Some previously un-posted treasures

I didn't get pictures of all of the items I sold at the Green Shag Market sale, but I did snap a few shots while setting up, so there are some shots of items I haven't posted here before, and in actual natural light!  So of course, I'm happy to show them off!:

First, some awesomeness from a handful of estate sales I attended a couple of weeks ago:

How mid-century fabulous is this green iron?  Starflite, with gold star burst, even!  It's sitting on top of a chrome bread box I finally rescued from my garage for the sale (sadly, it ended up back in the garage un-sold).

Super cute little Jade 8 radio.  I bought AA batteries to test it out - was hoping to listen to
NPR during the sale.  Unfortunately, It takes a 9 volt.  Oops!

The ice pack inside is plaid and just as cool as it's original box with fantastic graphics and fonts.  Love it!

These I found in a garage, with all dusty/greasy tools and things.  Only 5, but an adorable made-in-Japan set!

Next, a seriously cool mid-century plant stand, and the treasures I displayed upon it:

It's bigger than most of these I've seen - you can see the child-sized card table next to it for perspective. 

This cute chalkware guy is in really good shape.  Found him at the Goodwill by my work. 

I can't remember where I found this awesome gold glazed planter.  I didn't take a very good shot of it though, did I?

This planter was snatched up at a local Salvation Army awhile back, and the kitty was,
appropriately enough, rescued from the Goodwill "Pound" Store.

The fiery glazed little planter was actually in one of my very first blog posts.  The tall yellow vase is Haeger, bought at September's last Wednesday 50% off sale at Value Village.  I can't remember where I got the cool candlestick, but if I'd had two of them, they would have sold on Saturday.

This wooden pestle I picked up at the Pound Store appears to be very old.  I just like the way it looks all organic/rustic.  And do you see the Mister Wizard book behind it?  The cover is priceless; wish I'd thought to snap a shot!

I have more pics to share, but it's getting late, so more next time.  Hope your having great luck in the hunt, and check out the Nifty Thrifty Tuesday linkup at Coastal Charm.  I know I am!

The Green Shag Market Sale

So I once again left a big gap in the blog.  The Cardinals were still dragging out the post season, which was keeping me antsy, and I spent this past week preparing for/setting up for/doing/recovering from the Green Shag Market sale on Saturday.  Now that's over and the Cards have imploded on me (don't worry, I still love you guys!), I suppose I can focus.  Wanna hear about the Green Shag Market sale?

I was super excited about this sale.  Felt really good about the opportunity.  I even had a plan to spread the 2ndhand Moon name.  I made prints of a bunch of the many, many pictures I've taken of the moon.  A few for your perusal:

 

I thought it would be fun if with every sale I could give the customer a moon picture with 2ndhand Moon written on the back and let them know they could find me on Facebook, and tell them about my new Speakeasy Deals customer appreciation plan.  If you missed that details on that, here's the scoop:

If you buy something from 2ndhand Moon, take a picture of it in it's new home and post it on Facebook, tagging 2ndhand Moon, I'll send you a one-time-use code word to give at checkout for a percentage off the item of your choice from booth 78 at Kenrick Antique Mall.

Anyway, I felt like I had a good plan, and when I got home from work at 9:30 or so on Friday night I got to work getting everything priced and ready.  I worked through the night and my dear friend Beth came over dark and early Saturday morning to help me load everything up and take it over there.  It was still dark (and ch-ch-chilly!) shortly after 6:30 AM when we started setting up.  We were ready well ahead of the 9:00 AM start time, and I was all nerves and excitement.  Here are few shots of sale day:

Love the big fun lamp in the foreground.  In the background you can see the garment rack that marks the beginning of my area (parking lot space).

Another area of the sale.  There were tons of vendors.  How cool is that red atomic fireplace?

Here's part of my stuff, thanks to Beth.  I took some close-ups of things, but totally forgot to get a shot of my whole space.

