Transcript of The Auction Wally Show - Podcast #15
Aired 4/8/2008
More info: http://www.auctionwally.com
INTRO MUSIC
WALT: Hello, this is Walt Kolenda, aka AuctionWally and you’re listening to Episode 15 of The Auction Wally Show. I apologize for that guitar mess. Something got dubbed and over-dubbed and you heard about ten layers of an acoustic train wreck there. Today I’m very happy to be introducing someone I found online. And that is Gabreial from VintageIndie.typepad.com. Did I get that all right there Gabreial?
GABREIAL: That’s correct.
WALT: Hello and welcome to the show. How are you?
GABREIAL: I’m great. Thanks for having me.
WALT: Great, great. So I found you online through a mutual friend Mitsy Swisher, at http://vintagegoodness.blogspot.com . Can you tell me a little bit about how you’re involved with Mitsy? Now, you’re a moderator on an Etsy blog, is that right? Can you tell me about that?
GABREIAL: I’m actually a team leader for the Etsy Vintage Street Team that she’s a part of. We met through there and she is also a member at http://vintagepulse.com and that is a vintage community.
WALT: That’s VintagePulse.com?
GABREIAL: Yes sir.
WALT: What I’m going to do for the folks listening, is later on this evening, or probably tomorrow, we’ll post the show notes. And we’ll have links to places like Vintage Pulse and the other places we talk about. So, the reason I asked you on the show Gabreial is, not only through a suggestion of Mitsy’s, but I stumbled over to your site after she suggested it and I was just so impressed. How the heck did you get your blog to look like that? I’ve been working on mine so much and I can never seem to get it the way I want it. You have such an attractive-looking blog. Do you do all your code yourself? Or do you do all your blog work yourself?
GABREIAL: Well first of all, thank you very much. My graphic designer, her name is Casey and she’s with Elegant Musings, her link can be found on Vintage Indie. But her creative mind, put together with some of my ideas just created the new look for Vintage Indie for this year. And from there it just kind of took off.
WALT: Excellent, excellent. Did you work with her to tell her a verbal translation of what you wanted and she kind of put it into graphics? Is that how it worked?
GABREIAL: That’s absolutely correct. Most of the coding and stuff is fairly easy on TypePad. I pretty much taught myself how to create the sponsor bars and all the different things there. But as far as the image, design and logo that was pretty much a collaboration. And she is a dream to work with.
WALT: Great. Let’s see, I’ve got like ten windows open here at once. This new technology makes it so easy to be difficult! The other thing that I had wanted to talk to you about, by the way I love your tagline too - “Vintage Indie, modern life, vintage perspective”. I was very interested in your site, obviously I was attracted to it visually, but I’m always pining and whining about how I don’t see enough younger people coming into the auction business and the antiques business. I started out years ago as a picker, and anyone that’s heard me before is probably sick of this story, but they’re going to hear it again because that’s the way I am. When I was around the auction hall there was always a dozen, twenty people, young people that were looking to make some part-time money. They would be loaders and they were always anxious to learn the business and get into it more because there was always an extra buck to be made for someone that was interested in working. Now I’m just not seeing the younger folks being interested in the hobby or the business as much anymore. And sites like yours are great because you know they bring modern life and put a vintage perspective on it, exactly like your tagline says. And I think it’s so important to bring the young people in to the hobby and the business. But also I wanted to segway that into something I saw on the sidebar on the left here. And I think this is a great way to bring people into this business is to put an emphasis on green and eco-living. You’ve got a link here vintage/ecoliving. What can you tell me about that?
GABREIAL: I like to call that Vintage Green. And a lot of times when I do features about Vintage Green the idea of it is that you can re-use things like old pyrex and things and bring them everyday into
I love the idea that you can go and shop for old pyrex pieces and glassware and just hundreds of different things and give them new life in your home and pass them on instead of creating waste with paper products and Styrofoam, things that you don’t need. I had a guest on here called May December Homes and she’s actually from Canada. And she creates items with old shelving, refrigerators, dishes, refrigerator drawers, racks and doors. I love the idea that you can create a functional piece using vintage components. Another huge thing about Vintage Indie is that’s very important.
WALT: We call those in the antiques world a marriage. You’ll see somebody bring an old dresser bottom with a bookshelf top, and they’re just fantastic. I always thought there was a great market for somebody with a little more talent than I had. I love antiques and collectibles but I was never really very interested in working with my hands. But I always admired somebody that could take the bottom of a chest of drawers that would absolutely be wrecked and turn it into something totally new. In the world of the purist, that’s kind of a “no-no”. You know, they’re like “It doesn’t hold its’ value”, but now a lot of those people are seeing that it has a totally different kind of value. You can market it to people that may have never otherwise come in the business and people that are interested in creating absolutely new things, maybe things that weren’t even invented before, from vintage collectibles and antiques. Is that kind of where you go with the vintage green thing?
GABREIAL: Yeah, I agree. I think that things can become art and not only function pieces but you can also create art out of vintage components and I just think that’s amazing.
WALT: It is. I have a friend of mine that does mosaics out of crushed china. And you can really see all the old patterns like Blue Willow and Mulberry or Roseville but they’re ruined, they’ve got a tough break on them, they’re absolutely smashed. And I’m like, geez, what a shame to see that go to waste.
GABREIAL: Oh, I know.
WALT: Now I’ve got somebody that is happy to take it and turn it into a table top or jewelry or something really cool. I think that’s great too.
GABREIAL: I’ve actually seen some Easter eggs in the old china teacups. Kind of like the Faberge eggs made out of broken china. I saw some of those this year.
WALT: Going along that line, I followed the link to vintage/green ecoliving and there’s a site “Pitter Patter”, or is that the name of the artist? What’s that? So go ahead and explain and I’ll tell you why I’m interested in that specifically.
GABREIAL: It’s PitterPainter actually.
WALT: I’m sorry.
