The Pro Flipper Show

How To Resell Vintage Clothing — Interview With Vintage Boss Babes

Episode Summary

Rob & Melissa from Flea Market Flipper interview Sammy Davis from Vintage Boss Babes about reselling vintage clothing and building an online community.

Episode Notes

Vintage Boss Babes Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vintagebossbabes/about/

Webinars: https://www.sellmorevintage.com/

Check out our FREE Workshop: https://courses.fleamarketflipper.com/flipper-university-workshop-webinar

You can find us at: https://fleamarketflipper.com/

Episode Transcription

Reseller Hangout Podcast -Interview With Sammy Davis Vintage Boss Babes 

Rob: What's up, guys, on today's episode, we are so excited to talk to Sammy Davis with Vintage Boss Babe. She's a founder of Vintage Boss Babe. So Sammy, we're so excited to jump into your business so honored that you would jump on here with us and give us some insight to your business. So thank you so much for doing this.

Sammy: Thank you for having me. This is a great way to start my Tuesday. 

Melissa: Awesome. I'm excited that you're here. So let's dive right in and tell us a little bit about yourself and your background, how you get started in reselling and all the good stuff. 

Sammy: Sure. Yeah. So, I mean, I have an interesting background in that I'm a corporate dropout.

However, I like to start back in the dark ages of the world aka the late nineties, early two thousands. So when I was in high school, I was a thrift store shopper because when I went to prom, my boyfriend at the time wanted to dress goth. And so my mother being the best mother ever took me to a vintage store.

And I discovered secondhand. And so through the process of thrifting at 16, 17, I acquired a lot of stuff and I discovered eBay. So I still remember a few of my sales, like I sold a 1920s lace dress that was all black. It was probably for like a funeral, but I sold that. I sold Puma sneakers. I sold old Abercrombie and Fitch.

Like I just thought, you know, I was the bee's knees. Fast forward to, when I was, you know, basically taking my first steps into the professional world. I have a publishing background. And I moved to New York City in 2008 and I worked for Esquire magazine, which is a men's magazine that still exists, which is kind of a miracle.

And I thought that I would be on the fast track to become a fashion editor. However, I could not sit at my desk, guys. I used to sit like this beautiful building, a view of Central Park, celebrities downstairs. And I'd be crying because I was like, this can't be my life. My energy levels are so high, I'm so fully capable of creating at least $20 an hour, which is what I was paid back in the day.

So I basically quit after a year and a half and people thought I was crazy. But what was crazier is that I started selling vintage at the flea markets on the weekend. So not only did I have a nine to five, Monday through Friday. But then Saturday and Sunday, I was setting up a tent and selling women's use clothes, but I was so passionate about it.

And I think that as a reseller, you just, it's like love. It's like, meaning the love of your life, or even like your forever home. Like I had just discovered that resale was my forever home and there's a lot more to the story, but that's how I got started and it was kind of crazy, but I think the best things in life is when you just go for it.

Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure a lot of people, maybe your friends who are like, what are you thinking? Like, woah. 

Sammy: They were like, wait a second, you have this amazing job. Like what's going on here? 

Rob: I can totally relate to because sitting at a desk your whole life, yeah. That to me is yeah, the definition of torture, but being out, being able to go to thrift stores, going to yard sales, flea markets and all that, that's like my best day ever. I absolutely love that stuff, so totally can relate to where you are at and where you, how you jumped into it. So give us some more, are you full-time into reselling now or what is going on right now in your life? 

Sammy: Yeah. So I've been in and out of full-time part-time resale. Right now I would say I'm technically part-time.

However, what is part-time you know, to me, full-time is an 80 hour work week.

Part-time is 40 hours. However, my journey, because I started in 2008 and I started in person, and I've seen the internet blossom, I've seen the ebbs and flows. I discovered a few years ago that, Facebook was a really great platform for resale and I'm sure lots of us listening have used Facebook marketplace, whether to purchase for ourselves or to sell or to source. Facebook marketplace is a great place source. And after having sold of flea markets, I ran a vintage store for a year and a half, which I did not own, but I did run it and I managed it and I sold my butt off, sold on eBay, sold on Etsy, sold on Poshmark. Never did Depop that was a little bit later. And did a lot of in-person events. So from all of that, I just realized, wow, is this, this is so much work.

