You know that feeling you get when you look back on a change you were nervous to make at the time?

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You know the one. If you were to verbalize it, it’d sound something like: Why didn’t I do this sooner?

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Maybe it’s the incredible vintage silk kimono hanging in your closet. You’ve always worn it open. The day you decide to belt it into a dress, you’re a little unsure about how it looks. But people stop you on the street to ask where you got it.

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Or the Italian-made modular sofa you dragged home from a thrift shop. It’s bigger than you expected, crammed into your living room. So you break it up into individual seats, rearranging your whole space in the process, and then can’t remember what it looked like before.

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It could be that ’80s band tee you picked up at the thrift to resell. You debated cropping it because there were a bunch of moth holes at the bottom, but you did and now it’s been sitting on your rack for months. You wonder if you devalued it by altering it. Then the right person comes along, tries it on and absolutely loves it.

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How about the antique book of illustrations your grandfather gave you when you were a kid? It sits spine-out on a shelf, amid all the other books. One day you really miss him, so you carefully extract a page and tack it onto your wall as art. Now you smile every time you see it.

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Just because we love old stuff doesn’t mean we should keep doing the same old thing.

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So we’re not.

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You’ve arrived at the all-new thevintageseeker.ca. Welcome!

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Buyer, seller, both? We’ve got you

When I launched The Vintage Seeker in April 2021, I didn’t want it to be a place that would be only for resellers, or only for shoppers. In the resale world, buyers and sellers are sometimes the same person!

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I kept asking myself:

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How are people who want to learn more about shopping this way going to find these independent sellers in a way that connects them to what’s going on in their world?

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How can we help people to recognize reselling as something that provides value and service, and get them to want to shout out their favourite sellers from the rooftops?

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How are resellers going to get biz-related content created just for them so they can reach more of these people?

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Buying and selling is a two-way conversation.

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Consumers need to know what goes into reselling to value it — and then they need to be able to find the sellers.

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Sellers need to know what motivates the consumers —  and then they need to put in the work to be found.

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That does make it tricky to talk to both groups at once, though. Good thing I like a challenge.

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Here’s how to use this site

Half of our content is for buyers, shoppers, thrifters: think trends, history and where to find vintage and secondhand goods. If you’re someone who doesn’t want any selling content, just visit the Buying section.

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The other half is for resellers and dealers, to share what others in the space are doing and to give you tips and resources to reach more buyers. If you’re looking for more community, connection and biz guidance, check out the Selling section, or consider joining the Vintage Sellers Community.

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If you bridge both buyer and seller, visit the Magazine page to see everything — you’ll find it all of interest.

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If you’ve enjoyed our website or social media content in the past, sign up for our free newsletters. Each newsletter includes exclusive content you won’t find anywhere else. Best of all, they’ll keep you up to date with when there’s new content on this site.

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A space for support

Like in many industries, lots of the people working in vintage and resale are going through some tough economic times right now.

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(I use the word “industry” liberally when speaking about this segment of the retail market, to underscore the labour of it. These people are working their tails off, despite whatever you hear in the latest reselling hot take on TikTok.)

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But the economy will recover, and the secondhand movement is still trending upward, projected to hit $350 billion globally in 2027 as per thredUP’s 2023 Resale Report.

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So in the meantime, when you’re able to, consider shopping secondhand first. Support your independent resellers, independent vintage shop owners and independent thrift shops.

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Small shops are crucial to your local economy — here in Canada, small businesses of 1-99 employees make up for 98 per cent of all employer businesses. They give jobs to nearly two-thirds of all employees in the country.

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The independent resale market is filled with buyers and sellers who are putting money back into their local economies. They're vibrant people who want to make a difference. They're people who are giving second, third and fourth lives to things that already exist, every day.

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If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of those people. And you deserve a space online that’s just as creative, curious and cool as you are.

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I hope you’ll find that with The Vintage Seeker 2.0. It takes time to grow something like this, and there’s more to come. But here’s how I know connecting buyers and sellers is making a difference:

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• When I hear from a seller who made a sale at a market because someone read our newsletter, saw the events calendar and hopped on transit to check it out.
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• The customers who walk up to a seller at an event and say they read their story on thevintageseeker.ca.
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• The seller who was inspired to start a market and add to their local economy because of a session they attended in the Vintage Sellers Community.
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• The DMs from people who discovered a new shop through our Instagram page.
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• The person who emailed to say they found a necklace for their mom’s birthday from an independent seller because of one of our roundups.
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• The seller who got a killer pick because someone reached out to us to find sellers to connect with about an estate sale.

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So stick with us — this is just the beginning! I am so happy you are here.

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It takes a village, truly

Any small business owner knows they say “we” a lot when it’s actually the “me” who’s doing everything.

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But now I really mean the “we”!

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When I realized back in January that our current site couldn’t grow with us anymore, I knew I could no longer do this alone. Choosing to invest in your business is very difficult and scary for anyone, from content creators like me to shop owners like many of you out there.

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What a project, though! It looks clean and tidy right now but there is a lot happening behind the tech curtain and that is all thanks to our developer Juliet Gonzalez, who built a highly customized, lovely site off a Webflow template (if you’re viewing on mobile and have a chance to check it out on desktop sometime, please do!).

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Massive thanks to Juliet for steering us back into what I originally wanted The Vintage Seeker to be: an aesthetically beautiful place online, packed with super-useful information. And especially for her work on our event calendar, a well-used area of our site that needed a lot of attention. We’re still working out a few tech issues with what is a complex setup, so bear with us. Please contact us if you notice something amiss.

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Thank you to all of the contributors who are lending their voices to our audience — I’m excited to introduce you to more in the coming months!

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To the Vintage Sellers Community (meet a few of the members here), whose membership helps to fund the seller-specific, original content I am able to produce for the VSC that is hard to find anywhere else. I have so enjoyed getting to know all our members, and I value their support of an industry resource.  

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And to you.

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When I started The Vintage Seeker, I didn’t realize that people would come to call me that!

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The Vintage Seeker is actually you. You are all seeking to buy better, seeking to sell better.

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So thank you for being here, for subscribing to the newsletters, for engaging on social media and via email.

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Supporting independent publishing, like supporting independent resale, is supporting a small business. The investment of your time, your trust and your dollars is not something I take lightly.

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What I do take lightly, though, is the more fun tone for The Vintage Seeker 2.0! With this refresh, I’m thrilled to bring you content that packs a little more personality and a little more punch, while still delivering the thoughtful information you have come to know us for.

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Just take a look around at the new articles on this site to see what I mean, and stay tuned for more original content from me and our contributors.  

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With gratitude,
Kristina

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