Gluten for punishment.

So I may be a gluten for punishment.  How does one determine that?

I attended my second market, Vintage Market, this last Saturday, July 2.  Hosted by a new, super cool vintage shop The Vintage Vault.  My sister bumped into this shop about three weeks ago and found out they just started markets the 1st Saturday of the month. She mentioned to them what I did, vintage sheet bags, and the same day I got an email from the shop via Etsy about possibly attending the market.

It was definitely a debate to do this market on this day for several reasons.  First and foremost it was my son's b-day (even though his party was the weekend prior, but we did go see Transformers after the market and the movie was really good), and it was a holiday weekend.  Hmmmm.  Oh and the next two 1st Saturdays I'm more likely going to be out of town so I didn't want to wait until October.  Ugh!!!  So I decided to do it. 

I have a lot of stuff, and hoped to thin out some of my large items.  I even skipped garage and estate sales last weekend because I have too much stuff.  Plus the largish items, to me, are way to pricey to ship (I personally hate having to pay shipping so I feel bad charging such high shipping rates on Etsy) therefore I choose not to list these items.  Ugh!!!  Kinda defeats the purpose of buying the stuff, right.

So since I still had every bag that I made for the last market (minus one I gave away for the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day), I did very little preparation for this market. Just a little research to price some of the items that hadn't been listed on Etsy yet and price tag and pack everything. 

An optimist is not what I am, but for what ever reason I was extremely optimistic about this market. To show how optimistic I was I bought a new phone (which I've debated about for the last year) and ordered Square, so that  I could take credit card payments. 

With it being a holiday weekend you almost expect people to be out and about looking for things to do, but the vendors...I guess had their own plans.  This is the third market they have had, and previously there had been anywhere from 10-15 vendors, but this time there was only four (including me).  :-(  Soo I'm guessing less vendors equals less interest which then leads to a small turn out.  (I think I need to remain a pessimist.) 

The first market I went to, wasn't as successful as I had hoped/imahttp://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6977557660925180178&postID=5379968715345089651gined.  I may have been just above the brake even point if I only put into consideration the small $15 fee to sign up, plus the very few things I sold (obviously deducting their cost).  It was definitely an experience, but it was a lot of work just to get there, unload and walk up stairs with heavy bins and other supplies.  I was sore for days after because of the numerous times I went up and down those stairs. 

This time I sold two items , there was no fee (the first time), but I did go out and buy a canopy for this particular event, therefore I'm in the negative.  There were no stairs this time, but it was outdoors and super hot, 98 degrees and on asphalt.  I'm surprised I stuck it out, but I managed to keep cool with ice cold washcloths I kept around my neck. 

So am I a glutton for punishment? Am I seeking disappointment? Do I keep on trying?  Is the third time a charm?

Sigh.....

Oh on a happy note I did get around to making an item that's been on my to do list that I wore for this market.  I'll blog about it this week.  :-D