This is so much work to find and retain retaining customers for my niche, which is women's secondhand fashion and particularly vintage. Vintage are items that are 20 years or older, which a lot of people would fight me on this, but that's technically 2002. So the Y2K trends, and so having just had all of these frustrations, but still going to the thrift store, like once a week, bare minimum and acquiring a bunch of stuff.

I realized, okay. The fast tracks to my sales is through my social media following and having been a Facebook user since its onset, I had developed a pretty large Facebook following. So in 2018, I created a community. I created a group and that has transitioned to what is now a buy, sell Facebook marketplace group, where we also host live sales.

So people go live and they sell vintage clothing to each other. And so now, not only am I a part-time reseller, but I'm helping others to sell. So yes, maybe I am a full-time reseller because I'm helping so many people to sell. But my own personal resale it's I would say maybe 10 hours a week.

However, in those 10 hours I can make $1,200. So I had a live last week, it was 75 minutes and I made $1,200. I'm going to do another live sale this Friday. I'd love to hit a thousand if I don't, that's fine. But I know that if I put in the time to this community that I've built, that are returning customers as well as new customers, but oftentimes returning customers.

I have a little bit of a prediction as to what I can make. So it's a different type of resale game. You're not like leaning on SEO and how people find you and blah, blah, blah, blah. It's really just more about nurturing a following. 

Melissa: That's a really cool spin, a spin on it. I mean, most people you'll go the traditional platforms to sell on, and that's a completely different view.

Rob: Which is really really cool. That kind of sparked an interest like in your group right now, how many would it be followers or how many people do you have active in that group? That when you go live people jump on and they they're buying your stuff. How many people? 

Sammy: Great question. So due to the technology we use, we have not only a group, but a page.

And the reason that we have a page is because there's a technology, it's called loyal shops. And the founder, he's out of Texas. He's a great guy. And he created this technology. When you hold up an item, like I have this iced coffee right now. If you guys can see and you say like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, $5 comment sold, 10 people say sold 10 and a bot comes in and let them know if they were first to grab that iced coffee.

It also lets the second and the third person know. So basically my whole point with this is that we have a page following we've a group following, that is called Vintage Boss Babes. It has 4,000 members and the page has about 1500 likes or 1500 followers. When people go live on the page, it does depend on their own following and how they've branded themselves.

But it's up to about 50 people. My highest seller or the highest amount of seller has sold, was $3,200, which is pretty phenomenal for 75 minutes. Yeah. We encourage a range of prices. But because I am cultivating vintage. Vintage is, it's by opinion. It's a very subjective industry. So, you know, as followers of you guys, I love what I learn because I'm like, oh my gosh, the resale value of this, this is incredible.

But this leather jacket for one client might be $150, for another it might be $350. So what I'm trying to build again, a know like trust community, where if you are going to buy that leather jacket, you know, there's not going to be a hole, a tear. It's not going to smell. It's going to be delivered on time.

If there's an issue, you can communicate that issue. You don't really get that as much on the other platforms. Of course, as customers, you can fight for your rights. But I think that people enjoy shopping from people that they they know like and trust it becomes so much more than just the tangible object.

It becomes the relationship, which is why people become fashion addicts, because we just form a relationship with our clients and then have to sell them because we have so many. But, where I'm really looking to take this community and it's happening on other platforms. There's a couple of apps that are doing live sales, but I'm looking to take it to an app form at some point, you know, when the audience is large enough and I can get an investor and then you can shop live on your phone. And again, just in QVC, if you've ever seen QVC, it's very similar. 

Melissa: It's convenient. It's convenient for people to hop on and they can get notified that you're going live like, oh, what does she have today, that's super cool that I can go get?

So that's really awesome. Yeah. And can anybody join this group? 

Sammy: Yes. Anyone can join. It is a Facebook group. So you do need to have a Facebook account, which I don't know how old you guys are, but like I'm old enough to appreciate Facebook, but anyone under 25 is kind of like, I don't know about that.

