SCHOOL OF VINTAGE

2012-04-22T16:03:00.002-04:00

the estate sale from hell

2012-04-15T20:23:00.001-04:00

I debated over writing this post and actually calling out the company that ran this particular estate sale. At first I thought, well, I don't want to hurt any feelings, then I realized that I owe it to people to be honest about my experience. I will NEVER attend an estate sale run by this company ever again, and for good reason.
This is what happened:
I woke up early to drive about an hour north to hit up a sale whose pictures boasted vintage clothing, mid century furniture, and boxes and boxes of unpacked 'old' stuff! Sounds like a diamond in the rough, no? Well, it was enough for me to wake up early on a day off to go check out their loot.
First mistake, they didn't have enough numbers for everyone. Paul and I got there about 15 minutes before the start and we were already numbers 44 and 45. There were a LOT of people who thought the same thing as me apparently. So I sized up my competition and decided that no one was vying for the closet of vintage dresses. At least I hoped they weren't. There were piles and piles of junk everywhere around the exterior of the house, all of which was for sale. Nothing had a price on it, which wasn't too alarming considering it was in piles outside. I did take note of the fact that a couple people had approached the woman at the door about a few things (some she admitted having no clue what they were), and she was not budging on her prices (that she literally spewed off the top of her head..still not knowing what things were).
I decided to wait anyway, I was determined to get inside. It had been about a 1/2 hour at this point waiting for my number to get called. In the meantime, I witnessed an old man with a cane get verbally berated by this horrible woman* (she'll make a re-appearance later) telling him to get a number and not to cut in line, while hurling insults at the poor guy. This made my stomach churn. The woman at the door was very haphazard about number calling, so when it was finally my turn, people were basically letting themselves in ahead of me, even though they didn't have a number, and they hadn't been waiting for 30+ minutes at this point.
OK, so I get in and notice their pictures online did no justice to the horrible condition of the house. There was shit everywhere. There were people everywhere, it was impossible to move. I finally made my way to a small closet, grabbed a couple vintage dresses and hats, trying not to notice that they priced one fur coat at $495!! I made my way to the bedroom and to the closet of hell. There were clothes piled on the floor, which were walked on, and shoes thrown in a corner. All amongst tables of other stuff, bedroom furniture, and piles of unknowns. With the help of Paul I loaded up on some more dresses and a couple coats and made my way to the main room to ask for prices. NOTHING was priced! (well, except for a $495 fur coat) While I was waiting, I witnessed a verbal fight between a woman working there and a customer* (the horrible woman from before). I also kept hearing them yell at people for 'crowding the jewelry table'. There was more yelling for the homeowner to come in and help them. Then more yelling at customers. And finally my favorite: "People! this is an estate sale! not a garage sale!"...whatever the hell that means...apparently I wasn't the only one not ok with their pricing.
Finally, the homeowner came over to Paul and I and asked if the people running the sale had been mean to us. I answered no, but we'd like some prices. So she asked one of the women running the sale to please help us. Fast forward 5 more minutes, another altercation with a kind customer just looking at some jewelry. "Put it down unless you're gonna buy it!", she yelled at her "that's $25!". (for a string of crappy beads)
She came up to me and started pricing the armfuls of dresses. "This one is $10, this one is $10, this one is $35, this one is $35.." So I asked her again how much because I swear I thought I heard her say "this is $35". And she did, she absolutely did. I didn't even let her get to the coats because Lord knows they would have been at least $50. I told her I can't pay $35 per dress, she responded (loudly and unkindly) "they are vintage!!". I said I was aware of that. She yelled at me then, saying "these aren't $5 dresses!!". So I calmly responded that they aren't $35 dresses either. She yelled at me again, "THAT'S YOUR OPINION!!" So I walked to the corner, dropped the clothing back on the floor, walked out, and drove home empty handed. I immediately called Jeannine and unloaded everything that happened out of sheer disbelief.

