What Sold and What Didn't At The Fancy Flea

Since this was my first time being a vendor I had no idea what to expect.  I'm sharing with you my experience.....The good, the bad, and the ugly

Lets start with what sold

It was a thrill to sell all of the big stuff.  All of the furniture,  some I showed you, and some I didn't, sold.  The only exception was one of the "Twin" desks didn't sell, the green one.

Suitcases, I sold suitcases and I saw lots of people walking around with vintage suitcases they had purchased

Hats and hat stands, I sold 6 hat stands, the paper towel stands and the styrofoam head hat stands, along with all but 3 of my altered vintage hats.  I sold two of my hats to "Brides to be" along with the veil I altered with vintage flowers

I sold a lot of small crafting supplies

Also a good seller was 15 vintage bottles I added the water slide decals to, the ones that sold first where the ones I had fancied up with lace, ribbon, and jewels.  I didn't know if people would like them fancied up, but the answer was yes!

Now, What didn't sell

I was surprised my cute little curio cabinet did not sell, although I have had a couple people on Facebook interested.  

Although people liked looking at them, I did not sell a single wedding dress.

And my cute little laundry sign did not sell, now, it may be because not a lot of people in Orlando have laundry rooms.   Since we don't have basements, many people like myself have the washer and dryer in the garage....Or maybe they just didn't like it!

I sold about 70% of what a brought, but if I was to do it again, I would not bring wedding dresses, but I  would bring aprons because they sold along with vintage slips, tops, and dresses.  I did not sell any pillows so I would skip those. I also did not sell any large mirrors,  I did see people walking around with mirrors, but more people with chalkboards in ornate frames.   

This is just my experience!   I am sure there were vendors that were able to sell everything I couldn't, and visa-versa.  

I know from experience that a lot of things that did not sell at the Fancy Flea will sell in my booth.  The Fancy Flea is a 7 hour sale, when you have a booth, you can mark products down, move them around and leave them in the booth for a couple of weeks.

OK, the good, the bad, and the ugly

 The Good-I did pharmaceutical sales for years before I started living this dream, so I love sales!  I worked tons of medical conferences where I would chat with Dr's about the drug I was selling and give them a pen or a canvas bag with my companies logo on it.   This was soooo much better, I gave my customers a canvas bag and they handed me a $20...to cool!  So, I enjoyed chatting with everyone and loved the instant gratification!

The Bad-Oh goodness, this was a lot of physical labor, now, I am no weakling and I had my friend Janice with me, but she had to set up, work, and pack her own space.  I was saved when a former coworker stopped by to shop and stayed to help me pack up (Thank you Mary P.)  I think had she not helped I may have resorted to tears...Hate that!

The Ugly- Getting up at 4am (Tough for a girl like me that gets up at the crack of 10 every morning!) and I honestly thought I was going to blow a disc in my back, I expected it to shoot out and hit the brick store front behind me.  Oh my gosh, standing for 12 straight hours with only a combined 30 minutes sitting (Mom brought me lunch and watched my booth while I ate....We love Mom's!) Oh my aching feet!!

Would I do it again????

The Fancy Flea is twice a year in April and November.  I won't be able to do the November show because Baby boy is getting married in November, so I would do the April show Only if ......I was able wrangle a lot of help.  It brings bile to my throat to say this because, I think girls can do anything boys can do but, a nice strong guy would be a big plus.

Wow, this got a little long!  I just wanted to give you the whole scoop incase you were contemplating walking down the vendor road.

Happy Creating!

Carol


Before I close the book on the Fancy Flea I will do one more post to show you pictures of other vendors drool worthy spaces