GABREIAL: That’s okay. PitterPainter is actually a shop on Etsy.com and when I was just looking around and searching different things I was impressed and excited about the fact that they use old books and recycle them into something functional and new. That’s just somebody that I found in my searches that I do for Vintage Indie.
WALT: Great. I can see we’ve got some listeners and people in the chat room so for those of you that have joined us, the site I am referencing is http://vintageindie.typepad.com. And if you go down on her left side, side bar you’ll see a link there about halfway down under the headline “Featured Sponsor” indicated as Vintage/Green EcoLiving. And I clicked on that and it came up to a great little post about PitterPainter there. And how would we find her? Would we go to Etsy? Or PitterPainter.com?
GABREIAL: You can actually click right there in the post. It says bookish coasters from PitterPainter. Or you can search at http://Etsy.com and search Pitter Painter under usernames.
WALT: Excellent. Great. So why I was interested in this particular post is those of you that have been following me a little bit know that I’m somewhat of an antique book enthusiast. I bought out the contents of a bookstore in Gardner, MA about a year ago now. And I’ve got about half of them left. There were about 400,000 books to pick from. My wife and I ended up cleaning out about 20,000 of them that we took. We had an antique book auction with about 1,000 books and so obviously that leaves us with a lot of books left. Well when you do a job like that there’s an awful lot that you just shove into boxes. You might not take them in the first place but time is of the essence and you want to get the job done. So naturally a lot of the books that were there were damaged or semi-damaged and I’ve just got some old, beautiful gold-gilt covered books and books that are absolutely great that a book purist wouldn’t touch unless they needed a filler copy. But I haven’t got the heart to throw them away because there’s so much work in the covers themselves. Are you familiar with anybody that, besides these coasters, have you ever seen altered books before?
GABREIAL: There’s actually a lot of different altered books and different projects. There’s paintings and collages and all sorts of things on Etsy that use altered books. Actually, right now I’d have to say that I have quite a nice stack of vintage books. It doesn’t matter what they are, I really like the design, color and the book cover of them. Just using them as a decorative piece.
WALT: Right, right. Some of those are just absolutely fantastic. And as I’ve said, if they have some damage inside the book or if it’s ex-library or something like that the purists won’t touch them but again, there’s a great value in the other work that went into the books. What I’m also thinking is, do you find that a lot of people or anybody is selling the old lithographs or the old block print engravings or the wood cuts in any of these older books as works of art or as materials for vintage projects?
GABREIAL: I’ve actually seen them both. I’ve seen the, not sure what they’re called, they kind of look like stencils, the blocks I guess. I’ve seen those and I’ve seen artwork created from those. Different tags and all kinds of things actually.
WALT: Right. Let’s see, I’ve got some people in the chat room here that are talking about altered books. Jill R. says “Oh, please don’t throw them out. There are a lot of altered book people. I have hopes of actually being one”. So, I’ll try to get my links up. I’m just not quick enough to chat and talk on the phone as some people are like Dana Crawford, she’s got like ten things going on at once, a hundred listeners live! Anyways, if they want to find me they can go to http://www.Auction Wally.com and I also have a blog called http://myweekonebay.wordpress.com but mostly I’m at Auction Wally.com. And they can reach Gabreial at http://vintageindie.typepad.com and bear with me folks, I will have links and show notes up in about a day.
Cadaba asks, “I’m uneducated, what is an altered book?”. Gabreial would like you to explain that. I know you kind of went over it but she’s kind of totally at a loss as to what it is.
GABREIAL: My perception of an altered book would be completely taking a book and using it from the inside out, every part of it to create a collage or an art piece. I’ve seen a lot of journals, a lot of book covers filled with recycled paper, rebound, hand bound to create a new book, a note book, an address book. I’ve seen all kinds of things done with it. Another huge thing that I’ve seen a lot of lately is a lot of people take the old books and use the pages as the backgrounds for photographs. If you have a piece of jewelry or something, use the pages. A lot of text, old French text is something people use. I think it’s basically altering the book, giving it a new life, giving it new purpose and not just throwing it out in the trash which is very bad.
WALT: Right. That’s a great way to describe it. My daughter had actually gotten me interested in altered books and got me to stop ditching a lot of the old covers. I’ve been in the business for 25+ years and I’m like, what’s an altered book? And so I went to look into what she was talking about. I’ve seen them before. They’ve been doing this for years. They used to do it with old poetry books. In the business I always called them scrapbooks. But they weren’t pure scrapbooks. They would actually take a beautiful book of Longfellow’s poems and rip the pages out or paste over the pages and put completely their own. She says, “well that’s an altered book”. Oh, we always called them scrapbooks. But I guess they’re not because a scrapbook. Or they could be, but they’re not necessarily so.
GABREIAL: Right. I also wanted to mention on Vintage Indie I have a little section called “What you make of it” and there’s a tutorial there called Japanese binding and you can get on there and it has a whole tutorial how to make a book with the book covers and things.
WALT: I’m sorry, could you say the name of that again?
GABREIAL: It’s called Japanese Stab Binding.
WALT: Japanese Stab Binding? That’s very interesting.
GABREIAL: And that is a weekly common. It’s this whole thing where you can just create a book, take this idea and create a journal like I was talking about, with an old book cover.
WALT: If you can’t find that now you can just send a link for the show notes. Getting back to your blog, http://vintageindie.typepad.com , I see that you’ve got something up there called Glitter and Grunge. Is that music? Glitter and music?
GABREIAL: No. It’s a store. It’s actually my featured sponsor for this month. And it’s a collaboration of different artists. That make handmade gifts and collectibles and exclusive pieces.
WALT: Oh okay. I didn’t know if you had like Eddie Vetter on there or something doing crafts.
GABREIAL: No! (laughing) That’s actually the name of the store.
WALT: Very cool. I’m a Pearl Jam fan so I kind of got excited, what’s this all about , they got Eddie on Etsy? Well that’s neat too.
