Diary of an antique market trader

2006-09-03T03:49:00.000-07:00

3rd September 06

I like to sell in Greenwich because my stall is in the centre.

2006-09-03T03:34:00.000-07:00

3rd September 06

I like to sell in Greenwich because my stall is in the centre.

2006-08-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

23rd August 06

Greenwich was full of stall holders this week. Jane, who runs the market, had to limit the space fo each seller. Several people were miffed. Many forget how lucky we are to be able to have what we need and to miss weeks, or sell once a month or every fortnight. I visited The Angel again, this Wednesday, and there they have to find a person for their pitch or pay when they are away.

2006-08-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

16th August 2006

On Saturday I came back from a sunny holiday and decided to return to Greenwich market the next day. Because my stock is low and not having any real knowledge of the potential weather conditions the minimum car load was pack. It was with luck that my warm jacket and a cap were grabbed, from by the front door, early on that chilly,dull Sunday morning. The heavans opened with showers that could only be described as downpours. But in the sunny patches, between crisis management attempts to stay dry, I sold a few items. The best sale was the set of six pictures, printed on glass, of costumes through the ages.

We are again away this week-end so on Wednesday I headed to the Angel. There is an really great small unit which has lovely cutlery. I managed to buy a few things from her £1 box. It is also where the Lea Stein pins are sold in a magical unit full of great jewellery, so it was also a good time to stock up with six of these plastic 1960's style brooches.

2006-07-17T04:17:00.000-07:00

15th July 2006

It a dull windy morning but I set off early for the car boot at Wimbledon Dogtrack. It is time for me to sell the three boxes of items that have not been sold at the market. At 50p / £1 per item I managed to clear a mixed bag of goods. As my sales improved the sun shone and I returned home with two empty boxes and one box of items for the charity shop.

16th July 2006

The sun shone much earlier today and without the wind it was a much hotter day. Greenwich attracted several tourists. They took a lot of photographs, smiled but did not buy. However, all the cutlery and EPNS items, bought at last week's Goodrich auction, sold well. A "one pound a picture" box cleared out another pile of old prints. Again I returned home with an empty bag.

2006-07-11T04:38:00.000-07:00

8 & 9th July 06

I decided to spend a little more money at this months auction in Goodrich. Later this month we will be on holiday in France and my chances for seeking out bargains are not many when out there. The french sell very damaged goods and at a much inflatted price. I do find cutlery but that always causes me a problem in the Eurostar customs. This time we are returning from Avignon and I will find out whether they do as many bag searches as in Paris.

Although I bought plents of metal and odd items my favourite purchase is a small bakelite photo stand, found at Ross carboot.. It has a card of the young prince in between the glass. I offered less for it without the card, but the 'hippy' guy selling lnew its value and laughed.

Managed to hunt out the shop in Waterloo Rd. that sell every thing you need to sell. I am finding it hard to keep enough plastic recycle bags and needed to buy some!

2006-06-26T02:59:00.000-07:00

25th June 06

As expected the sales today were good for the morning,then people vanished to watch the England match.There seem to be more tourists around. On Saturday I had bought a lovely 1950's flower ceiling light which looked french This was my first sale. Two people were interested at the same time and it made one of them take a quick decision to buy.That sort of haggle is always a good sale as the first person had been offered a discount which I did not offer the second..great.

No item, held a long time, sold but a etching by A.S. Forrest, which I also bought on Saturday, created some interest so I will look him up on Google.

2006-06-19T03:21:00.000-07:00

18th June '06

Well the selling of items that I have had for several months continues with the sale of an old child's easel. There were not a lot of people around this Sunday even though it was a nice day. We were competing with a late afternoon match in the World Cup. I think this quiet atmosphere could continue next week, even for the rest of the month, especially if there is an England match. My worst selling day this year.

2006-06-12T02:48:00.000-07:00

12th June 2006

The good weather continues but to my surprise not so many sellers or buyers in Grenwich this week.
Its so difficult to predict what sells on this general bric-a-brac market. This week loads of table cloths and a very large fan. The fan was another large item which I have had for a long time tucked away in the boot of my car.
The surprise best seller, this week was prints which I had cut out from a book of Shell posters from the 1920's and 30's. This book had been a gift from a friend. At 50p each these 28 x 40 cms prints are a bargain. People were very happy to buy 5 or 6 pictures. Even a bargain did not stop people asking for the " best price " on 50p I laughed and he agreed. However, I did give one free to the guy who bought 21 copies. He had offered to buy the lot, but when I pointed out that they were not a complete set as some had been sold earlier in the day. I made far more money that selling the whole book. I generally do not agree in breaking up books. This was hardly a rare item.

