Secrets From Junk Mavens On How To Sell Your Junk In "Lots"

Meet a Junk Maven

Let's get personal. How attractive is your junk? Do you need help learning how to package your trash into treasures? Well relax, I am channeling my grandmother Esther tonight, The Queen of Junk.

My Grandmother Is In Cahoots With An Etsy Dealer

While my grandmother has long been gone, I am certain that her spirit has inhabited half the dealers on Etsy.com. For sure she is in cahoots with one particular dealer, Christa Burton. This will become clearer in a moment.


The Family Scavenger

My grandmother Esther was a junk maven who saved everything. She was the family scavenger taking home everyone's extra stuff from old sweaters (to make blankets) to overly ripe tomatoes to make soup. And not only did she like to make use out of everything, but she also liked to sort and organize her junk with rubber bands, plastic bags, small boxes or tins.

Junk Drawers Stuffed With Collectibles

In her foyer, she had this great fold down Maple desk with three bottom drawers that were stuffed with odds and ends such as used wrapping paper, old ribbons, free advertising trinkets, premiums, vintage photographs, hankies, sewing notions, old calendars, ephemera, swizzle sticks, toys, coupons, coins, stamps, plastic change purses, souvenirs, scarfs, knitted hats and more.

Grandma Leaves Behind Old Dinner Rolls Stuffed In Her Handbags

When she died in her nineties, she left behind a collection of handbags and shopping totes packed with old dinner rolls wrapped carefully in white paper restaurant napkins (she saved everything).

Shabby Granny "The Queen of Junk"

If you have read my book, Hot Cottage Collectibles For Vintage Style Homes " you might remember that in that book, I refer to my grandmother as "Shabby Granny", The Queen of Junk, a maven on rescuing , re-cycling, re-using and re-purposing anything and everything.
(She was way ahead of Shabby Chic!).

Meet Christa Burton of Etsy.com

While Grandma Esther is no longer on this earth, she seems to be quite active on Etsy .com. Currently she appears to be in a silent partnership with one of my favorite Etsy sellers, a gal named Christa Burton. Like my grandmother, Christa adores collections of trinkets and fun junk and sells packaged "junk" regularly on Etsy.com.

Grouping Together Your Junk In Goody Bags or Boxes

And Christa like my grandmothers enjoys placing her junk in categories such as such as sewing notions, old game parts, millinery embellishments, plastic treasures etc. Christa also is fond of creating packages of junk, often by color, shape, materials, use or era.

There is Money To Be Made From The Contents of Your Junk Drawer

What Christa Burton has learned is that there is money to be made in groupings made from your junk drawers and other collection spots. Christa puts together "goody bags' or box lots and sells them for $10.00-12.00. Antique collectors, crafters, collage artists, teachers, scrapbook folks, mixed media assemblage artists love what Christa has to offer.
What a team of junkers, Christa and my grandmother!

To visit Christa Burton's shop click on this link: http://www.etsy.com/shop/christaburton


C. Dianne Zweig is the author of Hot Kitchen & Home Collectibles of the 30s, 40s, 50s and Hot Cottage Collectibles for Vintage Style Homes. She is also the Editor of Iantiqueonline.com an actively growing internet based resource community for people who buy, sell or collect antiques, collectibles and art. You can find Dianne’s fabulous retro and vintage kitchen, home and cottage collectibles at The Collinsville Antiques Company of New Hartford, CT, a 22,000 feet antique emporium with an in-house retro café.

To read more articles by C. Dianne Zweig click on this link:
C. Dianne Zweig’s Blog Kitsch ‘n Stuff

Email me at dianne@cdiannezweig.com

Visit my website, CDianneZweig.com

Dianne is a member of:
The American Society of Journalists and Authors
The Authors Guild, Inc.