075 - Oddmall 2016 Recap

Now that I have a working computer again*, I feel it's high time I recapped my lamp selling escapades at Oddmall last weekend!

I of course started day one with extremely low self esteem. I had two numbers in mind - one was the dollar amount I had to make in order to keep making lamps as a hobby, and one was the IMPOSSIBLY HIGH dollar amount I had set for myself as a goal in order to actively take my lamp making "to the next level" (more shows, create an online store, look into consignments, etc).

So of course i was thinking about how I was going to get rid of all my tools and all my lamp making supplies because no one was going to ever want to buy one of my stupid lamps. Crystal gave me wonderful pep talks all morning long assuring me that she believed in me and she was proud of what we had accomplished, buty i think it was the presence of local horror author Chuck Anderson that really kept me from allowing myself to go down that self-pity spiral. Before i could even begin to consider dropping my prices to compensate for lack of faith in my product, I sold my first lamp!

"Elephant Dreams", one of the last lamps I had completed before coming to the Oddmall, sold for FULL PRICE! She said it was *just whimsical enough" to go with her decor without being all, y'know, CRAZY like my other lamps :) So from this sale I learned, keep a couple "conservative" lamps to help accentuate the crazy ones.

Chuck Anderson came up to me and was all "Yeah, how's that Self Esteem now, huh?"

Soon after, another sale!

"Batman's Bestest Birthday Party EVER!", destined to be an extremely unique Father's Day gift next weekend :) I love knowing where my lamps are going :)

And then ANOTHER SALE!

"Otter Touch, Otter Time", one of my awesome lamp/clock combos, sold to this lady by who I can only assume was her date, or at the very least a man who cared for her very much :) Lots of cutesy "Is that the one you want? You really want it? I'll get it for you if you really want it" action going on, and she was VERY happy to have it :)

So here it was, half way through the first day of the show, and I had already met my "I could probably keep doing this as a hobby" goal for the weekend :)

All this time, Molly had been having a GREAT time. She was making little loom braceletys and selling them for 50 cents, but a lot of very sweet people ghave her anywhere between a dollar and five dollars per bracelet so she had money to spend, and boy oh boy did she spend it! I think she made friends with pretty much every retailer there :)

I was happy. I could have packed up right then and there. Those three lamps put me WELL above my "I can keep doing this as a hobby" goal. With a bit of money in my pocket, i decided to go walk around the show and let Crystal run my table for me :)

I saw MANY things that interested me greatly, and i would have spent every cent I earned if not for this nagging need to keep this money as my proof. Proof that yes, the thing i do DOES have value. It has worth. It has *this much* worth, to be exact...

I made my way back to my table, feeling AWESOME. I felt redeemed and valuable and justified! it's an incredible feeling that I can still feel a week later just by thinking about it :)

As i got to my table, i was greeted by everyone telling me "You should have been here! You had an offer on THE BIG ONE!"

My Millennium Falcon Mantlepiece Lamp/Clock, the piece I had priced at almost TWICE the cost of any other lamps I had made, the piece i didn't expect to sell on the first day AT ALL and figured i would need to come down on the price the next day just so I wouldn't have to lug it home with me... had an offer while I had stepped away! The guy was a good $40 below my asking price so Crystal had very wisely said "No", but she knew that this guy would be coming back :)

And he did :)

I the end, I gave it to him for ten bucks less than my asking price, but he ended up buying a 560-cent loom band bracelet from Molly for TEN BUCKS, so I consider it full asking price :) This guy is apparently a HUGWE Star Wars collector, and this will have a place of honor in his display room - a one-of-a-piece thing that he KNOWS no other collectors have :)

Lesson learned - never take the first offer, the right customer is out there :)

And from there on in, i was walking on dreams! My last sale of the day was this fellow, who came looking for the Millennium Falcon Clock but ended up going home with this great piece as a consolation:

"Yavin IV Memorial". Lesson learned, Star Wars lamps SELL!

