Ten Killer Tips for Attending a Sheriff's Auction

So you want to attend a Sheriff's auction. I'm talking about a personal property auction not a real estate auctions held on the courthouse steps. Sound intriguing? Not only does it sound interesting but  I have it on good authority that items go for cheap—dirt-cheap.  Pickers of vintage goods need to buy low and sell high. I’m going.

I often bring my mom along with me for some quality mom and daughter time. She is as enthusiastic about searching for treasures as I am. We make a good team when we aren’t shouting at each other about directions and my propensity for ‘curb hopping.’ Without further jabbering, I’ll let you in on the secrets to a sheriff’s auction.

1.     Get there early. It may or may not be crowded but regardless there are very few chairs. Auction attendees mostly mill about or prop against a wall. You will also need to get a bid number. I did notice people arriving late but they were still able to get a bid number.

2.     Wear comfortable clothing. Especially shoes. You will have an opportunity to dig through items.

3.     Stand or sit next to people who know what they are doing. We formed an immediate camaraderie with our little contingent of auction attendees. Five total strangers rooting for  each other, the ‘regulars’ whisper tips to mom and I, such as: “stop bidding, the person you are bidding against will not quit.” Or “Bid on the table, its very good.” Our helpful neighbors are not storeowners but what I’d call, ‘auction zealots.’ They love a good auction but not dealers from out of town. Luckily, I have a home in Blaine County or I’d be kicked to the curb.

4.     A regular (usually a dealer) will always start the bid. It’s not a rule but it worked that way at this auction. Anyway, don’t worry about starting the bid.

5.     Bids start between $1.00 and $10.00!!!! I’m not kidding, however I’m sure its different at all auctions depending on the inventory and the county.

6.     The auction will most likely go all day long. Not joking, but don’t worry, you can cash out at one-hour break intervals. Cashing out is quick because the auction clerk records a finished bid  as soon as it’s made. I checked out at the end of the day in five minutes.

7.     This is not a professional setting like an auction house; there isn't an official auctioneer. The sheriff assistant will hold up an item like a hatchet and ask, “how much for this hatchet?” That’s it. As a side note, my mother became so excited about the low prices that she bid on — well she bid on the hatchet. I hissed at her. “Mom, stop this instant, what do you need a hatchet for?” I’m still mulling over her response. “I need a hatchet for the back of my motorcycle.” No my mother is not crazy and she USED to own a variety of motorcycles but she is long past rides in the backcountry and camping in the woods. Apparently, it's a very fond memory because she wants another hatchet for her long gone motorcycle. It's fortunate that no motorcycles are up for auction. My mom simply succumbed to a sort of ‘auction frenzy.’ It can happen.

8.     Be prepared to pay with cash or check. No credit card. There is no auction fee.

9.     Personal property auctions happen because someone has not paid their debt. The property is seized and auctioned by the sheriff. The debt is made whole to the person owed the money within days. This is the system in Blaine County, and I would imagine elsewhere. The auction stops when the total cash amounts to debt owed, in this case, $14,350. Done.

10. And finally, I asked three people in charge about the remainder of goods not auctioned. I have no answer as of yet.

Have you been to a sheriff's auction? I'd love an answer to tip number ten. Auctions are loads of fun with all sorts of interesting attendees. I purchased ALL of the pictures below for $40.00. The frames alone are worth the price I paid.

 Feel free to post YOUR auction finds and a link to your store in the comment section.

Living A Vintage Life: Bird and Birch

"Green" has been on our lips for years now and unlike many trends that inspire their own buzzwords, green isn't going away anytime soon. Vintageophiles* have an approach to green totally unlike environmental conservationists or traditional recyclers, rather we lovers of vintage take yesteryear's remnants and develope them into a passion. This passion drives us into both known and unknown territories in search of timeless morsels that amuse, excite, calm and express our personalities. Birch and Bird Vintage Home Interiors is one of those special places that every vintageophile should visit at least once (although I recommend regular visits). Their ideas exhibit how exciting it can be to live a vintage life!

Lily and Rachel, Birch and Bird proprietesses and bloggers, share their trips to wonderful antiques markets, decorating ideas and personal insights, all beautifully photographed. Many of their interiors tend towards comfort and calm punctuated with color. Unexpected touches like cuckoo clocks painted in green and blue hues, marry modern and vintage in inspiring ways. Even traditional settings bear their personal touch, as exhibited in their recent blog post Warm and Cozy Fireplaces; while their post on Bohemian style suggests the wide variety expressed by this timeless movement.

Be sure to scroll down through all the photos or else you will miss the herringbone floor made of reclaimed shipping pallets (hint: it's most of the way down the Home page); click on the "You might also like" at the end of each post to jump to more beautiful vignettes and amazing market adventures, and don't miss the tiny keywords (Posted in) beneath post titles to further your surfing through the blog.
Now, grab a glass of fresh apple cider, put on your favorite old holey sweater and settle in for a delightful afternoon with Birch and Bird.

