We Don't Sell Food or Toilet Paper

My sales at the April occasional sale in Buffalo continued to be spotty. Some furniture seems to be selling, the number of shoppers has increased substantially and interest has heated up from the depths of winter. My sales were higher in volume but capped by an $89 upholstered chair. I sold a ton of smalls. $15-20 frames and paintings sold out. But my $395 brass bed bench generated little interest. It appears that the customers wanted to buy, but were limiting their purchases to my cheaper items.

I have never really understood the antiques business. The one thing that I have learned is that as soon as I think I have it worked out, I am wrong. Then there is the undeniable truth that we don't sell necessities. There is no food or toilet paper for sale in the shop. There is an inverse relationship between gasoline prices and sales. The more gasoline costs the less discretionary money there is for my shabotaged pieces.

I am going to gut my spot at the Porch before the May occasional sale. I need to shake it up completely. I will add many more smalls. Smaller tables, cheaper furniture and many more frames, prints and paintings. I want to have a more Spring look. More things for the garden. More color. And I do have the turquoise, teal and aqua memo in hand for the shabotaging. Maybe some nice weather will permit me to rework my inventory and freshen my look.

And I am very happy that I have a real job to support this habit.

Mr. Flannery

If it will fit in the truck, it will surely fit in the house

A mantra that contributes to an overwhelming accumulation of stuff. While true with any individual truck full, it is a delusion that falls apart somewhere between the 13th and 17th load. The people involved in our style of decorating most often believe that more is better and much more is even betterer. The old saw that three of anything are a collection, means that we collect just about everything. Three examples of any collection is a minimal level surpassed long ago.

I have never collected mixing bowls. When I moved into the lake house about 15 years ago I had an open space above the cupboards in the pantry. This will be a great place to display a few bowls and crocks. Therefore, I searched through the moving boxes and started putting a few pieces that were laying around, mostly as incidental purchases related to something else that I wanted, on display in the pantry. 15 years and many trucks full later and this is what I have.

This is really not what I have. This is what I have room to display. There are other bowls and crockery scattered through the house, closed cupboards and various storage spaces. Oh my! And some people worry about 3 pieces being a collection. I am obviously bowled over.

Mr. Flannery

Old Lights Yes - Old Wires I Don't Think So

One of the many fields of interests that I have explored in the junkin' world is lamps and lighting. I used to collect leaded and slag panel stained glass lamps, but they have now disappeared from the market or moved to Sotheby type prices. Just about the only leaded glass lamps that I see at auction today are Tiffany lamps (made by their daughter Tiffany in 1987) or turn of the century Chinese pieces (that would be 8 years ago when the century turned). So I have branched out into more recent table, floor and hanging lamps.

While antique or vintage lighting is often stunning, the wiring can be down right shocking. I like the old lighting, but the old wiring has to go. It is better to disassemble most lamps and rewire them with new, well insulated wiring. The photo is of a pair of interesting lavender colored boudoir lamps that I recently redid.

There is nothing more jarring than a nice old lamp fitted with a brand new shiny brass socket from the Depot. It just doesn't look right. I like to reuse the old brass parts from the lamp while fitting the newer guts from the Depot inside. I often buy lamps at auction, not for their lighting suitability, but for their wonderfully patinated brass parts. These parts look right and are much cheaper than a new light repair kit. I buy surplus power cords at the local electronic parts salvage store. They have a regular molded plug on one end and a special attachment plug on the other. I cut off the special plug, thread it through the lamp, strip the ends and connect up the lamp socket. Not only do these cords have an integrated plug, they only cost me a half buck each. (You can use a cheap new extension cord in the same manner if you can't find the surplus store nearby.)


Mr. Flannery

The Strangest Couch

I bought this strange couch at an auction 2 summers ago. The arms and back are about 5 feet tall. I have decided to call it an Englenook, but do not know what it is really called.

One of my good friends from the Porch has agreed to reupholster it for me. So I am going to haul it to her shop sometime this week. Each arm weighs about 100 pounds. This is going to be a nice curl up in piece across from the fireplace in my house.

Mr. Flannery

Selling some things

I worked Thursday and Friday mornings at the Porch. The weather was excellent and buyers could feel the start of Spring in their souls. 'Course the last of the melting snow gave them that winter feel in their soles. We had good crowds and Kari sold 2 center islands in the first couple of hours. My sales have been slower but I have great hope for the weekend.

Some of my goods were sold at Dave Millers Auction in St Cloud on Friday night. Unfortunately, I did not haul a second load there before the auction as I had planned. The limited amount of stuff that I sold did surprisingly well, almost enough to cover the items that I bought. So now I have an upholstered chair and a few other knick-knacks to haul into the Porch on Saturday.

I brought the chair into the Porch at about 9:30 this morning. It was sold by 10 o'clock. That's pretty quick turn around. Bought, hauled and sold all within 12 hours. It would be nice if everything went that quickly. There were good crowds at the shops in Buffalo on Saturday. Lots of people taking advantage of the Spring weather. People were happy and enjoyed going from shop to shop in the sunshine. I hope that sales are equally happy.

Mr. Flannery

Scenes from the April Sales

My Brass and Iron Bench


Second Hand Rose
The first ocassional sale place
in Buffalo


This 'n That
Second Hand Rose's Neighbor

Kari's Stuff at The Porch

Kari with a Bar She Built

Some of My Silver Plate

Mr. Flannery

Ready for the April Sale

The entrance to the Porch

My neighbors Annemarie & Lisa

I finally finished setting up my space at the Porch. Now I just hope someone likes it, 'cause I'm not bringing it back to my house.

Mr. Flannery

Victorian Iron & Brass Bed Bench

Another View of the Bench

Newel Post Lamp

1950's Pressed Steel Lawn Chairs

Silver Plate Servers & Italian Accordion

Turquoise Cabinet

& Jenny Lind Bed

Oil on Board Paintings