Unfortunately, whether it was the cold morning that made everybody want to stay in bed until the sun came out or something else, there weren't a lot of customers until early afternoon, and even then, I didn't make as many sales as I'd hoped.  At first I was worried that I was doing something wrong, but as the day wore on I heard from other vendors that they had similar experiences.  I think the only vendor that really cleared a lot out was the one in the space next to mine, who had tons of pots and pans and things at super low flea market prices.  I did cover the price of the rental space, the gas and food for the day and the prices of the items I sold, plus a little bit of actual profit, but it definitely wasn't an amount equal to all the work involved.  Still, the sun did eventually come out and it turned into a pretty day:

And I chatted with some really nice people, and I gave out my moon pictures and gave my spiel about the Speakeasy Deals to everyone I sold to, so there's a chance I may end up with repeat customers.  And while I had to pack everything up and bring it home again after the sale, at least that's a ton of stuff already prepped and priced and ready to go into the booth when there's room for it, so it's work I would have done in bits over time anyway.

I wish I had thought to take pictures of the items I sold, since most everything was stuff I've never shot for the blog before and especially because I actually did pretty well on vintage clothing.  I sold a butter soft leather jacket that I love nearly as much as the Tale of Two Coats one, and a nice, thick wool fisherman's sweater, a bright orange wool and mohair cardigan and a brown and white polka-dotted tie-neck blouse.  I also sold a handful of books, one terra cotta and one ceramic owl, an awesome floral suitcase and a nifty little peacock fan decoration thingy.  Luckily I do have pictures of the last few things:

The blue floral suitcase is the one that found a new home.  Isn't it spectacular?  Love!

I found this little peacock at an estate sale for very little.  Passed it on for not much to a
nice girl who says she buys vintage crafty things and tries to reproduce them.  Isn't that cool?

The short pot-bellied owl with the orange eyes and the larger terra cotta one with the pointy ears both sold.  Oh yeah, and the orange candle holder/centerpiece thingy in the foreground also sold!

Anyway, I admit I was a bit disappointed not to have sold more, but I felt good about the feedback I got from other vendors and people who seemed to be in the know.  It was a good learning experience, and if I come across a similar event (maybe on a smaller scale) while I still have so much stuff already prepped and packed up, I might be crazy enough to try it again!


Linking up to Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday and Me and My Shadow's Magpie Mondays.  Check them out for more thrifty, vintage awesomeness!

Right spiffing, innit?

So I spent some hours Tuesday at the booth trying to spiff the place up a bit.  Spiffing isn't always my strong suit, but I think I've made some progress.  I had decided a week or two ago that the blue industrial cup-washing rack thingies in the booth had to go.  I love the idea of them.  There a bright cheery blue, and kind of swirly looking:

I loved how they looked as a backdrop, like to this cute mushroom mug set (still available, by the way!)

And I thought they'd be handy for displaying things like scarves and small linens and things:

Here they were with a few little bits inside - still looked kind of fun.

But as the booth got more... I'll just say it: crowded, and more and more of the little cubbies in the rack got filled, I think it just became too much.  It was like visual noise.  It just didn't help show off the merchandise anymore:

With all that crammed in, it just looks messy.

I had already planned to take them down and do a bit of an overhaul of the space, and now, thanks to the  lead from my Mom and Dad, I had found a great shelf to help in reorganizing.  

You may remember that a couple of weeks ago, someone bought my little book shelf, and I replaced it with a somewhat rustic little blue and white enamel-topped table, which had already opened things up considerably.  I went from this:

Still a bit over-crowded!

To this:

A bit more open - making progress!

So Tuesday, I did the following:

1. Took down the blue crate/cup-rack things.

2. Stacked the small table that's hidden behind the suitcases in the above picture on top of the little wooden cabinet you can barely see since it's stacked with blue cup racks, overflowing with linens and piled with merchandise.

That gave me this:

A little more space for the eye to see, and with one door closed, maybe people will even
be able to tell the little cabinet exists!

3. I moved the suitcases back up against the back wall, stacked them and used them to show off some of the cute vintage purses, shoes, etc.:

Vintage suitcases are a personal weakness. A stack of three serve as an end
table in my living room, too!

4.  I brought in the new shelf.  You've already seen this pic if you saw the blog yesterday, but here it is again, in context of the overhaul:

I need to improve the display-quality of those linens.
Too much of a good thing is too hard to see.

