Gathering Momentum for Saturday's Fundraiser

Today I paid a social visit to my fellow antique dealer, Lisa. We did a lot of catching up since we haven't seen each since Christmas - she's been working in a shop, and I, well, haven't.

I told her of my initiative to raise funds for the Red Cross for the Japanese victims of the earthquake and tsunami. She donated an item for the sales table - thank you!!

Then the owner of the shop next door came in for our opinion on a great piece of retro bar-ware she'd come across. (Super piece.) Lisa told her of what I'm doing this weekend, and Rebecca immediately went to her shelves and started handing me Japanese-made items to put on the table to raise funds as well.

So many heart-felt gifts; and some from a perfect stranger. It was difficult for me to hold back the tears of gratitude. (OK, so I didn't hold back...) For all the bad we see in the world, there is so much good as well. I hope that we raise a bunch of awareness AND monetary donations to send to the people of Japan. I still have a couple of days left to gather some items together.

Antique Alley a Success, and a Charity Fundraising Drive Coming Up

What a glorious weekend it was. So comfortable, and everyone, it seemed, was in a good mood. Even though sales are generally lower than they've been in the past, I wouldn't dare complain - we performed admirably. Changing up our inventory selection slightly - I'd acquired what seemed like an enormous amount of crafting and sewing lace trim and applique odds and ends - they made an interesting addition to the booth. An acquaintance of ours had come by some Victorian glass doorknobs, and they sold quite briskly.

It was great to have these items that were out of the ordinary from our usual inventory - whatever is unique and unusual is what sets one dealer apart from another at these shows.

The shift in merchandising, with more emphasis on jewelry offered in simple, low volume displays, is also working well. My hunch that people become overwhelmed at the sight of too much wonderfulness seems to be true - pare the offerings down and the sales actually increase. The challenge is to keep stock easily accessible to refill once an item is sold. This time around jewelry sales accounted for 38% of our volume, and we devoted about a third of the booth space to those items, so for this show we seem to have figured it out correctly.

Personally I struggled with the crowds a bit, and was uncomfortable :-( A couple of days afterwards and I'm starting to calm down. Darn this state of anxiety.

Coming up this Saturday is the "Antiques In The Park" show in Gulfport. I've been acutely aware of the disaster in Japan, and really wanted to do something relevant and create awareness of what the local community can do to help provide much needed aid. The idea sprang fully formed to have a table of collectible items that are all made in Japan - and we are going to send 100% of the proceeds of the sales of these items to the International Red Cross Response Fund. I've already signed the Third Party Agreement (the legal stuff) so I can collect money on the Red Cross' behalf. I've even been able to recruit another dealer into donating some Japanese-made items to sell from the table, too.

The magnitude of the disaster is so overwhelming. I felt I had to come up with a creative way to raise our local community - and indeed, the antique dealer community - awareness of how we can send whatever help we can.