PICKEALER

I know, the title is confusing. Will come clear as to what it is about, momentarily.

I read a blog posting on an 'antique magazine' website awhile back.  After a few minutes of searching online, I did happen to find the article, and I did notice that it dates from back in 2003....I know I ready it only a few months ago, but the content really has not changed in relevance.

I do agree with some of what he has to say, and I disagree with a few other minor things, mainly his definitions.

The author was describing the "definition" of a picker, wholesaler and dealer.

He apparently has been in the business a long time....but, I was surprised to read how narrow his definitions of those titles were. According to his comments, a "picker" apparently are supposed to specialize in a certain area.

Hmmm...I don't know ANY picker who specializes in one area....not going to make much money that way...not in most provinces in Canada, anyway.  He terms those who buy a variety of things as being "wholesalers"

  Yes, I wholesale items, but that does not make me any less of a picker. I retail items also, so that means I am a dealer?  So, by his definitions I am a dealer-picker-wholesaler

A DPW?

A PWD?

Or a WPD?


Sure, I love old advertising and related items, and am pretty knowledgeable in that area, but if I am picking an old store, and I see depression glass there I won't just leave it behind.

Or if I see some folk art item in the back room, I won't pass it by.

And see that  mid-century modern teak table lamp over there, over in the former "Housewares" section?

 I'll buy that, too.

All those vintage electrical components? Put them in my pile.

Oh, and those 1950s cowboy shirts? And the box of NOS seamed nylon stockings?

Yep, I want those, too.

Those 1970s vinyl squeaky Barbapapa toys? Put them beside the lamp, please.

That 1979 IBM  computer the store's owner's accountant brother gave her after he upgraded? DEFINITELY want that, too.

Now just need to figure out how to load it all...

So, MY definition of a picker is someone who IS a "generalist", not a "specialist."


Sure, many of us have our specialties, but we don't focus on a narrow area. I'd have gone broke long ago if I had done that.  It would be FANTASTIC to be able to "pick" one specialty, or collectible category, but it is simply not realistic...especially if you want to make a real living. If you were only picking in that category, suppose you could be called "specialty picker", that I could agree with.

Normally, from my experience over the last 20+ years, those who do specialize in that sort of thing are called "Specialty DEALERS"...not "pickers".

Anything to make a buck, remember? Frankly, roughly 80% of the trade in the antiques business is dealer to dealer, anyway. AND I mean "dealer" as a general catch-all term....as in picker/wholesaler/dealer/specialty-dealer/specialty-picker/etc/etc/etc.... ANYONE who is in the junk biz.

We all have our own knowledge, markets, talents, etc that allow us to make money on the items we buy.

I don't mind wholesaling something, especially when I know I can't move it quickly for "retail"...whatever that really means....my retail could be another dealer's "wholesale"...and yet another dealer's "double retail!"

I have many items that I've priced at a wholesale level, simply because I want to sell them, not hang on to them for years.. There are many items that I know will not end up selling to the end "collector."


See that gadget over there?  No, not the bobbing head doll...beside it...Yeah, the wachamacallit.

It will be a dealer who will buy it. They will up the price and sell it to some customer they have.

Am I upset? Not a chance. Suits me fine...I have sold it, that is the important part.

Don't Get Too Involved

We humans are generally a pretty darn curious bunch.

If you are a really curious type, that can work in your favor.

Having that urge to know what is behind a door, around a corner, underneath a pile of junk, etc, can lead you to treasure.

It can also mess with your head....

One of the things I discovered early in my pickin' career was that there is a fine line between "research"and "obsession".

When you are dealing with situations like sorting/digging through estates of deceased persons, it is sometimes tempting to take some time to read personal letters, diaries, etc.

Frankly, sometimes that is actually something I'd recommend doing.  This is how fantastic "true story" movies get made, books are written, mysteries are solved (and created), etc.

But, there is a fine line between "research"/"due diligence" and "obsession".


Someones innermost fears, confessions, desires, etc, are quite likely things that person did not intend to ever reveal to another soul. the opposite may well be true in the minority of cases.

Perhaps the individual wanted the world to know certain things, but could only reveal them after their passing.  Many times this is owing to living a lifetime with some piece of knowledge they could not speak of when they were alive.  Those pieces of information, say, something like having been witness to/participants in some horrific war crime, murder, theft, etc may have created a burden that built up emotional scarring in their shadowy corridors of their mind.

Usually, however, the letters, diaries, documents, etc of most people are pretty "blase." Videotapes, home movies, audio recordings etc are similar, but require some sort of additional effort beyond manipulating paper.

The day to day lives of those who lived through other eras can be interesting, and reading their writings really can open a window in the fabric of time allowing you to see what it was like living in World War 2 England,  the "dirty thirties", a life of hard rock miner, a musician, etc...a peak into the past. Sometimes the past is not that far past....could be a  last week, allowing you to walk a block in the deceased person's shoes.

Thing is,  you can VERY easily get WAY too involved in a person's life.  Reading bare, raw emotions written as words on a page by another can put you right into that person's head, and your mind becomes intimately involved.  You may even learn things you really did not want to know.