Here's my issue: besides all the yelling and rudeness, this is an estate sale. It is a glorified garage sale. I know it's run by a company that takes commission, so prices are expected to be slightly higher than a sale run by the homeowner. All vintage is not valuable. The items she wanted $35 for were just vintage dresses, no designers, some were better than others, and she didn't even check the condition. I grabbed them from a pile that was walked on. They could have made a cool $60 bucks or so for two armfuls of dresses if they weren't greedy, but they made nothing. It's an all too common issue that has been getting worse and worse, thrift stores being just as guilty.

Everything nightmarish you can imagine about an estate sale happened in the course of 40 minutes. All in all, I can laugh about the experience now, because it was so bad it was almost comical. As for Paul, I bought him breakfast.

to the shop!

2012-04-07T18:33:00.002-04:00

our sign

2012-04-05T13:26:00.000-04:00

it's gonna be awesome

modern ink feature!

2012-04-02T21:36:00.002-04:00

We are so flattered to be featured on page 25 of the current issue of Modern Ink Magazine! We have admired their publication from the start and always look forward to what these two inspiring ladies come up with.

Click HERE to see the latest issue and turn to page 25 to see yours truly.

Thanks again girls!

a quick update

2012-03-28T10:35:00.002-04:00

We've been absent from the blog/online world lately for good reason. We've been inventorying like CRAZY, hunkering down at the shop every spare moment, preparing to open. Before our opening, we'll post pictures of a tour, which we can't WAIT to show you. Our inventory has grown exponentially, which makes our hearts swell with happiness! We've found some really incredible pieces in these few months of collecting as much vintage as possible, all of which are becoming increasingly difficult to part with. We have big plans for our online shop as well, a complete overhaul if you will. All of which is part of our plan in the upcoming weeks. It's an incredible feeling going to 'work' in a place that is filled with beautiful vintage. Sometimes it doesn't feel real. Ok, most times it's completely surreal.
In the meantime, you can follow us on instagram and see our progress!

2012-03-18T20:33:00.000-04:00

mark your calendars! we'll have refreshments, snacks, free goodies, and raffles!

saturday's estate sale

2012-03-03T14:55:00.001-05:00

a montgomery ward phonograph!

friday's estate sale

2012-03-02T15:51:00.000-05:00

A really good estate haul can really bring you out of a crap week funk.

currently working on

2012-02-29T11:50:00.003-05:00

We were kindly asked by Modern Ink to do a little ditty for them regarding some vintage trends. Here's a sneak peek.

To go along with our favorites, we compiled some more pieces that fall in line with our highlights:

1>2>3>4

Full disclosure: we have a really hard time taking serious photos of ourselves. Especially serious 'outfit' photos. We have about 10% useable photos and 90% of these:

some more teases

2012-02-17T17:14:00.000-05:00

Here are some more little peeks into what we've been working on. Every spare moment we have, we are at the shop putting everything together, cleaning, steaming, painting, connecting wires to other wires, drinking obscene amounts of coffee, etc. So since we really don't want to show everything until we have a completed final product, we'll just be posting pictures of some bits and pieces along the way. Plus, it's really all we have time to do lately. We really can't wait to show the final product!

this was given to us by our friendly new shop neighbor who found it in the trash

for the chicks

for the dudes

dressing room!

some more sneak peeks

2012-02-11T09:38:00.001-05:00

truthiness part 1 <> what lies ahead

2012-02-09T20:16:00.001-05:00

We feel we owe you a bit of honesty. As you may or may not have known, we recently signed a lease for a storefront. Exactly one month has passed and it still doesn't feel real. Although our lives have always included vintage, sometimes included selling it, they now fully revolve around every aspect of it!

Let us explain. Since signing the lease and working on the shop, we've gotten so much support and positive feedback regarding our venture. A previous comment even called what we're doing 'a dream.' The truth is that it is, it's been a dream of ours for a very long time. Though it may seem dreamy to walk into a vintage store, knowing YOU are the owner and THIS is your JOB, there are many aspects to what we are going through that scare the pants off of us. This is the truthiness that we feel we owe you.

