Must try harder . . .

The trying harder bit refers to the public, not me.  I have tried as hard as I can to provide an interesting and eclectic mixture of stock on my Antiques Fair stand.  I have driven 100s of miles to other Fleamarkets and auctions.  I have paid money for what I bought.  I have been on the go for weeks and weeks trying to get a good selection for an expensive Fair (to stand at).  I haven't put stupid prices on my stuff as obviously I have to compete with other traders but some things come dearer than others because I also have to compete with other traders to buy them, especially at auction.  The same pretty well applies to every dealer there.  My prices start at £2.  Nothing is more disheartening to have people coming round and either marching straight past your stall to the cafe, or looking at something, picking it up, and putting it down without so much as a word or a smile. Fortunately not all the customers are like that and we've had some lovely chats with people today.

Better still, our middle daughter G came to visit us and stayed a couple of hours.  We had a good wander round the Fair together and are planning for her to come and stay a couple of days when she has her holiday in a couple of weeks.  They we are going shopping for a new mobile phone for me, one on a contract so I don't have mobile bills on my terrestial phone as I'm just on pay-as-you-go on my current mobile.

Back to stock, for things we sell regularly, we have a ball park figure.  Other things are harder to price, as you haven't sold them before, so it's a bit trial and error.  Two things in here need to be reduced tomorrow, although of course then I need to then take an offer as very few people pay the asking price.  Some things are really quite unusual (the little milk-lined glass to the right of the foal's legs on the shelf below being a case in point) and command more of a price.  Things like that I don't mind keeping as they are so nice, but we ARE meant to be downsizing!

The little Holly Hobbie dolls are more window dressing than likely sales.  A little bit of fun anyway.   I know, I am selling things that people don't NEED, but let's hope they WANT them soon!

I couldn't resist this skeleton money box - when his hand lifts up with money in, his mouth opens and his eyeballs pop out!  Great fun!   The wooden things next to him are Norwegian ice skates, nearly 100 years old.

We only sold one thing from the militaria side of things, which can sometimes (often!) save the day, with a profit of just £5 and took a hit on the asking price to try and get some money in to offset against the cost of the stall.  Mustn't complain, as some of our friends did even worse!

Let's hope things are better tomorrow but one thing is for sure,  we can't keep doing fairs if folk won't buy, and this is the current trend, and other folk say the same.  Last weekend's fair was pretty dire too though we had a good sale earlier on which paid the rent.  The one before that - well, we should just have stayed in bed!