Lots of our content is published for free and is already available to non-members.
We have a free membership tier for buyers and another free one for vendors — just sign up with your email address to a Seeker or Starter plan to get free downloads.
Paid memberships unlock even more: exclusive content, the opportunity for you to be featured, bonus digital perks such as e-books and wallpapers, plus extra tools to help you shop smarter, connect with others and support the secondhand economy.
Our members are very important to us, as they help to fund our operations and the creation of more resources and advocacy that will benefit the entire community.
We have options for both! Our Fans membership for consumers offers exclusive content including our 34-page Guide to Smarter Secondhand Shopping.
Our Insiders and Champions memberships for vendors offer opportunities to promote their shops, services and events in front of our vintage-loving audience, and offer exclusive content and events depending on the tier.
Find all the features of membership here.
When you join, you get access to helpful tools for buying and selling. But you’re also backing our mission.
We show buyers where to find cool secondhand stuff. We educate people about the independent resale sector. We support vendors with visibility so they can reach more buyers. We publish resources, advocacy and insight on topics that matter to this industry.
Membership helps power this independent publishing platform that connects indie vintage, antiques and secondhand businesses and related services with shoppers and thrifters.
Membership fees from consumers and vendors allow us to do many things: produce compelling, original, quality resources and insight, advocate for the sector to shoppers and to industry, and maintain our directory among them.
Plus, if you are a vendor, membership with The Vintage Seeker offers opportunities to grow your business and get in front of new customers.
Yes. You can sign up for a membership any time, and you'll be able to access the benefits available to you in your Account Dashboard.
Currently, we offer participation-optional member spotlights on social media and thevintageseeker.ca for Champion members, as well as Fan members on our annual plan.
Our Insider (Annual) and Champion plans also come with an upgraded listing on the Shop Secondhand Directory that highlights your placement on the directory with a logo and additional categories.
For Champion members, we also offer the opportunity to advertise one of your goings-on or sales in a dedicated promotional blast to our email list three times a year, plus discounts on display advertising in the directory.
The onus is on members to take advantage of these opportunities when prompted. If a member cancels their subscription before a planned promotional opportunity arrives, they forfeit their participation.
The Vintage Seeker connects you with a ready-made audience that already loves vintage, antiques and secondhand.
Through our free directory, you can list your shop or service where shoppers are actively looking to buy, advertise your events, markets and pop–ups, and post classified ads to connect with other sellers or share special offers.
Paid memberships unlock more visibility with website spotlight features to highlight your story or business, exclusive shoutouts through our website and newsletters, vendor badges and more.
We help drive traffic to you, so you can focus on what you do best: sourcing, selling, service providing or whatever else you do in the resale space.
On a larger scale, we advocate to the public and to industry on important topics like pricing, the role of resellers in the secondhand economy, secondhand tax, tariffs and more — all of which give more visibility to the sector you work in.
See all the ways we help businesses here.
No. Our vendor memberships are open to resellers of secondhand, thrifted, contemporary pre-loved, antique or vintage items, as well as service providers and organizations related to resale. Check out the membership tiers here.
There are no participation requirements! Most importantly, your Champion membership gets you access to promotional opportunities through The Vintage Seeker and the Shop Secondhand Directory. Those are the tools that will help get you in front of buyers, and they require very little ongoing commitment to maintain.
Champion members can also access ongoing meetings and a private Facebook group, but you don't need to attend or chime into discussions. Which parts of the membership you use are totally up to you.
Events are recorded for you to go back to at a time that works for you should you choose to watch them, and you can browse through the resources at your own pace.
We support you being busy selling!
Most of our membership features are located directly on our website through your Account Dashboard. Champion members get added to a private Facebook group where they can share, ask questions and advice.
We work hard to produce original initiatives to drive awareness of our members.
We spotlight our members throughout the year with participation-optional member profiles and the other promotional opportunities offered through membership.
We will repost some educational content produced by our members if we see it and if it's relevant to our wider audience, but we do not discriminate — we also repost content from non-members. If you've created a post that seems like something we might share, feel free to tag us or send a DM and we will take a look.
We don’t repost all of the social media content, sales and promotions of our members. There are many local social media–based groups that use hashtags to repost content about products, sales and promotions, and we encourage you to use them!
