to discount or not to discount… that is the question

I’ve seen many sellers run sales and discounts who had great results but running sales never really worked for me personally so I don’t really offer them at my shop. But with the recent down turn in the economy and sluggish sales, one can only hope for a sale by slashing prices and offering deep discounts. I am confounded with the mixed advice/ideas offered on the forum about the subject. And I need to move my item or stop going to thrift stores for like a month until I figure a solution of how and where to store my finds. Slower than usual sales, lack of space and my uncontrollable urge to go thrifting is what I’m confronted at this time.

Having almost 400 item listed for sale in my Etsy shop is quite overwhelming; having 400 inventory laying around all over my house is another story. And I still probably have another one hundred other items still in a box or plastic bag that needed to be inspected, cleaned, photographed and listed. If you’re a daily thrifter like I am then you’re bound to find something each shopping trip and therefore need to be very creative about storing such finds before hubby trips on one of your train cases and start to really get annoyed and would never let you out of the house again.

I have converted two rooms in my basement to store my inventory, half of the garage to store my packing peanuts and various sizes of boxes, part of the family room downstairs as shipping area and I’m still in need of space. The two instances where I spent a whole weekend looking for a sold item to package in the sea of my ever growing inventory was not a deterrent to stop my thrifting obsession, I take it as a sign that I need more shelves in the house.

So what to do, I have been thinking of running a sale, buy-one-get-one-half-off-or-something-the-like, free shipping is out of the question since most of my items are heavy. But I will definitely try some kind of discount sale in April for my Etsyversary, so stay tuned.

What do you think? would you discount price to boost your sales or maintain prices to preserve your product?

newly acquired vintage fabrics

My new acquisition from yesterday's thrift store run. I found a nice stack of wonderful vintage fabrics all in one shop which doesn't happen very often. It's either the thrifting goddess was with me or all the crafty thrifters must have taken a day off from thrifting yesterday bacause, well who could have missed these colourful wonderful vintage fabric goodness?

I might actually make something with the yellow checks with Hollie Hobbie prints, they would make an adorable summer dress for a girl and will be listing the rest in the next couple of days at modishvintage shop.

life is like a box of chocolates

I went to my favorite thrift store yesterday as they were having a 50% sale off everything for Presidents Day. I should have known better; on holidays like this, the store was very crowded and a mess, a bunch of kids running in every direction, no available cart in sight and most of all, everything left is junk at 4:00 o'clock in the afternoon, what was I thinking?!. I found a couple of odds and ends, and as I was heading to pay, I decided to go to the linen section one more time just in case I missed something. Then I saw this red large size chocolate box all taped up on the sides, it was kind of hidden under some plastic hangers and some grungy napkins. I thought, no one had been curious to open it? I opened it and lo and behold found this rainbow of colours, stack of lovely spools of vintage thread. I was very delighted to say the least especially when I paid only half of $3.99.

orange: love it or hate it?

I always have this love and hate relationship with the orange color. Although I never owned and never wear any apparel in the shade of orange, ok I do own a pair of shoes that was bought on a whim when a big shoe store was closing in our local mall and everything was 90% off, so I thought why not, new pair for $5, can’t beat that, well it’s still in a box in my closet for almost a year now. I guess I’m just too conservative and would rather prefer red or brown over orange when it comes to clothing attire.

BUT. I love collecting home décor and fabrics in bold, intense, bright, eye-popping, traffic-stopping shade of orange. Nothing gives me a jolt of excitement and pure adrenaline rush than finding that perfectly working orange mid-century lamp in the corner of my favorite thrift store, undiscovered waiting just for me.

Or the seven plus yards of super cute floral fabric in bright orange! This actually made my heart skipped a beat, seriously.
Or the giant juice or coffee carafe of some type that looked like a genie’s bottle.

And all the small little orange stuff I found last week.



What about you? do you love or hate orange?

P.S. please look for some of these orange goodness in my shop soon...

vintage tin galore

Looking at pretty vintage tin containers give me so much joy. They’re so adorable, charming and has so much character. I love to collect them, so much so that they're taking over a whole section of my storage room. Every time I go thrifting, I always managed to spot a tin or two and buy it. It’s an obsession much like my fabrics.


I mainly used the ones I decide to keep for decoration, but of course they could served many uses like storage for buttons, stamps, coins, etc. or re-use them to store homemade cookies, candies and cakes for gift giving. Some people have ingenious idea of turning them to switch plates and outlet covers. Very creative but I don't think I can do that to my precious tins, just like my fabric collection, they’re meant to be looked at and adored, not to be cut.
I haven’t sewn anything in ages, this thrifting business is keeping me from my sewing machine lately. So for now I just gaze at my fabrics which sat perfectly next to my tin cans.


Look out for some of these tins soon to be listed in the shop!

some of my great finds from today

Set of vintage light blue and white Bopp Decker Juice/coffee Pitcher with four cups.

A pair of graceful solid brass swan.

A group of pretty carving antelopes. (I already have the one with the baby listed in the shop, but just found three (3!) more of these with perfectly unbroken antlers. Today is a lucky day! Please look for them in the shop soon!

the best time to go thrifting is on snowy days

After being trapped for almost a week in my house because of snow, I decided I needed to brave it out and go grocery shopping on Friday. So I went to my local Safeway then I decided since I ‘m out and about I might as well stop by to my favorite thrift shop on the way home. I figured there’s probably no one brave enough to drive on this snowy condition, and I’ll have the store all for myself. I got stuck on sleek ice twice on my way there, but manage to slide my way through the front door half hour before they closed. I ask the store clerk how much time do I have, she said half hour, no problem I said, I only need 15 minutes to see if there are any good stuff in the store.

I come in this store regularly. I know where everything is. And I don’t spend no more than half hour to find things that are worth something to me. This is by far my most favorite thrift shop in our area; it’s fairly clean, hardly do I see noisy kids running around, the clerks are friendly and they bring out new inventory daily all throughout the whole day, and the best thing is, most of their items are pretty reasonable, everything is about $4 or less. I’ve got the most unusual, one-of-a-kind treasures in this store, and I’ve found the most valuable goods that only cost me pretty much nothing.

Anyhow, I'm glad I went, I found some real gems and will be listing them as soon as we get some sun around here, so I can get some decent photos. But here’s some pictures of the pretty tea linens with butterflies and flowers, a complete set of Seymour Mann tea/coffee pot and cups made in Japan, a cute ceramic owl lantern, a couple of tall green and lavender bottles and a nice vintage green tray.