So I do auctions, obviously Auction Wally, I’m a live auctioneer and it’s my busy season coming up so I’ll be doing Appraisal Days and onsite Estate Auctions and events like that. From fall to spring I kind of tuck myself inside the house and I blog and do eBay primarily. But about three months ago I got myself on Etsy because I had heard a lot about it. I made a couple of sales. I haven’t done much with it yet. But one of the things I was impressed with was the sense of community. Every network and every sales venue has their own niche and eBay has been trying for years to try to create some sense of community. They have eBay groups and they have discussion boards and forums. But nothing has seemed to grasp the sense of community that they have been trying to obtain since its existence. And Etsy popped up, I know they don’t have the types of sales that eBay does, but they just sort of popped up and they have a sense of community. It seems like the community took it upon themselves to create a network and a circle of people within itself. Am I right on that?
GABREIAL: Totally. I completely agree with you.
WALT: Can you tell me the group your head of? Now, it’s not a gang right?
GABREIAL: No (laughing). The Etsy Vintage Street Team.
WALT: Etsy Vintage Street Team. Cool.
GABREIAL: You can find out all about the Vintage Street Teams if you click on the community tab and there’s a block that says “teams”. And there are hundreds of teams all over the globe.
WALT: Now what’s the idea of these? What do they do? For people that maybe can’t get there right now, can you sum it up in a nutshell for us what these teams are all about and what they do?
GABREIAL: There’s so many different teams and so many different mediums and artwork and supplies and in my case, vintage. And the teams get together. A lot of them hold craft shows and events and they’re all working together to promote not only their own shops but to promote Etsy. Etsy is really big about advertising by word of mouth. Different teams get together. Some teams have hundreds and hundreds of members. And they get together. They do blogs together. They do events together. Trunk shows.
The Etsy Vintage Street team actually just started out blog. That’s http://etsyvintage.blogspot.com . We just get together and highlight all of our members and our shops. Supporting one another.
WALT: Wow. So you guys have actually gotten together to do live events too?
GABREIAL: We haven’t. Our street team is fairly new. I started this team a few months ago. My goal, I’d absolutely love to have a vintage antiques show or maybe a collaboration of all the different groups. Our members are around 80 right now so we’re just trying to get everything started and put together.
WALT: But the goal is to sometime do live events? And there are some people that have done live events?
GABREIAL: Oh yes, there’s all kinds of craft shows. Mostly handmade. That’s what Etsy is, they promote handmade. We’re very fortunate to be able to sell vintage on Etsy. A lot of people get together to do their craft shows and events. And things like that.
WALT: That’s great. I just want to take a moment to pause here and let everyone know we’ve got quite a few people in the chat room. And a lot of people are new to Blog Talk Radio. And they may think you have to be a member to listen. You don’t. And you don’t have to be a member to call in. So if you want to call in and ask Gabreial a question, or myself a question, feel free to call in. And the phone number to call in is 1-646-378-1561. Blog Talk Radio has been an absolutely great venue to work with. And they do all this, they put the pod cast out there for free. There’s some glitches. It’s new technology . We’ve had some call in problems sometimes when someone calls in and I can see them and I’m clicking but they just can’t get through. But that’s the same with any new technology. They’ve been really great in keeping the site up and keeping it free to use. And it’s very low intrusion policy in terms of advertising and the hoops you have to jump through. I recommend anybody that’s interested in starting a pod cast to go over to http://blogtalkradio.com and check it all out. If you decide to sign up they ask you to run through a little tutorial that’s about half an hour. They have somebody live. They do a call in seminar where you call in and with maybe five or six other people they walk you through it step by step and answer every question just like we’re talking on the phone now. And then you’ll be up and running in about ten or fifteen minutes and everything including the call in numbers and the site and the blog and the chat room is all free to use. As I mentioned, once in a while it can get kind of glitch-y, but overall it’s like 99% spot on. It really works great. So thanks to those guys for that. And you can also subscribe to the show in iTunes. Just look for the Auction Wally show in the iTunes store and you can subscribe to it.
You’ll see a contest on my blog. I’m going to be offering a prize - I offered something last month and a guy named Mike from Pennsylvania won it - a nice collectible package. So if anybody would care to rate me on iTunes, the next three people to rate the show I will send them out a neat collectible package with ephemera, vintage books, some sheet music, something that I found in an estate. I will send out collectible packages to. Now, I’m definitely someone that’s not above bribery, but give an honest opinion of the show. You don’t have to give it a positive rating. You just have to give it a rating. So the next three people that rate the show, email me with your physical address and I will get something right out to you in the mail. Some kind of neat collectibles, okay?
You mentioned that you had started the business with your husband. Does your husband also sell or does he kind of hunt for items? How are you guys involved in it together? What kind of things create your partnership with this?
GABREIAL: Actually our little shop on Etsy, the vintage kitchen, it’s just something we both really enjoy doing. We’re actually going to take a trip on our anniversary. An antique and vintage shop hop is what I like to call it. There’s just certain things that we both like to look for. He’s really into looking for furniture. You know, bigger pieces. And I like more the girlie items. I like the dishes and pyrex and collectibles, things like that. So putting us together is really good. He keeps all this stuff stored in his brain, with the memory that he has. All the dates and the markings on the back. It just amazes me. I just like to look at everything.
WALT: It’s so much fun when you can do it together as a business. My wife and I, for our honeymoon we went to Pennsylvania and we stayed in some nice bed and breakfast’s. And of course we went to shops and I dragged her to a couple of auctions. I was actually quite surprise, I won’t go into it now, I was surprised the way the auctions ran out there. It was quite a bit different than what I’m used to, the Yankee auctions up here. Those guys would pull some tricks that would make your eyes pop out. They took more bids off the walls than they did live people. We didn’t get too much. I’m not trying to gouge Pennsylvania auctions. I’m sure it’s not all of them but the couple that we had happened to go to, did some pretty funky stuff.
