Renninger's Recap

More good news..the weather held out and we didn't have to rent a cargo van to get everything home! My new friend Dona traveled two hours to bring us a pop-up tent on Friday morning after I mentioned in my last post that we didn't have a tent. It was a nice relief from the hot sun on Friday. Thanks, Dona!

Overall, we were very pleased with Renningers. I was happy with the amount of money we made, considering that almost everything we sold was priced below twenty bucks. It's all about volume with us. High volume of junk. Low, low prices. In fact, we saw many other dealers who had the same exact items for more than double the price. But then, this isn't our livelihood, so we can be a little generous with our prices.

The first day (Thursday) is commonly known as "dealer day". Shoppers paid $15 to enter the showgrounds, so they were mostly dealers trying to find the best pieces. It was a little hectic on Thursday because we basically dumped our bins and boxes and threw everything onto the tables. It wasn't until the second day that we really started to arrange things into vignettes.

Here was our "Mantiques" table. Erin made the sign. Do you see the blue thing on the table? We still couldn't find anyone who knew what it was! But, by the end of the last day, I was using it as a megaphone to obnoxiously attract more customers.

And here are some of our vintage toys. One of our customers bought that giraffe pull toy and a few other toys to decorate her house. She is a clothing designer for Baby Gap, so she is obviously inspired by kids' stuff!

The worst part of the whole experience was trying to cover our stuff each night with tarps. We were not sufficiently prepared. We didn't have enough tarps so we bought a huge one from the "tarp man" for fifty dollars. And then we didn't have anything to hold down the tarps to prevent the wind from blowing them off. On Wednesday morning, I told Erin to stop at Target to pick up some squeeze clamps to attach the tarps to the tables. What does she show up with? Chip clips. Works great for a bag of Baked Lays. Not so great for 40 mile-an-hour winds during a late-night thunderstorm. We ended up putting some of our heavier weather-resistant items on the tops and side of our tarps.

Erin & Heather

The strong winds were blowing just as we were leaving on Friday evening. Luckily, we had a very kind next-door-neighbor who attached some clamps to our tables after we left for the night. His name is Larry and in addition to being an antiques dealer, he is a professional storyteller. What a cool job, right? He kept us entertained with funny stories and magic tricks. He also gave us lots of advice on selling antiques & junk. Our neighbor on the other side was Ibrahima, a dealer of African antiques. He travels to the countries of western Africa several times a year and brings back African artifacts, like masks, musical instruments, beads, wooden spoons and whistles. We were lucky that we picked a space between these two men.

Ibrahima & Larry

I have so much more to share with you! In my next post, I'll tell you about our brush with movie stardom and my fun encounter with another blog reader.

Comments

[Teresa]

Sounds like it was a lot of work ... but like you had lots of fun and met some nice people! (So sweet of Dona to bring the pop up tent!!) I love the mantiques sign! So perfect for what you had on that table/vignette!! Will you do it again?

[Dona]

So glad everything went well. Had a great time visiting with you and your sisters. Your set up was professional and well thought out. See ya all soon

[Amy]

On the first pic, that blue glass thing is something to do with old telephone poles. My mom has worked for the phone company for over 30 years and she has a bunch of those. I believe it is called a Telephone Pole Insulator if you want to google it.

[dawn]

Sounds like such a great time - can't wait to hear the rest!

[Cathy]

It sounds like hard work but good fun. I'm so glad it went well. Looking forward to the next update!
Cathy X

[Rosemary]

Hi,
I'm glad everything went so well.
What a nice person to bring you a tent.
I learned something new too. Mantiques. I love it!
I will tell my husband that one.
When we go to the Santa Monica Flea Market, it's pretty girly. I can now tell him I'm sure there will be some Mantiques.
Happy October!
Rosemary

[Leigh]

I love the Mantiques sign and picture! And that blue thing is definitely a Mantique! It's a glass telephone insulator (like Dona said above). My husband collects them. He has about 6 of them I think. I was trying to come up with display ideas and my sister suggested we hang it by heavy wire, upside down so the wide rim is up, and put a candle in the middle. I think that would look great on a porch or bathroom.

[Leigh]

Oops, I think it was Amy who said it was a telephone insulator.

[Leigh]

Oh no, the blue thing you're referring to is different than the one I was talking about. Duh, I didn't click on your blue thing link first. I was talking about the aqua blue thing above the "I" in the Mantiques sign. I'm not sure what the other blue thing is.

[Robolady]

Sounds like a great day. What wonderful people you met.

[tammyCA]

Chip clips! Bwahahahaha...you must've had to laugh when she came back with those - laughed & cried, maybe. Sounds like you had a fun experience just the same.

[nikki]

Looks like you guys had an awesome booth! Wish I was near enough to have stopped by. Congrats on the successful sale!

[Dawn]

I nearly died laughing when I came to the words.... "chip clips". Loving the story, thanks for the recap!

[Lee W]

Congrats on your sales! Sounds like an interesting experience!

[Tandra Boyer]

OOOOH I wish I could have that yellow-y crate with all the cubbyholes in it on the Mantique table!!!