Center Stage: Lunch Lady Vintage and Good Mourning 8

Name: Cristy
Age: downward slide to 50
Shop Names: Lunch Lady Vintage and Good Mourning Shop both proud members of the Vesties team

Tell us a fun fact about you:
My husband (Oddacious) and I were interviewed for the show “Oddities” and were deemed not weird enough!

How long have you been selling on Etsy?
I found Etsy in 2006 but only started selling in 2010, up until then I sold in other venues, which shall remain nameless!

Why is Etsy special to you? Why did you choose Etsy as your selling venue?
I like the pace on Etsy; you can put as much or as little time as you want into it and still be successful. With ongoing health issues Etsy that has been a blessing. I appreciate the integrity of the majority of sellers who are trying to bring unique vintage or handmade items to a marketplace that is an enjoyable shopping experience.

How did you choose your shop names?
Both my shop names were borrowed from women in my life that meant a lot to me and led me down this path. Lunch Lady Vintage is named after my grandmother, who was an elementary school lunch lady. She was also a collector of antiques. Since my grandfather was a janitor (at the same school) their income was meager. She taught me about timeless antiques, how to get the most out of your budget, and how to root treasures out of places you wouldn’t normally find them. She’s been gone 8 years and I still miss her every day. The picture on the Lunch Lady Vintage shop banner is actually hers.

My other shop, Good Mourning, was inspired by my Great, Great Aunt Maizee, who could recite our family tree from memory. She taught me the importance of remembering where you came from so you can appreciate where you are going….hence the name Maizee DewGood.

How or why did you become involved with vintage?
When I was in high school, those of us on the fringe of polite society but not yet full punk took to the rockabilly revival. But since we were the first, we could walk into any thrift store and pick up and circle skirt dress with crinolines and a matching pair of pumps for $2. That’s what we wore….to work, to school. As we aged, we began buying household pieces for our own rooms and eventually our own apartments. The styles moved on but the love of vintage stuck!

What sort of items are you drawn to as you stock your shop?
My cardinal rule is if it has to be fixed, it probably never will be, so don’t buy it. I’m attracted to quirky decor pieces. I love to find things to upcycle in unexpected ways (prescription bottle Christmas lights.) Photos, especially those the just have a little something that sticks in my mind. And ashtrays, those California pottery ones that are bigger than your coffee table in beautiful marbled glazes.

What does customer service mean to you?
The customer is always right, even when they are wrong. I’ve had some unhappy customers and some downright rude ones. My goal is to satisfy them, even if their demands are a little over the top…I figure its easier than getting in a war that ends in bad feedback and bad karma.

What has been your best/favorite experience so far in selling on Etsy?
The people….absolutely. I’ve made some amazing online friends (one in particular I miss terribly – he knows who he is) and some local ones. The owner of InRareFormVintage and GrowingOldTogether, Tiffany Howard, is absolutely my closest friend and we met while picking this huge disgusting hoard. Just struck up a conversation and now we shop for each other, have Etsy days, and critique each others listings, etc.

What has been your most fantastic find- either one you have sold or one you have kept for yourself?
My husband and I rarely stop at yard sales which seem to be all baby clothes and toys (we refer to them as pink yard sales.) One day we were done and just figured we would stop since it was on the way home. Very pink sale. But I found some older dolls and some of their sleepy eyes had crackled and turned yellow. I’m thinking great Halloween piece. The man sold us four dolls for 50 cents each. When we started researching them, we flipped. These dolls were amazing valuable. Since we didn’t know much about dolls, we put them on another sales site and racked up $1400 on our $2 investment. We did take a portion of the money and sent it anonymously to the family who sold them to us….they had no idea what they had and it seemed like they could use the money.

Thank you so much for visiting! Comment and let us know you stopped by! 🙂

Until next time-
Adrienne of OldVintageGoodies