You mentioned your husband likes furniture. Is there anything in particular that he likes to look at? Anything that while you’re out does he head right towards the oak or does is there something he really specializes in?
GABREIAL: No, he doesn’t. All I know is it’s usually really big and dark furniture. It’s usually really big and it’s not going to fit anywhere in our house.
WALT: It sounds like a guy thing. Dark, Victorian, mahogany, walnut with marble tops or something like that.
GABREIAL: Yeah, most definitely.
WALT: I really like that stuff too. I like the gothic-looking furniture. It’s funny because furniture right now in the business is as slow as it’s ever been. At least in the auction business. So anybody listening, should absolutely try to get themselves, if they’re going to buy, and they’re looking for furniture, there’s a perfect storm for furniture buyers right now at auctions. And the few things are obviously the economy, prices are down, but then there’s also with all the online selling all the dealers are looking for smalls to sell. So the price of furniture has gone down quite a bit with everybody in the world looking for stuff to resell on eBay and Etsy and other sites, furniture has dropped dramatically. And of course the foreclosure crisis has caused an awful lot of glut of furniture on the market. So if you’re a new couple, just setting up shop, or you’re just getting your first apartment or your first house - there is just no where else you should be except an auction to buy furniture. For a few hundred bucks you can buy more than some people own. And I’m not kidding. Oak chest of drawers that used to bring $350 - 400 are now bringing $7-100 at auction. And the antique shops, they’re not selling anything fast, but they’re holding their prices a little more because they’re more of a retail market. I’m talking specifically about live auctions. An auctioneer does not want to look at a piece twice. I never want to see anything again, unless it’s being re-consigned and I sold it a year ago or something. The kiss of death for an auctioneer is if you to his auction two or three times in a row and you see the same things. People just won’t go back. They want 100% fresh merchandise. That being said, when you get to an auction they are usually willing to sell it at any price. And furniture is taking a beating. So, get out of the retail stores and get to the auctions for furniture.
So I’m looking here at your site and where on the site will I find the link to your Etsy page?
GABREIAL: It’s in the right hand column, under shops of the week. And it’s the Vintage Kitchen.
WALT: The Vintage Kitchen. Okay let’s take a look at that. Oh I know what that is, right up to the right there, jadeite right? The cup and saucer, jadeite cup and saucer?
GABREIAL: Not seeing it, oh yes! My banner. Yes, jadeite.
WALT: Either fireking or anchor hawking? Most likely FireKing.
GABREIAL: Right. It’s not mine though. I wish it was. I really do like jadeite a lot.
WALT: Yeah jadeite’s a great seller. You’ve got some great items here. Five exquisite Haviland, must be Limoges right? I haven’t clicked on it.
GABREIAL: Yes.
WALT: That’s a deal for $45, wow. And some large, light amber decanters. You know what I’m seeing a lot of that you and Misty have, and I’m seeing it at other vintage places…a kind of stoneware - vintage butternut? Butternut McCoy crocks and bowls. And the stoneware, not necessarily McCoy, but the retro ribbed stuff, that’s showing up all over the place. Boy, you guys would have a ball at an antique auction because if you see that stuff go up a lot of times you can get it very, very reasonable. There’s just a new market for it. You’ve got 8 vintage old town, are those pyrex?
GABREIAL: Yes.
WALT: And some neat Kenmore advertising items. Looks like some needle pockets there.
GABREIAL: Like old sewing supplies and stuff like that.
WALT: Right. Johnson Bros. A Very, very nice site. Now, without giving away all your trade secrets, where do you like to shop?
GABREIAL: Most of the time my husband and I like to garage sale. We do go to the Burlington antique show and that’s here in Kentucky. That’s something we like to do on the weekends. But things are a little bit higher priced. But every once in a while, when the day is winding down and the dealers don’t want to pack up their trucks, they’re willing to make some really good deals. We like to go later in the afternoon for that.
WALT: That’s a good call. A lot of time dealers will think you have to be the first one there to get a good buy. But good buys are all over and their all of the time. The good buys usually depend more on your attitude I find, than the actual venues. But if you go later in the day after everyone else has already beat them up and their prices have been laughed at, you go in and be reasonable with them and a lot of times you can get some great items.
GABREIAL: You know what I think is so exciting is that whether you’re in this business to look for the really collectible items or the expensive markings or expensive pieces that you would find at an auction or what. My whole aspect is just love it for the design, for the color, that it’s something older that you’re bringing into your home that doesn’t necessarily have to be that big expensive piece.
WALT: Exactly. It’s how it all works as a collage. How it all fits in together. And I mean really, isn’t it all about having fun?
GABREIAL: Sure, definitely.
WALT: That’s what I tell people when they say they don’t know what to collect. If you’re looking to resell, that’s a little bit different. You have to follow trends and you have to know your market. But if you’re looking to collect for yourself, have fun. Buy what you like. And then when you go to sell it that’s what you’ll be well versed in and that’s what you’re going to have the most success in anyways. If you look at just about every dealer in this business, they really have a passion for what they’re selling because they sell what they like. So that’s what they become educated on and that’s what they know. And that’s what they become experts in. It’s like all the new mantras with the self-help gurus, do what you love. It’s the same thing in the antiques world. Buy what you love. And I can tell that you really have a lot of passion for a lot of color and a great flair for style.
Getting back to your site, you’ve come up with an uncommon format. You have a lot of things going on. It’s a very busy site. But it’s busy without being a mess. You have a lot of categories and guest writers. In fact, you asked me to write a guest post and I did last month. What inspired you to have people guest write? And to have all these different types of things on your blog?
