It's tough trying to fine tune stock, especially in the collectables business. It's not like bringing in 100 dress shirts in different sizes. You'll probably cover most people with that choice. 
I spend a lot of my time researching the top 60 collectable fields, everything from posters to toys to advertising to kitchen utensils, art and sports memorabilia. So not only do I have literally hundreds of collecting niches, I have to find what's hot in each of those categories. So, eventually I end up with tons of stock. This is where I find myself now. I NEED ROOM! It's time to move everything and bring in new and fresh old stuff.
From today till Easter Sunday, everything in the store except food and consignment items are 50% off. All prices clearly marked, cut them in half!. Rock concert T shirts, antique, rare and signed books, advertising, sports, tin, glass, everything except a few consigned art pieces and food. If you're not close to Greenwood, email and I will make arrangements to ship.

I know, technically it was a week ago last Friday, but today the tourists were out. Even with our Sunday reduced hours, I saw more tourists today than last week combined. I had a lady drive all the way from Kelowna to buy the Little Women book from 1892, as a gift to her mom. She was looking for an excuse to go for a drive and the warm weather and a great book were all the justification she needed. 
We also sold milkshakes along, of course, with ice cream cones. We may have to open earlier starting next Sunday.

Those of you who know me, know that I spent many years in the film industry, mainly doing locations. A friend has posted this wonderful video of Riverview Hospital, a mostly abandoned mental facility on the outskirts of Vancouver. 
I have spent many, many hours wandering around inside these buildings. (some say I should still be there). I have had lights go on at 4am on the 4th floor which is mainly offices and old storage areas. No matter how brave you are, your mind does tend to wander to the macabre when you have no one to visit but yourself. Enjoy the link, you may have to copy and paste

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/04/03/riverview-hospital-video-coquitlam_n_5083620.html

Well I woke up this morning to snow. It's still snowing 7 hours later. So much for Spring has sprung. It's a perfectly good day to list items on eBay. 
I purchased some bulk books last week, some dating back to 1782. You would think that a book that old would automatically mean it's worth a lot of money. Wrong! Many if not most books from the 18th century sell for under $10. Like any other collectable it comes down to desirability and condition. For instance the book shown above; the most popular fishing book of all time, over 100 years old, gold script writing, it must be worth a fortune. Wrong again. There were hundreds of versions of this book printed, over many many years. Unless you are an avid fishing book collector, this book will appeal to a limited number of buyers. I have it listed on eBay for $89, we'll see what happens. By the way, if you would like to see my listings on eBay, just follow me. My handle (sellers name) is Lovegolf. And, yes I do

Trying to promote your website, blog, Facebook page or Twitter feed without inundating your friends and family with requests is difficult. So, I'm going to give away this beautiful new mechanical Skeleton watch on March 31st. 
I am trying to promote my Facebook page presence. 
Simply go to:
 
https://www.facebook.com/Thecollectordude


Like and Share this page. Your name will automatically be entered into the draw. I will do a video draw on March 31st and the lucky winners name will be announced here. 
Thanks and good luck!

One of the things any small business faces is they are constantly changing. This is a curse and a blessing. A curse because it means whatever you've done in the past is not working as well as you wanted. A curse because with a limited budget, can you afford to throw away both your sweat equity and your actual branding literature  like business cards, invoices etc. A curse because your loyal customers and clientèle may not recognize the new brand and just become confused as to who they are dealing with. 
A blessing because as a small business, you can make changes immediately, no corporate board room meeting to discuss fonts and name changes. You simply make the changes and go. 
I am facing such a dilemma now. Because the bulk of my business is still online, the number of customers who will actually recognize that a change has been made will be small. I only have a few business cards etc to use up, so not a big investment. 
There is a benefit being married to a graphic designer. If I want to change logos, colors, fonts, styles, layouts etc, there is no cost to me. Most other small businesses have to seriously budget for this. I am looking for some consistency in the labelling in the store. As I continue to increase my inventory of used, rare, signed and first edition books I want to be able to price them in such a way so that I don't have to put stickers on them as I have found that I can damage the book. My wife came up with a creative new idea that I can use for the new labels and tags. She has simply made bookmarks from heavy 64# bright coloured paper that includes all contact information, as well as a spot for a description and price. I can hole punch them for any of my other items. 
I would love your feedback on the font choices above.

Just love finding old Classics

Since the move from the lower mainland to the Boundary area of BC last year, the thing I miss the most is the lack of opportunity to pick. Where I used to try and hit up to 4 auctions a week though not always buying a ton, I at least  felt like I was in the game. The hardest part about living here is not being able to get to auctions. 

With only one day a week to buy groceries for the store, do any personal shopping and errands while driving 150 kilometres each way, it's hard to coordinate buying for the collectables business. I always get comments from regulars that there is always new stock and always lots of cool stuff to look at. Keeping that up is difficult. 

Yesterday I did manage to score several vintage, antique classic books. Above is the most popular fishing book ever written. "The Compleat Angler" (spelled correctly). This leather gilt book is in very nice condition. I cannot find a publication date, but the owner had written November '17, so it's almost 100 years old. This should be a quick sell in this area where outdoor pursuits are always popular.