However, it's a very happy space. That's the other thing I, you know, I cultivate there. It's just, you know, a lot of, you know, support, not, you know, criticism, breaking people down, breaking things down. I've seen that a little bit in the resell groups, which are a little bit more from like an educational forum.

We're just about selling and celebrating fashion, not so much the education, but if you do have a question and you post it, you will get support. 

Rob: That's awesome. 

Melissa: Yeah. We'll definitely have to link to it in the show notes. So we'll link to your group so people can go check it out and buy some cool stuff. And maybe eventually sell it if they want to. 

Sammy: Well and learn and learn about vintage fashion.

There's a lot of resellers out there. But if you are in an area of the country, and you have access and you know, I can't tell you if you have access to where you are to, to think to vintage clothing where you are, you have to discover that for yourself. It could just be like some store is closing down and liquidating and you buy all their stuff.

It could be the fact that like estate sales are still relatively untouched. It could be the fact that you are in Texas and there's a bunch of rag houses, and we can talk about what that means and the bare minimum to go in it's $500 versus other rag houses. It's like $2000. But it is a really interesting industry and it really does, you know, I love making money.

I love fashion, but sustainability is really important. And to keep textiles out of the landfills, it really is up to us, as consumers, because eventually these textiles have nowhere to go and they don't disintegrate because they're synthetic. 

Melissa: Yes, that's, it can be a huge growing and the more people who are educated about vintage fashion and, and love it.

I mean, styles come back anyway. So minus go buying new, go buy what's already well-made. We've made stuff so much better back then. 

Rob: Are you doing any sales in, like any of the traditional platforms, marketplace? Are you still doing any of that other stuff besides? Yeah. Are you doing any of that?

Sammy: Great question. So right now I'm working, I do work with clients and that's another way to build a resell income without, investing in the inventory and having inventory debts, which can be kind of stressful. Especially if you're just getting started and maybe you don't have a, you know, a credit line or something where you can hold on to that debt.

So in working with clients, I can take on their clothing cost-free and sell it for them and do a commission. So right now I have a luxury resell. These luxury goods can fetch more in the platforms then peer to peer. But what I try to do is peer to peer first and then put them on platforms. The reason that I kind of try to stay away from the platforms, and this is just real talk with fashion.

As a quick example, Poshmark is where I would most likely put these, these items. They take 20%. So right off the bat goodbye, if that item is under $400 and that consumer, which I put out all the positive vibes, but you just never know. And in fact consumers like "this is fake." They can contact Poshmark and Poshmark, there's a high chance that they're going to refund their money. The $400 mark is when it's going to be authentic. But not everyone on Poshmark wants to buy something over $400, especially if like, quote unquote, the comps, which I know you guys talk about comps. I talk about comps. Comps are a thing the comps are saying it's about, you know, $200.

So I really try to make that the last step, but I will share with you guys, like. You know, a St. Laurent trench, right? So I'm probably going to put it on Poshmark like next week, but it is a little bit of a cycle for me because I can make faster money and more. And I build those relationships and I know that that customer isn't going to come back and like, attack me.

And then I don't, you know, maybe I lose a little bit of money, quote unquote, but not really because of that 20%, I'm not paying that 20%. I try not to do friends and family on PayPal, but occasionally I do. And so that saves some money too. So there's just a lot of like saving money tactics when it comes to the peer to peer.

But I will say that Poshmark is my preferred platform. I think it's very easy. People there in terms of fashion are searching for brand names. So if you have again, a client or some sort of access or you yourself you're listing and you're like, oh my gosh, I spent way too much money on the real, real last month.

You can take that, those brand names, put it on Poshmark. And it's probably going to say just because of the brand name. 

Rob: That's cool. 

No, I was going to say that's a cool point that you're building this community of people who like know and trust you. So when they do buy something they're fully involved, they trust you.

They know what you're producing is a good product. When you go to Poshmark, you'll find somebody, Joe Schmo, anywhere they could buy it and they could come back for a kickback or a refund because of that. When you're building this group, which I think that's amazing. That's a really, really cool aspect of reselling when you're building that.