GABREIAL: The biggest thing, to be honest, is as much as I would like to get out and shop and go to all the different antique shops, and all the different places. I can’t travel. I have two small children and I can’t travel all over the world and see those types of things. So I love to have guest bloggers on that can show me the big antiques show that they went to that past weekend or some of the hot spots for vintage. I like to look at Vintage Indie more as a magazine than as just a blog because we’re bringing in different parts of the world that not everybody can see. I’m envious of the people in California because it seems like there are so many vintage stores and antique things happening there that aren’t happening here. I like to be able to put it out there so that everybody can enjoy and see that.
WALT: That’s what it reminds me of, a well-formatted magazine.
GABREIAL: And actually you can get it from http://vintageindiemag.com.
WALT: Is that a sister site of yours?
GABREIAL: No, that’s the url to get here. You were talking about collections and I like to do a lot of profiles. A lot of people I’m in contact with say, “who’s going to care about my old postcard collection” or “who’s going to care about my dishes”. And I say, there’s a whole group of people out there who really enjoy antiques and collectibles. We’re thrift junkies. We’re out there antique shopping, just like you. We want to hear about it. So I profile a lot of people. They’re real excited because they can get their big china cabinet out, full of dishes. You know I have an awesome feature on blue ray dishes. And people are just excited that they can talk about it.
WALT: Right. So many times when I buy an estate full of items or if I’m conducting an estate auction, I’ll get the job and they’ll say, “I decided to go with you because it really looks like you enjoy what you’re doing. And the stuff is going to be treated good.”. You can get more business out of a place just by picking up a piece of glass and putting it down with respect than if you rifle through it like some kind of nut - “yeah we can sell this, and this”. It’s like, who cares what you know. So many people want that because let’s face it, you’re there as a buyer because they don’t have somebody that they care to pass it on to. Maybe their children just don’t appreciate it. Maybe they don’t have anybody in their family that wants it. Or maybe they don‘t have anybody period that they‘re close with. So when you go in and you show them the respect an the interest in the item, they know you’re not going to keep it and live with it forever, but that you know what it is, you have a story about some of it you’ve sold and that you handle it with respect, they just go bonkers over that. We kind of always think of dollars in the business, and while I’m not altruistic to the point where I don’t care about the money, obviously I do. But it’s not always about the money with a lot of the sellers. Especially the older folks, they want to know that its going to be going to a good home and if it’s not going to end up in my home, that I’m going to do my best to make sure it gets in the hands of somebody that will appreciate it. That counts for a lot to a lot of folks.
You mentioned that you liked to get items at tag sales? Is that right? We call ‘em tag sales up here, garage sales, yard sales.
GABREIAL: Right, yeah. Although last year it was kind of slim pickins.
WALT: I heard that from a lot of people. I think there’s going to be a lot out there this year. I think there’s going to be an awful lot out there. Our challenge is going to be being careful what we pay for it because the prices are going to be lower. But there’s going to be so much offered to us. I’ve already gotten quite a few house calls. I had my first estate sale about three weeks ago already. I usually don’t run one until middle or end of May. And I’m getting calls from banks and lawyers. There’s a lot out there. Unfortunately a lot of people are having tough times and are looking to sell what they have. But a lot of them are just looking to unload and simplify. So I think there’s going to be a lot offered to us this year. And the population is getting older. The baby boomer generation is down-sizing.
Back here to your site, I noticed you have some neat not banners, but buttons. Because your site is so well organized, and so well-written, am I to take it that some of these are sponsors?
GABREIAL: Yes. Every month I have a featured sponsor. That’s the top right-hand spot. And below that is different various-sized sponsors. All of my sponsors, I really take care of them. It’s not just about what they’re selling. It’s about what they’re doing. What they’re passionate about. Not every one is a vintage shop. A lot of people are stores with handmade with vintage. Different things. And everybody is given an editorial feature. I want them to really love being on Vintage Indie and talking about what they’re doing. Not just a button up on the site.
WALT: Right. Again, be part of a community. How long have you been blogging as Vintage Indie?
GABREIAL: It will actually be a year in July.
WALT: A year. That’s a pretty good accomplishment for a site.
GABREIAL: Thank you.
WALT: So how would somebody get in touch with you if they were interested in becoming a sponsor for your site?
GABREIAL: If you go to Vintage Indie on the top left-hand side there’s a link there that says “advertising”. There’s various sizes, various rates. There’s different things that you can do. I’ll be opening up late summer. I think the top featured sponsor is booked until September. And then I’ll be opening that spot. But there’s small companies, small businesses out there that might want a small banner and some that want to go larger. So that’s flexible.
WALT: Now when you have the banners on there, do you do an article on them?
GABREIAL: Yes. Everyone gets an editorial feature. It’s called the headliner. And that just means you’re the headlining sponsor for that day or that period. And I do a really thorough writing of what your store is about, what you primarily sell there, just highlight some of the interesting things there. It’s also a time when you can announce specials, sales, promotional things if you’re launching a new product. It’s a good way to get the word out about your business.
WALT: If anyone is interested I suggest they go there and check the advertising contract out or talk to Gabreial about advertising. It would be a great place to advertise on because you have a google page rank of 4. There’s probably a lot of folks out there that aren’t familiar with google’s page rank, but 4 is stellar for a blog. You’ve obviously done some SEO work and some great articles. Do you have any idea how many pages are on your blog right now?
GABREIAL: Oh, I could probably find out. As far as features, I have about 500 individual features.
WALT: Wow, so you’ve got some google juice going on there. That’s why you have a page rank of 4. I mean, I won’t go into the algorithms, because A, I don’t understand them and B it’s just kind of dry and boring to listen to online. But google definitely pays attention when a site has relevant content and it looks this good. And you get there and the content is not only interesting, but it’s relevant to what the page defines it as. In other words if people go there to find things about modern life through a vintage perspective they don’t get a link farm with a bunch of spam on it.
