We recently connected with Jenni & Ben Mueller and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jenni & Ben thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Our Business was born kind of by accident. Back in 2012 we were looking to find a fun hobby to do together as a couple. I (Jenni) had always been an avid thrift shopper and lover of vintage things. I started an Etsy store selling paper and fabric crafts, and a few vintage items here and there. The Vintage items started so sell faster than the handmade ones and I was hooked.
I asked my husband Ben if he wanted to help me try to turn my hobby into a business. So we rebranded our store as A Vintage Parcel and started offering vintage items as well as brass tags and keychains stamped with antique stamping tools.
Ben: Etsy presented a unique opportunity for my wife and I to connect on a common interest. What started as just a fun activity quickly started to turn into a much larger business. We enjoyed listening to our diverse group of customers and began offering much different items than we had originally planned on. We constantly marvel on the reach that Etsy has given us to run a unique and thriving business from the basement of our suburban home.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
We started off making things with “junk” and upcycling items into art pieces- we would bring these items to shows/flea markets and hear customers say “oh I can make that” over and over again. So we thought let’s let the customer do just that; Make projects for themselves. So we switched gears and started offering pieces and parts for makers. Things like: hardware, knobs, handles, keys, charms, and other odd and ends. We found our Niche! Makers started seeking us out to find the pieces they needed to create jewelry, art pieces and more!
In addition to found pieces, our best selling items are the hand punched brass tags and keychains. We kind of ended up making them quite randomly when a customer was looking at our (authentic) vintage brass tags for a certain number (that we didn’t have) and asked if we could make one. A light bulb sort of went off and we were like: yes I think we can. So Ben started looking at vintage metal punching sets at auctions and estate sales and we are proud to say we think we have one of the most expansive collection of number and letter sets. All of our sets are 75-100 years old and you just can’t get that look from mass-made tools available today. We like to call our tags “custom vintage”.
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
We met back in 1995 on New Year’s Eve at a party. I was a senior in High School and Ben had graduated the year before. Mutual friends set us up on a date and we hit it off! We dated through college and got married in 2001. Our son Alex was born in 2008. Fast forward to today- we are parents of a high school freshman, a very old Wheaten terrier, Bailey (16) and small business owners.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Our hand punched hotel key tags have been very popular with boutique hotels and Bed & Breakfasts. Places that have actual keys to the doors and want something special to put on the key chain. Guest really love them and sometimes walk off with the key fob, so much so that some hotels have started selling them in their gift shop as souvenirs to the guests. We have made key fobs for over 100 small hotels all over the country and several international as well.
We joke that we should take a trip to go “visit” them all.
We are contacted by new hotels and b&bs every week.
Contact Info:
- Website: avintageparcel.etsy.com
- Instagram: @avintageparcel
- Facebook: facebook.com/avintageparcel
- Other: tiktok: @avintageparcel Merch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/AVP-merch/shop
Image Credits
Jenni Mueller