How do antique stores stay open?
Summary: The discussion explores how antique stores manage to stay open despite low sales and items sitting unsold for years. quadcitypickers notes that many pieces in antique malls are overpriced compared to online options. Participants suggest reasons such as owners renting booth spaces at low profit margins, using stores as storage, or running them as hobbies. Some propose that online sales complement physical stores. Additionally, there's a consideration that some might serve as money laundering fronts, although this is speculative. Overall, opinions vary on the sustainability and purpose behind these antique businesses.
I love looking around at them but I cannot figure how they stay open.
I take pictures of random areas, and see that a lot of stuff has been for sale for over 5 years!
Some stuff has been for sale so long, the ink has faded on the tags. Not printer ink, but from a regular ball point pen, which according to chatGPT takes a solid 7-10 years to start visibly fading.
I can go sometimes and be the only person in there. I'm not talking a tiny antique store either, but an antique MALL full of 100+ dealers.
I know people who just sell from antique booths, and they buy at auctions like their stuff will sell out tomorrow but when you go and see their booths, you realize that isn't the case.
Just doesn't make sense that most of the stuff is not really priced to sell, and no one seems to be in a rush to sell anything.
I collect stuff and can use google lens, half the time I can buy it on eBay for 25-50% less.
inhawaii
·1 month ago · EditedI've never given it much thought .... as I don't own a antique store.
luckythewinner
·1 month ago · EditedI have some listing on my eBay accounts that have been there for 10 years.
Other listings sell within days of being listed.
I have still other listings I have in large quantity (100s of copies) that sell a few times every month.
I stay open because the total activity on my account makes me money every month.
hollywoodblond
·1 month agoIt's called retirement the golden years sit in your junk shop and wait.
kensgiftshop
·1 month agoWe have a store in town and hardly ever see anyone in there.
They have some items setting out front that I know has been there 25 years.
a_c_green
·1 month agoFor antique malls, I think the monthly rental probably encourages non-sellers to give up and move on after a year or so. Places I visit once a year on vacation seem to have a fair percentage of new stuff in there that I did not see last year.
For one-owner antique stores, though, I often wonder how they can sit in their own stuff day after day without going quietly insane.
gurlcat
·1 month agoOMG I can barely stand seeing an eBay listing sit for more than 3 months.
gurlcat
·1 month ago · EditedWhen I'm at one of my favorite antique stores here in Mobile, I can hear the owner's phone making the eBay 'CHING!' sale notification quite often, like maybe every 15 minutes or so.
I asked him about it once, and he has a simple formula: If it's smaller/lighter than a toaster and worth at least $40, he lists it on eBay and pulls it from the sales floor as soon as it sells. He was originally an eBay-only seller, then expanded to include larger items (listed on Craigslist only). Then one day he realized everything he had could potentially sell itself without shipping or meet-ups with frequent frustrating no-shows, if he just leased a store which wasn't terribly higher cost than what he was paying for his storage units. Something like a chair or lamp may take years to sell, but at least people can use their own gas to come see it and haul it away, while all the high-value small items pay all the bills plus ample profit, whether they sell on eBay or to local customers.
I am green with envy every time I go there; I would LOVE that life! And since it's a business not really essential to the community, if he ever feels like closing an hour early or going on a fishing trip for a week, he just does it!
adamcartwright
·1 month agoVery cool story. Good for him.
squinkercat59
·1 month agoI have several booths and showcases in a large mall in a moderately-sized city. I do very well, in fact well enough I can slack off on the eBay when I have other things to do. In general, the store's total sales have been up every month vs. the previous year for several years now. Maybe it just depends on local competition and/or availability.
adamcartwright
·1 month agoThat means you must be selling great stuff at good prices.
Glad to hear that.
pickapaper
·1 month agoI'm in the same position you are in, i.e. we have three booths in a huge mall. The rent is expensive but sales are good and increase every year. We sell a lot of little stuff there (both size-wise and inexpensive) and we can sell stuff there that doesn't sell on eBay, in fact I've taken things off eBay that have been listed for a long time and haven't sold and took them to the mall and they've sold. The only downside of the mall is that it is huge and most people can't go through the whole thing in one trip. And huge also means more competition within the mall.
squinkercat59
·1 month agoI switch things back and forth too, it's nice to have that option. Most of my spaces are right near the front, so they can't be missed. But I have a lot of vintage clothing, higher end jewelry, and other things that are great to sell with their strict no returns policy and big heavy stuff that can't be shipped.
