Saving Vintage Treasures: Online and Retail Shop!

While we’re working to get our farm and honeybees prepared for springtime, we’re happy to announce another fun venture. This is the answer to our most-asked question: “But what will you do with all that stuff?”

As you know, we purchased two ‘akiya’ abandoned houses in rural Japan. Inside both homes, we were delighted by rooms and rooms full of belongings, Many people would see this as a burden, but we worked very hard to re-use as many materials, furnishings, and decorations, as we could. Trust me when I say it would’ve been “easier” to throw everything away and start over… but I could never. We wanted to honor the former owners, but we also consider this the ultimate recycling! We’re saving two houses, but also, almost everything inside.

Long story short: We will love as many of these belongings as we can. And we also gift items to friends and neighbors as opportunities arise. But there’s more here than we could possibly use in our lifetime! It would break my heart to see any of these items go to waste, as most have been thoughtfully packed away or stored in the original boxes, and definitely have a lot of life left in them. The items range from antique to vintage and retro, most likely from the 1940s to 1970s, with some things as new as the 1980s. There’s some really cool stuff here, and much more than we need to furnish our houses.

We will use different platform than Etsy… coming soon! | View our Discogs Shop!

This shop is our way of finding people who will love these items, as their former owners once did! We’ve set up a physical retail shop at Benton Guesthouse, and it will also be available by appointment when the guesthouse is not occupied. My hope is that people will leave a little room in their suitcase to bring home a treasured memento.

Now, I’ll be honest: I’ve never had an online shop before, and only have experience selling things occasionally on eBay. Plus we have the added challenge of navigating international shipping, because our target audience is most likely those living outside of Japan. To start, I’m listing items that I can find very similar or identical listings online, using online image search, which helps me determine a price range and decade it’s from. I’m slowly adding listings to our Discogs shops, and will adjust shipping prices accordingly, as we learn to better estimate the cost and travel time.

I’m really encouraged by the feedback I’ve gotten from everyone, which seems to be unanimously supportive of the idea. So! Who knows. Maybe this will take off, maybe not. But it’s helping to motivate me to continue going through the rooms full of belongings, just to see what’s here!

I’ll be posting a few new listings each week. So, stay tuned!

Our YouTube video, unboxing another room of the former ‘ryokan’ inn, full of vintage belongings ⌄