# Had a great sales weekend!



## michaelpugh (Dec 31, 2013)

My wife and I have two flea market booths that we sell furniture and signs in that we make from reclaimed lumber. Mostly pine and some cedar. Anyway, we've really just started putting some nicer looking pieces with bigger price tags in our booths and so far it's been great!

























We sold all three of these pieces this weekend. I know they're simple projects but still very exciting for us. The table was $450, coffee table was $250, and the trunk was $175. I paid $25 for the base I made the coffee table out of. The lumber was all free. So we have labor and some screws and glue in it.


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## schnitz (Sep 5, 2009)

Nice! While you had money coming in, I had some going out. I did have sales from a couple of my fall decor pumpkins ($35) but I went to an auction today. I'm out $6, but I'm sure I'll recoup that by next week. Besides, I've now got 3 truckloads of material, and a lead on selling $100 worth of pine 1 by 6's.


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## michaelpugh (Dec 31, 2013)

Do you have a booth also?


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## schnitz (Sep 5, 2009)

michaelpugh said:


> Do you have a booth also?


Nope. I rely on word of mouth "network" sales from coworkers and neighbors, my Etsy store (in which a co-worker & couple of friends pushed me to open), and I've got a guy at a resale shop that sells for me (since I buy from him). That is the sales outlet that works best for me, currently. I get bargain-basement material prices, and he gets customers that see something old remade.


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## schnitz (Sep 5, 2009)

Total recoup of costs now sits at a positive $44 for my time at the auction. I sold 5 pieces of wood that were likely Connor Toys puzzles that never got cut out for $50. Seems like I might be onto something good, for once!


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## schnitz (Sep 5, 2009)

Here's a shot of those 5 uncut puzzles I mentioned. Not sure what I would have done with them otherwise. Also, I think I'm on the plus even more with the sale of a pair of electric baseboard-style heaters. I also sold a small slab of former baseboard that I mounted a single coat hook on at the resale shop--all the while gaining a ~5' length of 100+ year old barn wood. That length of wood looks soooo cool that I may just hang it on my wall and call it art!


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## MidGAOutdoor (Apr 7, 2011)

michaelpugh, all my flea market adventures seem to go bust. not sure if its prices are too low and they think its junk or its the target audience. as in folks looking for something for nothing. very nice work.


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## Da Aardvark (Oct 11, 2012)

I've considered flea markets but after going to a few and seeing their pricing points on items, I'm not in that league.
I'm too high priced.
My coffee tables, for example start at $550 and go up to around $1500. They are choice live edged slabs of hardwoods with special featuring and graining (the high end are burl) and generally coated with 3 coats of epoxy followed by a finish to tone down the gloss to a semi gloss. I doubt anyone would pay my beginning price point, let alone the high end and I won't give my pieces away for less. So no room for price haggling. 

Flea markets are out, since the customers are not looking or able to buy high end products. Maybe I'm second guessing this, but that is my observation.
I've had some pieces in art studios and gotten pretty good response but most sales are word of mouth or folks coming over to my house and seeing products in a home setting.

Examples of my stuff below.

www.gnarlywooddesigns.weebly.com


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## michaelpugh (Dec 31, 2013)

Da Aardvark said:


> I've considered flea markets but after going to a few and seeing their pricing points on items, I'm not in that league.
> I'm too high priced.
> My coffee tables, for example start at $550 and go up to around $1500. They are choice live edged slabs of hardwoods with special featuring and graining (the high end are burl) and generally coated with 3 coats of epoxy followed by a finish to tone down the gloss to a semi gloss. I doubt anyone would pay my beginning price point, let alone the high end and I won't give my pieces away for less. So no room for price haggling.
> 
> ...



I would definitely agree that your products are too high end for the flea market crowd. I'm able to price and sell there because I am building from reclaimed pine that I get for free. The only investment I have in my pieces is glue, poly and or paint and our time. I usually build and my wife finishes.


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## Burb (Nov 30, 2012)

Sounds like a great weekend. I noticed you're in Fayetteville. Did you have a booth at the annual War Eagle event? We went a few years ago and that place was crazy. It was actually too much for my wife to absorb, though I enjoyed it. 

My wife's first craft fair is next Sat at out church craft fair. In hind sight, I should have planned to sell stuff at it with her but since I go out of town tomorrow am and don't get back until late Friday, I guess I'll skip this one.


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## michaelpugh (Dec 31, 2013)

We've really been picking up lately and it's been exciting. We haven't done war eagle yet. There is another big one in bentonville the same weekend and I plan on doing it in the future but right now we are remodeling. So between remodeling and keeping up with our booths (and working a full time job) I stay pretty busy


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## Da Aardvark (Oct 11, 2012)

Well, I agree that what I sell isn't fitted for the flea markets.
Glad your doing well with sales.


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## VIFmike (Jul 21, 2012)

You guys need to look further in Etsy. It takes a little while for an Etsy shop to take off but it can be quite profitable once you get some views and start getting favorited by others. I quit my job to do it full time and I now work 7 days a week on it.


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## Belg (Oct 2, 2011)

VIFmike said:


> You guys need to look further in Etsy. It takes a little while for an Etsy shop to take off but it can be quite profitable once you get some views and start getting favorited by others. I quit my job to do it full time and I now work 7 days a week on it.


Whats your Etsy store's name


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## Travico (Dec 25, 2012)

I say you all got the Market Cornered!!!!!


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## Wyteness (Jan 6, 2016)

That's fantastic. I have heard the flea is great from reclaimed wood projects. I've been considering trying it out this coming summer.


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## VIFmike (Jul 21, 2012)

Belg said:


> Whats your Etsy store's name




https://www.etsy.com/shop/Vintagesteelandwood


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