Frequently asked questions.
Where do you get all of this stuff?
We have multiple vendors who rent space in the shop and sell items they’ve acquired through various sources (auctions, estate sales, etc).
Do you take donations?
Not really.
Because we’re not a non-profit organization, you’re unable to get a tax rebate for donating items to us. However, if you want to give us free stuff because you support the shop and have stuff to get rid of, we’ll take it assuming it’s something we’re able to resell.
I have stuff to sell. Will you buy it?
Maybe.
We don’t do a lot of buying from the general public, but we’re sometimes willing to purchase unique items in good condition. However, we can’t pay more than what we’d pay for items at an auction or estate sale since we’re in the business of reselling. If you’d like to get the maximum sale price for your items, your best bet is to sell it online through a site like eBay or Facebook Marketplace.
If you have items you’d like to sell us, there are a couple of guidelines we use for purchasing:
Items must be in clean, resale condition.
We don’t make offers. You need to let us know what price you’re seeking for the items and we will let you know if we’re able to pay that.
We prefer to buy things “by the box” instead of dealing with individual items. The best way to sell to us is by putting several things in a box and quoting us a single price for the entire box.
Some of the things we don’t buy include:
Most clothing unless it’s vintage or unique
Plain glassware & kitchenwares
China sets
Coins
Collector’s plates
Electronics unless vintage or unusual
Rocking chairs
Dining room tables
Large pieces of furniture unless exceptionally unusual or rare
Children’s items unless vintage
How can I become a vendor?
We currently have no openings for new vendors, but if you’d like to be added to our waitlist, please send a message to Amy at amy@brainerdmerc.com with your contact info and the type of items you sell.
Do you ship items?
It depends on which vendor is selling the item. Some vendors are definitely willing to ship their items. If you see something you’re interested in send us a message at sales@brainerdmerc.com and we can forward it to the vendor to determine if they’ll ship it.
Why aren’t you open more?
The simple answer is that we don’t have the staff. Unlike a lot of resale shops, we’re not a non-profit organization so we can’t rely on volunteers to help staff the shop. Some of our vendors do work a few days a month in the shop, but most of our vendors have regular jobs and aren’t able to commit their days on a regular basis to us. And being in the resale business requires a lot of time out on the road hunting down items to stock the shop with, so we need to make sure we’re still able to do that as well.
Is there “wiggle-room” on your prices?
Sometimes.
Antique shops have a culture of customers negotiating the price of items. We’ve been trying to get away from that in favor of a model where we keep our prices reasonable enough that there won’t be a need for it. Some vendors are willing to give lower prices on larger/more expensive items depending on how long the item has been sitting in the shop and how badly they want it gone to make room for new items. If a customer makes an offer on a more expensive item, we’ll text the vendor and ask them, but we have a policy of not intruding on the vendor’s time for smaller purchases.
We also ask that our customers keep in mind the amount of labor that goes into curating the collection of cool stuff we have in the store. Everything you see sitting on the shelves had to be hunted down, purchased, transported, cleaned, possibly repaired, stored, priced, and arranged before you saw it. It’s a lot more work than most people realize. We hope our customers feel that our already reasonable prices are worth it.