In this final episode of Season 2, Bex shares her experience as a vendor at her first-ever in-person vintage market, the Mid-Century Modern Show and Sale in Calgary, Alberta. Bex describes how nervous she was beforehand and how much preparation goes into a market booth, from sorting inventory to pricing all items for sale. From setting up her booth, friendly fellow vendors, curious customers, and all the things she learned that she didn’t know she didn’t know, this episode is a walk-through of Bex’s first vendor experience. And it was a good one. One of the first things Bex learned was to get in fast and early to allow enough time to think about the display, sort and pack inventory, and price everything. She didn’t sign up until a month prior to the show, so she welcomed a friend’s help in preparing. Setting up her booth the night before gave her a crash course in clever and creative booth design. Her takeaway was to think vertically and invest in shelves for her next show. Bex relays how neighbor vendors helped ease her nerves, stories of customer encounters, the Pyrex colors people seemed most interested in, and why it was such a great experience for her that she wishes she’d done it earlier. If you missed Bex at this market, she has three more coming up throughout the summer. Thank you for joining Season 2 of Pyrex With Bex. Season 3 is coming soon, and she hopes you’ll be with her for those episodes as well. — Contact Rebecca Scott | Pyrex With Bex: Website: PyrexWithBex.comInstagram: @pyrexwithbexWhatnot: PyrexWithBex— Transcript Bex Scott: [00:00:02] Hey everybody, it's Bex Scott and welcome to the Pyrex with Bex podcast, where you guessed it, I talk about vintage Pyrex, but also all things vintage housewares. I'll take you on my latest thrifting adventures, talk about reselling, chat with other enthusiasts about their collections, and learn about a bunch of really awesome items from the past. Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you love listening to podcasts so you don't miss a beat. Hey everybody, this is Bex Scott and you are listening to the Pyrex with Bex podcast. As promised, this is the episode to end season two, where I'm going to talk to you about my experience at the Mid-Century Modern Show and Sale. It happened April 12th in Calgary and it was the most amazing vintage market I have ever been to. This was my very first experience being a vendor at a market for vintage and I have to say, it was incredible. I wish that I had had the courage to do this before, with this hobby and the side business that I have selling vintage, but that was a lesson that I learned that I love doing markets. They are very stressful and a lot of work, but I think as you do more, it will probably get easier. So this one was in Calgary at the Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Center, and I signed up probably just over a month before it happened, so I didn't have a ton of time to prepare. It might seem like a lot of time, but one of the things I learned is you need to get in there fast, early, so that you have time to think about your display, pack all of your inventory, sort, price everything. Bex Scott: [00:01:50] So I think I started pricing about three weeks or four weeks, let's say four weeks before, and I had a lot of inventory. I went through all of my boxes in my basement. There were probably 30 banker's boxes of vintage items. And knowing that this was mid-century modern, a lot of it was the higher end collectible items. Definitely not garage sale items. I'm used to holding garage sales, doing that, this was not that kind of a crowd. So I started going through all of my boxes, and it probably took me about three weeks to sift through everything, decide what I was going to take there, wrap it all up nicely, put what was on or inside each of the boxes on labels. And that was for the non Pyrex items. So that I felt was a little bit easier to do. The tricky part came with sorting my Pyrex and pricing it and going through everything that I had. And I have to say, I didn't know that I was hiding so much of it in my basement. Luckily, my amazing friend Amanda came over and she helped me kind of push through my anxiety and keep me going that day, pricing everything. It took us about 3.5 hours to go through all the Pyrex, and I had a bunch of full sets, a bunch of just random casseroles and bowls, and we sat there and put everything into the set. Bex Scott: [00:03:24] We priced everything. We did it by color. So I had a little sheet that I printed out that said, purple is this price, blue is this price, yellow is this price. One of my main takeaways? Make sure your stickers aren't too sticky. These were the stickiest stickers I have ever experienced in my life, and this is a public service announcement to anybody who bought my Pyrex at that market. I apologize for the amount of Goo Gone or soaking you guys are going to have to do. Please know I put the stickers on the inside of