Another Season Starting Up

First show of the 2010-2011 season is around the corner with the Dade City Antique Faire scheduled for the end of this month. Looking back on our notes from previous years show that we've never been at this show without being partially rained out! - AND - it's consistently been a very good venue for us. Also, I have notes from other September Dade City shows that read "hot as h*ll!!!" and one year I was so uncomfortable that I had to retreat halfway through the day to the air conditioned iciness of our hotel room to gather my over heated self together.

Oh, boy - I can hardly wait!

I am trying out a revamped jewelry department to see how it impacts interest and sales. Usually I group items together by type, as other vendors do; earrings, necklaces, bracelets and bangles, and brooches. I decided to take a page from my jewelry mentor's book and try a different approach to merchandising, and so came up with several groupings according to color (one is white, purple, and deep blue). Another grouping is of higher quality, designer costume items that I've been able to add to the inventory. I have enough display props from our time in the antique store to be able to put coordinated items together in "stories." This is how my mentor displays her inventory in retail settings - she finds it can inspire her customers and she can mix inexpensive pieces in with higher end ones.

You do not see jewelry-only vendors at the outdoor shows display their items in this way. What you see are trays as I described above - by commodity. I am really hoping that this trial has some impact and draws the kind of attention that will make the effort I've put into the reorganization worth it.

Other than that, we'll be taking items to the show that we had otherwise tied up in the store inventory; it will be an overall new look, which is really what you want for venues that you sell at on a regular basis. Up until now we haven't had the opportunity to rotate our stock easily from show to show.

Cranking it back up at Amazon

(There must be an association of book Luddites somewhere.)

In spite of the sales of eBooks surpassing those of paper-bound copies, my Amazon Seller account belies this hard fact. In pursuit of the organization of our coming season's reading inventory, I plowed through the heavy boxes to cull the most salable for the mega-website's store. This may sound like an utterly stupid thing to do; yet our book sales are kind of brisk, considering this is the slow time of year for retail in all sectors.

I'm not averse to acquiring a Kindle for myself at some point in the future. But I'm reminded of the advent of the Compact Disc, when all of us vinyl slobs were waiting with baited breath for our stacks and stacks of records to be re-released in this new electronic format. For the most part, those reissues didn't happen, except for the gazillion-selling albums. Everything else got filtered and sifted down into "Best Of" releases and Compilations that missed the point of all those two-sided albums' integrity. So many records in our collections sounded great because we played that whole album all the way through.

(Where am I going here?)

I have that hinky feeling that not all those lovely, keep-til-they-fall-apart quality favorite books currently in our collections will find their way into the eBook format. I fully understand that going forward, the way is on a tablet that I download newly released publications into. I'm also certain that I, and other book lovers, will continue to be keen to get their hands on the pulp and paper, honest to goodness cloth bound or mass market paperback, of their beloved stories from yesterday.

I know this because my book sales prove it. I am doing pretty well selling used books in great condition on Amazon. I don't try to sell poorly cared books, dog-eared or with marked up pages; I like to think that with my books, as I do with the other items in our inventory, only the best preserved are offered. So far this approach is working well.

Birmingham Post - Business - Business News - Manufacturing & Skills - Fears for Wedgwood heritage if historic pieces are sold to fund pensions

Birmingham Post - Business - Business News - Manufacturing & Skills - Fears for Wedgwood heritage if historic pieces are sold to fund pensions

That's a big yikes. I have many fond memories of the Wedgwood museum on the Barlaston factory grounds. I can't fathom the collection being scattered to the four winds. What a mess! Although we have an inordinate number of Wedgwood Jasperware and Queensware in our inventory, I also consider the collection, beyond a resource for those who wish to add to their own personal collection, a good representation of 20th century achievements for the firm. I'm proud to have amassed it, and happy to be the guardian for future owners who recognize the history and beauty represented by the wares. There's NOTHING like Jasperware. Queensware was so named in honor of English royalty, for whom it was originally produced. It then became popular with us "common folk" and we each are able to have our hands on easily affordable pieces of history.

I hope that the Wedgwood museum has a fair and noble outcome.

eCrater still kicking!

Incredible, and a bit eerie, how when I stopped working in the store, sales online started to pick up. Not one to ignore a celestial dope slap to the forehead, I have been plodding along in adding items to the inventory there and padding out some of the categories.

Not to be outdone, our cat Psycho decided to get in on the action. Here's one of her special poses.

Activities

I've been using my down-time working on the paper jewelry, and just finished a large, bib-style necklace. I wore it out in public (I like to give each piece a trial run to see how it holds up to an entire day of wear, and whether it garners any reaction from peeps) and I think it scored a 10 out of 10. I have more to make before I would consider approaching any craft galleries or putting them online to sell.

I'm also slowing working through a pile of treasures to add to the website. I've had a couple of sales and it definitely helps, no question, to list several items a week to keep the Google attribute feeds current and fresh when the public does product searches.

The other rather major project I'm considering to learn is how to use a soldering iron in order to use my vast collection of real sea glass pieces, in order to incorporate them in to my jewelry pieces. It's more of an investment than I thought it would be, so I'm pondering. Me, commit to following through on an investment in myself? It's a tough one, and doesn't happen without a lot of angst!!

Packed up the last of it at Patty & Friends

It is worthy of a time for reflection, since it ALL came home with us. I'm now inspired to do some decoratin' at home with our treasures, since the start of the next season is so far away. (I've already started with more pictures on the walls, and I'm getting excited.)

The wheels turn in my itty bitty head.

To the season approaching and taking yet another new direction in how I set up the tables. One of my most favorite things to look at are home design magazines, with their varied color palettes and every changing themes. I know I can pull a few interesting tables together with the heaps and heaps of fascinating merchandise we'd amassed. And now I can see it ALL - no more of having the best stuff sitting in the store. I can get as creative as my brain allows.

Dinner out this evening, and on our paper tablecloth, I started a mini brainstorm of table display ideas. Then came home, did an internet search, and found a dearth of information. As rare as hens' teeth.

So I call that a challenge.

Dark time of the soul

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