5.  I took the little wire cart that I'd previously crammed between the beat-up low shelf on the right above and the clothes rack, I filled it with the smaller purses, and the scarves, doilies, small linens, etc., and placed it next to the blue and white enamel table at the front of the booth, and tucked the cheery little green footstool/doll table underneat:

I like the pop of green under the table to go with the bright green craft book on top,
and the little cart takes up very little space at the entrance to the booth.

6.  I swung the clothing rack around so that rather than being on the side of the booth, it's along the back wall.  It leaves less room for pictures/paintings/etc., but I'm still trying to make a go of the whole vintage clothing aspect of the booth, so I think it's worth it for a time.  At least through Halloween (because everyone who's anyone is going to be buying vintage awesomeness from booth 78 at Kenrick Antique Mall for the Halloween costume this year!).  

So here's the overall effect.  I don't think I'm done tweaking, but I like where it's going a little better than before:

I still feel like it's a bit too busy, but it's definitely getting better.

There's plenty of room to walk around inside now, and with more shelf space, things aren't as crammed together, so I'm hoping that makes it easier to see and not just look, if you know what I mean.  I think next I'd like to replace the wire cubes on the left wall with something that's less deep.  Preferably something I can put a price tag on and sell out from under my merchandise!  And I definitely need to replace, or at the very least paint the long low shelf on the other side.  That's the one I picked up in an alley a few days before I was supposed to start my booth.  Or possibly just put more tall shelves on one side and leave the other side free for some bits of furniture and wall art.

What do you think?  Is this better?  I'm open to any and all suggestions.  I just want to make buying from my little 2ndhand Moon booth easier and more enjoyable.  Am I on the right track?

Oh, and I keep forgetting to say, go Like the 2ndhand Moon Facebook Page, so you'll know when there's a sale, deal or special event!

Some of the thrifted treasures headed for the booth tomorrow

Even with the spare room is so nicely organized, I am still not ready to add more inventory to my enormous stockpile, so I'm still shopping my garage (since that space is decidedly not organized, it's good to get bits out of there).  Here are a few of the treasures I pulled out to take to the booth tomorrow:

HATS:

Pair of men's wool Kangols

Totally 80s straw cowgirl hat with suede, feathers, fur, beads and one
of those silvery thingies.

SHOES:

Lovely gold metallic open-toed mules marked Famous Barr Co on one
shoe and "Leisure Loungers" on the other.
I love that these were once considered loungewear!

CLOTHES:

'60s Arrow Decton "Perma-Iron" poly/
cotton short-sleeved shirt.

JC Penney poly/cotton pale green short-
sleeved shirt with dark stitching.

Large-collar funky-print shirt.
No label.  So soft!

Large-collar green/white poly/cotton
shirt labelled Famous Barr Supre-Vino

Pink poly/rayon/flax cap-sleeved dress,
non-metal zipper, California Girl label.

Ecru lace over slightly darker color dress,
satiny lining, metal zipper, no label.

Black/silver lamé vavoom dress.  Small tag inside
says size 13, no other label.  Metal zipper.

Remember - all clothing and accessories are still 50% off through the month of August, even these new arrivals, so if you're local, get thee to Kenrick Antique Mall booth 78 tomorrow afternoon and all these new treasures can be yours!

BOOKS:

Little Golden Heidi - 1954 and The Three Bears - 1948

Actually, these will not go into the booth.  I snapped them up without a thought at the Goodwill Pound Store, where together they cost less than $0.39, since they don't weigh a pound, but upon inspection, too many of the pages have been scribbled.  I think I'm looking at a crafty project with the remaining good bits.  I'm open to any suggestions!

The Story Road - 1952 edition reading book

A well-used Wizard of Oz cookbook, surprisingly from 1981

Random children's book Fur & Feathers - 1965

LeeWards Illustrated Library of Arts and Crafts -
1974.  Check out that cover art - Fabulous!

 Peeks at some of the illustrations in a few of these (click if you want to see them bigger):

Also from The Story Road

One of the intact Heidi pages. 

From The Story Road

Fur and Feathers

Wizard of Oz cookbook

Linking up to these great link parties:

Beez Rental Designs' Frugal Treasures Tuesday, Coastal Charm's Nifty Thrifty Tuesday, and Me and My Shadow's Magpie Monday.