This is really, really cool point that, hey, these people know you, they're not going to come back and say, something's wrong with this. Especially if you're, you're building this community, you're building this name for yourself. I think that's really, really cool. 

Sammy: Yeah. Yeah. And again, it's like, on Poshmark, I make, I might make one sale with one client ever. They're not really following you. They don't develop a relationship with you unless they find you on social media, which the chance of that is it's slim. You can't message back and forth on Poshmark. On Etsy, I've done some things and they've kicked me off because they see that I'm like, you know, trying to share outside information.

So you really, it's a harsh thing to say. You don't really own your customer. And I guess that's not the right word. It's like, you don't, you can't work with them easily after that initial transaction, by building your own following, using social media, which it might not have to be, it might not be Facebook.

It could be TikTok it could be Instagram. You can, you know, basically have like, a one-to-one connection with them where one sale can become fun. You know, just because you have a conversation with them and you say, Hey, are you looking for anything else? Or, hey, I have your size. Do you want to look at this first?

And I do that with like my top tier clients. I have one client, bless her heart. You know, she spent like $10,000 with me this year because she loves luxury goods and she knows where to go to get them. She knows where to go to get them for, you know, 50% off what it would cost, new and yeah, she's great.

And she just PayPals me the money and just boom. 

Melissa: So would you say you're not spending a lot of time on Poshmark, like sharing other people, like, liking and sharing, you're not doing any of that stuff? 

All that stuff? 

Sammy: No. Yeah.. Do you follow any, do you guys follow people that are? 

Melissa: I created Poshmark. I created a Poshmark, I think I've sold like one thing on Poshmark. I did it a little while back. I'm not like we don't really do a lot of clothes, so. 

Rob: Our main platform is definitely eBay. That's where we're the majority. 

Melissa: I started it like probably three years ago and then I never, I kind of just left it. 

Sammy: Yeah. So, yeah. And again, you can't just like throw up junk. Yeah. Like I say, junk as in like, you know, I mean you can, but like just a basic.

Trying to think like a target dress, like, no, you can't, it's gotta have interest or something unique about it or vintage or something. 

Melissa: So how often are you going live? You personally? So you have other sellers who go live. 

How often are you doing it each month? 

Sammy: Yeah. I try to go at least once a month. And if I don't then, I look at my credit card statement and my resell room and I say, oh my gosh, I have all this stuff.

And then I'm like I need to sell it. What I've created because it's, for other people, I try not to take the spotlight, because I am like the admin founder. And so there is a little bit of, you know, I'm going to go to Sammy's life versus like I'm going to support the others. So I just try, I, I try to be sensitive to that. But you know, there's also like behind the scenes, again, back to just the, I'm just trying to kind of like drill it into people's minds. When you create a customer list, you don't even have to go live to reach them. You can just have a virtual appointment because again, you have their contact information.

So especially if you're working with fashion and if you're comfortable on camera and you're just a nice person, you can say, hey, you know, do you want to FaceTime? Do you want to get on zoom? Like I have a bunch of things like you get first dibs, like you make it exclusive to them.

And I've done that for people where like, basically I'm just filming or I'm modeling things that I just send it to them over Instagram. So I'm always doing like behind the scenes selling. I was pretty intense in January, and I did $7,500 for the month. Now some of that was commissioned, so that's not all take home.

And then obviously we all know cost of goods. There's that? My favorite type of items to flip those still are like the $5 finds. Yes. And I'll sell it for like a hundred. And over time, I've become much better at walking out of the thrift store with one thing versus 15. 

Melissa: Yeah. Being a little more picky.

And that's, I, that's definitely something that you learn over time. Like if you can't take everything cause it has to make you money. You need to make some money. 

It has to make you money, or it becomes inventory debt, or it becomes mindset debt right where you're like, I'm sure you guys have the room and you look at it.

And you're like, what the heck did I do last week? Was I drunk? 

Yeah, we have a warehouse now. 

We just got it a couple of years ago. It was, was a room for awhile then. And now it's a warehouse. 