*Vintageophile (vin-taj-o-phyle) - one who passionately embraces and is inspired by vintage goods to the point of changing their lifestyle.

FOODIE FRIDAY -- S is for SALAD

When the temperature hovers way above 90 degrees for days on end (100++ most of this week) I can't bring myself to turn on the stove or oven. Luckily, my husband is just as fond of entrée salads as I am. So, he grills the main protein on the outside bbq, while I assemble the remaining ingredients in the comfort of our air conditioned kitchen.

Some of the salads we've had in the past couple of months:

~ Classic Caesar with grilled shrimp or chicken, my homemade dressing and home-baked croutons

~ A Mexican version of the traditional Cobb salad: greens topped with chopped chicken, avocado, pinto beans, tomato, red onion, black olives and cotija cheese with a salsa, sour cream, red wine vinegar dressing (pictured above)

~ Nicoise Style salad of greens topped with Ahi seared rare, tomatoes, new potatoes and green beans (I cheat and cook them in the microwave) Nicoise or French green olives, boiled egg

~ Spinach Salad with strawberries, almonds, blue cheese, and grilled chicken with a lemon poppyseed dressing

~ Shrimp Louie--traditional except the dressing was served on the side, and the shrimp was grilled

~ Greek Salad of romaine, tomato, cucumber, red onion, pepperoncini, kalmata olives, feta cheese, and grilled salmon with a red wine dressing flavored with garlic and oregano

As you can see, we LOVE salads, and the possibilities are endless.

Get some great ideas at this website:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/10-classic-diy-salad-creations/

Of course, everything tastes better when served in vintage style--perfect example from nachokitty.etsy.com:

Fight Back Against the Slumps!

Vintage Clock Face by VintageInspiredVt

Lots of talk recently about sales. Or rather, lack of sales. Is it a slump? Is it the site we sell on? Is it us? Is it the time of year?

While those factors are worth considering, at the end of the day there are many elements we have direct control over. Not everyone heads out to the sun when summer comes! Millions of people work on their computers every day. Thousands of blogs are gaining new eyeballs every day-often at a very rapid rate. So we know the people are out there. The question is, how do we get them into our shops?

Crab Pendant by GeneralWhimsy2

Are you blogging? I don't mean once a month or once a week. Are you blogging every day? I know that sounds intimidating-and I'm certainly not a champ in this department. But I watch and I learn. I know from watching successful blogs that it takes frequent content to not only keep an audience but to continue to grow it. People want freshness. They want new. They want something great to look at every day when they sit down to their computers.

Vintage Soutache by AddVintage

What's the content of your blog? I admit, I still haven't found the voice for mine. I don't want to be a salesperson, shoving my shop finds down throats all the time. But I also don't want to ignore that I do have a shop. Find a way to keep your blog fresh: take your camera along on your estate hunts, write about the history of an item, or showcase items from another vintage shop. Mix it up and do it often. That's the best way to get found.

Barkcloth Folk Print Jacket by marybethhale

Are you making treasuries? Do. We all know they bring eyeballs in and we NEVER know where those eyeballs lead. Just this week a treasury brought me to a customer-in the most roundabout way. A woman saw an old wood saw of mine that was featured. She mentioned it to her father in law. He looked at it and went to my shop and left it up on his screen. His wife came along, saw some paintings I had and emailed them to a friend in Russia. The woman in Russia loved them and bought them. Now she's having me ship them to her best friend in Louisiana. Huh? From a treasury?

1930's Bantam Typewriter by YesterdaysSilhouette

Are you updating your Facebook page daily? Do you have a Facebook page? Again, not with just your latest finds. Solicit input from your viewers. Ask them questions. Have them post photos. Get them involved! And then sprinkle in your latest finds on a regular basis.

Rare Childrens Book by wonderdiva

We cannot just sit back and hope our shops are found. We should not depend on whatever website we're selling on to advertise for us. Yes, the site has a role to play, but we can greatly influence how much traffic comes to our shops. If we were just selling on our own websites we'd have to! So let's work just as hard as if we were all alone in the vast wasteland of the web, hoping to be noticed.

Member Spotlight: Flannery Crane

Joy, the owner of the vintage clothing shop FlanneryCrane, is something of a renaissance woman. She’s a professional floral designer, an avid reader, an accessory designer, and a proud new member of the Vintage Fashion Guild. We caught up with her recently to find out more.

