Baggage Cart Just Arrived Man Cave Approved

Just arrived this great old baggage cart - this would be the perfect addition to any Man Cave.  It is made of steel and solid wood planks -  Use your imagination - The steel painted black - wood cleaned, sanded, stained, and varnished.  This is a man caves perfect piece of furniture - nearly indestructible!

What is great about this piece is the vendor who owns it has several more and all available.    We also have a lot of other great Man Cave Items in the store - how about a 6 foot tall Marilyn Monroe Card Board figure?   One or our vendors is a retired Taxidermist and has some of his extra mounts in the store - Bear Head, Hog Head (For your Harley Guys), Deer, and the every elusive and very rare Jackalope!   Just added by another vendor are several mounted trophy size fish.  Included are Bass, Stripers, Wall Eye, and huge Crappie.

All over the store are primitives like old saws, tools, posters of great looking beers held by attractive ladies!  We also have a vendor who makes custom steel cutouts of just about anything.  Some of his most popular are the Man-Cave Sign and the Harley Parking Only.    He can make just about anything for you when it comes to signs.   Check out our web site and enter sign in the search engine to see a few examples - more to come.  If you have any hobby or interest and want something made special for you cut out of steel let us know.

Now for all you real men out there - come visit our booth at the KBGX Womans Show being held at the Ozarks Empire Fair Grounds this Saturday, the 25th of February!  We expect over 8,000 visitors this year at the show and only the bravest of men! 

Snooze and Lose!

We had a great weekend!   Busy Busy Busy - One of the things I have learned is if you see something in a flea market and think you want to buy it - buy it.  It won't be there when you come back.

This was really illustrated on Sunday - I had a regular customer come in from St Louis looking to buy things for his store up there.  One of the things he looked at was a very nice old big leather satchel for $95.00  The unique thing about it was it was made in Springfield MO.   He looked at it and wanted to know if he could get a dealer discount.  I contacted the owner of the bag and he was able to lower the price a little.  I went and found the customer and told him what we could do and he said he would think about it.

In the meantime I was also thinking about it.  If he did not buy it I was going to.  It was a great looking leather satchel in its own right but having the bottom stamped with the name of the manufacturer on the bottom and made in Springfield MO was awesome.  I was going to buy it and keep for display in the store. I never had time to research it but I would guess it was made in the 30s or 40s.

Next thing I notice is another customer walking up to check out carrying the satchel.  As the customer is leaving the store with it, the first customer comes up and sees it leaving.  He gives me a look and a lopsided grin and says's "darn, I just decided I was going to buy it"  We both laughed as I told him "you know better then to hesitate buying when in a flea market"

One of the things that surprises me the most are the number of great buys our customers find every day.  I work here and not a day goes by that someone brings something to the counter I wish I had seen first.

Booth Information and Tips

We get a lot of emails and phone calls from people around the country wanting information on how to get a booth in our store.  We currently have a waiting list so if you want a booth please send us an email of what you will be selling and a good phone number so we can contact you when we have a booth opening. Some are from long time vendors and some from people who want to try it for the first time.  

First I thought I would explain what our store offers so you can compare it to others you may be considering.   We have electric power at nearly every booth.  Our store is well lit and we have wide aisles for customers to walk down - plenty of room for wheel chairs or walkers.  We also set up our store so that everything is on a simple to follow grid with lettered rows and each booth numbered.  You are not following some maze.   Our store also has a huge parking lot right in front of the store with plenty of lighting at night.  A safe and secure place to park and shop.

Customers love the fact that we have two sizes of shopping carts available.  We also have a separate loading area for picking up larger items that does not interfere with the convenient front door checkout.  We have elected to provide our customers with a variety of soft drinks and water at the best prices in the area.  Complementary coffee is also provided all day long.   Customers can also place higher priced items on layaway for 30 days!

