Mount Prospect Pop-Up Sale Recap
The annual Mount Prospect pop-up sale is in the rearview mirror! Overall, I cannot complain. I sold some jewelry, a few knick knacks and a couple of boutique shirts, met some familiar faces once again and took some of the downtime to start pricing the mega lot of vintage Native American jewelry I recently received. I was able to price half of it and the pieces filled two shoeboxes! A very light polishing to remove the tarnish and leave the patina and they will be ready to sell.
It was also a great chance to get organized in the garage after not having time to get to it all summer. Sue came to help out with the pop-up on Saturday and Sunday and in between customers, we were able to eliminate a lot of stuff from the estate sale supplies area which we no longer use. The first thing on my list was to rehome all of the tools which have been accumulating in a plastic container over time. I put the container on the curb with a FREE sign and it was not long before it was snapped up. I tried the same thing with three huge pump bottles of hand sanitizer and a refill, along with two bins of other donatable items. The hand sanitizer pump bottles were all spoken for, along with some other items but I will still need to make a trip to Goodwill with the rest.
A lovely lady named Patti stopped by on Thursday, she is our estate sale customer and had visited our epic Schaumburg sale first. She was most interested in my collection of Czech rhinestone jewelry. We got to talking and she mentioned that she is on Whatnot and does live sales. I said I am on Whatnot too and have sold several items through the marketplace but have not had the guts to try a live sale yet. She said it is so easy, it is like talking to yourself and I thought she was going to just show me how it works but she promptly went live! She walked around, scanning the cases with her phone. We made several sales including two large ones of the Czech jewelry, including all of the plated necklaces except for the 6 lowest-priced ones and all of the plated bracelets. Another customer purchased 9 costume jewelry brooches and a couple more people made purchases as well. Patti said nearly 400 people came in and out of the sale, namely because it was labeled as an estate sale. She ended up coming back Saturday and Sunday, making a few more smaller sales as well. The prices she charged the customers included a reasonable commission for her as she needs to pay Whatnot their commission as well, and she purchased the jewelry from me as normal and was responsible for all of the packing and shipping. I had so many pieces of this jewelry and now it is down to a case and a half!
Another girl came by on the weekend doing the same thing but overhearing her, she was doubling the price and did not make any sales. She left quickly so I did not get the chance to talk to her about what venue she is using. Apparently this is happening more and more at our estate sales. I definitely believe these people should ask permission before waltzing in and going live at our sales and I was especially surprised that the last girl did not ask if it was OK to film given it was my house and the sale was only in my garage. I was totally fine with Patti doing an impromptu live sale as she and I had been talking first. Patti is actually going to try doing a live sale from Schaumburg next Wednesday as we are conducting a second sale there and we will be between the two sales.
Kuochun is really encouraging me to give live sales a try. I told him he needs to be my behind the scenes helper then! I have been watching live sales for about 3 years now so I understand the ins and outs as far as the interactions go and it was definitely helpful to see Patti's live sales in action from the seller's side. It takes time to build up a following so I think I will start with liquidating the most budget-friendly costume jewelry and work my way up from there. Kuochun had a great idea to do live sales while we are in Tucson next winter. If I can build up a following over the next several months, this could work beautifully! It would be so fun to sell out before even leaving town and then be able to go buy more. We normally stay for a week but the shows are actually open for 15 days. It is hard to believe but it is nearly time to book accommodations for Tucson.
It was also a great chance to get organized in the garage after not having time to get to it all summer. Sue came to help out with the pop-up on Saturday and Sunday and in between customers, we were able to eliminate a lot of stuff from the estate sale supplies area which we no longer use. The first thing on my list was to rehome all of the tools which have been accumulating in a plastic container over time. I put the container on the curb with a FREE sign and it was not long before it was snapped up. I tried the same thing with three huge pump bottles of hand sanitizer and a refill, along with two bins of other donatable items. The hand sanitizer pump bottles were all spoken for, along with some other items but I will still need to make a trip to Goodwill with the rest.
A lovely lady named Patti stopped by on Thursday, she is our estate sale customer and had visited our epic Schaumburg sale first. She was most interested in my collection of Czech rhinestone jewelry. We got to talking and she mentioned that she is on Whatnot and does live sales. I said I am on Whatnot too and have sold several items through the marketplace but have not had the guts to try a live sale yet. She said it is so easy, it is like talking to yourself and I thought she was going to just show me how it works but she promptly went live! She walked around, scanning the cases with her phone. We made several sales including two large ones of the Czech jewelry, including all of the plated necklaces except for the 6 lowest-priced ones and all of the plated bracelets. Another customer purchased 9 costume jewelry brooches and a couple more people made purchases as well. Patti said nearly 400 people came in and out of the sale, namely because it was labeled as an estate sale. She ended up coming back Saturday and Sunday, making a few more smaller sales as well. The prices she charged the customers included a reasonable commission for her as she needs to pay Whatnot their commission as well, and she purchased the jewelry from me as normal and was responsible for all of the packing and shipping. I had so many pieces of this jewelry and now it is down to a case and a half!
