About us - in five questions

1 - Why did we get started?

A love of looking for pretty vintage things, a full display cabinet and a question for my husband while we were watching "Storage Wars" - If you could sell the things you find, would you go out to find more and be happier? The answer was "Yes!" and then I just needed to figure out how.

2 - What do we hope to accomplish?

At the beginning, it was all about the satisfaction of searching, finding and sharing the finds. But after the first or second sale, when the customer stories started to filter their way to me, it became about something else - about finding items that would fill a special place in people's day-to-day lives.

3 - Who are our customers?

The items we sell tend to be relatively rare - our customers are people looking for the missing plate, teapot, spoon in a collection. Sometimes they want an item needed to make something complete - a replacement lid for parents' teapot, a replacement teacup from the set given as a gift by a spouse now gone. Sometimes our customers are people abroad buying something from England for an ex-pat friend who is missing home, or a father buying a set of vintage spoons for his daughter's newly opened dream coffee shop business. Sometimes it's a stylish person who wants to have just the perfect 1960s dinner set for Christmas.

4 - Do we do this full time?

Sadly, no. We both have day jobs. Hence the 3-day handling time. My daughter also pitches in sometimes, when we travel, and also with the marketing.

5 - Why the name "In the Interest of Time"?

As part of day job, I run a weekly meeting where I need to keep a bunch of extremely clever people moving on with their discussions and decisions, and often find myself starting my interventions with "In the interest of time...". So I thought it would be a fitting name - this business is what I would like to move on to in a few years. In the meantime, I hope you appreciate these finds become more interesting as they too move on in time.