18704d
·1 month ago · EditedAntique stores themselves stay open by selling booth space to people with dreams of big $$$ dollars in their eyes. The antique mall Owners make good money whether those renting booth space break even, make money or not.
I've been in several antique malls as a vendor and it's usually the same. Booths don't do as well, but when they leave, a new person will eagerly rent the space hoping to make money.
Opinions will vary. And also the owners of antique malls get the people coming in from the street with stuff for sale. Just like how a pawn shop has people trying to unload stuff quickly. I've made money people just walking in the door of the antique mall I rented from... when the owner(s) behind the desk wasn't interested in whatever the person had brought in.. I was offered a chance. I've bought many profitable items that way.
But all in all, I don't think even 1/4 of all the booth renters made any money at all in their boothes.
gurlcat
·1 month ago · EditedA local friend of mine rents a booth and says even though it doesn't earn her much profit, her rent is less than she would pay for the same cubic footage at the cheapest storage facility in town ( <- there's one of the most overpriced businesses in America, if you ask me).
And once in a while she does sell one of her 'bigs,' and spends the money on something nice for herself or her kids. It's definitely not what she relies on for bills, just fun 'extra' income that is definitely more passive than what we do here.
adamcartwright
·1 month agoLight bulb moment -- smart!
gurlcat
·1 month agoThere is one caveat, something she learned the hard way: unless you pay for the (much more expensive) locked glass cabinet shelving, anything small enough to go into a pocket or purse probably will do exactly that. Now think about the size of some purses out there. 🤣
adamcartwright
·1 month agoYIKES
I've had that happen at garage sales, too.
People can be so rotten.
pickapaper
·1 month ago@gurlcat
We own one of those facilities (a very small one) and the taxes and insurance eat us alive and we are in a small town. Those mega facilities probably do okay because of volume but it's not a huge profit business for us.
adamcartwright
·1 month agoI've wondered that, myself.
I know many of us enjoy wandering around antique malls and shops, but I rarely purchase because the prices are often inflated.
Last time I was in one, the salesgirl said a team from Replacements had swept through the day before and purchased a ton of stuff from different booths. As I recall, she said they negotiated the prices way down.
gurlcat
·1 month agoWow, now I'm curious about how Replacements operates. I've never noticed if they ship from just one centralized location (like a big warehouse), or what. But if they're sourcing by having "teams" go out and shop/buy things, I would imagine they'd dry up everything within a geographic radius fairly quickly. So maybe they have multiple regional warehouses? Pretty clever business model, if that's the case.
mamacassidy
·1 month agoI am also curious. I have sold a few different dishes on ebay, and each time I look them up on Replacements, they are WAY more expensive than the same items on ebay. I'm actually surprised that place is still buying inventory.
adamcartwright
·1 month ago · EditedPeople have more trust in Replacements than eBay, I think because they're under the illusion that Replacements stuff is new.
I was looking at the site the other day and saw they represent their obviously used merch as being in excellent condition.
Whereas, here on eBay, many of us are afraid to represent something as being in excellent condition, even if it is, because the buyers will find a loose thread or whatever and make the kind of fuss that they wouldn't dare make with a purchase from a big company.
adamcartwright
·1 month ago · EditedI looked into selling some Villeroy & Boch to them awhile back, but found out how little they pay. I'd rather sell on eBay or keep the stuff.
Now for something in higher demand than Villeroy & Boch, maybe they'd pay a lot more.
P.S. According to Google, they operate out of one massive warehouse in NC -- 500,000 square feet.
gurlcat
·1 month ago · EditedWow, but you saw team folk buying up stuff on the opposite end of the continent, in SoCal? So now I wonder how THAT works. Do NC resident employees fly around the country for shopping excursions, or do they recruit, train, and pay people long-distance, to shop for them in their own locales?
adamcartwright
·1 month agoGood question.
