New Beginnings as an Antiques / Vintage Dealer

I can say with complete honesty that I never thought I would be starting a business as an antiques / vintage dealer. Until about a year ago, I was one of those who just had to have the "latest and greatest" but more on that later. Since making my new business venture "official" in November, I have been quite busy exploring many selling opportunities.

It seems the most advantageous aspect of being an antiques / vintage dealer is that there are fewer restrictions than those in traditional retail. You have many selling venues available and none of which require a storefront or obligatory lease. In fact, you can choose to display your wares in any number of regional antique malls on a month-to-month basis, participate in the virtually endless schedule of flea markets and / or antique shows, move inventory quickly at online auction sites, or set up shop in a matter of hours in an e-commerce community and open your store shutters to the world.

Note that although I am still selling on eBay, I share the frustration of other antiques / vintage dealers and I have no intent to put all of my eggs in THAT basket. For many months, I have been endlessly scouring the Web for alternative eBay sites and that has become a very disappointing experience. There are just no other sites with the selling power and the buying appetite of eBay. However, after an exhaustive search and careful evaluation, I have settled on a site called Bonanzle.

Now Bonanzle makes two basic propositions: 1) it's based on simplicity and 2) it is the friendliest place to buy / sell. While there is value in both of these propositions, I made the decision to build a booth primarily because 1) there are no monthly or listing fees (instead they have a reasonable fee schedule based on the sales amount) and 2) there is a significant number of antique / vintage product listings (which has consistently been a problem on other sites).

After building my booth, I am happy to share that both of Bonanzle's propositions do hold true. I was able to successfully complete set-up and list a couple of hundred items within an hour or two. I made no reference to help pages and flew completely "by the seat of my pants" so it's user-friendly interface and its intuitive process really was easy.

I think I am most impressed, however, with the quality and sincerity of the other antiques / vintage sellers. By all appearances, this is an active group working diligently to establish a professional and lucrative place to sell online. I've been involved with the site for about a week now and although I have yet to make a sale, I have made some great contacts (that will, in all likelihood, become long-time friends) who are helping to educate me on the business and who have been very supportive of my limited contributions. For someone new to vintage / antiques, having these new resources is invaluable and I am very grateful.

I will continue to evaluate the sales potential for Bonanzle as the most viable eBay alternative for the antiques / vintage dealer. Based on my initial research, there are a lot of opportunities for maximizing an online presence here but we'll just have to wait and see...