Q. How did you come up with the name for your shop?
Besides vintage and antiques, another one of my great loves is reading; so on a whim I created a “user name” for online selling after my two favorite authors: Flannery O’Connor and Stephen Crane. That was in 2003, and 3 years later, my hobby turned into a business. I decided to use  a photograph of my mother for my business logo, which was taken when she was 17 years old. She’s as sassy as ever.

Q. What’s the very first vintage item that you remember owning? Do you still have it?

Here's a story that's like fingernails across a blackboard. When I was in my teens, a relative of a friend had died, and our friend  had the work of cleaning out her belongings. She passed on bags of vintage items to us. The deceased woman had kept and collected everything, including clothing from the 30s, 40s, and up, many with the tags still attached. At the time, I thought nothing of them; they were fascinating artifacts, but certainly not things I would actually wear. It was the 80s, and I wanted box jackets and oversized belts, and wasn't brave enough to stand out in the crowd in spite of all my interest in fashion.

1960s silk dress

I remember a purse that had never been carried with a butterscotch bakelite handle and acetate floral  fabric. Who knows where these are today? Too bad I can’t walk back in time—what an inventory I would have to share. Yet I always remind myself there will always be more “things” around the corner. Sometimes, you just have to let things go; no sense in getting wound up about it.

1920s flapper celluloid and chain belt

Q. Describe the aesthetic behind your shop.

The image of my shop is a work in progress. I am constantly looking for ways to improve my photography; I have a manniquin makeover in my near future; and I plan to feature more antique clothing and accessories.

Generally, I like a bright, clean look using pastel or neutral backgrounds. I have always loved belts and am always looking for unique ones to feature in the store. I also design and create belts, using antique buckles and recycled leather.

1930s-1940s rayon tap pants

Ornate buckles are fascinating to me—tiny works of art I  use to accent many things besides the waistline (hair accessories, hats, purses, etc.). If an item is my own creation, it will be mentioned up front in my listings. I look for classic clothing, and enjoy finding dresses with unique patterns or color schemes. I will be adding more formals in the near future.

I like to think of my shop as a pleasant boutique, a place to browse for unique beauties at various price points. I guess it’s the southerner in me that wishes everyone to feel at home—ask questions, make offers, or just say hello. 

Relist, Deactivate, Feature? Oh My!

Vintage Butterfly Brooch by SweetSugarBoutique

It can be somewhat of a juggling game figuring out how to balance your shop. How many pages are just right? How much is too much? How often should you relist to keep things fresh? Is it even worth rearranging items? Do customers search specifically or do they browse? All solid questions.

Vintage Easter Postcard by TheOldBarnDoor

Be careful you don't start from the premise of a bias. If you're a browser, chances are you operate under that assumption in how you structure your shop. If you don't really buy online and just have your shop, that likely is influencing your behavior as well. Never assume your customer is familiar with Etsy. Etsy is focused on and is successfully bringing millions of new eyeballs to the site monthly.

Art Deco Hall Teapot by jenscloset

First step is trying to understand your customer base. Who is your customer? Take out a piece of paper and fill in the following items: education level, profession, age, urban or rural, martial status, kids, and what kind of car of they drive. (I go into this in detail in my other Wednesday posts) This loose analysis of your customer will allow you to grasp how they shop.

Vintage 1980's White Lace Mini by PersonalPursuits

For example, a young urban executive earning 6 figures working 60 hours a week is probably not going to do more than scan the first and maybe the second page. (Google analytics will show you this information in detail) When I saw that the 1-3 pages got the vast majority of traffic on my Google analysis I switched my behavior.

1950's Automobile Speedometer by TheFancyLamb

As a result, I now change my featured items every 24 hours or so. Every time I do, they start popping up as favorites in the activity feed. This is such valuable feedback! I try to make sure that my featured items are also never on the first page of items. That's just wasting advertising space.

Aynsley English Bouquet Earrings by GeneralWhimsy2

I assume that once an item is listed, it'll be buried in a few hours. While it's tempting to assume that something is wrong with the item, don't. It's probably not the photo or the pricing. they probably just haven't seen it. (Assuming you've got great photos and reasonable prices)

Royce Enamel Pocket Watch by VintageinBloom

For my customers that are Etsy sellers (the crowd that tends to browse more), I rearrange the shop often. And every night before I go to bed I relist 4-5 items for that International crowd that is just starting their day. I never deactivate items unless something is wrong. Why waste your listing fee? Rotate in a new photo, but don't bother deactivating it.

Vintage Chip & Dip Set by thecreekhouse

Now obviously this is just my interpretation of the Google numbers. Use yours. Look at the Etsy stats. Figure out who you're primarily selling to. This isn't hard-it's fairly safe to assume that hip vintage clothing isn't being gobbled up by the generation that had to wear it! People tend not to appreciate the decades that they lived through. (Meaning, it's hard for me to appreciate the late 1970's & 80's) Keep your shop fresh and the sales will follow!