A couple of months ago I decided to join some of the vintage, antique, and retro resale groups on Facebook. At first I was reluctant to add more and more posts to my news feed, but now after the fact, I am so glad I changed my mind and got a better attitude about joining these groups. The various posts by their diverse members are fun, and educational and brighten my days. I get to see so many pretty outfits and find out about some gorgeous pieces of antique jewelry. Now I look forward to enjoying these groups pretty much every day.

The groups I am in:

Vintage Pattern Bazaar

Ooh La La! Vintage Swap and Sell Shop

Vintage/Rare Sewing Pattern Exchange

We Sew Retro Buy & Sell & Trade

All Things Vintage, Antiques and Nostalgia

If you know of any other great group drop me a comment. These are the ones I have joined that display antique jewelry, vintage clothing, retro clothing, sewing patterns, and even antique china and art. Sets of linens dating back to 1800, plates and cups with covered wagons, all kinds of interesting finds, and many are for sale. Some are in the US and some are overseas. There are times that a member just posts a picture of themselves dressed up in a special outfit, particularly if they are sharing a special thanks to someone else in the group that they bought from.

The vintage pattern groups have patterns they sell and exchange, plus often they have vintage lace, elastic, or ribbons, for sale. If nothing else you can enjoy looking at the various patterns through the years.

Most of the groups have two thousand or more members. We Sew Retro Buy & Sell & Trade is the smallest one I am in with 1,800 members. Ooh La La! Vintage Swap and Sell Shop has 18,659 members! The group member’s sell clothing, jewelry and other vintage items in the US and worldwide. I see a lot of posts from the UK, but often they offer to ship internationally. The other good thing about these groups is that if you are a collector who doesn’t want to open an Etsy shop or sell at a flea market you could sell in these groups. Most groups have some basic rules as to being polite, what to post and what not to post, very basic guidelines.

Also some of the members are very interesting. There is one young lady who lives in Russia who regularly finds and shares some of the most amazing vintage photos. She is an art history major. Another woman had a photo of herself with walls from doll houses wrapped up in her hair. What an amazing profile picture. I recently ended up in a vintage clothing discussion with a young man who had some lovely pink vintage dresses that could lead any woman to a case of envy.

One of the pages I like that is not a member-based group is Boylerpf Antique Vintage Jewelry. The reason I mention it even though it is not an open group is that if you love vintage there is a huge amount of lovely jewelry being posted regularly. They have everything from ring collections to rare jewels and they also post pictures of pieces that are housed in special collection in museums, or perhaps private collections (the photos often say “with”….. meaning with either the photographer, or the owner I assume.)If you enjoy seeing these types of items it is worthwhile to like the page and see what they share. They recently shared a photo of a brooch by Salvador Dali made in 1949. It is called the Eye of Time. A blue-faced enamel watch is revealed in an open eye, which is surrounded by diamonds on platinum. A small ruby cabochon is the tear duct. This piece is so unique and beautiful. It is a treat to even see such an item.

My favorite piece they shared recently is an 18^th century German Chatelaine Perfume bottle made of hand-finished crystal. It is suspended from a silver chain with silver angels on the side. I am sorry I can’t share the photos with you. You have to either like the page for this jewelry business or join groups to see their particular photos.

I did search for some vintage pattern pictures on Flickr and I hope you enjoy those. Please stop by the comment section and share any other groups you find or know of. It would be fun to know what other readers are finding as well.

Also on the topic of resale vintage or thrifting, things further down the chain of mass production, recently I was quoted and my blog mentioned by another blogger, Nicole Molders, of High Latitude Style. She wrote a recent post called “6 thrifting blogger’s secrets for great fashion finds.” So if you’d like you could read that and visit Nicole’s blog. I was so excited that she asked me to participate in the post!

I hope all of you are looking forward to spring as much as I am. I have enjoyed winter and I was glad we had some snow. I am rather excited that spring is on its way though, along with all the flowers and buds and pretty leaves that come with it.

All material written by  © Marilyn Lavender, 2016.  All Rights Reserved.

These photos link to Flickr