Another girl came by on the weekend doing the same thing but overhearing her, she was doubling the price and did not make any sales. She left quickly so I did not get the chance to talk to her about what venue she is using. Apparently this is happening more and more at our estate sales. I definitely believe these people should ask permission before waltzing in and going live at our sales and I was especially surprised that the last girl did not ask if it was OK to film given it was my house and the sale was only in my garage. I was totally fine with Patti doing an impromptu live sale as she and I had been talking first. Patti is actually going to try doing a live sale from Schaumburg next Wednesday as we are conducting a second sale there and we will be between the two sales.
Kuochun is really encouraging me to give live sales a try. I told him he needs to be my behind the scenes helper then! I have been watching live sales for about 3 years now so I understand the ins and outs as far as the interactions go and it was definitely helpful to see Patti's live sales in action from the seller's side. It takes time to build up a following so I think I will start with liquidating the most budget-friendly costume jewelry and work my way up from there. Kuochun had a great idea to do live sales while we are in Tucson next winter. If I can build up a following over the next several months, this could work beautifully! It would be so fun to sell out before even leaving town and then be able to go buy more. We normally stay for a week but the shows are actually open for 15 days. It is hard to believe but it is nearly time to book accommodations for Tucson.
The first item I posted online this past week in the wee hours of Monday morning was the first item I sold Monday afternoon. I am not surprised as this Rosella Paxton Kingman turquoise ring is absolutely beautiful! I was surprised that it sold on Mercari, making it my first sale on the platform. However, it ended up being the only item I had time to post due to the pop-up sale and keeping up with estate sale work. I have some catching up to do!
I did sell a few items though - I was thrilled to sell this Moon Ryder ombre corded crew on eBay which I purchased with a store credit from an online boutique in order to resell and turn it into cash. It went to Ninety Six, SC - quite an interesting name for a town! There must be a story behind it.
I also sold these very vintage Navajo-made earrings on Etsy which had newer ear wires added somewhere along the way. I purchased them during our stay in Prescott, AZ a couple of years ago and although they are very cool, I have not been gravitating towards wearing vintage for myself. Maybe someday when I can get back to wearing 18" necklaces again.
Another Etsy sale was for this beautiful vintage Navajo-made jadeite ring, which is an uncommon substance for Native artists to use. I have seen green jade in Fred Harvey Era pieces but never purple. This ring is on its way to Colorado.
After taking the summer off from jewelry purges, I took some time Sunday evening to do a couple of simple Facebook postings - one for these three amazing Dean Sandoval natural Royston turquoise statement rings and the other for the incredible cross pendant shown below, also natural Royston turquoise by Dean Sandoval. Ring #3 has sold and the other pieces are still available.
Monday Kuochun and I took a trip to Sam's Club and U-Haul to stock up on all of the heavy supplies including 10 boxes of Thank You bags, 6 boxes of packing paper and a ream of printing paper which weighed a ton! We then went to Paradise Pup to cross it off our to-do list. It was a pleasant day to eat outside and we found the ordering procedure has changed since our last visit. The customers stay outside and the staff speaks to us through a window, which makes it more difficult to understand each other. They also now have beepers to let the customers know when their food was ready. It was later in the afternoon so the line and wait were minimal in the Paradise Pup world. I always order an off-menu grilled chicken sandwich with Merkt's Cheddar and bacon. I skipped the onion rings and the mayo on the sandwich this time to cut down on the calories. I did not need the mayo, the sandwich was delicious without it! I have been allowing myself a "cheat meal" once a week but this did not really even feel like a cheat meal. I am down another 2.4 pounds, officially shedding the Phoenix weight the old-fashioned way, without drugs! It is a tough schedule going to the fitness center 6 days a week, which has really crunched my time even more but I will stay motivated and work on reducing my weight further now that I have reached my first goal. Kuochun on the other hand is very busy going to MingHin in Rolling Meadows as often as possible to carry out because he has not found a Chinese restaurant in the Phoenix area which compares. He is actually there as we speak!
Goals for next week are to dismantle the pop-up and get more items posted online! I will probably mix things up between finishing up the lot of jewelry I started which includes Purple Mojave butterfly rings, the two remaining Royston rings and a couple of pairs of vintage watch tips and finishing off the 2024 Federico jewelry collection. I am sure that will be plenty to tackle but in case there is more time I will go back to my original box of Native American jewelry. See you soon!