Summer break 2012

This past season was a bust, with Bob and I wondering just what to do in the future. Looking over our records, our income has been steadily dropping, even as we've diversified our offering. The local shows have frankly become pathetic, with several just a step away from a glorified flea market, but billed and recruited by promoters as Antique shows. Somewhere along the line the divide between the true junk for sale and the better quality but affordable pieces has turned into a chasm. What was reasonable has become overpriced, to be replaced by (dare I say) Chinese knockoffs and packages of athletic socks. It turns my stomach. I know my only future lies with the internet business, yet I am stuck in a quagmire of an overwhelming amount of inventory and where to start and how to keep track of it. I am encouraged lately by the internet sales, and to date haven't had a complaint that hasn't been easily resolved. It's a world apart from doing a show; just the physical effort is draining for both of us. I find it psychologically difficult to play "show and tell," negotiating great (really great!) prices on goods, only to have people say they are just looking and walk away. It's not a good market for a seller as far as face to face retailing goes, for us. I've been talking forever about putting more items on the website. Seems that any task that would benefit myself is destined to take a back seat, at least for this past, extremely stressful past year.

The image I chose for today is a Wedgwood Jasperware mini vase in a highly collectible sage green colour, produced in limited quantities and not every year. It features the familiar "Sacrifice" figures, the molds for the bas relief having been used for over 220 years. I like my history.

Dade City, Spring 2012

Our two-day show in Dade City (pretty much an oasis in the middle of nowhere) was rather exciting. Saturday we were going great guns - there were news reports of "weather" to the west and south of us, but nothing coming our way. At 1:30, the skies split open suddenly and what felt like a ton of rain just dumped on us. We had our tarps at the ready and scrambled to cover everything, and save the ephemera in particular.

Once battened down, I looked up long enough to see how our neighbors were faring. One lone dealer across from us was having trouble, so I trotted over to give a hand. Dealers help each other out - it's not just an unspoken rule, it's one of the characteristics that drew me to the field.

Then the wind picked up, and our (by now) rickety tent was showing disturbing signs of wanting to become airborne. We secured everything as best we could - covered and clamped down - and retreated to the hotel to dry off and contemplate a half day of commerce lost to the elements. Ah - outdoor shows. So inexpensive to participate in, so unpredictable!

After an indescribable "Italian" dinner in Brooksville that by now is far too many generations removed from the homeland to have any idea what Italian food taste or looks like (um, veal is not supposed to be gray!), we went back to the show site to survey the aftereffects of the storm.

Our tent had collapsed on top of the tables it was protecting. We solemnly pulled the wreckage away and gave it the heave-ho into a dumpster. (One less thing to pack up, woo-hoo!!!) And the next morning, we pulled off the tarps to find almost perfectly dry items. Wow - I was impressed. Others were less fortunate.

It had a big impact on our sales :-( and the show is getting smaller and smaller. Antique shops closed, dealers dropping out, it's rather depressing. Heard lots of whining - more so than in the past. My response was to be kind of goofy and happy, not wanting to take a trip down to where those dealers were dwelling.

That's it for the "season" here. Troubling times in the business, yet we are still in there!

How the season is shaping up

PLEASE: no liquids near the keyboard.

We've had 2 sales this holiday season. One transaction was with a gentleman in Belgium for a Wedgwood Jasperware item on the website. Despite daily (and sometime, hourly) attempts on both our ends, we were both unable to make the eCrater e-commerce work to our mutual benefit. It took over four weeks of back-and-forth emails, some good faith, and more than a little bit of "so THIS is why the global economy is messed up" on both sides before the transaction was SUCCESSFULLY completed. AND the customer, despite initiating the business in the first week of November, was able to take receipt of the item before Christmas. It was a real nail biter!

The second sale, not so exciting, is also not so successful. Seven soup bowls of Queensware, again shipped and taken receipt before Christmas. Only the customer ordered the incorrect variation of the design (one has a smooth edge - what I've got and shipped him; the other has a ruffled or scalloped edge, which is what they wanted, but I haven't any of). So that sale is coming back for a full refund.

No matter how many photos you take, or how careful the wording is in a description, people will see what they want to see and read what they want to read. Especially when Christmas is 10 days away.

Wedgwood - where it's now made

It's confusing. Wedgwood was sold, became part of a conglomerate, smushed together with Waterford crystal and Royal Doulton. You go into a good department store, and yes, you can still buy newly produced items. They are *lovely*. They say "Wedgwood - England" on them. And NO, they are NOT made in England. Virtually all but premium manufacturing was outsourced (that must be one of the ghastliest modern terms coined) to Indonesia in 2009.

Quality is as good as anything produced in Barlaston. And yet - to mark these goods with the country name "England" is misleading.

To be clear: "Made In England" backstamped on items means the Wedgwood piece was made in England. "Wedgwood - England" is amorphous and is not an indication that it was made in the UK. For the record, Time Travelers deals only with the former, and passes on the latter. We do so primarily due to the age of the items we buy and sell. We also do it, though, in solidarity with the spirit with which the original company was founded.

Here's a link to the Wedgwood family blog, and their views on the state of what eventually befell the family business:

http://wedgwoodfamily.blogspot.com/2009/05/production-has-no-wedgwood-family.html

The photo of the lilac Jasperware 3-part tea set dates to 1959, when this delightful color was produced in limited quantities. The date stamp on the "Brewster" shape teapot is clearly marked, and makes this a desirable and unusual find. So often pale colors (in my opinion) used in Jasperware don't do the bas reliefs justice; but this is not the case with this lovely set.