One of the other things I was impressed with is how many of your blog posts have comments on them. I have the type of blog where it’s more informational. At http://www.Auction Wally.com I do online antiques appraisals, I do a lot of articles, and I have a new ebook out. I have a baseball card price guide and a book on how to sell your baseball cards. It’s very informational. I do get comments on occasion, and I’m always happy to answer them but it’s not quite the community-oriented blog that I wish it was. That’s kind of by design and by necessity of the type of blog I have. What are some of the things, obviously besides writing good articles, that have inspired people to make comments on your blog posts?
GABREIAL: That’s a tricky question. Sometimes we have give-a-ways, sponsor related give-a-ways--
WALT: Oh, you use bribery too.
GABREIAL: I guess I’m just promoting that the idea of vintage as not being all about old, stuffy collectibles. It’s just a different way of looking at it. And I think people are inspired by that.
WALT: I think the quality of your site and they see that you love what you’re doing, when you do what you love it shows and people will be attracted to that.
GABREIAL: Right.
WALT: People would just naturally rally around that. I know that when I go to comment on blogs and posts I naturally comment on the ones that I really like. And when I have something to contribute to them I‘ll take the time to try to post a comment that is relevant. Because I figure they’ve taken the time to put good content out there, then I shouldn’t be careless with a comment. Not just, “go to Auction Wally.com” you know. Spam comments like that you can see through them like a puddle of water. So I have a question that’s been in the back of my mind that I try to ask everyone in the business. What do you particularly collect yourself? Not that you sell, but that you have a passion for?
GABREIAL: You know, my husband and I have this conversation all the time because we don’t have one set collectible thing, like a name brand. I like looking for vintage tablecloths and vintage aprons. I’ve bought a few that I planned on selling that I just can’t part with. Vintage kitchenware. I finally got my first globe. I don’t even know if it’s old but I’ve been wanting a globe for so long. Now it’s properly sitting on my buffet table. Mostly for us, it’s just finding something I really like. We had once talked about collecting juicers because we like the look of glass juicers. So for us it’s not any particular thing. Our house is a mix of his style and my style and we blend it all together.
WALT: Much like your site. Neat stuff that’s a lot of fun.
GABREIAL: Thank you.
WALT: Do you have friends and family that look at you and say, “wow, why do you do that”?
GABREIAL: Actually, it’s funny, my husband and I laugh about it all the time. When I was growing up my parents trucked us to the antique show in Burlington. I remember going there and being miserable and hot and sweaty. And why are they looking at all this old stuff? And then his parents are really big into antique shopping. So now when we get our red wagon out and we’re dragging our two boys along, it’s comical to think we were once complaining about it. But we just love it.
WALT: And it is a great business for kids because they can always see something that they’re interested in. I have four children and every one of them has been dragged to antique shops and auctions. Of course, being an auctioneer and knowing the value of a dollar they’ve all been labor for me. I always tell them, you have to learn my business because it’s a good basic, trading business. You can be anything in the world you want and I will fully support you but you have to learn this business because you’ll know the basics of trading, which is the basics and foundation of any business in the world. And I’d put any of them up against any tag saler or dealer and see who wins because they’d be pretty sharp I think. They wouldn’t get taken too easily, that’s for sure. So it may not be the most fun thing for them when you drag them out there, but my son will usually “oh, that’s pretty cool” and “I know what that is”. And kids are great junk collectors. They’re always hoarding things and putting things aside. We have a rule in my house that when we get estate lots, up to a certain amount, they can have anything they want but the rule is they have to replace it with something they don’t want.
GABREIAL: That’s good.
WALT: It teaches them it’s neat, it’s nice to have, but it’s just physical merchandise. Don’t get attached to it, it’s just things. We’ll get a new estate and my daughter will come down with something in her hands and I know she wants something. Here dad, here’s this ratty old Barbie doll, I want that Limoges plate over there. But it’s kind of interesting that they take to it naturally. It’s a lot of fun. The flea markets can get a bit dusty and tiresome but they have a good time for the most part.
So you’re in Kentucky. I’m not too familiar, I had a friend out there that I visited a while ago. What is your winter scene like? Do you folks have much in the way of outdoor shows because it’s a little bit warmer? Do you have things going on all year round in the winter too?
GABREIAL: No, the winter scene is very sad here. And I often find myself reading archives of Vintage Indie. Actually, we have an antique mall and I’ve made it out there once this year with my mom. And my husband and I have taken the kids out there. But in the winter time, there’s not a lot going on.
WALT: Yeah. It stops here pretty much. Well, the indoor auctions are populated, if there’s good merchandise. The problem is, because we get so much snow and brutal weather, that often you can’t get fresh merchandise in the winter because people don’t want to crack their barns open until spring. And they’re not too anxious to let you go tromping through the house with a bunch of snow and mud on your shoes. So things really slow down in the winter here. But it’s pretty busy spring through fall. A couple of weeks in August that are the dog days of summer and it’ll slow right down. Like in retail business, everyone’s too hot to do anything. But it’s pretty steady from the spring to the fall. Now we have a huge show out here called Brimfield, that’s the size of a town. It almost is the whole town. And in May, July and September they go on for about a week. There’s got to be literally 10-15,000 dealers that set up in these old farm fields. Do you folks have anything like that out there in the climate weather?
GABREIAL: The closest one is the Burlington Antique Show. And it is at the county fairgrounds, pretty big. I did a feature on the Brimfield Antique Show actually.
WALT: Oh did you? Is there a link to that on your site?
GABREIAL: The Brimfield Antique show feature? I think that is under our guest reporters.
WALT: Do you have a search box on your site?
GABREIAL: I don’t. That is on my to do list for this year though.
WALT: I don’t know how typepad is, if you can use the google search, or javascript at all, but I have that on my site and I get an awful lot of activity on it.
GABREIAL: I’m going to make note of that because I think that’s a great idea.
