Beefing Up Gold Coast Tag Sales Web Presence

Something that's been preoccupying us in our down time over at Gold Coast Tag Sales has been making sure people - especially homeowners - get to our website and call us. This is a very personal, very in-person business, so we really need our unique approach to shine through. We've kept the website very simple because we like straight, simple professionalism without a lot of distracting bells and whistles.

We think a really great, really important way to expand our business is to connect with homeowners and secondhand shoppers outside the regular sale experience. With that in mind, keep an eye out for the new blog I'm going to be maintaining:

http://goldcoasttagsales.blogspot.com/

This blog will be directly connected to Gold Coast and will focus more exclusively on tag sales than my personal journey through them. I'd love to have you as a reader and, if you know anyone in the secondhand world who might enjoy it, please do direct them that way!

Signs of Life

Spent yesterday at my M-I-L's house, doing shop talk. Hooray! Appointments are slowly picking up again. I go on as many appointments as I can so I can learn the finer points of the biz and familiarize myself with the homeowner and the stuff I'll be selling before the sale date. The appointments go much more quickly when there's two of us, too.

We also set up a Facebook group. Please do join if you're in the NYC/LI area because we hope to share important sale information when the membership grows large enough.

It wasn't all work and no play dull Ali, though. I took advantage of the superior light and change of scenery to photograph more inventory. (Yes, I consider that play.) Here's some quick outfit shots Eric took for me:







But I confess that half of this will end up for sale. I've become obsessed with wearing the things I'll be giving up shortly.

The Slow Season

December through February is the heartbreakingly slow tag sale period during which all of us tag sale addicts feel itchy in our skin. There are less than 1/4 the amount of sales there are during the season and half of those are run by people with nothing to sell and nothing to do. We search craigslist and charity shops and fliers on bulletin boards for something - anything - resembling a sale. We are in desperate need of a fix.

We consider seeing all the friends and family we've been neglecting the rest of the year. We start going through our many piles and collections of Things in half-hearted attempts at organizing. We get terrified the season will Never arrive. We consider getting a "real job." We look for other stuff to do. To get us through.

Here's what I've been doing to get me through this dry spell:

1. Starting an etsy store for all the vintage jewelry, scarves, and findings I've amassed over the years.

2. Listing records on eBay. I'll probably expand to clothes and accessories that aren't vintage, but one thing at a time. Gotta keep it spread out enough to last.

3. Living on kaboodle.com and lookbook.nu. I post outfits, read everyone else's stuff, read all of the forums, everything and anything.

4. Joining other sites. I got a formspring, so head on over there and ask me stuff!

That's it, guys. Wish me a good sale or two to get me through the rest of the winter slump!

Getting Rid of Records on eBay

Over the years I've collected A LOT of records. I gave some away to pare down a while ago but I don't have a working turntable setup so I had to ask myself: "Why am I keeping all these records I can't listen to?" Being a tag sale regular is like having a disease... like those people on that Hoarders show. I'm trying to cure myself of that disease. Little by little, my record collection is going up on eBay. Here's a flickr slideshow of the records I listed today, including Blondie and The Ramones:



If you know anyone who's into vinyl, please do let them know this is all available on alicatstrut's eBay. The auctions start at 99 cents and they can help a crazy hoarder (that's me) out.

T, T & T, now with Etsy!

I have long had the problem of WAY too much stuff accumulating in my apartment. I'm using etsy to ease the load on some of the vintage. Check it out!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/alicatstrut

If you have an etsy shop, too, let me know! I'd love to check it out.