Members are also free to self-organize their own reposting initiatives.
No! We welcome members from Canada, the United States and beyond. The common experience of selling brings our Champions members together in our private group and discussions, and trading information across borders is extremely valuable.
Note that occasional sessions may contain information applicable to Canadian residents only (e.g. certain elements of a tax presentation), but in those cases we do our best to offer alternate content for our international membership.
Yes! You can upgrade or downgrade your membership anytime from your Account Dashboard when you are logged in. Navigate to Plans in your account dashboard menu and select a new one.
There's no trial period due to the nature of digital products being immediately accessible. But our free tiers for both consumers and vendors allow you to explore some of what we have to offer before committing to a paid plan.
You can cancel anytime through your Account Dashboard. Go to Billing and then click Cancel Subscription. You’ll continue to have access until the end of your billing period.
Note that yearly memberships remain in effect until the end of the billing period, so you won’t lose access until your next billing date.
The Shop Secondhand Directory, powered by The Vintage Seeker, is a specialized search engine that connects buyers with resellers and related services — all in one place, no matter where they sell.
It’s like a portal to all things secondhand: We feature thousands of listings so consumers can discover new-to-them places to shop circularly and link out to those businesses directly.
Nope! Searching is always free. Start your search here.
The directory is a specialized search engine intended for use by consumers: buyers, thrifters, casual shoppers and supporters of the secondhand/circular economy. Vendors also use the directory to browse for collaboration and partnership opportunities.
It is free to add your basic business details, get listed in a couple of categories and perform basic functions of the site, including viewing and posting to our vendor-to-vendor classifieds.
If you want to be listed in additional categories or access a range of other features including logos, posting more events, more classifieds, responding to customer inquiries, more categories, etc. — upgrade to our Insider (Annual) or Champion plans.
We understand small businesses have limited budgets, but encourage you to consider the value of marketing your shop or service beyond organic reach.
The following types of businesses can list in the Shop Secondhand Directory:
Vintage, antiques, consignment, thrift, pre-loved or resale shops and individual resellers selling offline in stores, markets, malls, etc., or online in marketplaces, apps, social media, websites, etc. These sellers should be limited to fashion/accessories, decor, furniture, collectibles, toys and games, antiquities, art and antiques, etc.
Antiques malls, collective spaces and other multi-vendor establishments that house secondhand vendors.
Markets, shows and other secondhand-related events.
Any business or individual involved in the acquisition, ongoing maintenance of, sale or downsizing of secondhand goods, even if not a reseller (e.g. auction houses, tailors, upholsterers, estate sale companies, liquidators, rental companies, organizers, app platforms etc.)
If you add your business and it is not related to the sector outlined above, your listing will be removed at the earliest opportunity and you will not be notified.
If you are a paid member of The Vintage Seeker, you get an upgraded directory listing as part of your membership.
Become a member of The Vintage Seeker on any vendor plan (including free) and follow the instructions in your Account Dashboard to set up your listing.
For detailed step-by-step instructions, there are videos and written documentation in the Help section under Set Up Your Listing Guides once you are logged into your directory dashboard.
No, but you get one when you do, even if you sign up for basic (free) or upgraded listings directly on the directory site. You will automatically become a member of The Vintage Seeker at the corresponding level and receive the member benefits, so check your email.
The directory listing is one of the many benefits of membership for vendors on our Insiders (Annual) and Champions plans.
A listing gets you found, and the membership gives you many tools to support your goals whether you're shopping, selling or promoting vintage.
You can list for free! Upgraded listings get lots of extra features including logo, cover photo, more categories, more events, more descriptions, etc.
Pricing is $109/year for Insider (Annual) and $269 for Champion — and you get all the other benefits of being a member of The Vintage Seeker when you sign up, not just the directory listing.
If you have an active listing, you can promote your markets or online events right through your dashboard on the Shop Secondhand Directory site.
If you haven’t set up your directory listing yet but you are a member of The Vintage Seeker, look for information in your Account Dashboard. For more on this, skip to the Events section.
We add shops and services on an ongoing basis, but there are thousands upon thousands of businesses related to the secondhand space. It’s not personal — we just haven’t gotten to yours yet!
