Whatnot Week

Reflecting on this past week, at first I was thinking there was not much to report and then I realized the reason is because we hosted three Whatnot shows! There were evening shows Tuesday in Arlington Heights and Wednesday in Libertyville and for the first time, we tried a daytime show on Friday in Libertyville. The Libertyville shows in particular were both a big hit! For the evening show, we focused on home / holiday decor and collectibles and for the daytime show, clothing, hats, purses and jewelry. Because there is a two-hour time difference I was not keen on starting the daytime show at 10:00 Central Time or 8:00 AM Arizona Time. The original plan was to start at 12:00 but since the folks onsite were ready, we started at 11:30 AM. It was great to see that the daytime show was just as popular as the nighttime show. We sold 276 items between the two shows! I was pleased that we were able to sell all of the vintage sterling silver Christmas ornaments and the sterling silver jewelry. This home was loaded with wonderful high-quality items and they were a pleasure to sell. We are starting to turn the corner as we gain a following - we have several regulars and more and more people are enjoying going to our EstateSales.net ads to view the sale photos and make requests. It is really helpful that I have several domain names that I can use to link the sale ads to which are much easier to type. This week, I used BriesSale.com and BriesInfo.com since we had shows at two locations.

I learned that two different sellers of Native American jewelry that I am familiar with from the Facebook jewelry groups were each going to try their hand at Whatnot for the first time. I watched both of their shows and enjoyed them. They each had their own style and had great selling results. I did not purchase this time but I do buy from other sellers. I did end up going to one of their websites and purchasing a pair of earrings though because they match a necklace I have. She did show the earrings during the live sale but I wanted to get my necklace out to be sure it was a match. It encouraged me to get my new Native American jewelry together and launch my first Whatnot show on C'est La Brie's. My original thought was to try for Sunday evening but I quickly learned that many of these pieces needed polishing and pricing. Therefore, I needed more time. I have set the show for Sunday, November 2 at 4:00 PM Arizona Time. Most of the rest of the country will experience their "fall back" time change in the wee hours of Sunday morning so there will only be a 1 hour time difference for a while.

I started by removing the remaining Christmas items from my previous Whatnot show so I could set up the jewelry displays. I ordered some supplies from Amazon including some white twine so I could hang up my logo sign. The backdrop is great - the white painted brick wall paired with this cool tablecloth I found at TJ Maxx several years ago which came from France and is a branch coral motif in a soft turquoise color over a white background. I priced a bunch of pieces which I found at this year's Tucson Gem Show. I have not had time to do a thing with the jewelry all summer due to the time commitment needed for the real estate transactions and move. It was a good feeling to finally get back to the jewelry after such a long absence and I am really happy with the way things are coming together so far. I have a great selection of new pieces from Buffalo Dancer, Taos Pueblo as well as many well-known Navajo artists. Everything will be 50% off and on many pieces, I lowered the tag price and they will still be 50% off. Once the display is set up, I will take some photos and make a webpage.

One of our favorite places to eat in our area is Chicago Hamburger Co. They are the real deal as far as Chicago street food is concerned, the people who work there are so nice and their grilled chicken sandwich is divine. Yes, even better than Paradise Pup! Kuochun never orders a chicken sandwich, he calls chicken breast "fabric" because to him, it is so dry compared to dark meat which he has always preferred. However he went out on a limb and ordered the chicken this time because he sees how much I enjoy it. He absolutely loved it, so much so that he wanted to go back and get it again a few days later. I did not know what made it so good but recently learned that they use a citrus marinade. Last time I splurged and got Merkt's Cheddar on it as well and it was amazing. I highly recommend Chicago Hamburger Co. to anyone visiting the Phoenix area, they are centrally located and have a wide selection of menu choices. They have brats every Wednesday and Saturday, they are also authentic and great!

I did make a great sale on Sunday evening - I posted an expensive Navajo-made necklace which I had purchased a few years ago but never really reached for it much so I decided to put it up for sale last year. The necklace is beautiful but a little too serious for me. I did negotiate an offer but it turns out I about broke even which was my goal. I sold a sterling silver belt buckle this week as well - these were both pieces I have had in my online stores for an extended time and was happy to sell them. The buyer of the belt buckle received it and was very happy but the necklace has to go to eBay authentication in California before making its way to the buyer. Luckily I had saved the gift box it came in which has a sticker on it listing the shop it came from in Santa Fe, NM. Fingers crossed that the buyer loves it!

Goals for next week are to pull together the rest of the new Native American jewelry as soon as possible so I can make a couple of videos and start advertising the Whatnot show and also to get back to organizing and unpacking all the items from Mount Prospect. I have felt paralyzed by it because it has just been an endless stream of packing and moving things this past year and a half but I have come up with a plan. I am going to use the living room as a staging area for items that are going to Prescott and then it will be easier for me to put the items away that will stay here in Scottsdale. Once I have been through everything, then I will be able to schedule the movers I found to help us with the heavy items, and to make sure everything going to Prescott will be staged in the garage and ready to load into a U-Haul truck when the work there is completed.

Things are going great with the home improvements in Prescott, the designer is a take charge person and works hard (including nudging me when I need it) to be sure the project stays on track. This is a very refreshing change from our last experience. There was a delay with the permit approval process but the interior and garage improvements are now approved. So far, the HVAC system was replaced, the mini-splits were taken down and moved around where possible and the electrical is nearly complete. Kuochun decided he would prefer to have a washer and dryer pair as opposed to the combination unit which came with the home so a better dryer vent was installed. Next up will be the boutique space improvements and the insulation. We are taking some of the garage space for the boutique and it will work out great! When I have a pop-up sale or if anyone wants to come by appointment they can park on the little side street and enter the double door with built-in blinds which will be installed on the side, keeping things totally separate from the living space and our two barking girls! The boutique side does not have a garage door, there is a window so it will feel like a real room. The long and skinny shape is a throwback to our very first location of Brie's Gift Gallery. I know I am going to love having a dedicated space where I do not have to do a lot of preparation to hold a pop-up sale. I will be able to have live sales in there as well and not have the work clutter inside the home. There is a plan for a little kitchenette with a mini fridge and a microwave so it will be a great space to work during the day. The plan is to move as many of the extra "store" items to this space as possible so we can get our garage back in Scottsdale and be able to park both cars in there.

I had a Zoom meeting on Friday (during the live sale but Kuochun took over while I was in the meeting) and things are now pretty well set as far as which furniture can be used in Prescott. The electrical and plumbing fixtures have been chosen, as well as the bathroom materials. The floor plan has changed somewhat but this is the basic home layout. The Arizona room will be added, and there will be room for a credenza and desk for me to be able to do estate sale work and there will be seating in the room as well. My bedroom will be a real bedroom and overall it is a great plan which make for a good separation of live / work space. So far, I will not have to buy any new furniture which is a great savings. I have gone back and forth a bit about my bed there but I have decided to go with the queen size and one nightstand. I will keep the full size in Scottsdale for the guest room and I will just need to sell the full size mattress and adjustable bed frame from Mount Prospect. I will need to sell several pieces of furniture but overall I am happy with how it will all fall into place.

As of now, we do not have any estate sales scheduled next week so unless we pick something up at the last moment I will be back with the blog in two weeks!