Words Gone By - The Vintage Paper Girls

Well we have done it - Annette and I have now officially 'launched' our new business, and this is what we are calling ourselves.  Words Gone By - The Vintage Paper Girls (Not specifying whether it is us or the paper that is Vintage!). When I say 'launched' what I really mean is spent some money on it thus committed ourselves to the business. However we are both excited about it and so far thoroughly enjoying ourselves. We are ploughing through the necessary 'boring stuff' so that we can get to the good bit, enjoying wading through the goods that we are buying. It is quite a long time since I have started up a business - Peakirk Books began in 1997, and although that feels like yesterday to me, some things have changed, and I had forgotten about some of the paperwork that is demanded of you. However we are getting through it and are nearly out the other side. To cheer ourselves up we went to an auction to do some buying of goodies that we felt would be appropriate to sell in our new business, and were amazed at what was available. However we weren't alone in finding such things interesting, and the bidding was very competitive.  I have also squirrelled away various bits and pieces over the years (at long last my hatred of throwing things away is coming into its own) so I think Annette my be quite surprised at the odd bits and pieces I produce over time.  Some of course will be quite worthless, but others I hope will be of use to be people - you never know quite what people are seeking.   It is both amazing and interesting  just what people do collect, and makes the world such a diverse place with people having such  varied interests.  It also keeps so much more of the past, and our social history, alive and in our memories.

We intend selling via 3 mediums.  Our main regular sales will be via ebay. This will enable our various small bits and pieces to reach a world wide audience, thus hopefully help us reach a variety of collectors, family tree researchers, etc.  We intend to take up the name Vintage Paper Girls as soon as our Bank account comes through (I sat through my hours interview with the Business Account Manager last week and came out with my head spinning) and am now just waiting for the bank account to be set up so that we can get the ebay account up and running then we will be off!  The second medium will be local ie Norfolk, Fairs.  Here we intend selling more general items that we find, and probably more visually attractive ones on stalls around this locality.  As soon as we have some booked I will put on here where we will be.I have collected some great bits already.  Thirdly I will add some ephemera to the Peakirk Books stand at the PBFA book fairs that we do, when I am allowed to increase my stand to a larger stand - I am currently investigating where the stands can be increased in size, and am hoping that the June fair at The Heart of England will allow me to have a larger stand, to get started.  Here we would have strictly printed matter & ephemera in line with PBFA book fairs. We see these 3 outlets working well concurrently, and hopefully leading to a thriving 'bolt on' business to add to our main one ie Peakirk books.  Meanwhile, you will probably see me next flat our asleep on the floor, happy but exhausted!

Keep an eye on our blog for further news!