WALT: You know what’s kind of neat is that on my site, you can search the web or you can search http://www.auctionzip.com or http://www.Auction Wally.com or http://www.ebay.com. So it’s kind of neat. Google allows you up to three other selections. It’s a great feature and anybody listening that has their own blog, if you have an extensive blog the google search box is very useful to use. I’ll use it two or three times a day when I’m referencing something else on my site. For creating links I’ll use it to find blogs on my own site, if I can’t remember the exact name or I can’t remember where I put the post. I just put it in the google search box and I click it and it comes right up.
One of the things we hadn’t talked too, too much about was product and what are you finding are the best sellers out where you are right now? Strictly money-wise? What’s a hot item that’s selling well for good money?
GABREIAL: I would say that pyrex is becoming kind of trendy but collectible at the same time. A lot of people are looking for pyrex pieces to complete their sets. Typewriters, children’s books…
WALT: Typewriters? Really. Boy I’ve got to check on that because I don’t know about out here right now because I haven’t picked one up in a while, but honest to goodness you couldn’t get a nickel a pound for typewriters.
GABREIAL: Oh really?
WALT: And I mean old ones too.
GABREIAL: Typewriters around here are pretty pricey. Even the Goodwill’s around here if they have a typewriter, it’s amazing.
WALT: How much could you get for a 19-teens Smith Corona? Or an old one like that? How much could you get for an old Victorian typewriter?
GABREIAL: I have no idea because I don’t know about the names.
WALT: Well how about the average vintage typewriter, something with some age on it?
GABREIAL: I would say just if it’s vintage and being old I would say at least a hundred dollars.
WALT: Oh my goodness. You can’t give them away up here.
GABREIAL: Oh really. Because I’ve seen them a lot lately. I’ve seen people hanging them on their walls.
WALT: Oh my goodness, I’ve got to check them out. Next thing I know you’ll be telling me that sewing machine’s are good sellers.
GABREIAL: No, sewing machines take up a lot of room. But there are some serious people out there that collect lots of sewing machines.
WALT: Yeah, none of them are in New England I promise you. (laughing) I get calls about 3 times a month that people have these beautiful, I mean absolutely gorgeous oak and iron Singer sewing machines. All in perfect condition, and they all work real well. And I tell them, that’s the problem with them. Everybody that ever had one still has it because they couldn’t throw it away and they don’t break. You just can’t kill one of those old Singers. So they’re not scarce. And because they’re big and they’re heavy, at least up here, dealers don’t want them. Now in New England, if a dealer doesn’t want an antique, it’s pretty much dead. Because we rely so heavily on the dealer trade. At any given sale, auction, tag sale, any kind of event, 60-70% of people that show up are dealers. They’re all somebody either in the business part-time or full-time. If the dealers don’t want it, you know what, that’s it.
I think we’ve been going on. The show is still going on but it’s not streaming live anymore. But it will be archived.
GABREIAL: Awesome. (laughing)
WALT: I looked and it was 9:02. Wow. So in the archive it will still be going out and we have to be careful what we say because it still may be streaming. I got into a situation a few weeks ago where I thought the conversation was private and we exchanged phone numbers online and somebody in the chat room… Oh, Cadaba just wrote, thank you Cadaba, she’s in the chat room and says it’s still live. So apparently Blog Talk Radio has decided what we have to say is important enough to still be streaming.
GABREIAL: Well thank you Blog Talk Radio.
WALT: Yes. And do you still have a couple of minutes?
GABREIAL: Sure, sure.
WALT: Well before I end the show I’m Walt Kolenda from http://www.Auction Wally.com and I’m talking with Gabreial from http://vintageindie.typepad.com and you’re listening to the Auction Wally Show episode 15. If you missed it live you can find it in the archive at AuctionWally.com, Auction Wally.libsyn, iTunes and probably half a dozen other places that I can’t remember. I’m out there. And you can find links to this show from Vintage Indie.
That was a lot of fun. I really appreciate it. Do you think that after being subjected to this abuse you might come on the show again in the future?
GABREIAL: I would absolutely love it.
WALT: This is only the 15th show so perhaps in a few shows down the road we’ll be a little more organized and have some neat stuff with music going on and a little more professional and polished format. That said, I think the reason people like these pod casts and the blogs is because of the human factor. So I don’t think they mind that there’s a glitch here and there, and some things going out that doesn’t sound like a radio DJ. I think that they’re pretty understanding of it. We had quite a few people in the chat room and we had some people live, although we didn’t have any call-ins that I saw. So that is a good start. Did you have any questions at all?
GABREIAL: No, not right at the moment. I’m sure as soon as I hang up I’ll have some.
WALT: Of course you will. Well we will keep in touch in the chat and I would be more than happy to write something for you. If you’re ever interested to write a guest post on my blog I’d be more than happy to see it.
GABREIAL: Sure.
WALT: And post it on my blog as well. We will definitely keep in touch. I would love to have you on the show again some time in the future.
GABREIAL: How do you get to the chat area? When you’re doing a show?
WALT: On Blog Talk Radio you don’t have to sign in to listen or to call in. But you do have to sign in to the chat. Or, actually, we have a bunch of people that are signed in as guests, so maybe you don’t have to. Let me just ask. I’m sorry I don’t have a better answer for you.
GABREIAL: That’s okay.
WALT: If they go to Blog Talk Radio and just click on the link for the show I believe when the player comes up there’s an option for chat. If you sign in it will come under your username. Of course your username is linked to your site and things like that. But without signing you can chat as a guest as well. The neat thing is that you can link to your site or anywhere you care to in the chat room. So that’s kind of neat.
GABREIAL: Wonderful.
WALT: When I have some numbers to give you and know how many downloads we had in a few days I’ll send you that. In an email somewhere and let you know. I’m sure we’ll be talking again sometime in the future.
GABREIAL: Sure.
WALT: We can go back and forth and compare notes.
GABREIAL: Another question that I had is that I’m always looking for the independent antique stores that are hidden that don’t have the advertising budget or don’t have the means to get out there. I’m always looking for someone to drop me a line and say “this is where we’re at, we’re located here, we’re in the local newspaper but we’re not really broadcasted.”. I’m always looking for links and people to drop me a line to say where they’re located.
