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.
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.
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Contact Rebecca Scott | Pyrex With Bex:
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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 markets, and they all kind of go around together and they know each other and they're all very supportive. So I was between two really awesome gentlemen, very helpful. They gave me tips. We were joking around with each other. They helped a lot with the nerves of being a first time vendor, and it was nice to see what some of the more experienced people, what they do throughout the day. So I even made a few sales, which was nice. You go around and you look at the vendor booths and you do some pre-shopping, which is kind of cool. I stayed pretty close to my booth because I was worried about spending too much money because the items were really great, but met some really awesome people. So we went back the day of they opened at seven for vendors to set up until 10:00. And this is where the nerves really hit me.
Bex Scott: [00:10:24] I was very nervous. The imposter syndrome was aggressive. I was looking around thinking, I'm not a real collector. Why am I here? My booth isn't set up like it should be. These people have been doing this for years. And then the worry about your pricing sets in, and I don't think I was the only one, because I overheard little snippets of conversations and people going around and looking at what each other had things priced at. People were adjusting their prices at the last minute. I know I definitely was. I was putting stickers over. I'm like, it's too much, it's too much because I had that fear of, you'll remember from my earlier podcasts in season one, I had a garage sale and it was quite the experience. People haggling, they wanted everything for a dollar, but I failed to realize that the people coming into this show are collectors. They respect what you do as a reseller and a collector, and they are looking for pieces to add to their collections in their homes, and they are willing to pay for your time of finding it, cleaning it, researching pricing, and they just genuinely value what you've done. So I was really impressed. I have to say, all of the vendors, all of the customers were very respectful. A few did ask for a better deal, but that was because they were buying in bulk, and that, to me, is totally acceptable. All of my prices I had wiggle room on, so I was expecting people to ask for a deal or ask for a bit of a lower price. And that's all part of the fun of it. But everybody was very respectful.
Bex Scott: [00:12:05] So one of the highlights of my experience was a customer that came in, and I think he was well known to the community. He bought this brass horn from somebody and he was honking it for probably a good ten minutes straight. I had no idea what was going on, but you could see all the other vendors kind of giving him looks like they knew who he was, and they were just chirping at him to stop. But he came into my booth and I had these copper candlesticks, and he wanted to buy them. And I said to him, well, I'm glad that these are going to a good home. And he looked at me and he said, you don't know that. It caught me so off guard I said, oh, are they going to a good home? And he just gave me this look and that probably made my whole day. I love it when people come in, they have a good sense of humor and you can joke around with them. But then it got me thinking. You truly don't know where these items are going. They could be going to a very bad home, but that's okay. Wherever they go after, I hope they're being enjoyed. So that was great getting to meet some new people.
Bex Scott: [00:13:17] Lots of people were looking for, obviously, pink Pyrex. I had only two casseroles, the Gooseberry casseroles, and they ended up selling the night before the show even started to another vendor. And one of my other takeaways is that I need to look for more turquoise and more pink because, as you would expect, people are asking for those colors and those patterns. And it was really nice to hear some of the stories about why people were looking for the pink Pyrex, and it was mostly because that's the pattern in the set that their grandmothers used. One lady was looking for it because she wanted to remember her grandma, and she was trying to complete her collection. So there was another vendor who had a full set of the Gooseberry Cinderella bowls, and I heard that she sold them for $450. So that is a huge win for her. Amazing. The set is beautiful and I hope whoever bought that, I hope it was the lady who was trying to complete her grandmother's set, because that to me is really special. It was funny because a lot of people who came around, I recognized them from Facebook Marketplace. I do a lot of selling on marketplace, and you get to know a lot of your customers there. You recognize their pictures and they kind of recognize you and tell you about some of the items that they've bought from you and how they're enjoying them.
Bex Scott: [00:14:47] There was even a man who came around and he said he was fully renovating his whole house. He gutted it and it was all going to be mid-century modern. So he was coming around and shopping for all of the accessories and furniture that he was going to put in it, which, that would be a dream to me, being able to renovate the whole house, make it mid-century modern. I would probably need an interior decorator to come in and do it because I would be very overwhelmed, wouldn't know enough about the style, how to do it, but that would be really fun. So overall amazing show. I ended up selling probably about half of my inventory, which was way more than I ever expected. The organizer told me that 800 people came through. When you're in the moment and you're just focusing on talking to customers and making sales, it really doesn't feel like that many people because you're so, you're in tunnel vision, but 800 people. Amazing. The next show is in October, so I'm hoping to be a vendor there as well, but I would say I learned a lot. There was also a wonderful woman who came in, and she was known by all of the vendors as well, and she was selling live. I don't think it was Whatnot, but it was something similar. But she set up in my booth for probably 45 minutes, and she was selling my vintage greeting cards to her customers in Beijing.