When I looked into selling to them, the shipping was an out of pocket expense for me, plus they can reject the item after receiving it for some picky reason, and then you're screwed. I can't remember the options in that case, but none of them were good.
I came away thinking I'd rather use my china as a dog bowl or whatever than deal with them.
gurlcat
·1 month ago · EditedFancy Feast Ding ding ding!
EDIT: Whoa -I went to find a Fancy Feast photo, and got sucked into the rabbit hole of the brand's Wikipedia article. First of all, the photo is of a cat eating it from a Walmart Great Value paper plate.
Then I read the article -apparently they got busted in 2014 for sourcing fish from slave labor operations in Asia. Also there's an ongoing class action suit against them, regarding their 'all natural' claim (who'd believe that in the first place??? 😆). And did you know they have produced an annual Fancy Feast Christmas ornament since 1984?? I sure didn't!
chapeau-noir
·1 month agoMy cousin's dog once ate the paper plate along with the table scraps on it.
arraus
·1 month ago · EditedIt's their business. Maybe it's their hobby? Maybe they're just not good at selling? Or, they're focusing on more profitable sales and letting those sit. Maybe they bought the building a long time ago or rent doesn't cost much. I have warehouses all around mind that the owners bought when real estate was cheap. They use $300k units as storage.
So, we'll never know how or why. I'm sure the reasons vary, depending on the store and owner.
Many of these antique hoarders eventually end up being liquidation estate sales. Great for resellers!!!
I have my own "death pile" of decent stuff. If anyone wants to come buy it all and resell, I'd be open to offers. Maybe just give them an offer to buy bulk (but you probably won't get the deal if you try to cherry pick, just take all).
Good luck and happy reselling!!
1786davycrockett
·1 month ago"How do antique stores stay open?"
Many simply don't.
Perhaps 80% (and probably more) of the antique stores which my wife and I have frequented over the past 40 years have disappeared -- either the owners have died, or given up, or retired, or moved on-line.
Same with all the used book stores which I've browsed since the mid-1960s -- all but a small handful are gone for one reason or another.
If buyers don't have money for rent, food and clothes, most aren't willing to blow it out on items found in antique stores -- and, gradually, the ones that are still open will start closing their doors, as well.
chapeau-noir
·1 month agoPeople still collect, they spend money on hobbies, but the hobbies have changed. I know that beyond my newspaper collecting hobby, I'd rather spend my money on experiences.
mamacassidy
·1 month agoThere are still quite a few in my area. I know a couple of people who think that the stuff that was once valuable to them or their family is still valuable and they are not willing to just "give it away". So they pay these monthly booth fees like paying for a storage unit so they don't feel the guilt of throwing away the old junk.
The antique store will continue to take their money as long as they're willing to pay it. And once they can't pay anymore, their children will be the ones who have to clean it out.
One of my uncles recently had a huge yard sale where he priced everything at $1. He was serious about clearing out a house full of stuff. Every single relative over the age of 50 would not stop saying they couldn't believe he was just "giving" this stuff away!
adamcartwright
·1 month agoRelatives should have bought his stuff if they cared about it so much.
mamacassidy
·1 month agoLOL, all their houses are already too full of the junk they won't get rid of!
chapeau-noir
·1 month agoHe's not related to me, that's for sure! I would have told him in the last hour of the sale to start selling it off at a buck a bag lol.
caldreamer
·1 month agoOwner makes his money by "renting space" and doesn't care whether anything sells.
In California majority of antique shops have closed. I believe many are just selling items online to avoid high rental costs.
mozartbach1971
·1 month agoIt's possible they sell some of their items online or if they find something real valuable they consign it to an auction house or sell it to other dealers or collectors they know.
hartungcards
·1 month ago · EditedThe owners have a key to the front door, they can just unlock it and turn the lights on. The place pretty much stays open on its own until they turn the lights off and lock the door.
caseypl
·1 month agoIt's possible these are money laundering fronts.
redmodelt
·1 month agoI have seen booths at antique stores that the items in it had been in them more then 5 years! I wonder the same thing. But on the other hand, there are items on eBay that may have been on the platform that long.
If the store is collecting a percentage of the sale and no rent, then like eBay, those items could sit there virtually forever.