In fact, you can and should add your business yourself! It will speed up the process, as it may be some time before we discover your shop ourselves. That way, you can get in front of people using the site to search faster.
You can sign up for free, but if you want to be listed in more categories and access more features so people can find your shop or service easier, sign up for an Insider (Annual) or Champion membership on The Vintage Seeker and follow the steps in your dashboard to get set up.
A lot, starting with higher priority in search results, logo and more categories! View the full rundown of features here. You can sign up on that link, or via our signup page, and either way, you'll get all the benefits of membership.
Listing in the directory and getting your shop or service seen is for your business. It has nothing to do with anyone else's business, or the number of businesses alongside you.
If a shopper uses the directory to create a list of 20 local vendors who specialize in what you do, then you'd probably want to be included on that list. Listing your business ensures you will be.
And a well-filled out profile will catch attention on that list!
Listing is a way to try to find new customers, something that all business owners are challenged with. If we want more people to shop secondhand, vintage and antiques and to support your business, we need to enable them to do so by ensuring they can discover you.
They do use directories, especially in niche industries. Have you ever tried to search for vintage decor in your local area using a search engine? You’ll get results of course, but they’ll be limited to a map of bricks-and-mortar stores, and maybe a couple Instagram pages and “top 5 vintage decor spots in [city]” that have good-ranking keywords.
But there are many more businesses out there that consumers aren’t seeing. They're online, they're hiding in antique malls, they're popping up in temporary locations. And for a consumer that loves the hunt like a secondhand shopper? Give them the best chance to find your shop or service.
There are countless small businesses in the vintage, antiques and resale space that a) have little to no web presence b) have limited budgets to make their own high-powered SEO websites and c) operate mainly on marketplaces, in antique malls and/or on social media and are hard for consumers to find.
AI retrieves its information from websites like online directories and blogs. So whether a user is using the Shop Secondhand Directory website itself to find your listing, or they're using an AI platform that is crawling the information on the directory and then spitting it out to them, your business gets seen.
AI scrapes information from many sources, and some are inaccurate. We strive to provide reliable information. When you post a listing for your business, you control what information is posted.
The Shop Secondhand Directory is a hub for people who want to shop this way. They can favourite businesses, contact shops and services directly, and link out directly to your websites, online marketplaces and social media pages.
Being a small business owner is a lot of work. Many small business owners rely solely on social media marketing, which, while an important way to reach people, can be high-effort, low-reward.
Social media isn’t always the go-to when people are looking for something specific. Eighty-five per cent of people prefer a search engine instead of social media in those cases, according to a study by HubSpot.
With a little effort to initially set up your listing, the Shop Secondhand Directory allows you to be discovered on an ongoing basis by an audience of people who are specifically searching for all things secondhand, either via traditional search engines or directly on this website.
It is up to you how often you update and/or promote your listing, but it’s a fairly passive form of marketing for your business and doesn't require a lot of upkeep.
For more information on what makes this a worthy marketing effort, see our article Why you should list your business on the Shop Secondhand Directory.
Good, we have tons more answers on the Directory FAQ page. Check them out and if you can’t find the answer you’re looking for, feel free to contact us.
Head to our Events Search to find events by keyword, location or date range, or a combination of all. You can also sort events by list, grid, or by map.
Every event listing contains a disclaimer that you should verify details directly with the event before attending.
Always check their website or social media directly for the most up-to-date information.
The Shop Secondhand Directory and its event calendar is a public service and not affiliated with event organizers. Businesses are responsible to update or delete their events if they've been postponed or cancelled.
Register your shop, service, market, show etc. on the Shop Secondhand Directory for a free account or login to your existing one to submit events.
More detailed instructions are available when you’re logged in.
Yes, you can post events for free — just register for a free account on the Shop Secondhand Directory. From there, you can add events to your post.
Your plan determines how many events per year you can post. Our Champions and Patrons plans can post unlimited events.
Using our event listings is a marketing opportunity for your business and we encourage you to update the events on your profile regularly.
When you post an event, it appears on your business's listing profile under a tab called Events. It will also get crawled by external search engines.
Your event will also be added to our main Events Search within 72 hours if it's not duplicating another event already posted.
