How Loving Vintage Started for Me
My Mom was a teacher with summers off and when I was in late grade school through high school we spent May-August going to antique shops, rummage sales, thrift stores, and auctions. Typically we hit the shops & thrift stores during the week, rummage sales on Friday mornings, and auctions on Fridays or Saturdays (or both).
On a Dig
I've been in more rundown old stores in dusty little towns than I can even remember. We used to visit one place where there were literally 5 and 6 foot tall piles to dig through It was a mixed up mess of everything from old lamps to broken jewelry and rusty tools to ratty bath towels. (Picture an episode of Hoarders but without the rotten food and excessive pets.)
We would arrive, say hi to the old guy who ran the place, then head into the back room. When we had dug our fill (or gotten creeped out by a sudden scurrying noise) we'd take our armful of finds up to the front room to get a price for the whole lot. Seems like it was usually $5 or $10.
Memorable Finds
The best finds I can recall from that particular junk shop were:
- Old black eyelet dress with rhinestone buttons
- Little vintage cobalt blue Lowell's face cream jar
- Rusty old tole floral chandelier
All three of those are still hanging around somewhere and so is my love of digging, boxing up finds, & hoping the price is a good one. That's vintage shopping in a nutshell.
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Note:
This post is an excerpt from my upcoming Vintage Selling School course.
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