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July 29, 2008
Salvage Mobile
After leaving the Brooklyn Flea early Sunday due to rain and dropping off a customer in Bed Sty with his last purchase, I remembered our initial purpose was to sell our architectural salvage to those renovating brownstones (following our debut at Salvagefest). However, Brooklyn Flea is great for our sales of home decor and antiques, but weak for salvage. On the drive home I came up with the idea to bring it directly to the neighborhood, one area at a time. We would like to outfit our truck to be a mobile unit with salvage including hardware, stained glass, decorative wood molding, fireplace mantles, lighting, samples of flooring, and more. We would like to get some feedback on this idea. We plan to target one block with a long stretch of brownstones and distribute flyers the week before our first visit. We will continue selling home decor and antiques at Brooklyn Flea. Your thoughts and comments are appreciated.
Fred & Camille from Silver Fox
Comments
When I was renovating, I would have absolutely loved this. The hardest part of salvage hunting is getting something the right size/shape/fitting/look. If a truck full of items were outside of my house, that would make shopping a lot easier. So I would imagine you would have some good luck if you target streets with lots of renovation going on.
Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at July 29, 2008 10:00 AM
Are you interested in taking some extra door casings & lintels that I have? Also one large door. Anyone?
Unfortunately right now I have no pics of any of them but will take some if anyone's interested
davebedstuy@yahoo.com
PS If you do this mobile service you might want to post on here weekly as to where you will be.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 29, 2008 10:06 AM
Fabulous idea! CHN is a great place to cruise also- lots of reno going on.
Posted by: bxgrl at July 29, 2008 10:13 AM
this is a great idea and i would definitely check it out.
Posted by: z at July 29, 2008 10:14 AM
what might be helpful too is if you made sure to have photos of all inventory online so that people could request ahead of time certain items that they would like to have a closer look at, then you could bring it on one of your trips. I know that you have some photos online but I'm not sure if it is the full inventory.
Posted by: clintonhillbilly at July 29, 2008 10:30 AM
I have some things that you can have.
Posted by: superstooper at July 29, 2008 10:53 AM
I have some things that you can have.
Posted by: superstooper at July 29, 2008 10:53 AM
We will try to put as much online as possible. Keep the ideas flowing. We are looking at Sept. for our first trip. Is CHN Clinton Hill? Fred & Camille
Posted by: Iknow at July 29, 2008 11:00 AM
Spectacular idea!
Posted by: houseowax at July 29, 2008 11:13 AM
CHN=Crown Heights North
Posted by: wasder at July 29, 2008 11:16 AM
and now that the first landmarking phase is done, people seem to be trying to use more salvage, instead of gut reno's.
Posted by: bxgrl at July 29, 2008 11:45 AM
How would people know where you are? You'd need one of those ice creamtrucks with music.
Posted by: denton at July 29, 2008 1:59 PM
Great idea! Advertising your location in advance on Brownstoner is a good idea, and posting pics of your inventory online would also be very useful so that people can identify items before you arrive. Come to Harlem too!
Posted by: el_salar at July 29, 2008 2:01 PM
Denton, I did mention that we would be in the area about a week or so before distributing flyers. Of course we will be posting here and we hope those who read brownstoner will let their neighbors know. As for the ice cream truck thing, I did that in Bayside one summer years ago and that perpetual jingle took its toll.
As for coming to Harlem, our goal is to establish a presence in Brooklyn beacuse that is where the bulk of renovation is and if things work out, rent a warehouse down there. We have a 10,000 square foot warehouse up here and it's impracticle for people to travel from Brooklyn despite the savings.
Posted by: Iknow at July 29, 2008 2:35 PM
Flyers? Great, people in Brownstone Brooklyn love flyers! And menus!
Posted by: denton at July 29, 2008 7:23 PM
Denton, that's it. I can charge the 200+ Chinese restaurants a fee to distribute the fliers along with our own. I realize it's a pain to keep getting those, but for those who will use the service one flier one week before is on a different level than a constant bombardment. When we distribute them here, we never put them on cars and typically hand them out with a description of our business. We have our own weekend market with about 15-20 different artisans and specialty food vendors and are always looking for new visitors. I'm still working on the jingle for the truck.
Posted by: Iknow at July 29, 2008 9:00 PM
What a wonderful idea. I think you'd do very well in my neighborhood (PLG).
Posted by: Bob Marvin at July 30, 2008 8:27 AM
Fabulous Idea!! I for one would be out trolling for your truck every weekend.
Posted by: HomeSweetstuy at July 30, 2008 9:01 AM
Good luck with this, I think it's a unique and innovative idea. If you're in my area, I'd drop by, although I could start my own salvage store myself. Gotta stop hoarding and start working on the house again.
You have wonderful things and a good eye. Best of luck!
Posted by: Montrose Morris at July 30, 2008 12:36 PM
So my next question is, what neighborhoods are undergoing the most extensive renovations? We are going to walk some of the neighborhoods and I need a list of the top three with some streets (from where to where). Thanks for the help.
Posted by: Iknow at July 30, 2008 2:24 PM
Crown Heights North, bed-stuy, clinton Hill (you'll notice I put crown heights north first. Hint. Hint)
Posted by: bxgrl at July 31, 2008 12:44 PM
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