As we were packing up for the night, I had congratulatory back-slaps from several of my neighboring retailers. I was in shock and I was in awe. Crystal asked me how i had done on this first day, and I couldn't believe it - even if I only sold the cheapest lamps on day two, i was only 3 lamps away achieving my "My God I Could Really Do This, Like, As A Profession" goal...

(BIG POST IS BIG, TO BE CONTINUED IN PART TWO)

*(If you have multiple Windows 10 computers with multiple user accounts on your network, and those computers have somewhat old wifi cards in them, you can get some pretty crazy network problems from one or more Windows Updates that will kick those computers off the internet and screw up your winsock files like a Windows 98 machine)

076 - Oddmall 2016 (Part Two)

Feel so good typing about this, why not make it a two-part post? So okay, DAY TWO! As you can see, my stock was depleted enough to where i could condense everything down to a single table... which i now kind of regret. NOTE TO FUTURE SELF: Keep the shelves behind you full, they look much awesomer than a table full of lamps.

I had gone home and rush-finished two new lamps as filler for the table, knowing that i had room now. This brought my total up to TWENTY-TWO LAMPS for the show, just two away from my original goal of 24, which was NOT. TOO. SHABBY.

Chuck Anderson greeted us and asked how the old Self Esteem was doing today, but i didn't really have time to answer as I was already making my FIRST SALE OF THE DAY:

"Halo Helmet Lamp", destined to be a beloved fixture in a happy customers game room (though i jokingly insisted that it should be the focal point of their living room). Lesson learned: Not all lamps need to be painted gold to make them classy :)

I then made my first of many trades for the day with Chuck Anderson. He and his wife had brought Molly a Kindle Fire that they no longer had a use for, so Molly was absolutely over the moon! In part one of this trade was for his original trilogy of "Black irish" books - Vampire hunting in Seattle, with non-sparkly Vampires (more on THAT later, in a different post).

"Tale As Old As Time", my only non-lamp (just a kick-ass clock featuring a Jedi Vs. Flying Shark With Laser Machine Gun).

Next sale was to a Grandmother, buying this lamp for her grandson out of frickin' NOWHERE. I was used to talking to kids all day long, kids LOVE my lamps, we have a good time, we talk about how silly/awesome they are, it's my Santa Claus Moment happening over and over again and I LOVE IT! I'm used to telling nervous parents that it's okay to touch my lamps and take as many pictrures as they like because pictures are free and I highly doubt that anyone is going to steal my designs, right? So when Grandma says "You can have whatever lamp you want, honey... which lamp do you want grandma to buy you? he chooses this one:

"Mario Kart Championship Trophy", one of the higher-priced lamps I have left! It puts me over my "You Can Do This Professionally" goal and - AND! And the Grandma (and the Mother, who is also there during the sale) RAVE over my lamps and inform me that my prices are SO REASONABLE!

I had heard this a few times, actually, but this was when it really clicked - the prices I had agonized over, the prices I always thought were WAAAAY TOO HIGH, the prices that I then MARKED UP BY AN ADDITIONAL TEN DOLLARS EACH for Day One of Oddmall because i figured i could always come down on the prices and make it look like a bargain - THOSE PRICES WERE JUST FINE!

And then I had my last "Sale" of the day...

"Temple Of The Sacred Midiclorian", which is destined to be a wedding gift for a Star Wars themed wedding. I'm all warm and gooey from THAT one :)

Well above my goals now, all that's left is to do some trades :)

Secomd lamp traded to Chuck Anderson and Family, "SyFy Presents: Sharnado Went Down To Georgia", in exchange for the rest of the Black Irish series ("Dark Molly"), and for having been such awesome neighbors :)

And the final trade of the day, across the way for a Huffelpuff Plaque and some other stuff (I let Crystal run this trade):


...And that was it! I went and I bought a book of poetry i had my eye on, i bought a 20-sided coin, I left some lamps with a local shop for them to try and sell on consignment, and I resolved to get an etsy shop so i can do this up PROPER :)