Rob: But do the same thing. I walk through my warehouse and I go, that's a thousand dollars not listed. That is $2,000 not listed.

That's $500 not listed. 

Sammy: Because you guys are helping others. You're serving others. So, so yeah. 

Melissa: Just curious, do you get a commission of other people that are selling in your group or is it just? You do. Okay. Awesome. Cool. 

Sammy: So that's a great question. That's also part of the reason why it's just so awesome.

Because if you were to sell $1,200 on Poshmark that 20%, I mean, I can't do my math completely. I guess it's like $250 gone versus in my community, it's $89 for a live sale that 75 minutes, people typically show about 60 items if they move faster, which I encourage them to 75, it's about an item a minute.

And then, that pays for the technology, which is the shopping bot. And then they also get someone that I hire that runs their live sale, just to make sure everything is going smooth, you know, if they're kicked off Facebook, they can log back on to go live. So it's a really, really, really great value.

And yeah, I mean, I just feel like, again, you can sell things on a live that you might not even be able to sell on Poshmark or eBay. You know, I'll just say really quickly. I mean, god bless eBay for like, establishing this world. But I sold, it's a label called Gunne Sax. Have you guys ever heard of it?

Okay. So I'm going to educate you. So Gunny Sax, G U N N E space S A X like a saxophone it's a line by the prom dress designer. You might know her Melissa, Jessica McClintock. 

Melissa: No sorry. 

Sammy: Ring a bell? She was an 80s Designer. And it has a cult following now, and it has a cult following because they were just so well made.

They were made out of San Francisco. So they often say San Francisco and the label, there's like different types of labels. Like people get all geeky about it. So some of these dresses can fetch like 600 freaking dollars. Wow. Okay. All right. Also, depending on the demographics, so people like in Japan and Korea will pay more.

Anyway, long story short, I found one for $20. I was losing it, so I sell it for $250 on eBay. And I lost like $50 right off the bat, you know? Okay, sure. I still made $180, but over time, you know, that adds up. Yeah. And so if you can skip that part as a fashion reseller, especially because, you know, I see some of your numbers and there, I love them so much, but our numbers are smaller.

So it's like we have to sell more to make that amounts. But again, that's why vintage and luxury is probably the smartest angle. If you really want to choose a niche because the price points do tend to be higher. If you're selling, trying to think of like an example, like even like Lulu Lemon that was really trending for a minute, but it's still like a $30 item, a $40 item.

Melissa: No, you're wanting to, yeah. The hundred dollar, $200 items is where you could be like, that's great. The higher profits. 

Rob: But you're also passionate about it. It's something that you love. And you don't, I mean, you'd go to a thrift store and this is like innate in you. You're like, I'm going to find some of these cool deals and you enjoy it.

That's the best part of what you're doing, absolutely. 

Melissa: Are you selling on Instagram as well? Like, do you show your pieces and like people will DM you? 

Sammy: Yes. 

Melissa: Okay, cool. 

Sammy: So this is kind of like, so I started the Facebook community and it only became a buy sell community in 2019. And then eight months later, the pandemic hit and the growth really took off.

Melissa: Oh yeah. More people buying online for sure. 

Sammy: More people buying online, more people at home. But in that window of about 2018 to March, 2020, I was, I mean, Instagram has changed so much. I mean, my goodness now we have ticked off all these things, but it just used to be like a video you could post or back in the day, just a video.

So I would model clothes. And I would do a drop, so I'd have 10 items and I would get them on for like $5, $10, you know, at the salvation army. And I have my spot here in New York and I'd sell those items anywhere between $45 and $80 each and people, because I would sneak peek and people would DM me.

Like I need that dress. And I'm like, you got to wait until 7:00 PM on Sunday, then you can. So I created this sort of like, it was a buzz, but that was a nice, reliable, stream of income as well. I also run secondhand shopping tours here in New York City. So I'm always thrifting. So I'm able to kind of like double dip a little bit where I'm out at a thrift store anyway, and then I find it and it's like, I got to save it.

Melissa: You have a really cool business model. 