We occasionally post events to our main Events Search as we come across them, but the volume of events in this space is very high and we only add a fraction. Please do not count on us to add your event.
The best way to get your event seen by users of the Shop Secondhand Directory and external search engines is to add it yourself with a free account (details on that above). Event listings are a marketing opportunity for your business, so take advantage of them!
We currently have categories for Auctions, Classes & Workshops, Markets & Shows, Pop-Ups and In-Store Events (can be used for sip & shops, grand openings, etc.). Events must be related to the secondhand, antiques, vintage or pre-loved space.
If you are vending at a non-secondhand market (i.e. a craft or artisan market), you may add it to your profile. We'll determine on a case-by-case basis if these types of events are a fit to appear on our main Events Search, which is generally reserved for secondhand-specific events to be most relevant to our users.
Great, we have tons more answers on the Directory FAQ page. Check them out and if you can’t find the answer you’re looking for, feel free to contact us.
Choose a plan to create your account. It only takes a minute! Sign up via The Vintage Seeker (or the Shop Secondhand Directory), and your benefits will extend across both sites. All the information you need will be in your Account Dashboard when you're logged in.
Much of our content is available to everyone, but some of our guides, insider tips and community features are reserved for members. Sign up to the appropriate plan to ensure you get full access.
You can log into your account here, by clicking the "Login" button at the top right corner of our homepage, or in the menu on mobile. Enter your email address and password, and you'll be directed to your Account Dashboard.
No worries! Just click "Forgot Password" on the login page, enter your email address and we'll send you a link to reset your password.
If you’re experiencing issues logging in, try resetting your password first, then clearing your browser cache if that doesn’t work. Still stuck? Feel free to reach out to us and we’ll help you out as soon as possible.
Yes! You can upgrade or downgrade your membership anytime from your Account Dashboard when you are logged in. Navigate to Plans in your account menu and select a new one.
Go to Billing and then click Cancel Subscription. You’ll continue to have access until the end of your billing period.
Note that yearly memberships remain in effect until the end of the billing period, so you won’t lose access until your next billing date. If a Champion member cancels their membership, they will also be removed from the Vintage Sellers Community space upon their billing date renewal.
Log in to your account and tap Profile in your account menu. From there, you can update your email and name.
Billing settings can be accessed under Billing in your Account Dashboard when you're logged in. You’ll be able to update payment methods, view your renewal date or make changes to your plan.
As a member, you receive email from us to stay in the loop. Choose what you receive at the bottom of any email by clicking “Update Preferences.”
You can also unsubscribe at the bottom of any email (note that if you unsubscribe from emails altogether, you may miss out on elements of your membership).
Unsubscribing from emails does not cancel a membership; the membership needs to be cancelled through your account dashboard.
Your billing history and downloadable invoices are available in the Billing section of your Account. If you need assistance, contact us directly.
Yes, you can request a full account deletion by contacting us. Once deleted, all your data will be permanently removed from our system in accordance with our privacy policy.
We offer free and premium membership tiers. Free members get access to selected content, while premium members enjoy more access, bonus features, promo opportunities and exclusive offers. For a full rundown, see the differences between membership levels.
Membership starts at an accessible price point so you can get involved. Consumers can join for $5/month. If you choose to pay annually at $50/year, you have the option to get a thrifting feature all about you on our website!
Vendor plans start at $10/month for Insiders, but if you pay annually you can save a payment at $109/year (and you get an upgraded listing on the directory with the Insiders Annual plan, too).
Champions plans are $269/year and include access to a private Facebook group and multiple promotional opportunities.
Prices are in Canadian dollars (CAD). Membership is open internationally. Your credit card will convert to your local currency for you. For our U.S. friends, the exchange rate works well in your favour — you pay less in your local currency.
The Vintage Seeker is an independent publisher that relies on the support of its members to continue to produce educational resources and advocacy for buyers and sellers. Most of those resources are free.
Your support helps us provide visibility and tools to small vintage and secondhand businesses, sellers, services and markets, many of which wouldn’t get the spotlight otherwise.
With you backing us, we can better maintain and expand our directory, create valuable, thought-provoking content that advocates for indie businesses in this space, offer more promo opportunities for small shops and services, and attract the attention of media that can help to spread the word.
