Friday, July 19, 2013

Etsy Business Profile: The Things That Were

Today we're chatting with Valentin, owner of The Things That Were.

Tell us a bit about you and your shop.
My name is Valentin Stoev and my TheThingsThatWere is my shop. I am an enthusiast photographer (I actually run my own photography shop on Etsy as well). I have a daytime job and try to handle 2 Etsy shops in the meantime. I am 28 years old and live in Varna, Bulgaria just on the beautiful coast of the Black Sea.

Is there a story behind your shop name?
No story behind my shop’s name, I just felt the name needs to somehow tell people that the things that once were fashionable, precious or loved somehow can still be nowadays.
How did you end up selling vintage?
First of all, I have been on Etsy for over a year and a half selling my photography stuff. This was not very popular; I guess that it’s hard to find your niche in that area on Etsy. As I spent so much time on Etsy working on my photography shop I noticed that vintage is a very popular part of this place. What’s more I already had a lot of vintage stuff around the house. The thing is my dad used to sell a lot of stuff like that more that 20 years ago on an open market in my town and has a lot of old stock all over the place.
When and how did you notice your love for vintage?
Funny the way it is… I don’t think I ever loved vintage, until I started dealing with that and discovered its charms. I never expected that I could be so into that!
Do you have a favorite era?
No favorite era…. Yet! I am just getting into that!

Do you collect anything (vintage or not)?
I used to collect old postage stamps. I have a bunch of books for collection of those and they were all sorted in groups and all, it was very addictive way back when. I have considered putting those for sale at some point, so who knows maybe I will some day… but until then I keep them in my private collection.

Is there a special story about any of your sales?
No special sales yet, I am waiting for… the special one.

5 comments:

Rachel @ RhapsodyAttic said...

Your shop has such awesome goodies! Your presentation is fantastic! Thanks for sharing with us!

Kathi said...

what wonderful treasures you have! I find it impossible to pick a favorite era, there too many great things in them all

Story Tellers Vintage said...

Valentin, I love your shop, thanks for sharing with us!

jer said...

So fun to learn more about the people behind the shops. You have a wonderful shop Valentin!

Lesley said...

Awesome post!!! Love learning about the new shops and who is behind them!

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