2006-06-07T07:50:00.002-07:00

4th June '06

To everyones surprise there were not as many sellers as last week, ever though the out look was good. It was great for me as June, a friend, who sells now and then, stalled out next to me. We gossiped and sold all day. She needed to recoup some cash and so sold off many items below their value. This is not a good idea, however, it is also not a good idea to have money locked up in goods unless there is a positive indicator that they are the collectables of the future.

I sold my last Lea Stein, will wait before I buy more. An old book shelf sold which together with the linen basket,sold last week, were two large items I needed to move. I can hold on to things because I sell more regularly than June. Linen and cutlery still the best sellers, but 7 print sales made picture this weeks top item.

2006-06-07T07:50:00.001-07:00

2006-06-07T07:50:00.000-07:00

2006-05-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

30th June '06

Sunday proved to be the only totally dry day for the Bank Holiday week-end. Not a lot of selling but there were several new people on the market. Not new to selling, just trying out Greenwich as a market.

Allison and Molly visited with friends down for the week-end.It is very nice to be visited. It puts a picture in people's mind when I gossip about the market.

The Dogtrack car boot,on Bank Holiday Monday,was busy, although booters said people were not buying. I picked up the usual mixture,linen,metal light fittings,glass and 50's plastic.The heavens openned as I left there at 10am. Poor booters!

2006-05-24T02:56:00.000-07:00

25th May 06

The bad weather continues into May. On Sunday we had torrential rain and winds that sent stall covers into the air lifting up anything that was not pinned down. I was quite snug but had to spent some of Monday drying things out. No customers to sit outside the Rivington restaurant.

Again sales were slow but better that could be expected in these conditions. A hat designer bought my Beech wood bowl to use as the shape for a hat. She is a feelance milliner and was looking for ideas. She will eMail me with any details of millinery classes. At a craft show she had seen jackets made from recycled embroidered table cloths, recycling continues with so many items used or a very different purpose than their original design.

The black bakelite table lamp, bought at yesterday's Goodrich auction, was one of the first sales. Two of the 40's clothes clips went early on. Early plastic is now quite rare and rarely stays on the stall for longer than a day. A chatting guy, a regular at the market, gave me a brief lesson on early plastic. I should have written it all down as these details can be useful.

2006-05-15T03:13:00.000-07:00

15 May'06
Back to Greenwich after several days holiday in Beausoleil, France.

Plenty of people seem to have noticed my absence and so sales of linen, china plasic and pictures went well in what was a very quiet day. A lady had embroidered items for sale but I know I must keep up to a high standard and resisited the temptation to buy. This was easy as she wanted unrealistic prices for not that well embroidered cloths.

The new restaurant had tables and chairs outside. This looked good as they also have placed a few tubs of plants. Perhaps this will bring people willing to spend money. However, the food is not cheap so their customers may have little cash left after lunch.

2006-04-30T00:55:00.000-07:00

30th April

The rain has beaten me again.It seems that I do not have the spunk to face the drizzle and the effort it takes to keep things dry. Lets hope that this is not an indicator of the way I progress through the year.

2006-04-25T06:10:00.000-07:00

24th April '06
I have been out of London for a week which gave me the chance to visit the Ross-On-Wye car boot sales.This are Big Bens car boots, held in the cattle market. They are Sunday morning and friday afternoons. This market operates all year round with booters under cover, in the cattle pens, when the weather is wet.

These sales are very good for all the unusual small items which I do not see in London. This week I bought a set of large clay fruits, to sit in a garden, several prints, a mirror, cutlery, door knockers and colourful Deco clips. All excellent value and very sellable.

Then when my ability to carry any more items is reached I always buy a freshly baked cake. Before the last episode of BSE the market was almost 50:50 home produce. The of fresh produce fell away but allotment holders are returning with fruit, veg, jams, pickles and a very good range of plants.

2006-04-10T02:42:00.000-07:00

10th April 06
What can I say? Another April and another shower. However, it was at the end of the day and I managed to put all the linen away before it came . Today I wash my covers and dry all the cutlery!

