Comments on: Selling in an Antique Mall: Rule #1

By: Carol

Carol — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 04:13:10 +0000

I’ve been reading your wonderful e-book, which I downloaded yesterday. I can see both sides of this issue. I’m leaning toward following your advice and making EVERYTHING for sale. I totally “get” not wanting to part with those special pieces that are so useful for display, but as a customer, I’ve also felt the irritation of looking at the tag on a very cool piece and seeing “NFS”. It does have a psychological effect of making you not want to buy anything from that person!

By: joyce

joyce — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 07:41:10 +0000

I agree. I’ve been asking the dealers at my mall to try to make *everything* for sale…if it’s a piece that is hard to replace, then it’s certainly OK to price it accordingly. In the past I had dealers who would make all the larger items in their booth NFS, and I would watch the customers look at the tag and get ticked. Much better to keep the customers happy, and when those pieces sell, the sure make the check great!!

By: sue

sue — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:34:08 +0000

Ouch. This came up just last weekend in my booth. Since I have no shelving, I needed a large piece with shelves. About 6 months ago, I found a perfect chippy hutch at a reasonable price, so put it in the booth with a pricetag on it: “Not For Sale or $800.” My logic was that if a buyer wants it that badly, they’ll need to pay. The price for me losing a valuable fixture and having to find another dirt-cheap replacement is, yes, 16X what I paid for it. A decorator came in last weekend saying I should change it to “NFS”, but I stuck with the price. In general, I totally agree with you, however; it irks me when a cute but expendable/easily replaceable item isn’t for sale. Another exception I’d make would be a signature piece that makes your booth memorable.