APDO Visit Vintage Cash Cow
This fact finding blog written by Hannah Young and edited by Katherine Blackler (SortMySpace) gives fascinating insight into what happens when you decide to sell unwanted items through Vintage Cash Cow.What does a group of Professional Organisers do for fun on a cold, rainy afternoon in Yorkshire?
Visit Vintage Cash Cow (VCC) in Leeds to find out what they do with the treasures sent in to them from around the country of course!
Elissa Wine of VCC welcomed APDO head of partnership, Katherine Blackler (SortMySpace Ltd), Hannah Young, Lesley Naylor (Clutter Therapy), Catherine Pettiman and Rebecca Chauhan (Clutter Cleared) to show us around their premises and explain how the process works.Anyone can register online to receive free parcel labels from VCC, package up their vintage items and send them off for a free valuation from specialist valuers including the co-founder, Anthony Charman.The customer service team, headed up by Glynn Corcoran, will follow up any new requests with a call to the customer to help them think about any and every item in their home that they could send in to VCC. Glynn emphasised the importance placed on a smooth, transparent and personal customer experience for every customer. Lesley said, "I was very impressed by the way the incoming parcels were received and opened. All the tables used for opening boxes were covered by CCTV cameras, situated above the tables in the ceiling. If a customer has a query about what was included in their parcel the stored images could be examined and zoomed in on. This would help to clear up any difficulties".
We were all in awe of VCC’s yellow metal analyzer gun which actually gives a detailed read-out of the metal content of any metallic item sent in,  so that a solid 9ct gold coin will not be lost in a pile of costume jewellery. To test the gun one of our members volunteered her jewellery, given to her by her partner. After a moment of nervous anticipation we all were relieved to confirm it was as valuable as she’d been led to believe and her (and his) weekend wasn’t ruined!
Items of particular value are individually recorded and when the customer is contacted with the valuation for their parcel VCC can provide information about a specific item. If the valuation is not accepted by the customer, VCC will posted the parcel (or indeed any particular items) back to the customer. There’s therefore no risk to the individual and they are very proud of their 5* TrustPilot reviews from over 600 customers who have already tried and tested them. Our tour included the various rooms storing silverware, clocks, watches and watch parts, costume jewellery and military paraphernalia. “Alongside learning lots, we had a lot of fun playing with some of the artifacts that have been submitted. I even spotted some of the items a client of mine had posted into Vintage Cash Cow so I’ve been able to tell them what the next stage of the journey is for those belongingsâ€
