Manhattan Vintage Trade Convention, Spring/Summer

First time attending this acclaimed Vintage convention. Must say, I am impressed at the amount of vintage clothing people can acquire and sell at outrageously inappropriate prices. Also to add, you'll never find objects of higher quality, so I guess you get what you pay for.

Vintage dealers can be placed in two categories:

1) Cunning and crotchety old Jewish ladies who got into the business because their grandmother's closet overflowed with designer junk good enough to be sold to the uneducated vintage enthusiast but not good enough to be sold at auction.

2) Upstarting 20-something hipsters reveling in the past's perfections. These vendors often have the best prices because they are just starting out.

I saw a lot of the same thing: Bright, floral 60s shifts, ruffled maxi prom dresses of the 70s, psychadelic scarves and 80s suit separates. The jewelry was subpar and either extremely expensive and ghastly, or junky and not worth purchasing no matter how low the price. I realized that this kind of convention is only good when you know exactly what you're looking for (I was idly browsing), know exactly what you're looking at (maybe if I'd known a few more designers, the price tag would have made more sense) and have the bank account to justify spending hundreds of dollars on gently-used clothing.

Pros
Sizes: There was a large variety of clothing in my size, a size small, which is hard to come by in other vintage arenas. Much of the clothing I saw, and liked, would have fit nicely.
Variety as a whole: Clothing ranged from Edwardian slips and tea dresses, to early 90s couture. Looking for a particular period of the 20th century, you'd most likely find it. Lots of dresses, separates, shoes, bags and menswear as well.

Cons
Prices: Although I will say, the more educated vintage shopper might have spotted a bargain or been able to bargain down some clams. To me, anything used should be treated like a car; the price drops dramatically from the day it's purchased. But, what do I know, really?
Little specification: For a convention like that, where competition runs rampant because everyone has the same thing at every stall, setting yourself apart is key. I'd like to see some more specialization in goods, even if that's not your whole collection. A booth selling only small sizes, or only clothing from the 70s, selling just shoes, just hats, etc. Some of those kinds of booths caught my attention the most; a woman arranged several necklaces according to color and metal as her only booty. Even though I didn't buy anything, I still looked around.

I did come out with one purchase, a blouse from the 1970s NWT and matching cherry blossom neck scarf, $28. The shop owner was super nice, a 24 year old startup and didn't even have a website, she was so novelle, I couldn't bring myself to haggle. I probably could have gotten it for $25, but whatever. I know I made her day. Business was definitely slow for everyone today, and I know a lot of the stalls were hurting.

"We're very negotiable on our prices," one stall told me right off the bat. "Ignore the price tag."

Something told me the red, pink and purple swirl maxi dress costing $425 would go no less than half. And even at that, it was expensive (not to mention, the chestal area sagged too much on my flatness).

Definitely cool to witness though, and I look forward to going back. A lot of these places are set up as "archives" and maybe they'd like some free labor for internship credit?