in trying so hard not to address that very subject - my personal elephant in my very little room, if you will, I do myself more and more of a disservice; and I also don't give my the credit for the struggle that I am, indeed, winning, in spite of my own expectations at times.

So that's a lot of words for trying to say that I think I'm slightly changing the character of this blog: to focus just as much on this antiques and collectibles business called Time Travelers; but now also to address how I manage to maintain (or not) the business while at the same time taking care of my mental and emotional health.

For you see, I haven't held a "proper" job for several years now, due to some troublesome issues. This business is the most responsible venture I've been able to apply myself to, and I'm so grateful for it. But there are days, if not weeks, in these past four months, when it's not been possible for me to attend to the business in any way.

I guess I'm trying to say that I'd like this blog to become more about what it's like to manage our business while I live daily with the issues of depression, anxiety, and PTSD. (Whew! There, I said it.) It casts rather a different light on the whole consistency of the business; the continuity; and yes, the integrity. I'm more determined than ever with Time Travelers to keep moving onwards and upwards, even as sometimes I make entirely backwards strides in my mental health :-\

Whether or this blog keeps its readership will be interesting. But in the name of authenticity and professional and personal growth, I think it's the right time to take this turn...

St. Petersburg Antique Fair (groan...)

Last weekend we did Jeff Francis' alternative offer to the Tampa and Sarasota shows of 2008 that he had to cancel, held at his warehouse property in St. Petersburg.

I could say a lot of things about this show, but will keep it short: the worst one we've EVER done. Hardly any dealers, hardly any customers, and on Sunday we made one solitary sale.

OK, I'll expand a bit.
Awkward location. People had a lot of trouble following Jeff's directions to the show.
Poorly promoted - so poor dealer participation, and poor customer turnout. It's tough to hold randomly scheduled shows like this - at different dates and locations than his previous shows - and expect to get a good turnout. But I can't for the life of me figure out why he wouldn't at least put an ad in one of the trade journals to attract vendors. More vendors means more rent income for him, and more money to spend on promoting the show locally... it just wasn't going on.

It left me in a real funk, with a sore back, and it took two days to really get myself off the sofa, to mull over this coming weekend's show. It's the "Trash To Treasures" event in Tarpon Springs and last year we were surprised to discover it was basically a flea market. This time we're prepared with the right quality and price of merchandise so it SHOULD be an OK show for us.

I no longer expect great shows.

First 2 shows of March done

March has been booked solid - we're doing shows every weekend. We started off with The Thieves' Market on Anna Maria Island on Saturday the 7th, the last of the season there for us, as April is too hot already and the snowbirds will have flown home for the season. It was sparsely attended by vendors as the date had changed from the usual 2nd Saturday of the month (due to some community scheduling conflict with another event). But the crowds came, fairly early on in the day, and we did a steady business in books, jewelry, and some ceramics.

As ever, it's a pleasure seeing the other vendors that we've come to know from the previous season, and to see visiting vendors from other shows who came by to check the show out for the following season. Bob and I both enjoy the sense of community that we've already discovered from just one cycle of shows doing these shows.



Yesterday we did another one day event, Antique Alley, up in Bellair Bluffs. It's an outstanding show that is well advertised, very well attended, and we were lucky that the weather was perfect (a bit breezy, but that was welcome, and I had protected our booth as best I could, so we suffered zero casualties). Bob did the - yawn!! - very early set up, then a panic as no sooner than he had the booth all but set up than he was offered the empty spot next to us as well, as the promoter had a no show. Someone had prepaid but then became ill and was unable to use the space. Talk about a scramble - he pretty much had to tear down an entire side of the booth space, then spread everything out to fill up that extra spot AND unpack absolutely everything that he had brought. It's not as if the van was packed with inventory ready for a double spot!

I joined him several hours later, having been able to sleep in, have a leisurely cup of coffee, snuggle with the cat, and read the paper at home first. By the time I arrived the early shoppers were out in force and the place was buzzing. Although sales are still way off compared to last year - every single conversation that I overhead was about the economy, the economy, and more of the economy - people still shopped, but spent less. High value sales are not the norm for now, and we've adjusted what we bring to the shows to reflect that.

Another strange thing we've noticed is that people are more apt to negotiate for "your best price" - and then walk away without making a purchase. I don't think there's an intention to buy, but there's still the desire to go through the motions of making the deal. I swear I could even see the emptiness in people's faces as they went through these motions. I could tell, as we would go through these little dances of price negotiations, that there was no sale to be made; but still the dance would go on.

Then there was the lady who licked my pearl earrings (is this a check to see if they are real or what flavor they are?) who left lipstick on the display card and of course, did not buy the earrings. Someone told me that elsewhere at the show the same woman was licking silver plate dinner ware. Ewww...

So, more shows to come. The website will continue to languish as we concentrate on the live activities this month; then as the summer heat descends, I'll turn my attention back to the eCrater store.

Just glad that I'm doing as much as I am.