WALT: Okay, that’s a great idea. Now we are going to have to extend the show a few minutes because I have something to say about that. So if you’re in the, is there a reference to the geographical area in Kentucky that it‘s called, Central?
GABREIAL: I’m actually in Northern Kentucky in Greater Cincinnati. Near the Ohio river.
WALT: If you’re in Northern Kentucky and you have a small antique shop whether you’re listening to this show now or 3 months in the future or any other time, get in touch with Gabreial at Vintage Indie and she would be happy to do a review and an article on your shop. That struck a nerve with me because on my site I have about 8 or 9 articles that I’ve done - I just did one today on Rietta Ranch in Hubbardston MA, a great local flea market. One of the last local flea markets that runs every Sunday, that’s still left around here in the Northeast. They have space for 650 dealers and it’s just a plethora of great stuff, and dealers, and newbies that set up every week and that’s a great spot. But I do free reviews for people that have local antique shops or flea markets. I’m in front of my computer sometimes it seems like 18 hours a day so I think that everybody else is in the bubble. But I get out there and I’m amazed at how many people, small business, that are just not online and don’t have a site online yet.And I’m sure that if you get the word out there that you’re interested in doing some site reviews and some shop reviews, you’ll get some people very anxious to have you do them because they’re interested. They know about this online thing, they know that there’s a great opportunity, but they’re just not up to the point, they may even have email and be online, but they don’t have the skills or availability to do the sites like we do. And I’m sure they’d be more than happy. What are some of the things that you can offer? Like an article with some links? What would you do for a shop that came to you and said get me some exposure Gabreial?
GABREIAL: Actually I’m talking about Kentucky, but also just anywhere. I’m always looking for events that are going on. I’m getting ready to do a feature on a Garage Monday not sure what the city is yet. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Kentucky or not just send me an email tell me where you’re located. If I can make it out there. Tell me about your shop. I like to hear about family history, why you started your business. I think it’s really important to support the mom and pop shops. The people that are still out there trying to make it in the antiques and vintage business.
WALT: Absolutely. And I think that a lot of the mom and pop shops after having been beaten out and almost died out, for so long. A lot of them are starting to make a resurgence. People are looking for something else to do and they realize that maybe their job or what they’ve done for so many years is not as safe as they thought. So they either have something on the side or a back-up plan. Not to toot our own horn, but I think they need people like us. It’s a combination of very old country, yankee ingenuity and know-how combined with new technology. And it goes together hand in hand.
GABREIAL: I would have to say that if you’re on a board for a local flea market or an antiques show that’s getting ready to happen send me an email and say, hey, I’m on the board here, you don’t even have to be on the board. Say hey, it’s going to be here in my town next weekend I know that you have readers that like vintage. I can do a feature. A lot of my readers say hey I had no idea that this shop was up the street from me, or that this was going on this weekend. So send me the information.
WALT: You never know where people are going to find it. I found a site like a year and a half ago that I use everyday, are you familiar with http://www.auctionzip.com?
GABREIAL: No.
WALT: Auction Zip is the online directory for live auctions. What you do is you go there and you punch in the zip code and it will come up with all the auctions in the area. It’s very easy to use and very well put together so naturally just about every auctioneer that has ever gone near a computer has signed up. And it’s just a massive directory of auctioneers. And they allow you to post your auctions for free. When I have an auction I’ve gotten as many as 5,000 viewers. From all over the country.
GABREIAL: Wow, that is wonderful.
WALT: I’ve had people calling me from California saying, hey how much is the Maxfield Parish, or are you taking phone bids on the Maxfield Parish print. I’m like where are you from? Oh, Auction Zip. You found me on Auction Zip.
GABREIAL: That is awesome.
WALT: It’s also a great reference just to look for stuff. They don’t sell themselves, it’s not like eBay or anything like that. It’s strictly a directory of live auctioneers.
GABREIAL: I also wanted to mention Vintage Pulse because we have a whole section about resources and I can put Auction Zip on there. Vintage Pulse is just a community for Vintage Indie. And also the Etsy Vintage Street Team where we all get together and chat. It’s forums, it’s informative, it’s all kinds of things. I’ll probably post about the radio conversation tonight on Vintage Pulse. So if you’re there and you want to join up, it’s free to become a member. If you have a promotion, if you want to promote your store, your site, anything, it’s free to post there as well.
WALT: Excellent. You mentioned earlier that if…I’m drawing a blank because I’m chatting with Mitsy from Vintage Goodness?
GABREIAL: Oh, okay.
WALT: And she’s wondering, she missed the show, and is the archive up yet? And I’m writing, no, we’re still talking (laughing). Okay, excuse me. So thank you for that, you can send me links for that too. Before I go off, I just want to thank you again. If people are interested in either advertising or having you do an article with them besides reaching you on your site do you want to give out your email address?
GABREIAL: It would probably be best for my site if they got it there. There’s a contact button on the left. You just click that and it opens up your email program. Or if you hover over it with your mouse you can see it in the left-hand corner.
WALT: Okay. That’s at http://vintageinde.typepad.com . We were talking with Gabreial. I just want to thank you again very much, it’s been a lot of fun. I hope to have you on in the future sometime. You sparked a lot of ideas, I’ll be talking to you in the next few days.
GABREIAL: Awesome, anytime.
WALT: I really appreciate your input and you being on the show. Thank you again.
GABREIAL: Thank you. I appreciate it. Bye.
WALT: This is Auction Wally saying that you can find me at http://www.AuctionWally.com , AuctionWally.libsyn.com, you can subscribe to the show in iTunes. I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to the show tonight. You can find all the back episodes archived at Auction Wally.com. And with that I’d like to say this is Auction Wally signing off and I hope you have a great week. We’ll see you in about a week sometime. Okay, thanks for listening folks.
###
BACK to ANTIQUES
|