Tips: Running a stall at a 2nd Hand market

Went to Camberwell market in morning. This afternoon, revisited my childhood, cleaning, then grooming my purchase of a pink My Little Pony!! Wheee! This pony is the same age and series (c.1982) as the one my sister had (Blossom, see link). Have been wanting to buy an original '80s MLP for a while now, vainly 'trying' to find the one I had (Applejack in non 'Earth' pose). @ $4 may have paid a little too much for her, but she is vintage, 22 years old MLP. I've seen them at the Chapel Street Bazaar for around $12, so this is not too bad.


Cotton Candy

Figured I'd be able to identify her on the internet and I did in a few minutes. Man, I'm good with a search engine. Could using a search engine to find a piece of information, be a tournament competition? If so count me in [aah smug mode]. Wow, there's a whole community of collectors out there who are experts on MLPs!

http://www.hallelnet.com/von/links/frm_search.htm

Anyhooo, got a bit distracted by that. Had planned to write up :

Tips on running a stall at a 2nd Hand market
1. Don't put prices on everything. If they are too high you appear inflexible, not open to haggling.
2. Be open to haggling. I don't care how much it cost you new. It's second hand now. Do you want to sell it or not?
3. Launder your clothes. I won't bother asking you how much something is if I don't think I can get that stain/mark off.
4. Spend money to make money, hire a clothes rack. I don't want to crawl through a pile of clothes on the off chance I'll find something I like. Nor do I want to burrow about in a box.
5. Put small toys in boxes. I love to burrow about and find a gem of a toy down the bottom.
6. Don't be too tidy/orderly. Present your goods so that people can see what you have to offer but remember you are not a retail outlet. Customers will make a mess of your neatly folded t-shirts and carefully aligned junk. Leave it that way. It looks like you had something of interest and maybe there's more.
7. Use cardboard boxes to transport goods and sell out of them with things like books and CDs
8. Align the spines of your CDs and books so that I don't have to work to find out if you have what I want.
9. After someone asks you the price, observe their reaction. For thing you just want to get rid of, offer a lower price if they put it down rather than haggle. Drop it if people keep asking but no one buys!!!
10. Avoid speaking in a foreign language about something that will make you laugh. It makes shoppers paranoid and it's also impolite. Also on conversations; don't be so absorbed in one that you don't notice a customer waiting for you to shut up and tell them how much something is.

In other words, make it easy for customers to assess and access your stuff!
Time is precious. It's of the essence. The early meerkat gets the MLP :P

Push hard, push it. Push it real good!

What is the deal with Christians trying to convert the rest of us? I don't know about you, but at the end of the working day and I just want to get home at my own brisk pace, uninterrupted by ditherers and flyer pushers.

Last week they really went the whole hog at Footscray station. There was the usual bottle neck caused by ditherers compounded by a set of flyer pushers on the bridge. One was yelling - like a butcher at the market about choice lamb chops - that Jesus loves us and has a purpose for us all blah blah blah. Then at the foot of the ramp were more of them including a little girl (about 7-8 yo) pushing more flyers. Next to them were people singing and playing guitar. They were using an amp so it was a bit overwhelming in such a small area. Then finally more flyer pushers. By the time I got to them, my polite 'sorry, no' had become a hissed 'no thanksss'.

Vampire Doobees and Squishiness

I'm addicted to the Melbourne Goth Forum! Just thought I'd explain the dearth of posts here.

My new word is 'doobee' as in ,
'Where's the doobee that fits on my electric toothbrush?'
'You put the solution into the doobee the pull the trigger. Voila, bubbles!'
A replacement word for 'thingy' since my Dad uses that now. This is cuter and it reminds me of Mr DoBee from Romper Room. Used to have a plush toy of him.

Woke up with two little bite marks about an inch from each other, on my belly. Does this mean I've been bitten by a vampire in the night ;P Well mozzies do drink human blood - as well as any other blood the little bitches* can get their faces into. Last week at soccer there seemed to be a plague of them. Couldn't stand still without them settling on you. Drove me nutty with the flapping about and noises - and that was just me. I was goalie for 10 minutes at the most. In that time I killed at least 6 of them on me. Another 6 probably drew blood and got away with it.

Thanks for your concern about my BEST friend who fell off the ladder. I'll be sure to pass on that deluge of comments to him. Did I mention he has read this blog? He could have been paralysed you know. He isn't but he could have been if it wasn't for squishy rocket toys. Although he wouldn't have been up that ladder at that time, if it wasn't for squishy rocket toys getting caught on the lighting grid. Damn and thank goodness for squishy rockets! As it is, he won't be back at work for a while yet and is relying on meds for his mobility.

*Only the females drink blood. They need the extra nutrition to produce eggs. The males drink nectar.