Rob: It's really cool. Different than a lot of people that we talk to. And yeah, that's really, really exciting. You're passionate about it. You've created a little niche for yourself that's not relying on the big, the other platforms, which I think is amazing.

Melissa: You've diversified. So that if your Facebook gets shut down for a month. Like mine got flagged for a month and I couldn't go live. And so, okay, well now you still have Instagram. You have these other things that you can do that you're not just stuck. Oh crap. You know, and you get it back. So that's really cool.

Rob: Just one real quick. One of your, hopefully you can think on the fly on this. One of your flips that sticks out, whether it was that jacket, that dress, something that sticks out doesn't have to necessarily necessarily be priced that you made a huge killing on, but something that was memorable to you. What can you tell us about one of those flips that you can remember?

Sammy: Okay. Yes. Okay. Here's another, like, I'll just, I'll just preface this with saying. A lot of vintage fashion, resellers we're just like geeks. You know, we like geek out and then there's like the next level where it's like history. It's all about the history. I'm not so deep in the history, but I have so much respect for fashion, the history of fashion, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But here's like, here's like a, a geek thing. So there's a label called Jeanette for St. Martin. She was a student at FIT, designed here in New York City. And, she did, I don't know how she got away with the trademarks. I guess the eighties were different, but she made sequined football jerseys for all the teams.

Yeah, it was amazing. I don't know who your favorite football team is. If you guys follow football so long story short it's, 2014. And I had kind of like, well, I'm not kind of, I knew about her. I knew about her enough that I would occasionally go on eBay and be like, huh let's let's see, let's see what's out there.

And I found a Miami dolphins, sequin football Jersey button up by her label, intact men condition for $75. Four years later, I want to say 2018, it could have been 2017, three to four years later. These secret football jerseys just started to like rise and it's just different resellers market them. And then all of a sudden it goes from $75 to hundreds to thousands.

So there was one seller on Etsy, whom I discovered I'm blanking on her. Anyway, she was selling these, these football jerseys for about $1,200. Wow. So I was able to instantly flip it to her for $350, knowing full well that she was going to sell it for, but I just remember how easy it was. Yeah. And she was so trusting.

It was just, it was a lovely interaction. And I was like, this is awesome. Cause I wore it. I have photos of myself in it. Look, I'm not, you know, I'm not in Florida. It's fine. Let's give it to the right person. It could have ended up on a TV show because she has further reach. And I do a lot of my clothes actually, I saw them to other resellers. So that's the other thing I should've mentioned this earlier about fashion, is that. Yes. Not even wholesale. 

Melissa: Cause she's still making money on the yeah. 

Sammy: Cause some people can, they can sell things. I'm just like what it's like again, back to this leather jacket analogy. Like some people can sell this for $350 or they have connections to stylists and just people in production.

So one of my dresses, I forget the show it ended up on. But I sold a dress to reseller an Alabama, and I think she bought it from me for like $60. I probably bought it for like $5, $7, $8 at salvation army. I like to go in the half off days and then she messaged me and was like a stylist bought it for this TV.

That's so cool. 

Rob: That is awesome. One of your dresses, they ended up on a TV. That's really, really cool. That is cool. 

Melissa: Yeah. I wanted to come back to one question, cause you said we can talk about it and I really have no idea what it is. You mentioned rag houses. So what is that and what is that a place to go sourcing or? 

Sammy: Yes, it's a place to go sourcing.

They, I was just speaking to someone in the industry. And she was saying that there's less than there used to be. So I really don't have statistics. I know that they exist. If you just Google, like clothing, rag houses, clothing, textile, warehouses, clothing, you know, clothing, wholesale warehouses, but rag house is like the industry term.

Cause a rag is like a, you know, a clothing item. And, what they do is somehow along the fashion food chain, which is what I call. They acquire textiles, they acquire clothing and they sort, and they grade it. So there'll be like, great. A, B, C, D a being like premium, you know, down to, I don't know, like M being lower-level and they'll do it for vintage, and then they'll do it for just like general modern and oftentimes, you know, these are big, big warehouses where they have almost like bins of clothing.