Bex Scott: [00:16:22] So it was all live. She was going through every single card. People were telling her which ones they wanted to buy. She ended up buying a cosmetic case suitcase from me, a Cabbage Patch doll, an awesome throw that had a design from the town of Olds, a really old teddy bear, and a few other things. But I thought it was really cool that me being a Whatnot seller, I've never sold on Whatnot live in a thrift store or at a market. But she was giving her, and I respect what she was doing because she worked hard for that that day. She didn't stop at all. Saw her buzzing between each booth and then going and loading up her car with the items for her customers. She was just the sweetest lady ever, so that's an awesome option, I think that you don't have to have a booth. You can also be on the other side where you're doing a live sale, so that's something I've always wanted to try in Whatnot. I know that it's a bit controversial. People think that it's silly to be selling live and kind of buying things live at a thrift store or a market, but it's another way to make great money, meet some awesome people, and serve your customers live without having to have a full inventory in your basement or in a shop, something like that. So I loved meeting her and seeing that happen as well.
Bex Scott: [00:17:51] And yeah, my only regret is that I didn't walk around enough. I walked around to say hi to some of my friends to see how their booths were and how they were doing, but my main focus was on getting through the market because it was my first one, meeting as many people as I could, and just making sure that it all went off without a hitch, went smoothly. I would say that it did. Shout out to the organizers of the Mid-Century Modern Show and Sale. Tracy, you did an amazing job. It was so smoothly run. Everybody was polite, helpful. Customers were great and I cannot wait to do another one. So find me on Instagram @PyrexWithBex or Whatnot, same handle, at Pyrex With Bex. Let me know if you've done any markets, if you have any tips, if you have any coming up. I am doing three more markets this summer. So if you listen to my podcast, feel free to come around and say hi to me. One of them is in Camrose, one is in Okotoks, and the other is a little further north in Alberta. But I hope that you have enjoyed season two of Pyrex with Bex, and I'm very excited for season three to be released. And it is going to be a full season of just interviewing other collectors and resellers. So I hope that you guys will tune in for that. And thank you so much for all of your support.
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 markets, and they all kind of go around together and they know each other and they're all very supportive. So I was between two really awesome gentlemen, very helpful. They gave me tips. We were joking around with each other. They helped a lot with the nerves of being a first time vendor, and it was nice to see what some of the more experienced people, what they do throughout the day. So I even made a few sales, which was nice. You go around and you look at the vendor booths and you do some pre-shopping, which is kind of cool. I stayed pretty close to my booth because I was worried about spending too much money because the items were really great, but met some really awesome people. So we went back the day of they opened at seven for vendors to set up until 10:00. And this is where the nerves really hit me.
Bex Scott: [00:10:24] I was very nervous. The imposter syndrome was aggressive. I was looking around thinking, I'm not a real collector. Why am I here? My booth isn't set up like it should be. These people have been doing this for years. And then the worry about your pricing sets in, and I don't think I was the only one, because I overheard little snippets of conversations and people going around and looking at what each other had things priced at. People were adjusting their prices at the last minute. I know I definitely was. I was putting stickers over. I'm like, it's too much, it's too much because I had that fear of, you'll remember from my earlier podcasts in season one, I had a garage sale and it was quite the experience. People haggling, they wanted everything for a dollar, but I failed to realize that the people coming into this show are collectors. They respect what you do as a reseller and a collector, and they are looking for pieces to add to their collections in their homes, and they are willing to pay for your time of finding it, cleaning it, researching pricing, and they just genuinely value what you've done. So I was really impressed. I have to say, all of the vendors, all of the customers were very respectful. A few did ask for a better deal, but that was because they were buying in bulk, and that, to me, is totally acceptable. All of my prices I had wiggle room on, so I was expecting people to ask for a deal or ask for a bit of a lower price. And that's all part of the fun of it. But everybody was very respectful.
Bex Scott: [00:12:05] So one of the highlights of my experience was a customer that came in, and I think he was well known to the community. He bought this brass horn from somebody and he was honking it for probably a good ten minutes straight. I had no idea what was going on, but you could see all the other vendors kind of giving him looks like they knew who he was, and they were just chirping at him to stop. But he came into my booth and I had these copper candlesticks, and he wanted to buy them. And I said to him, well, I'm glad that these are going to a good home. And he looked at me and he said, you don't know that. It caught me so off guard I said, oh, are they going to a good home? And he just gave me this look and that probably made my whole day. I love it when people come in, they have a good sense of humor and you can joke around with them. But then it got me thinking. You truly don't know where these items are going. They could be going to a very bad home, but that's okay. Wherever they go after, I hope they're being enjoyed. So that was great getting to meet some new people.