When vendors thrive, the whole ecosystem gets stronger (and the finds get even better for buyers!)
Membership fees help cover platform costs, resources, special events, original content creation, development of new ways to connect buyers and sellers, marketing, and tech upgrades to keep things functional for the entire secondhand-loving community.
In return, we create more exclusive content, provide promotional opportunities and offer support. Learn more about all the levels of membership here.
Yes! You can choose between monthly or annual billing for either the Fans or the Insiders plans. Champions are annual only.
We accept all major credit cards. Payments are processed through our secure checkout provider, Stripe. If you do not have access to a credit card but are interested in joining as a paid member, contact us.
Log in to your Account Dashboard, click Billing and change it there.
We are confident that you will find great value in our membership. Because digital products and memberships grant immediate access upon purchase, we cannot offer refunds.
However, you may cancel your subscription at any time through your Account Dashboard and you will not be charged for the next billing period.
The Vintage Seeker reserves the right to remove any bad actors and refund their payment.
We offer a variety of ways to advertise your business or event, including display advertising on the Shop Secondhand Directory or in our newsletters, custom webinars, emails and packages, as well as sponsored blog posts and social media.
Download our media kit to learn more.
Yes! We would love to chat to you about this further. Visit our Advertise With Us page to download our media kit, our Work With Us page to get ideas, or email us to find out about ways we can work together.
Yes! Submit a request for an immediate download of our media kit and we will be in touch!
Yes! Visit our Work With Us page for more information.
We are now focused largely on advocacy for buyers and sellers, expert insight and ongoing resources that help buyers and sellers better understand each other.
You may also see business spotlights from our member shops published on our website from time to time.
We no longer profile individual businesses outside of our member shops, but we are always looking for topics important to buyers and sellers, expert insight and guest contributions focused on advocacy and insight.
Generally, we are focused on vintage, antiques, consignment, thrift, pre-loved or resale shops and individual resellers/dealers selling offline in stores, markets, malls, etc., or online in marketplaces, apps, social media, websites, etc. These sellers are limited to “lifestyle resale”: home decor, fashion/clothing, jewellery/accessories, furniture, ephemera, glassware, art and antiques, toys and collectibles, etc.
We also love to hear from antiques malls, collective spaces and other multi-vendor establishments that house secondhand vendors, as well as markets, shows and other secondhand-related events.
Businesses or individuals involved in the acquisition, ongoing maintenance of or downsizing of secondhand goods, even if not a reseller (e.g. auction houses, tailors, upholsterers, estate sale companies, liquidators, rental companies, organizers, etc.) are also part of our scope.
New or established companies, online-only or bricks-and-mortar businesses, “modern” vintage or “traditional” antiques shops are all welcome to get in touch.
As of late 2025, business spotlights on our website are reserved only for members of The Vintage Seeker.
Any other resources we produce outside our membership are free, and there is not a cost to being featured if you are called upon for an interview or to provide expert insight.
We publish resources based on a range of factors including reader need, demographics, geography and newsworthiness. Our lists and articles are “editor’s picks,” so not every business will be featured in a post like “5 Vintage Clothing Stores in Vancouver.”
Coverage is not guaranteed. We cannot cover everything we are pitched.
If you join The Vintage Seeker as a paid member, there are some additional opportunities for coverage, including the aforementioned spotlights, as part of your membership. For FAQs on our membership, see the section on this page.
If you are interested in partnerships, collaborations or sponsored content, please see the Advertising & Partnerships section on this page.
We are always seeking additional resources to add to our site. Email us if you have a vintage-, antiques-, thrift- or resale-related issue you think we should know about, if you have questions or topics you think should be covered, or if you have questions about guest posting.
If you have an event to submit, please use our calendar on the Shop Secondhand Directory. Here's how to submit.
The Vintage Seeker is a startup and we have a very limited budget. We rarely hire freelance writers as of late 2025, but feel free to contact us. Photos are either taken in-house, sourced from social media or stock sites, or used with permission.
Email us to introduce yourself, request our submission guidelines or to send a pitch. Pitches should explain why your resource idea is relevant to our audience of sellers and shoppers.
