When A Hobby Becomes More

I've talked on here a little bit about how in the last couple years I've gotten into buying & selling vintage items.  I do most of my selling on a Facebook group that I started & some other similar Facebook groups.  Plus, I have a group called Vintage Revival Market that sprung up from that Facebook group where we do Vintage Sales events 2-3 times a year.

Our Vintage Sales typically bring in about 45 vendors & hundreds of customers.  We also have a food stand & a raffle with donated items.  All proceeds from the food & raffle go to a local ministry, House of His Creation.   And, since the church where we hold the event donates the use of their space we are also able to give the entire proceeds from vendor registration fees to House of His Creation.   We also had one sale that we did last summer to benefit the adoption fund of my cousin & his wife....who are now proud parents of a beautiful girl!

I guess I started getting into this whole field because I love vintage, it was fun, and it also brought in a little supplemental income for our family.  Now that we've expanded a bit & hold these vintage sale fundraiser events, I've been toying with the idea of whether or not I should turn it into an official non-profit business.  However, while I have creative ideas & vision, I just do not have much in the way of business sense.  So, that's definitely on the back burner.

Anyway, our next sale is coming up April 11.  And, I need some more inventory for my own personal stand.  Yes, I'm there as a vendor and as a coordinator.  I'm not sure how long I'll be able to continue doing that.  At our sale last fall I was rarely at my own stand because I was helping in other areas & making sure everything was running smoothly.

Every Tuesday there is an auction about 5 minutes from my house.  This is where I typically go to get my inventory.  Sometimes I can get awesome deals with room for a fabulous profit margin.  Other times things are way out of my price range.   While I don't go every week, I'm there often enough that I'm definitely in my comfort zone when I'm there.

Here are some pictures from this week.  I wish I had gotten a few more because this doesn't even begin to show the scale of this auction.  During the day, there are three different auctioneers going at once.  One in the front outside.  One in the back outside.  And, one inside.  Then, there's an evening auction inside for furniture.