Thrifstore Item To Look For: Vintage Buttons

Lizzie and I love to share with you what we know about selling on line. We love to expand our horizons and learn about new items to find. We sell a lot of toys, clothes, shoes, books, dvd’s, etc. Here’s a niche that is completely different than what we’re into. I think it’s very interesting. My friend Shannon, who also blogs about her eBay and Etsy adventures agreed to share with us what she looks for in buttons and how she sells them.  We hope you enjoy this post as much as we did.  Thanks Shannon for sharing this niche with us!

(Buffed celluloid button)

Vintage buttons and notions are definitely a great niche for online sellers. You can often buy tins, jars and sewing boxes full of supplies for one price and then ‘part’ them out and sell in smaller lots.

I first got started selling vintage buttons a few years ago. I purchased a button tin at an estate and thought,

“Sewing supplies. I bet I could sell this on Etsy to crafters”.

A few months later, I started going through it and I was hooked. I have had the most success with vintage buttons but I’ve also sold the trim, ribbons, thread, pincushions, etc included in the button lots I’ve purchased. Here are some materials and types of buttons I look for: Materials *Bakelite: an early plastic used widely in the 1920s-1940s for a lot of things, not just buttons.

(carved Bakelite and metal button)

Test for Bakelite using either Formula 409 or Simichrome polish. Put some 409 or Simichrome polish on a Q-tip and rub on the button. The Q-tip will turn yellow if the button is Bakelite. Look for large, carved coat buttons. *Early plastics: Besides Bakelite, there are also casein, lucite and celluloid buttons *Mother of Pearl: Not really pearl, obviously, but made from the iridescent inner shell layer of certain mollusks. Look for large, carved buttons. *Other materials include: glass, wood, leather, metal, vegetable ivory, rubber and china. There is a large market for cut steel buttons. Large or uniquely designed buttons are generally the best sellers.

(red glass faceted buttons)

Types *Figurals or realistics Buttons made in the shape of real items such as flowers, animals, faces, you name it. They can be made from a variety of materials. There are many collectors for these types of buttons. *Uniform buttons History buffs are interested in metal uniform buttons from military, police, fire department and other uniforms. *Carved Look for large (1 ½-2 inches) examples in a variety of materials. *Sparkly, rhinestone Can be set in plastic or glass or metal. People love their bling and buttons are no exception! There really is no end to the variety and mix of materials of vintage buttons. You can buy vintage buttons at estate sales, yard sales, antique stores, flea markets, even on Ebay itself. Purchase large lots and then break them down into singles or smaller lots either by material or color. Often the sale of just a few buttons will recover the cost of an entire lot.

(brass picture button)

Go ahead and buy a button tin. You’ll see why I got hooked!

Find Shannon on eBay or Etsy.

Post from the Past~Motivate yourself~Have a listing party!

Photo credit: mensatic from morguefile.com
Need an extra boost to get some listings done?  Boxes, bins and bags of inventory sitting around the house?

Throw yourself an eBay  (or Etsy) listing party and get ‘er done

Here’s how:

*Organize your inventory to be listed by similar items.

*Take pictures of 15-20 items and get them loaded and ready to go.

*Pick a day and time to focus on your listings.

*Turn some of your favorite music on.

*Have your favorite beverage sitting on the desk. (Chai, Coffee, Cider, Hot Cocoa, Water, whatever you prefer.)

*Put on a pair of cozy sweats or your favorite outfit.

*Log off of facebook ( )

*Start listing your items, (listing similar items back to back saves time.)

*Reward yourself for reaching your listing goal.

This is also a lot of fun if you have a few friends who sell online too, you can challenge each other on that day to see who got the most listings done.

Usually, when I don’t feel motivated to list and I make myself get started, after the second listing, I thinki, “This is going so quickly, I don’t know why I ever put it off in the first place.”

Online Selling Tip of the Week

Something that I’ve found to be very helpful to me this year is logging in all of my receipts for business purchases bi-weekly.

This way, when January rolls around and I’m ready to do my taxes, it’s not a huge process of finding receipts, logging them in, sorting them, etc.
Last year, it took me HOURS to get it all done, receipts were missing, and I also found some receipts a few weeks after I had filed my taxes.  This way, I’m one step ahead of the game.

I usually sit down every other Wednesday and pull out all of the receipts that are in my wallet and toss out any that I don’t need.  Then I log in my eBay and piano related receipts, and file them away when I’m done.  It takes about 10 minutes twice a month.

I love it because not only do I get my receipts logged in and filed away, but I’m also cleaning out my purse and wallet for this process, so I feel SUPER productive getting it all done at the same time.

Summer Time

This is the last week of my school year teaching schedule.  Next week, starts my summer schedule, and I’ll be teaching piano lessons all day Tuesday and Wednesday during the summer.  I can’t wait!!!

We already have a playdate set up to go swimming with some friends on Monday.  We also have swimming lessons and violin lessons on the schedule for this summer.

Normally, I’m on vacation the first few weeks of June, but Lizzie and I have a nephew that is due to be born at the end of August, so we’re waiting to take our vacation till then.  It’s already starting to get hot here, so we’ll be setting up our backyard pool this week.

Over the summer, I plan to get completely caught up on my eBay listings with the help of my eBay assistant.  I also plan to explore selling on a few other online selling venues that have been recommended to me.  I figure, now’s the time to get them set up so I’m ready for this Christmas shopping season.

I’ve also been doing well with a few of my items on Etsy, so while I have more time over the summer, I plan to get some more Etsy projects made and listed.

What are you doing this summer?

Why I Love stamps.com

There are so many reasons why I ♥ stamps.com. There’s not enough room in this post for me to list them all for you, so I’ll just list a few for you today and save the rest for another time.

Using stamps.com is quick and easy!

Personally, I only use it for my international packages.  It’s so much faster than filling out customs forms, and standing in line at the Post Office.  Even though eBay now offers 1st Class International shipping as an option, you still have to print out the customs form separately.  With stamps.com the customs form prints out as part of the label and you have one label to stick on your package.  It’s so handy.

stamps.com can be open and running at the same time that eBay is open on your browser, which means that I can be getting a shipping label set up to ship another item on eBay while my stamps.com label is printing out.  I am HUGE on time savers and multi tasking so, this is a great benefit for me.

stamps.com doesn’t give you the option to pay for postage via paypal, but if you use your paypal debit card to pay for postage, it’s the same as paying for it with your paypal account

stamps.com is a great way to send out international items that are purchased on other selling venues besides eBay.  You can manually enter a buyers shipping address, which means you can use stamps.com for items you sell on Etsy, addoway, bonanza and any other online selling venue you currently sell on.

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