An Etsy Store

I've decided to try to support my fetish for junk shops, flea markets, and thrifts by flipping some items in my collection on Etsy. Let's see if there are people who prefer me to do the dirty work of digging, digging, digging to find the gems. I love to do it, but really, what do I need all this stuff for? I live alone half the time.

So I've started an Etsy store and populated it with the low-hanging fruit around the house. I got a sale within a few days, but since then, nothing. I think this will be a good crucible to learn a little about keyword manipulation, product photography, and even marketing and pricing.

I'm sure to make reference to this store in future posts, but some thoughts off the top of my head right now:

I don't want to just throw everything on the shop. I want the shop to have a focus.

That focus will emphasize my own interest in the decorative arts, housewares, and other furnishings of the middle of the 20th Century. Basically 1945-1975, with an emphasis on 1955ish-1965ish. These items will have a masculine elegance or appeal. 

I want the shop name to reflect this focus.

With the first few items photographed, inventoried, and ready to list, I needed a store name. I chose something dull, but never felt enthusiastic about it. An old friend visited my house for the first time and said as she was perusing that everything seems so "curated" here. I laughed that it was kind of a man-cave, so the next day, I made a sort of portmanteau of the two concepts and conceived the name, "The Curated Cave." 

I have a buyer in mind. 

Well, if it's stuff for a man-cave, then the buyer I am trying to attract is a man. Not just any guy, but a guy who likes to have a story with the stuff he has. His stuff is special for one reason or another--it's unique, it's made of unusual materials, or it has some historical patina on it that makes people want to touch it like all the others before. In other words, I'm not planning to sell old flannel shirts (yuck), but if I find an unusual item like an old fisherman's tackle box, I'll list the tackle box, because it's an item with some gravitas. Something that can be displayed, handled, and discussed. He's probably an urban man, with a little more money than time to dig through the junk shops himself. He'll pay me to find the cool stuff and part with it.