DEBRIEF | Whelp! It’s the Monday after the Will and Bequeath  Hollow Rock POP UP and I am … exhausted.

This is the image I had on the cover of the notebook I used to tally sales on Saturday.

EXHAUSTED. As my fellow “thriftsketeer” (did I type that right?) Madison (@howthelightgetsin on Insta) said, “Who knew outdoor marketing in early May in NC was an extreme sport?”  Not me. I woke up on Sunday with an absolutely disgusting heat rash on top of my tan (thanks to the minor melanin tho’!) while my fellow sellers, Madison and Jennifer (@bullcitythrifter on Instagram) both got sunburned. But we had fun. Will and Bequeath was out to represent at the Hollow Rock pop up.

Here’s the note I put on the ‘gram this morning:

Short version: It was good! A modest success. Hollow Rock’s event was smaller than I might have hoped, but considering that it was a first effort I think the booth looked really great and sales were okay. Big stuff moved more than little, which surprised me, but I’m told there’s no rhyme or reason to it and every sale is different.  I woke up on Sunday with a raging heat rash, but that’s the only notable negative. ☀️

I do want to take a second to say thank you to the people who specifically came out to support us and spread the word. To our friends, but also to the social media folks who were kind enough to boost us with their own reach (specifically @sixeightyeight, who took some really great pictures and stories, and @sprucecreativestudio who shouted out our – I think! – very reasonable prices, thank you!!!). 🙏🏽

The thing is, the reseller and blogger/influencer community isn’t always the nicest or most generous.

My rugs. Photo by our ‘gram pal,  lifestyle blogger @sixeightyeight.

There is definitely an unwelcoming atmosphere at times. (Have you ever been to an estate sale and attempted to shop alongside a curmudgeonly dealer? Usually older and male, but not always. WOW. God forbid you even SMILE. They are incredibly unfriendly. It’s a bad vibe.) It’s unfortunate. There is plenty of room for all, and yet, there’s this mean-spirited competitiveness that wafts from certain folks who clearly think that success is tangible, finite and needs to be hoarded. There’s a juvenile ‘Are you good enough?’ bit of Mean-Girls-style attempted-gatekeeping that goes on. (“You can’t sit with us!”) 😂

At our Hollow Rock sale, we did have a couple of lookieloos who were there to scout the competition, as well as folks who might have shared the love on social media in advance (as we have done for them) who were notably silent, but it’s fine. I don’t operate that way because this is American retail – there is literally no such thing as market saturation. An insatiable desire for things means none of us – small timers, all – is gonna put another out of biz just by existing. Generosity and welcoming kindness run cheap. ❤️ So I say, the more the merrier.

I definitely meant all that. It was a good day.

It was more work than I realized and I would do a few things a little differently the second time around, but we did okay, we made some sales, and we generated some good mojo.

Thanks to everyone who followed along on social media, which also gave me a bit of a boost. (I made a bunch of online sales Saturday as well!) And just thanks to all my Durham peeps as well. The Bull City, DURM, as some call it, really is a cool place to live. It is full-to-bursting with cool folks and kindred spirits and I’m so happy to be here.

As I work to get products up for sale on my own site, interested buyers should feel free to shop Will and Bequeath on Etsy and Will and Bequeath on Poshmark. These platforms take a large percentage of the sale price, and charge various other feels to sellers as well. In the future, I hope to have ALL my stock available on my own site, but until then…

Read all the posts in the Will & Bequeath blog tag here.