Lingering questions that we may not have the answers to for a while and that keep us up at night sometimes:
-What if we don't make any money?
-What if we can't pay our rent?
-What if no one likes our stuff?
-What if I burn out?
-When will I have free time?
-What if ______? (really, you can enter anything, and we've thought it)

Some truths that we know:
-We won't be taking any vacations for a long time.
-We can't quit our other jobs yet.
-This summer (peak season in our area), we'll be spending 7 days a week at the shop.
-We couldn't have done this without the support of Paul and Chris.
-We couldn't have done this without the help of friends and family.
-We believe in what we do.
-We don't take it for granted for a SECOND.

We are optimists. We believe that if you want something bad enough, you can make it happen. It may not always be sunshine and puppies and rainbows, but it doesn't, at least it shouldn't, matter. Who knows if we will make it a year or 10 years, there is no way of knowing. What we do know is that we are working our tails off creating this vision we've been given the opportunity to create. We want to be as honest as possible about the process, the ups AND the downs. So we'll follow up with some more truths as we go. Some we'll still need to learn.

Feel free to ask questions. We are happy to answer.

pussycat vintage giveaway!

2012-02-08T10:30:00.003-05:00

Nicole is kindly hosting a Valentine's giveaway of our vintage white enamel earrings on her blog! So go head over and enter, it couldn't be easier! Click HERE to enter.

more stocking and a sneak peek!

2012-01-29T12:00:00.000-05:00

we've been absent from our blog lately since we've been so mind-boggling busy with our store. but here's a little taste of some stocking up we've done and a very small sneak peek. There is still a lot of work to do on our physical shop, but it's coming along!

and a tiny peek..

stocking up!

2012-01-18T11:24:00.004-05:00

we've been working our little butts off stocking up our inventory for the shop. Not that it actually feels like work.

for your moving pictures

for your instant picture needs

vintage DVF!

a bird + cleaver giveaway!

2012-01-16T20:15:00.002-05:00

Lindsay and John over at Bird + Cleaver are hosting a giveaway of our 1960's Mikasa Blue point plates and bowls. Go enter!

A few more items for the shop...

2012-01-15T16:40:00.000-05:00

Layered secretary dress with side bow.

Polka dot day dress.

Rainbow striped blazer.

Great patterns.

Izod for the baby!

White flats with floral pattern.

Lucite heels!

Mid-century server

Vintage GE clock in yellow.

Mushrooms!

all before lunch!

2012-01-12T14:52:00.000-05:00

our BIG news

2012-01-10T21:45:00.000-05:00

As of today, we are the proud tenants of a storefront! Our little online store will soon be expanding into a real live store in Surf City, NJ. For those of you who know us, this is a HUGE step for us, and has been a dream of ours for a long time. We have so many mixed emotions from ecstatic, to excited, to scared out of our minds! (scared in a good way of course) There are so many things to do, we literally don't know where to start. But what we do know is that we are taking a leap of faith, and a big step forward. We love our shop, and can't wait to see ourselves here. There is so much more to us than you see online, and we can't wait for it to be represented in a storefront.

So this is it! It was a crappy t-shirt place before, so we certainly have a lot of sprucing up to do. The exterior, dead plants, and t-shirt stickers are off-putting right now, but we PROMISE you from the bottom of our racing hearts that we will do you proud. It will be perfect. Our shop is right in the center of town and is so close to the beach we can smell it. We will be updating often on the progress of our shop. And we plan on a May grand opening/summer kick-off, you're all expected to attend.

In honor of our new home:
(look for us, we're in the bikinis)

pretty little things

2012-01-03T09:18:00.000-05:00

headed to the shop

here's to 2012

2011-12-29T17:53:00.000-05:00

this pretty much sums up everything we think and feel...found via

a BIG thank you for supporting us this year

Happy New Year
xo

textiles

2011-12-29T08:33:00.000-05:00

Some beautiful designs floating around Etsy...

1>2>3>4>5>6>7>8>9>10>11>12

headed to the shop

2011-12-27T11:39:00.000-05:00

to get you in the mood

2011-12-23T07:27:00.000-05:00

for Christmas! At noon today the fabulous Sandi over at Adalou is hosting a giveaway featuring our sweet brass reindeer, along with so many other goodies. Go enter! (we're day 12) It can't be easier.

And also, this should help get you ready for Chrismas if you aren't already.

or this

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a Happy New Year!
Love,
Erin and Jeannine
xo