The Vintage Seeker’s coverage is focused on advocacy, insight and resources for the vintage vendors, antiques dealers, resellers, service providers, shoppers and supporters who comprise the independent resale sector.
Our content is either buyer- or seller-facing, or both (they’re often the same person)!
We create consumer-friendly, educational content that highlights the industry, and we build resources to help sellers grow sustainable businesses.
If you’re a writer or business owner who is considering a pitch and you want more information on topics, timelines, specs and process, email us to request our full submission guidelines.
Email us a few sentences about your topic, idea, business, news or event and what makes it unique or interesting, as well as your social media handles and website.
If your pitch is accepted and we proceed to compile a resource or include you in a list, we will need access to images that fit our editorial style.
For images in a multi-source resource, preference will be given to vendors who provide clear product images with good lighting, or styled vignettes. A great way to understand our style is to spend some time on the website or our Instagram feed.
If you’re being featured as part of a Q&A or article and haven’t sent images, we will send you image request guidelines.
If you are a member of The Vintage Seeker, you are guaranteed to receive a business spotlight and any other promised promotional opportunities.
Otherwise, coverage is not guaranteed. While we want to help bolster the community as much as possible, we cannot cover everything we are pitched. We provide a curated selection of resource for our audience, and consider tone, style, image quality, newsworthiness and reader need. We also ensure that our content aligns with our mandate to provide resources, advocacy and insight.
If you are interested in sponsored content and advertising opportunities where you are guaranteed coverage for your business, see the Advertising & Partnerships section on this page.
Feel free to follow up two weeks after your initial email if you haven’t received a reply.
If you are a vendor member of The Vintage Seeker, you receive a business spotlight no matter where you are located.
For our ongoing resources, we are currently focused on topics that affect vendors and buyers in North America (Canada and the U.S.), but we do sometimes feature international shops and sellers as part of our work.
Please email us for more information or to introduce yourself.
We’re working on a gifting option — stay tuned! In the meantime, you’re welcome to purchase a membership using their email address. Note they will receive welcome emails right away if their email address is used.
Yes, we offer shop consultations!
What if you could spend 30 to 60 minutes with your customer, asking them for specific, actionable feedback on your resale shop and brand?
You can, with Kristina Urquhart, editor and publisher of The Vintage Seeker. She’s a longtime vintage buyer and just so happens to be like your vintage bestie — she talks with hundreds of shop owners like you every year and communicates your messages to consumers.
Because of her ongoing work with the reselling community, Kristina knows what other shop owners are doing. She’s seen what works and uses a buyer lens to identify opportunities to talk directly to your customer.
This session is ideal for shop owners or decision-making staff in the resale sector at any stage of their shop who are looking for advice, feedback, inspiration and a value-packed deep-dive on their brand.
Use your time to get feedback on:
Book a consultation through our Services page.
The contributions and guidance of our members inform the direction of the Shop Secondhand Directory and The Vintage Seeker. The Vintage Sellers Community has been absorbed into The Vintage Seeker's overall membership.
The Shop Secondhand Directory is owned and managed by The Vintage Seeker, an online resource that helps vintage, antiques and secondhand vendors and associated service providers reach shoppers.
Founder, publisher and vintage lover Kristina Urquhart has nearly 20 years of experience in media publishing and creating niche content for industries.
We're here for you! If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for, feel free to contact us.
Quick quotes or deep industry insight — no matter what you need, Kristina Urquhart, publisher of The Vintage Seeker, is available for media interviews or as a guest speaker.
She has provided commentary on the vintage and resale market to outlets including the CBC, Global News, CityNews, TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, Saltwire and VITA Daily, as well as on industry podcasts, social media lives and webinars for niche groups.
For press inquiries, or for a copy of our media kit, email partnerships@thevintageseeker.ca.
No. Kristina Urquhart is an editor and B2B publishing professional who compiles information, offers expert insight as an advocate for the industry, and programs member-to-member content. She is also a business journalist and communicator who helps vendors communicate with shoppers.
She creates original resources for The Vintage Seeker, helps to facilitate their conversations through members, moderates group discussions, develops workshops and pursues industry partnerships on the members’ behalf.
She is an avid vintage and secondhand buyer, and supports the small, local, independent businesses of resellers more than she thrifts.