We also provide daily emails of your sales.  Once a week we also send you a month to date recap of your sales.  Usually we do this on Monday if I remember to push the button.   We have also launched our new on line Market Place where not only can your items be for sale in the store - they will have nationwide exposure.   On our web site you will notice we have a place for people to contact the store if they have things for sale.   We pass these leads on to our vendors via email so they have first chance at new merchandise.

In addition to the rented booth space our vendors can place bigger furniture on our furniture floor for sale.

What makes for a successful booth?   The simple answer is price - vendors need to buy cheap and sell cheap.   But price is only part of the equation.   It does no good to have great prices if everything is just stuffed into your booth.,  You need to set your booth up to present your items to the customer.  Most people shop from the knees to the shoulder.  Small things on the floor will generally be ignored.   You need to keep your booth clean and neat.  If you sell clothes or toys then you will need to spend a lot more time working your booth.  Clothes and toys tend to end up on the floor and makes the booth look junky.  There is a danger in having too much "Stuff" in your booth.  If it is too cluttered customers will just walk by.  Having a booth that has a theme and great eye appeal is the secret to great sales. 

It is also a good idea to change the look of your booth every few months.  We have a lot of repeat customers always looking for new and different things.  If you booth never changes they tend to just walk by it.  Keep it look fresh and inviting.   People are always looking for good deals and most of them want quality.  If all you have to offer is wal mart overstock items from china the chances are you will not be successful.  Keep a wide variety.

Women Show

One day I will get the hang of writing on the blog more often.  The problem is I type faster then I think and that gets me in trouble!

One week to go before the KGBX Womens show at the Empire Fair Grounds - We are excited to be part of this and will have some great items on display and for sale in our booth.   We will be located in the East Hall - Once you go in the hall hang a hard right and you will see our banner above our booth right against the far wall.

The focus of our booth is to demonstrate that some Antique Flea Market stores are a great resource for finding those special decorating items needed for the home or office.  Our store bridges the gap between dank old stuffy flea markets and antique stores and the new higer over priced Antique Malls.  With over 200 vendors and most of the women we have a huge variety of booths and products in our store.

On Line Store Update - we have hired some help to load new items on our online store.  It will take some time but eventually we hope to have a lot a variety and options for those of you too far away to visit out store.   What is great about our on line store is that most of the items you see on line are available in our store for you to buy and pick up.    As time goes on I will try to high light some of the great one of a kind things we will be able to offer!

Breaking News

We are proud to announce that we have secured a booth at the KGBX Womens Show to be held at the Fairgrounds in Springfield MO on the 25th of February 2012.  Hours will be 8am - 4pm

Our booth is dedicated to our 156 plus Women Vendors that have booths in our store.  They are Entrepreneurs in the True Sense of the American Spirit.  We are going to be displaying and selling items from their booths in the store at the Women Show.

Our online store continues to grow with items being added every day.  Right now we are only able to offer shipping on smaller items, but over time we hope to ship everything.   One of our new vendors offers hand made wooden pens made out of a variety of exotic woods.  He custom forms the pens and used modern pen and ink inserts.  Not only are these some very beautiful pens you can find new ink at any office supply store.  They make great gifts.  Please check our online store under collectables or unique items.  You can also see them in the store in showcase 2.

We are also proud to announce that Antique Phoenix has just added a booth in our store.  He has some really cool things that we are adding to the online store.  Check out his Barber Back Cabinet and Machinists Tool box under Antiques.

For all you pocket watch people - We recommend that you go to Midwest Watch and Clock for cleaning and repairs.  His customer base is worldwide and James the owner of Midwest will be happy to talk with you concerning your pocket watches.  You can find a link to his online store on our web site on the right.

Expanding our online store - we are in the process of really expanding our on line store.  We have hired someone just to post things online.   With ten of thousands of items for sale in the store we have a huge inventory base.  Unlike most stores which concentrate on just antiques or collectibles we are offereing anything and everything.

The great thing about our store is all the things listed on the online store are also available in the store for our local buyers.  They do not miss out on great deals.   Once we sell something in the store our system alerts us to remove it from the online data base.