Selling in Vintage Malls

otherwise known as 459510 (Used merchandise retailers)

Like the old sign says

We hunt it, We find it, We buy it, We move it, We clean it, We fix it, We store it, We move it, We tag it, We pay rent to sell it... and you want a discount?

Of course you do! I know I would want a discount! In the right context - out in the wild so to speak, I'm always asking "would you take..." or "Can you do better...". If the booth isn't running a discount, you can always ask the mall management if that space offers a discount. The vendor may have a standing discount for items over a certain amount. Just got to ask. Also, if the booth vendor is running a temporary discount, be sure to remind the folks at the desk that there is a discount. They don't always remember, most of the time they do, but things are constantly changing.

And for some item - typically over $20 - you can ask the management to call the vendor and negotiate a better price.

We file Schedule C as we are running this endeavor as a business and not as a hobby. We report income and expenses. We pay our taxes.

So yes, we run discounts and we consider all reasonable offers. We aren't collecting these things - we are selling them. And sometimes we're just happy to get back what we paid for it. Selling used goods is always a bit of a gamble that depends on a random customer walking by who needs exactly that item and how long your willing to let anything sit there taking up space waiting for that particular customer.

As far as what we sell, we are fairly tolerant. I would guess 99% of what we sell are used, vintage goods. Rarely, we find and sell NIB (New In Box) vintage items. And also rarely, we sell used, contemporary items - Books, CDs, DVDs, electronics, etc. The reason for that is this part of the saying:

We pay rent to sell it

Rent - it's not just rent - which can be up to $5 a square foot, there is also a commission charge for each sale which is typically 12% to 15% and may even include a 3% charge if the item was purchased with a credit card. And the rent is paid with sales.

So when we run a discount - like 15% - it is actually 15% + the mall commission percent.
It's a hard game to just make the rent. But thats the same for any retail or restaurant business.

And just like those other businesses, we also have the same issues like theft, vandalism and breakage. Our daughter sells used clothes and she sells a lot of used clothes in a mall. She has no idea of how much is stolen, it's just so much low level noise. We see something is missing and when we don't see any evidence of the sale, we look around to see if it was just randomly dropped off in another space and when we don't find it, we just have to assume it was stolen. Nothing anybody can do about it. Even if the mall security cameras are working, the criminals don't care. And some of them are pros. Going from mall to mall.