Alex, I’ll take “Things that cost less than a gallon of gas but are bigger than a breadbox” for $3, please.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the vintage industrial look holds out long enough for me to sell these in July at A Vintage Gathering.

 If not, that’s $3 I’ll never see again.

This rolling shelf filled the entire back of my car and part of the passenger seat in front. I had to drive home with my head pressed against the driver’s side window.  

I was told the rolling shelves were used to wheel flats of tomato plants out to the garden.  I assume the chair was used for sitting.

I’m considering conducting a Craigslist experiment just to see if I can sell this and how far someone will travel for it since I live an hour’s drive from Portland, OR, home of the nearest Craigslist city.  

Meanwhile, it resides in the GWCSCP.

I have a big weekend ahead hanging out with other vintage people as I’m making my inaugural trek/roadtrip to the Pacific NW Vintage Promised Land known as Farm Chicks.

Of course, this is strictly a fact finding mission although there may be some random frivolity mixed in. And a little treasure hunting.

I even had some cards made in case I forget my name or email address.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Behind the scenes at a rummage sale

Yesterday I learned exactly what it’s like to be the person who sorts through all the donated items collected at a thrift store when I helped organize a massive rummage sale for a local charity.

I know! Sounds like a thrifter’s dream job, right? I envisioned myself unwrapping box after box of long-forgotten-yet-still-perfectly-intact vintage Christmas ornaments or maybe opening tissue-filled storage bins with carefully preserved and perfectly clean vintage linens...

I was assigned clothing. 

Mountains and mountains of clothing.

 In plastic bags and boxes and shopping bags and just plain WOW.  There was and still is a lot of clothing. I made a dent in it – sorting the sellable from the (insert any gross reason why here) unsellable. Dodging dried bugs and random non-clothing ‘surprises’ tucked inside along with the occasional bag of someone’s garbage (oops)  that I hope was accidentally mixed in with the donations since it was all in trash bags.

And there were so many donations of one shoe, one sock or one glove.

these pretty dishes were donated to the sale

I did eventually make it over to the non-clothing side of the building to preview the  treasures that might be waiting and there were quite a few. 

My friend who is in charge of the rummage sale gifted this to me as a thank you. She knows what I like.  :-)



by the sale date of June 3, this warehouse will be packed!

I’ll post the details about shopping at this rummage sale in an upcoming post on my other blog, Vintage Market Guide. If you’re from the Portland, OR area and plan to drive to Farm Chicks, you’ll probably drive right through my town and may want to stop and check out this rummage sale on the first weekend of June. 

Great deals happening on single shoes and gloves.

Show me

I had a feeling this might happen.

While researching upcoming vintage markets & shows for my other blog, Vintage Market Guide, I come across information about so many amazing vintage sales & beautiful dealer spaces that now …

I think I want to sell at some vintage shows this year. 

I think.

I know I have the inventory. It’s hanging out in The Garage Where Cars Can’t Park.

And with yard sale season starting up, I suspect I’m going to see/bring home even more things and, well, we know how that’s going to go.

Or rather, where it’s going to go.

The Garage Where Cars Can’t Park is one chippy chair away from becoming The Garage Where Amy Was Last Seen Before She Disappeared Under a Pile of Vintage Everything.

So I think I’d like to (some people who have to park outside might even say I need to) sell at a vintage market.

I’d love to know more about your experiences with this (as a buyer or a seller) and any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

P.S. If anyone is looking for a hitchhiker or sherpa to take to Farm Chicks for some research & development, you know where to find me. :-)

Because one is not enough

Thanks for all of the happy birthday wishes / camera sympathy notes on my last post. I have a new camera now and we're slowly getting to know each other. I'm not sure yet if we're a match made in heaven but since we've just met, I'll see where this goes.

For now, it looks like it's going on a roadtrip!

New Camera and I are hitting the road in a few weeks for ten days of antiquing, thrifting, junking and flea market-ing and I'm pretty darn excited! I plan on attending the Sacramento Antique Fair and the Candlestick Park Antiques & Collectibles Faire and the rest of the time I'll be 'free-styling'. 

(When did I start speaking American Picker?)

My upcoming roadtrip and recent conversations with other vintage-loving bloggers made me realize with the 2011 vintage markets, shows & sales upon us, there are vintage events popping up all over the place that I was unaware of. How did that happen?! And more importantly, how can I prevent it from happening again?

So I had an idea...

What if the information about vintage markets, sales & shows all around the U.S. was available in one place online? Wouldn't that make it easier for us buyers and sellers to be aware of upcoming vintage events?

I hope the answer is YES! because I've created a new blog just for this purpose and it's called Vintage Market Guide.

It's a piece of cake to use because all blog posts will be sorted by state or month/year, making it easy to locate vintage sales & events near you. There's also a google search bar in case you want to search for something more specific such as posts with the word 'barn' or 'junk' or Iowa' in them.

As often as possible, I'd like to include links to bloggers who may be selling at these shows in addition to information about nearby antique malls, thrift stores and architectural salvage shops in case you want to make a day of it. Or a week of it.

I can definitely use your help too, please.

I'll be adding vintage market listings as I come across them but if you know of a can't-miss vintage sale, large or small, and would like it to appear on Vintage Market Guide, email me or leave a comment with any information you might have (show name, dates, address, website, etc) and I'll post it and link to your blog if you like.

And I'll still be blogging away here at Into Vintage. It's because of the many vintage-minded folks I've met through Into Vintage that I was inspired to start Vintage Market Guide. Thank you!

Now let's get out there and do some vintage treasure hunting!