Sorting, Sorting

I'd rather this post was titled "Sortie" as a long drive in the country would be so lovely today. The weather is perfect for a picnic by a lazy river or under shady trees. But alas, instead we must unload everything left over from the antique market, sort out what goes where and get it all put away.

We did not do as well as we thought we would this year. All vendors at the market reported lower sales. We believe it was because of july 4th falling mid-week--people didn't take off extra days for the holiday this year. Yesterday, however, was a puzzle. There were loads of shoppers coming in, but they just weren't buying. They were looking but not very seriously; any just wandered up the center aisle and never entered a booth. Very odd, considering that they paid for parking to be there.

And boy do I wish I had a dollar for every woman who unfolded the quilts, dragged them on the dirty floor, then put them down and moseyed on. And that goes for the local high school yearbook too--I'd have made the price of the book if each person leafing through it looking for people they knew had paid a dollar for the privilege. But I came home with most of the quilts and that yearbook. Go figure.

One of the strangest things to me is how many people say, "Oh I don't have room for another thing in my house!" I have to wonder why they came, then, since this was a place set up specifically for shopping.

BUT we met so many nice people, had lots of good conversations, saw lots of friends, and really had a good time. We came away with about $200 less in sales than we hoped for, but also with all kinds of interesting things for our booths. My favorite find, I think, is a cider press that is heading for our Riverbend booth tomorrow. I also bought, and then re-sold, many items while we were there. Best of these was a yarn winder, or weasel as it's often called. I got it for a great price, and re-sold it to a young couple for a price still half of what these antique items usually bring. It has a glitch, in that it doesn't "pop" like its supposed to, but it is complete and assembled with all its parts so I hope they will be able to figure it out. They're supposed to let me know.

We also unloaded some "project" items that we haven't had time to work on; we sold these for about what we had in them, just to get them off our backs and into the hands of people who might have more time than we do. So that was fun, and we have a shorter to-do list now.

I found a few keeper things, too, and Larry scored tools, motor oil and other man stuff. So all in all, it was a good time and we've already put a deposit on our space for next year. Because even half of what we made last year was still pretty good money, and we had such a good time (if you exclude the heat, sweat and hard work!). Right now, I've got to get back to re-organizing and re-packing. Ah me.


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