Bex Scott: [00:13:17] Lots of people were looking for, obviously, pink Pyrex. I had only two casseroles, the Gooseberry casseroles, and they ended up selling the night before the show even started to another vendor. And one of my other takeaways is that I need to look for more turquoise and more pink because, as you would expect, people are asking for those colors and those patterns. And it was really nice to hear some of the stories about why people were looking for the pink Pyrex, and it was mostly because that's the pattern in the set that their grandmothers used. One lady was looking for it because she wanted to remember her grandma, and she was trying to complete her collection. So there was another vendor who had a full set of the Gooseberry Cinderella bowls, and I heard that she sold them for $450. So that is a huge win for her. Amazing. The set is beautiful and I hope whoever bought that, I hope it was the lady who was trying to complete her grandmother's set, because that to me is really special. It was funny because a lot of people who came around, I recognized them from Facebook Marketplace. I do a lot of selling on marketplace, and you get to know a lot of your customers there. You recognize their pictures and they kind of recognize you and tell you about some of the items that they've bought from you and how they're enjoying them.
Bex Scott: [00:14:47] There was even a man who came around and he said he was fully renovating his whole house. He gutted it and it was all going to be mid-century modern. So he was coming around and shopping for all of the accessories and furniture that he was going to put in it, which, that would be a dream to me, being able to renovate the whole house, make it mid-century modern. I would probably need an interior decorator to come in and do it because I would be very overwhelmed, wouldn't know enough about the style, how to do it, but that would be really fun. So overall amazing show. I ended up selling probably about half of my inventory, which was way more than I ever expected. The organizer told me that 800 people came through. When you're in the moment and you're just focusing on talking to customers and making sales, it really doesn't feel like that many people because you're so, you're in tunnel vision, but 800 people. Amazing. The next show is in October, so I'm hoping to be a vendor there as well, but I would say I learned a lot. There was also a wonderful woman who came in, and she was known by all of the vendors as well, and she was selling live. I don't think it was Whatnot, but it was something similar. But she set up in my booth for probably 45 minutes, and she was selling my vintage greeting cards to her customers in Beijing.
Bex Scott: [00:16:22] So it was all live. She was going through every single card. People were telling her which ones they wanted to buy. She ended up buying a cosmetic case suitcase from me, a Cabbage Patch doll, an awesome throw that had a design from the town of Olds, a really old teddy bear, and a few other things. But I thought it was really cool that me being a Whatnot seller, I've never sold on Whatnot live in a thrift store or at a market. But she was giving her, and I respect what she was doing because she worked hard for that that day. She didn't stop at all. Saw her buzzing between each booth and then going and loading up her car with the items for her customers. She was just the sweetest lady ever, so that's an awesome option, I think that you don't have to have a booth. You can also be on the other side where you're doing a live sale, so that's something I've always wanted to try in Whatnot. I know that it's a bit controversial. People think that it's silly to be selling live and kind of buying things live at a thrift store or a market, but it's another way to make great money, meet some awesome people, and serve your customers live without having to have a full inventory in your basement or in a shop, something like that. So I loved meeting her and seeing that happen as well.
Bex Scott: [00:17:51] And yeah, my only regret is that I didn't walk around enough. I walked around to say hi to some of my friends to see how their booths were and how they were doing, but my main focus was on getting through the market because it was my first one, meeting as many people as I could, and just making sure that it all went off without a hitch, went smoothly. I would say that it did. Shout out to the organizers of the Mid-Century Modern Show and Sale. Tracy, you did an amazing job. It was so smoothly run. Everybody was polite, helpful. Customers were great and I cannot wait to do another one. So find me on Instagram @PyrexWithBex or Whatnot, same handle, at Pyrex With Bex. Let me know if you've done any markets, if you have any tips, if you have any coming up. I am doing three more markets this summer. So if you listen to my podcast, feel free to come around and say hi to me. One of them is in Camrose, one is in Okotoks, and the other is a little further north in Alberta. But I hope that you have enjoyed season two of Pyrex with Bex, and I'm very excited for season three to be released. And it is going to be a full season of just interviewing other collectors and resellers. So I hope that you guys will tune in for that. And thank you so much for all of your support.