Let’s hear it for the smalls. Smalls, in vintage seller vernacular, are small things that pack enough value into their size to make them worthy of selling. This week’s fresh to market vintage has two smalls–the Nantucket Dutch shoe and the antique buttonhole scissors.
What kind of value does it take to make something worth selling? That is something each seller decides. First, there’s the initial cost. What does it take to be able to recoup the cost plus profit. And don’t forget about the cost of a seller’s time. Each item you list takes at least 30 minutes of labor to get it cleaned, identified, described, photographed, edited and listed. And then there’s the packing time and materials. It’s much faster and easier to pack a $20 shoe form than it is to pack a $20 set of four vintage cordial glasses.
A truth of vintage selling is that it’s more cost efficient to sell one $30 item than it is to sell six $5 items. Another truth is it’s more cost effective to sell one $150 item than five $30. But of course, some of us sellers do sell things with low prices because we love them so much we have to. That is another truth.
You see things on eBay that sell for less than $5. It’s boggles the mind trying to figure out what makes that worthwhile for a seller. Even if you get it listed in a snap and pack it in a couple minutes…it’s still hard to fathom. But it’s also none of our business.
Computers, smart phones and apps like Google Lens and Worthpoint are great levelers in the pricing game. A vintage seller can quickly determine how much demand there is for what they are selling and what the average selling price is. Sometimes that means things go into the donate or yard sale box because they aren’t worth what you thought they were when you bought them. But it can also help buyers to know if they are paying a fair price or if the seller is listing it for a speculative amount.
To bring it back to where we started, talking about smalls, there are lots of reasons vintage sellers love them. They are easy to store and easy to pack and ship. And if your vintage spidey senses are functional, sometimes you can find a small thing that punches way about it’s weight, like the scissors and Nantucket souvenir.
Braided White Seed Bead Necklace
They say “never wear white after Labor Day.” I say, wear what you like whenever you wish! This braided white seed bead necklace made in Czechoslovakia, most likely in the 1930s, is just as much an eye catching piece as it was when it was made. These beautifully braided strands of white glass beads lie alluringly at the nape of the neck, making them a nice compliment to everything from a tailored suit to a casual T-shirt and slacks.
Czech Glass Necklace, $28.95
Pam, Vintage Renude
Nantucket Mass Antique Souvenir Dutch Shoe
Depicted on this antique souvenir porcelain shoe is the oldest functioning mill in the USA, built on Nantucket Island, MA in 1746 by Nathan Wilbur. I was confused by the long dark line on the left side. The mill cap needs to be rotated to take advantage of the wind direction so people need to push the wheeled connector on the ground to do such work. Windmills are marvelous nature powered edifices!
Pictorial China Souvenir Shoe, $61.99
Mary Ellen, Aunt Hatties Attic
Set of Six Victorian Stacking Blocks
What a fun find… a complete set of stacking alphabet blocks dating to the Victorian era. They are made of wood and have a colorful paper illustration of the letters of the alphabet glued on four sides and the top of each block. The blocks stack inside one another for storage. They are in good shape given their age, which makes me think they weren’t an everyday toy.
Wooden Stacking Blocks, $250
Linda, Selective Salvage
R. Heinisch Buttonhole Scissors
You never know what lurks in a jumbled old sewing box. This pair of early 1910s R. Heinisch and Sons buttonhole scissors (made in Newark, NJ) was an unexpected find, but maybe it’s not. Sewing boxes often are handed down. These scissors might have had three generations of owners before they found their way to me. If you sew or craft, how often do you give your sewing box a right good cleaning and organizing? If you’re me, the answer is never. So finding these there was probably not as unexpected as it felt.
R. Heinisch 1916 Buttonhole Scissors with Set Screw, $135.
Laurie, NextStage Vintage
That’s this week’s fresh to market vintage for this first week of September. Grab on to these late summer days as they morph into fall with the earlier sunsets and colder nights. Maybe you’re getting out some vintage pieces you use for vignettes this time of year. Or maybe you’re looking at the cobwebs on your McCoy pottery grouping and thinking you might as well leave them because by October, they’ll look intentional.
Whatever late summer mode you’re in, we hope you’ll take a minute to subscribe to our email newsletter. You get an email every Sunday with links to all our posts from the previous week. Last Friday was the first of four posts on cleaning vintage clothing. If you subscribe, you won’t miss an installment and you’ll always have to wonder if the stain on that vintage skirt will come out or not.