the bowls so that none of the pattern would be affected, and that you could just soak the bowl in the sink. I hope. So, that was my number one learning. Get better stickers. After we put all of the stickers and prices on the Pyrex, I did smarten up and I got tiny little stickers that were a lot easier to remove. So apologies to everybody if you're out there in the world picking my stickers off. Anyway, so we got all of the Pyrex packed up, labeled, and then about maybe 3 or 4 days before I had my son help me load our big Excursion. So it was floor to ceiling packed with everything. Bex Scott: [00:04:44] And this might seem silly, but I was convinced that I wouldn't have enough inventory. I had booked a ten by ten booth, had no idea how big that is because spatially I'm unable to figure out how big that is in my head. That was three tables and two chairs, and I just have to say that I had more than enough, which is kind of embarrassing because maybe next year I might need two booths. But I packed up the Excursion and I live in Innisfail, which is about an hour away from Calgary, so I had to make sure that everything was ready to go because I couldn't come back home to get anything. And the sale is only one day. So I ended up staying in Calgary with my parents. Everything was packed up, ready to go, and then at the last minute, I decided that I needed to make a sign and postcards for myself. Why I decided to do this like three days before, I don't understand, but I think I was procrastinating because I was nervous. So I designed these postcards to promote the podcast and my Instagram. If you're not following me on Instagram, it's at Pyrex with Bex, and I got them all ordered. I didn't factor in having to pick them up in Calgary and I wasn't there. So this is the first time I've ever used Uber as a courier. Let me tell you, it works. It's a little bit over the top. Bex Scott: [00:06:11] It's expensive, but I didn't plan ahead, so that's my fault. And I was punished with the courier expense of having to pick up my signage for the show. But it's really cool if you guys ever need a courier, you just go on to the Uber website and you can book somebody to go into the shop, pick it up for you, and deliver it for you. So it worked really well. Luckily, I had my signage and my postcards for the show. So we get to the night before and they graciously let us set up for two hours and I get there, my parents, they went with me to help me unpack everything, and I was a nervous wreck. Like everybody there had obviously done this before. They all knew each other. Some people I went in and they were already set up. I think I was there like half an hour after the time that you were allowed to set everything up and they were already done. They were good. I was in awe. So I think it took us a good 20 minutes to even figure out how to set the tables up properly, so that people could walk into the booth and see everything. But we were there from about maybe 20 after 8 to 830 at night until 10:00, and got a good chunk of it, set up everything out. I had already done all the price tags, which was amazing. But looking around at all of these vendor booths, they know exactly what they're doing. Bex Scott: [00:07:37] They have amazing vintage shelves. That's another takeaway that I came away with, is that you need height. You need to go vertical with your displays. You can't just have it flat on a table. So for my markets going forward, or if anybody is going to be doing a market, make sure that you invest in some nice wooden shelves. You could even bring furniture to stack things on. It just makes your booth that much more beautiful and easy for people to go through. And it also adds another layer so that you can add more in. So that was my main downfall, I would say. I ran out of space and Pyrex takes up a lot of room. So if you are selling items that are larger, having a bookshelf, furniture, something to go vertically, is a must. But these vendors had beautiful booths. They were set up like they were in an antique mall. They had furniture. They had shelves. They had, there was one booth that had flat boards set up with pegs, and they had dozens of mugs on them where people could just come look at them, pick a mug off the wall. It was brilliant. There's one booth that was set up like a dining room. It was amazing. The vendors sat at the dining room table and you could go in and just look around at all the things on the perimeter of their booth, around the table. Bex Scott: [00:08:57] Other people had great signage. I was really impressed. So I took a lot away in that sense about what to do, what not to do. My booth was stuffed with things, but overall it worked out. So the night before, we're setting everything up and I have to say, the other vendors are so nice. You can tell that they've really built a community around doing these markets, and a lot of them sell, they're vendors at Ella Grace and other vintage malls and mark
