The best thing I ever thrifted & sold v.1

The Folk Art Cupboard

This is the first installment of a series where I share a crazy story behind a piece of vintage furniture that I found and sold and the journey it took to get and even where it ended up.

If you’re new here, my name is Jess and my full time gig is selling vintage furniture full time for the past 6 years with my husband Christian in sunny Sarasota, Florida.

This first story starts with a wooden early 1900s cupboard

My good friend Kathryn Kellogg of Going Zero Waste moved from San Francisco to Portland, Maine so I decided to make the drive from Baltimore (where I was living at the time) to see her, in January I might add. I now live in Florida so the idea of January in Maine is making me cold in August.

Naturally I was scouring Facebook Marketplace in her area since I drove up with an empty mini van, I had room, and I was going to find something.

That’s when I saw the cupboard. It had been listed for 22 hours and was about 4 hours north into almost Canada (Newport, VT).

The original FBMP listing:

All I saw were the hand carved wood flowers & scalloped details and I was sold. Give me any kind of wonky grandpa made furniture. Waiting of the response was painful, I think it was about 8 hours before he finally messaged me back and I secured the goods. I somehow convinced Kathryn to take the kinda dangerous and snowy drive to get this old piece of furniture from a random mans barn off of FMPM. Totally safe.

I ended up finding a few more things in his barn including 6 catgut chairs that were probably over 100 years old and a live edge coffee table. Kathryn even got a few pieces and we managed to make it all fit in the mini van.

The drive was honestly beautiful in the mountains and snow. We made some stops and a few antique malls of course, then ended the day getting lunch at a local bar that overlooked lake and you could allllmost see Canada. A random man bought us a shot at the bar and it was the perfect day.

How did I price this piece?

When it comes to finding handmade items like this, pricing it can really be hard. Knowing the market and trends helped me price this piece and sometimes I price something based on how much I love them and let me tell you I LOVED this piece.

When I finally got it back home we cleaned it up and made a small repair the got it shot so we could list it online. Instagram continues to be how we get eyes on our pieces so that was where I shared this piece first.

So how much did I list it for?

$3,500 and it sold in about 20 minutes.

Now this was the height of the vintage market during covid times. Supply chains were horrible and vintage furniture was selling faster than we could find it. Not sure if it would sell this fast for that much but I would for sure do it again.

This piece is probably top five most favorite items I’ve ever found and the journey is what makes it even more special.

I have dozens of stories about the wild journeys we’ve taken to snag a special vintage piece, so feel free to subscribe to see my next find and the story behind it.

Note that future thrifted & sold stories will be under a paywall.

All thoughts, opinions, & grammar issues are my own.