2006-04-03T04:51:00.000-07:00

3rd April

Well April began with the expected showers. They were very sudden and very heavy making alot of our stock very wet. This small Greenwich market seems to suffer from a twisting wind so the rain was horizontal. At one point the wind lifted my stall and one small item broke. A helpful guy showed me how to use those elsatic luggage bands to make the cover very firm. Luckily it was only the cutlery that was soaked and easy to dry. I managed to put up an extra sheet after the first downpour and was ready for all that the following bursts.

This week I had a great time as the post delivered my eBay purchases of embroidered cloths. They looked good and many people looked at them but only two purchases from the white range this week.

On the 1st April I went to a small sale in Chelsea. A young woman has them for people in crisis. It was not very well attended. I hope that she does not lose heart and has to stop the sales. My purchases of an old Victorian picture and a small shell pill case were instantly sold on Sunday.

When I was running around trying to hold the stall down a guy picked up my half full cup of coffee and turned it upside down to read the backstamp. He was very surprised when cold coffee poured all over my stall cloth cover!!

Today I will have to wash and iron a few dirty items. This is the down side of selling linen.

2006-03-20T07:35:00.000-08:00

20th March 2006

The new cloths went down very well and I sold eleven of the new items. These were fancy table mats whic were in one of the bulk buys.
The young girl is an artist, Claire Burbridge and her friend will use them as stencils. The mats will be washed after each painting and re-used. Will now look up her web page.
As I chatted to these girls another woman talked to us describing how she re-uses embroidered cloth to make scarves. She also bought a very nice small table cloth from me.

I think I will start to embroider cloths, though this will not be as cheap as buying old ones at car boot sales

2006-03-17T05:11:00.000-08:00

17th March 2006

Today's post arrived with several parcels. These are the result of my eBay hunt for linen to sell. Embroidered cloths are not easy to find and as the weather is not condusive to search out car boot sales I thought I would try the internet. This seems to be a reasonable answer but there are two lisings either table cloth or tablecloth. Which is correct I do not know?

2006-03-13T02:58:00.000-08:00

113th March 06

A good day at the market in Greenwich. Cutlery and linen selling well. I do need a source of white of hand done table cloths.

People amuse me when they ask if my cutery is" genuine ". What do they mean? I guess every one hopes that at my prices they will find solid silver. I am told that silver is not holding its value. Where as I sell silver plate to be used, and always tell people not to use the dishwasher or over clean with polish. Warm detergent and a dry cloth are enough to preserve and make the plared items shine.

2006-03-11T11:02:00.000-08:00

11 March 06

A great place to buy fascinating things to sell is the weekly car boot at the Wimbledon dogtrack. Many people there are professional house clearance traders. There are the regular amatuers selling as a hobby, to make extra cash or to get rid of unwanted items.

I bought a bundle of dirty crochet cloths, a jug, two 50's cats and cutlery. So home to clean the metal and wash the lacy pieces.

2006-03-07T10:43:00.000-08:00

Tuesday 7th March

Successful visit to charity shop to purchase 12 white napkins. They needed a wash but could sell well as are a set.

2006-03-06T03:37:00.000-08:00

March 6th 2006

I finally give in to my husbands nagging and I am trying to blogg.

My title is ambiguous as I am the antique and I sell bric-a-brac. After a life time in science teaching my retirement hobby is selling on Sundays in Greenwich market.

Yesterday I made us tea at 6.30am loaded the car with my boxes, which I had placed at the front door the previous evening, and drove to Greenwich. This is the Burney Street market which only opens at the week-end. Sunday the 5th March was a beautiful morning with a very clear blue sky. The general agreement among my fellow sellers was that we did not need to cover the stalls with waterproof tarpaulin. So I unpacked and set out my goods. There are not too many sellers in the winter so I had three stalls to spread out my wares for sale. I sell a general mixture of china, glass, pictures, metal objecst, wood, linen and cutlery. I always think the day goes well should I sell an item as I stall out and so was delighted to sell a Lea Stein brooch to a friendly lady out walking her dog.

The day continued with a clear blue sky. However, it was windy and cold with periods of sun shine so plenty of people walked through the area. I managed to cover my costs and make enough profit to go out buying this week.

So success in both my hobby and my first bloog.