November's show schedule

In keeping with the disappearing act that local outdoor antique shows have been doing, we opted out completely of the local indoor show at the Coliseum. The promoter had sold it to someone else, it dropped suddenly in its prominence amongst long-standing dealers of repute, and we decided that the angst - the sheer angst that we have gone through each time we've participated, virtually chewing our fingernails as we wonder if the expense and effort has been worth it - is not for us.

Nothing scheduled for the rest of this month. (I'm busy restocking the jewelry cases and still trying to sort out the inventory boxes, a hangover from my agenda of the past summer.)

November will start out with our local community garage sale. Scheduled for November 5th, it's an opportunity for us to get that Last Gasp, as I refer to it, from the items that don't come up to scratch in my book as acceptable items for inventory. NOT BECAUSE of quality, but because we don't consider them to collectible (hello!) nor antique. The people who shop the garage sales seem pretty happy with what we have. We are (again) happy to find the right home for the items. What is left is taken to the only local charity that I regularly donate to, CASA (Community Action Stops Abuse). This year we have the added interest, we're hoping, of some select furniture items left over from the downsizing that the in-laws went through in their move across state earlier this year. Anybody want a CD rack? Or 3?

Antique Alley's fall show, in Bellair Bluffs, is scheduled for November 13th. It can be a very popular show, and has been in the past. Since I obviously don't know how shows "go" these days, I am going to try to be ready for what is demanded of us. If we need a $5 table, then we'll whip one up. I have experimented with bargain tables in the past, and perhaps their time had not yet come. On the other hand, I don't want to rely on that particular setup if this show remains a genuine Antique show. (Up to and including the show in Dunedin, bargain tables and sale tables have been not only frowned upon, but disallowed by show organizers. Like I said, I had thought being in the loop had something to do with careful review of our contract, but I guess I was wrong last time out!)

And now, time for a photo. It's been too long since I posted any here: this necklace is from Senegal, Africa. It's made of Murano glass slubs and fashioned into a bridal necklace with the addition of brass elements. We found this treasure on our trip to Sante Fe, NM. Talk about a Statement piece of jewelry - this is a substantial necklace, weighing heavily and drawing everyone's attention the moment it's slipped over your head. (The earrings shown, silver and lapis, sold at an earlier show.)

About that Dunedin show

I'm going to say it.

It was a bad show for us. Nobody told us it had turned into a flea market. If they had, we would have brought the correct merchandise at the garage-sale prices that other vendors (I refuse to call them dealers, despite having seen some of them at other, indoor, higher-end shows in the past) had on offer. There were $1 tables, $5 tables, teapots without lids, lids without whatever they were supposed to go to, tables so heavily laden with cheap, plastic necklaces at a buck a pop that I wondered where on earth someone could find so much jewelry that clearly didn't belong at something called an ANTIQUE show.

It took us 4 1/2 hours to make enough money to cover the rent. The next 2 hours we made enough to cover lunch and the cost of fuel. Oh, our *time* is free. Apparently. The show turned from an absolute failure into barely scraping into "pass" category only as we started to pack up. We waited until the end of the show to pack - we wanted this to work. Someone came back to buy a necklace half an hour later than they said they would. Someone else bought a lamp right out of the padding and the box it was packed into. Those 2 purchases were the only things that saved the show. Too close!

As to the subject of inventory type and pricing... there apparently is an informational LOOP that we are unaware of. Such as when a regularly well attended regional antique show flips and flops and becomes a trash-to-treasures show. Frankly, we did a lot better at our community's annual garage sale, without the hassle of waking up at 4:45AM, setting up tables, coverings, bookcases and displays, than we did at this show. Although we do not calculate our weekend hours into the cost of doing business, this is only because we don't want to see the naked truth. Which is - this is a great way to become poor.

Fall 2011 season start

I wish I could drum up the requisite enthusiasm for this... we'll be setting up at the Dunedin Fall Antiques Fair on Saturday, October 15th, for the day-long show. I'll put it this way: summer was a snooze-fest, to the point of us deciding not to acquire any new inventory.

We had an amazing vacation in Paris recently, with the exception of the much-anticipated trip to les Puces. Bob had been there 8 years ago - admittedly, a long time ago. The website and tourism information looked encouraging. And then, we showed up at one of the biggest (I'm not even going to name it) flea markets established. And found it almost empty of dealers. Welcome, my dears, to the global economy. What sucks here also sucks in Paris. I understand (from doing some after-the-fact research) that this one particular market suffered from mismanagement and disputes between investors in the massive property and the dealer tenants, during which, the customers' needs were not served. But this I would compare to the colony collapse of a beehive. Gone.

We have a lot of work to do to prepare for this upcoming show. I want to be ready for the customers should they arrive and be prepared to shop with us. We are ready to do serious commerce! I mostly want to have my business radar on and do some serious listening to what the customers have to say. I know what we are doing in our own household: keeping a much tighter rein on the expenses and being less generous with where the dollars go. I hope a policy of meeting the consumers partway, with an adjusted view of our pricing, will help to encourage the continued success of Time Travelers.