Introduction

Welcome to my Community Travel Project!

My name is Tina and I sell vintage items through a website called Etsy. I have my own shop, find, clean, repair, photograph and list my goods. I am responsible for all day-to-day operations, research, pricing, photography/styling, data entry (describing), customer service, shipping, bookkeeping, marketing and promotion of my business.

There are thousands of people selling vintage items on the Internet, in flea markets, swap meets, trunk shows, open air markets and in brick and mortar shops across America and around the globe. These people are entrepreneurs, small business owners, treasure hunters, history buffs, lovers of quality, fashion enthusiasts and design aficionados. We love what we do and we like to share with others. We feel a responsibility to protect, preserve, upcycle, recycle, hand down, pass on and to educate others through our ventures in antique archeology.

The vintage community is large and extremely diverse, and yet we all have things in common that make us enjoy the business of hunting vintage, reselling items, as well as collecting vintage items for personal use and enjoyment. With such a large community, I contacted a small cross section of sellers on Etsy, and the information and interviews that follow are just a peek into their lives and businesses, and provide examples of the many ways in which we are a community based on what we have in common.

Image: vintage illustration - Rainy Day Dream Company