And then they sell it. So there's a lot of second hand stores that only buy from these rag houses. They're not like us, they don't have the bandwidth to go source. Right. So if you walk into one of these secondhand stores, you know, right away that they're sourcing from a rag house, because instead of having two pairs of Levi's, they have 70.

Okay. They're going to get the Levi's. From the rag houses for like $15 bucks each, and then they're gonna flip them for $55, whatever. Right. And this is a little bit more of like a high-end thrift store here in New York City, but these rag houses, they do allow us to go in, but it is a little bit of a relationship situation as well as a, how much money are you willing to spend situation?

So there's one in New Jersey. It's in Clifton, New Jersey and that's where a lot of the, New York people, I don't know if they're still able to go. I went back in the day, I went in 2012. I still have this like, photo of me, like lifting clothes, like with like boxes of clothes surrounding me, but we had to pay a minimum of $500.

Like we had to spend $500 just to walk in. I've heard it's increased, but it's called Transamerica. And so, I don't know if it's a chain, but it's massive. It's just like this massive complex. There's a lot. I know for a fact in Texas, because everything's bigger in Texas, you know, in Texas as a country itself.

So there's just a lot of clothing. So again, if you're looking to buy, you know, in mass, then I would look to rag houses, but then there's certain wholesale places. You can go and you can quote unquote pick and you don't have to spend a minimum, but I have found, yes, it's, it's great because everything's there for you.

I don't know. It's not as enjoyable and the prices are always higher. So that sequin top is like $20 instead of $5 or $7 or $8, which can add up. But yeah, the, the rag house culture. I don't know when it really emerged. I know thrifting, or like thrift stores as like a commercial. You know, more, trendy, experience was like late sixties, early seventies.

And this is like the hippie culture, you know, gravitated toward it because it's sustainable. It's unique. All the things. I think a lot of us know Goodwill, salvation army were founded in the 1920s. They were founded to, they founded these secondhand stores to assimilate immigrants so that the immigrants that came to get support from salvation army and Goodwill, Goodwill used to be Methodist.

They would have access to Western clothing so that they could go get jobs. Right. But the rag houses, again, it's just, it's a capitalist opportunity of like, we can get the goods and then source it to all these other second hand stores. 

Melissa: And we are making it, you're making it sustainable because it is crazy the amount that comes up in the trash and like, yeah, people don't.

I read an article recently and it is, it's crazy. Like the amount of tons that we waste in textiles is just. 

It's insane. So you're doing your part and the fall, the fashion retailers are doing their part to make it more sustainable. 

Rob: Well,, Sammy, we thank you so much for your time on here. This has been so much fun and informative for us to learn more about fashion.

How can people find you find more about you? Let us know what we can link in the show notes. So trust me, you're going to get some people who absolutely want to learn more about fashion and how to make money at it. So how can they find you? 

Sammy: Let's sell more vintage that's that's my phrase sell more vintage.

So, I do actually, I do not have a website. your website is so beautiful. It's a major inspiration. I had a website back in the day that I stupidly sold. Never sell your digital assets ever, however, to teach people more, about what I do and about what's available to them through vintage fashion, I do a monthly webinars so they can check out, sellmorevintage.com just to see when the next one is more information that's completely free.

I do it at the end of the month, every month, and then if you just want to become involved in my community, it's free to join. You can hang out, you can kind of lurk. You can be a wallflower. You don't have to sell just type vintage boss babes in your search bar on Facebook and it should come right up. And then my name is Sammy Davis, but my Instagram handle is also vintage boss babes.

I try to, celebrate the culture of second hand and I found Flea Market Flippers, Rob and Melissa, because I received Instagram ads, became obsessed with you and your social media content. So if you're tuning in, just follow what Rob and Melissa do on social media because it works. 

Melissa: We have a lot of fun, right? 

Sammy: So much fun. 

Rob: Sammy, you rock. Thank you so much. We'll link to all those places you guys can connect with Sammy in the show notes. Make sure you check those out, sell more vintage, sell more vintage. I greatly appreciate you. Appreciate your friendship and jumping on here and doing this with us. This has been so much fun. So thank you.

Sammy: You're welcome.