How I became a vintage reseller

Greetings fellow scavengers! Can I call you scavengers? if you’re here it probably means you love the world of vintage and secondhand and finding hidden gems just like me, and I'm so glad you’re here!

If we haven’t had a chance to meet yet, and I sure hope we do soon, I’m chelsey, the owner of hidden gems vintage. For quite some time I’ve been thinking about starting a blog. I don’t have a plan yet for how often I’ll be posting, nor do I know the exact direction of the content, but I thought I'd start at the beginning and tell my story. My hope with this blog is to bring you along into the world of vintage and secondhand, being a business owner, and hopefully in some small way, reduce our carbon footprint by bringing awareness to the excess waste & consumption in our world (and of course talk about personal style and having fun along with way)!

so lets go back about 30 years (yikes!) to a time when I was a little girl. I grew up in a small rural town in Texas, with a cute little downtown square - you know the kind! We had the best antique stores around the square! I remember going antiquing with my mom and that’s where the seed was planted! Even going to my grandparents and great-grandparents’ homes I use to love looking at all the pretty old things. That’s when everyone had collections of something special…for my great-grandpa who we called Pappaw, it was arrowheads, my great-grandmother, Mammaw, it was glassware, dishware and beautiful furniture. she was also an incredible seamstress and handmade so many beautiful things for our family, and is who my mom learned to sew from! my maternal grandmother, mimi, loved estate sales and antiquing, and was quite the artist herself, and her home was full of beautiful art, treasures and furniture. my paternal grandmother, nana, had the. best. style…especially home decor, she was the best interior decorator, not as a profession, but she had an eye for the most eclectic, unique pieces and always had the most beautifully decorated homes! and I haven’t even mentioned the beautiful old jewelry that they had! I am so lucky to have several special pieces from all of my grandparents that I will cherish forever.

I'll be honest about something though (and I'm almost embarrassed to admit), but I had a phase in high school as probably most kids do, where I didn’t want any secondhand clothes (eek who am I?!). I guess that was the time when all the kids were wearing Abercrombie, American eagle. all those brands, and wanted to fit it with the rest of the crowd…you get it! luckily I grew out of that stage fairly quickly! so fast forward to college when I didn’t have a penny to my name but you better believe we were still finding new ‘fits to wear every week, so me and my girlfriends went to our local thrift store by our dorm literally every week. we knew how to stretch a buck! over the years I have come to appreciate the sustainable side of vintage and secondhand as well as developed my own personal style. I have also learned to value the quality, construction and attention to detail of vintage. it's funny how fast forward to today, I almost exclusively buy vintage and secondhand for my personal closet, home decor and furnishings. one of my funnest thrift challenges to date was furnishing and decorating our airbnb on a low budget and fast timeline!

my eyes have been opened to how much over-consumption and waste there is in the world and how its having devastating impacts on our ecosystem and human rights…especially with clothing. We’ll do a deeper dive into this topic in another blog, because there’s a lot to unpack here.

so let’s get down to business!

my professional background started with a 12-year career in insurance. my mom and I also started an online boutique which we did for a few years on the side, but as my agency grew and I had less and less free time, we ultimately decided to close the store. we are very blessed to have built a successful a business that created many opportunities for my husband and I, and one that led us to north Idaho in 2019. over the years we have invested in real estate, and done little side hustles here and there. in 2020, I sold my insurance agency and was ready for something new. not knowing at the time what new adventure might be around the corner, I started flipping furniture and selling things on Facebook marketplace. it was a hobby that kept me busy and I really got back into thrifting and finding hidden gems.

during this time however, I was feeling a bit lonely and lost. we lived 2500 miles away from friends and family. I was no longer in the hustle and bustle of business and networking with colleagues. I missed our circle of people. while I was enjoying the new place we were living in and freedom I had to explore new activities and hobbies, I felt like I was missing a bit of my identity. I have always loved business. I love learning and problem solving, building a team. analyzing data, interacting with people and so much more that goes in and behind the scenes of running a business. but I also knew that whatever my next step would be, I wanted to do something that I was passionate about. I decided to take the next step as a reseller and reached out to some local stores to rent a booth. what happened next was purely god leading our paths because we were presented an opportunity to buy the store that I was renting a booth space in. after talking with my husband and lots of prayers, we said “yes!”

we are now coming up on our 3rd anniversary! it has been a whirlwind the last few years, with lots of changes along the way (as business always does)! We’ve expanded and doubled our store space, brought in about 10 different local vendors and artisans, opened a 2nd location (which then later ended up closing), and now have expanded to two different booths at antique stores in addition to our brick and mortar store in Harrison. opening the 2nd store was ambitious and fun but it also taught me a very valuable lesson - ultimately sometimes failures are really blessings. I had high hopes for our 2nd store but it proved to be draining and pulling me away from the things I was really enjoying in life. after much reflection, we decided to let it go and instead, move into two different antique stores, which I have thoroughly been enjoying! it has freed up some time which has allowed me to focus on the store and booths, work on my website and get more inventory online, restart my YouTube channel (yay!), and do more traveling and sourcing for those hidden gems to bring to the shoppe! but the biggest blessing of all with this entire journey has been meeting all the incredible people along the way and finding an “Idaho family” that god knew we needed.

in my free time I'm usually thrifting, which for me doesn’t even feel like work because I love it so much! but when I'm not thrifting, I love hiking, traveling & roadtripping, cooking, reading, working outside on our property, and basically anything outdoors! while I do love the occasional “lazy days” around the house, I just love being out in nature! it is my happy place, where I feel most alive, grounded, and connected to god.

I am so blessed to have the most loving and supportive husband, family and sweetest fur baby. if you’ve ever visited the shoppe you have probably met my husband, David, and my mom, Debbie. they are my biggest supporters and I could not have done any of this without them. and you may not have met our fur baby, Maggie, but you’ve definitely heard about her and seen her on my social media. she’s not quite as social these days so she oversees operations from home! the love and support doesn’t end there, I am so blessed to have the best family and friends. I am incredibly grateful for this life. every moment has been a blessing, even the many, many difficult ones - everything has led us to where we are today and I will continue to put my faith in god and follow his path.

I appreciate you being here and taking the time to get to know me a little better! I am so excited for this journey and hope you will join me along the way! since turning 40 in November, I am choosing to live with this motto that I'd like to share with you…

learn from and let go of the past, surrender to the future, and live in the moment!

thank you again for being here! xoxo - chelsey