You must be a seller operating an online, bricks-and-mortar/booth or market/event-based shop in the lifestyle resale space (e.g. fashion and accessories, jewellery, decor, housewares, furniture, streetwear, toys and collectibles, ephemera, or related subsets).

‍

We welcome new sellers and established sellers. You’ll need to fill out a short questionnaire when joining so we can verify that you’ve been selling (even if you’re just getting started).

‍

No. As long as you are a reseller of secondhand goods in the categories mentioned in the prior question, you may join.

‍

“Vintage” is the word that applies to the most people — antique is older than 100 years, and Etsy defines vintage as older than 20 years.

‍

That puts the “vintage” range between the early 1920s and the early 2000s, so we expect most sellers likely have some vintage in their inventory.

Yes. Once you identify that you are a verified seller, you can start enjoying the benefits of your membership.

There are no participation requirements! We send a weekly email digest so you can stay on top of whatever is happening in the community, and we tag you in discussions if we feel you might have something to add. You can attend live events or not — everything is recorded for you to go back to at a time that works for you, and you can browse through the resources at your own pace. We support you being busy selling! This is not like a social media group where you need to check in all the time.

‍

If you want to make checking in part of your regular routine, that’s great. But you can also use the emails or customize your notifications to stay on top of what’s going on. When you can, keep us in the loop with your wins and let us share in your challenges. That’s what makes this community special. The VSC is an ongoing resource and a network, not homework or an item on your never-ending to-do list!

The Vintage Sellers Community is more than a community. It’s a networking, professional development and social group. The friendship and camaraderie is just but one part of the VSC — importantly, we organize speakers from all areas of business to help sellers with running or improving their shop operations, and create dedicated resources to complement.

‍

It’s our firm belief that connecting sellers across cities and regions is important for the growth and health of the industry. Connecting with people outside of our day-to-day groups leads to collaborations, idea-sharing and new opportunities — all of which are important as we collectively navigate the post-pandemic resale landscape.

Nope! The Vintage Sellers Community uses a customized platform that allows us to host recorded events, provide searchable message boards and chat functions, and store content and videos, all in a private online space. If you’re familiar with Facebook, you’ll find the interface to be similar. The platform can be accessed by desktop, mobile browser or app.

‍

You’ll be able to connect with each other away from the algorithms — and keep track of all of your discussions! Once you’re inside the community, we have an onboarding process that will bring you on a full tour of the platform and walk you through how to participate.

Membership works out to $20.75/month for our Super Showcase plan ($249/year, includes annual membership in Vintage Sellers Community and a Showcase listing on the Shop Secondhand Directory) or $16.58/month on our annual plan ($199/year). If you choose a monthly subscription, it’s $22/month.

‍

Open internationally. Memberships are billed in Canadian dollars — if you are located outside of Canada, your credit card will automatically exchange for you and you don't have to do anything. If you live in the United States, you will pay less in your local currency!

‍

There are no tiers or upsells inside.

‍

Members can cancel at any time (please see the refund policy below).

‍

A portion of annual membership fees is donated to select charitable organizations that redistribute secondhand goods or that support small business owners. In 2022, that organization was Dress for Success. In 2023, we donated to The Shoebox Project.

This is a learning, business development and networking-focused community run by The Vintage Seeker, which is an independent publisher.

‍

The monthly fee covers the overhead of running the community, creating seller-specific material every month, producing original resources for members (templates, public-facing sales opportunities such as email promotions, etc.), and the technology stack to deliver it all.

‍

To compare, the average price to attend a single online workshop or webinar typically ranges anywhere from $50-$300. We host about 50 events per year in the VSC and have a back catalogue of expert-led sessions.

‍

A portion of our membership fees is donated annually to charities that redistribute secondhand goods and/or support small, independent businesses.

‍

There are no upsells or tiers. Once a member joins, they have access to the entire space.

While we are confident that you will find great value in the Vintage Sellers Community, members can request a refund within 14 days of their approval to join the community.

‍

After these 14 days, refunds cannot be processed. The Vintage Seeker reserves the right to remove any member who does not meet the eligibility requirements and issue a refund.

‍

You may cancel your subscription at any time and you will only be billed for your current billing period.

You may cancel your subscription at any time. You will receive access to the community until the end of your billing period, whether you have a monthly or annual subscription.

We work hard to produce original educational content and dedicated sales initiatives to drive awareness of our members.

‍

We spotlight our members through participation-optional member profiles, and we will repost some educational content produced by our members if relevant to our wider audience.

‍

We also offer ongoing promotional opportunities as part of our membership throughout the year, including e-marketing.

We don’t repost all of the social media content, sales and promotions of our members. There are many local social media–based groups that use hashtags to repost content about products, sales and promotions, and we encourage you to use them! Members are also free to self-organize their own reposting initiatives.

Currently, we offer participation-optional member spotlights on social media and thevintageseeker.ca. We also occasionally re-share educational social media content from our members if it’s relevant to our audience.

‍

We also offer the opportunity to advertise one of your shop’s goings-on or sales in a dedicated VSC promotional blast to our email list three times a year, and a page in our annual Gift Guide digital magazine.

‍

The onus is on members to take advantage of these opportunities when prompted. If a member leaves the community before a planned promotional opportunity arrives, they forfeit their participation.

Nope. The admin is neither a reseller nor a coach. Kristina Urquhart is an editor and B2B publishing professional who brings in external experts (i.e. social media strategists and web designers) to talk to the community.

‍

She creates original resources for the VSC, helps to facilitate their conversations through member matching, moderates group discussions and develops workshops to highlight our member shops. She pursues industry partnerships on the members’ behalf. She makes space to promote member activities on her existing platforms for The Vintage Seeker.

‍

The community is founded on all of this alongside the direction and expertise of its seller members.

No! We welcome members from Canada, the United States and beyond. The common experience of selling brings the group together, and trading information across borders is extremely valuable.

‍

Note that at this time, occasional sessions may contain information applicable to Canadian residents only (e.g. certain elements of a tax presentation), but in those cases we will do our best to offer alternate content for our international membership.

The contributions and guidance of our members inform the direction of the community. But the Vintage Sellers Community brand is owned and managed by The Vintage Seeker, an online resource for sellers and shoppers of secondhand.

We’re here for you! Email us or, if you aren't sure about joining yet and want to chat, book an intro call to learn more about the community.