It can be like watching a movie that suddenly has a scene that is imprinted on your mind, and there is no way to erase it. A particular clip in John Water's cult classic "Pink Flamingos" left one of those images branded in the folds of my memory....And no, it isn't the one where Divine eats dog crap, either. I am not really a John Water's fan...it was one of those "arty" movies you get dragged to see by friends, some with good intentions, trying to expand your intellectual horizons. Or, they may  just want to enjoy the thrill of shocking the shit out of you....no pun intended!

If you do find assorted documents that have some historical value, or maybe the blockbuster "true story" movie or book/biography that is potentially the find of the decade...well, ok, fine, read away. Figure out what you need to keep using the info on the pages, and go from there. It is surprising the "regular everyday items that can suddenly be very important in the telling of a story, confirmation of an event, etc.

Who knows....you know that that old $15 fountain pen, which you packed up yesterday.... the one you found in the junk drawer in the kitchen? A little reading reveals that it was used for the signing of a historic document.

AND one of the signer's included was John F Kennedy, AND the pen was given to him by Marilyn Monroe.

AND you have documentation in your hot little hands that tells of how it was accidently left behind in a cab, which was being driven by the deceased when he was working as a taxi driver.

AND he picked up a man who turned out to be a disguised JFK.  The candid photo with the letter, JFK autograph on the period dollar bill really adds credibility. Only further reading tells you of the fingerprint work on the pen stashed in a baggie had been done some years later by a policeman buddy, and the 3 different prints have been proven to be those of Marilyn Monroe, JFK and the deceased!

AND more reading reveals that those very documents are hidden in a secret compartment.... of the very desk you are sitting at!

$$$$$ KA-CHING! $$$$$

Yes, doing a bit of that sort of visual/mental digging, reading, and research can pay off. Maybe it won't be a score like the fantasy situation above, but it the writings could result in a lead to other treasure. Perhaps you find out that the deceased went to a baseball game with an uncle as a child, and describes how Joe Demagio autographed the 4th page of the child's scribbler.
Oddly enough, the description of the type of scribbler matches the stack of tattered old notebooks you just put in the recycling pile.  Some of that sort of "life" writings can be as good as a pirate's treasure map!


BUT, if you find the writings consist of the usual day to day existance of an average person, with the usual ups and downs, tragedies and triumphs, you might want to just dispose of the items, maybe saving the stamped envelopes for collector purposes, the "certificate of achievement" due to it'd related collectible in whatever field, (etc) and get rid of the rest.

Getting all wrapped up in other people's lives whom you do not know may give you insight into them, their actions, their possessions, and their former earthly surroundings, but it can also make a mess of your own psyche.  Re-living tragedies (which is what people tend to write about far more often than triumphs) which occurred in someone elses life, consumed via intimate ways such as reading diaries, trigger serious symptoms of depression, anxiety, etc in some people. 

A thick skin for such things is something you will need to develop if you get really hands on, and digging through physical remnants of someones lifetime.  It can also be disturbing, and you do sometimes need to take a step back and say "whoa." Sometimes you need to take a break, or a long walk to clear your head.

I can assure you that the VAST majority of you out there really do not want to read a  highly descriptive, multi-page manifesto of someone's sexual fantasies involving the local Lion's Club president and the local zoo's resident sea lion....


It can also be a heck of a time waster. Say you are going through an estate that you HAVE to have cleared out of a house within a week. You find a shoebox of love letters, evidence of a torrid extramarital affair the deceased had...and your reading of the 400 plus pages of back-and-forth lust and drama takes over your entire day.

* POOF *

You realize that your take-out pizza is now cold, your beer or soda (or both) are warm, the sun has set...8  hours have disappeared. To top off the loss of work time,  you absorbed/experienced someone else's stress, heartbreak, anxiety, desire, confusion, etc...piling it up in your mind....and none of it even belongs to you.

Hopefully you can let it go...but odds are that many items you handle in the estate will trigger something you read to flash into your mind.

AND now you have one less day to do what YOU need to do.   Break away from it....because a plumber and his male accountant lover's escapades is really not what you need to focus on. AND when you find the wife's box of love letters to her BDSM lesbian dominatrix with the school lunch counter job, toss them out in the shred/recycle pile, too. 

Make good use of your time. Bad use of your time involves reading a woman's diary about the daily beatings she received at the hands of her drug addicted husband, who had been sexually abused by the Parish priest....yes, she really thought she could "fix" him....yes it is tragic, but just toss that diary aside.

Those parties involved have been dead and gone for 60 years. That time you spend reading really could  be spent finding some really cool, really valuable stuff.   If the writings have some relevance to some criminal case, reveals potential living victims,  etc, well, then you have a moral call to make, as you may have important evidence that may need to come to light.

There are lots of great stories out there, and those out of the ordinary that need to be told should be told.

The majority of stories out there should be just laid to permanent rest with the deceased.

The Picker Hokey-Pokey

I’m not much of a dancer. My wife refuses to dance with me to anything faster than “waltz” speed.  I also dislike waltzing…not a big fan of that sort of “classic” dancing overall. I do like dancing to rock ‘n’ roll, the whole air guitar thing, rockin’ it out to 1980s hair metal, old school punk, that sort of thing. However, as I mentioned, there is a reason my wife does not want me to dance. It just looks weird, I guess…not that everyone else on the floor are potential “dance with the stars” pros, either.

In Manitoba, we have events we call ”Socials.”  The prairie social seems to be a very much mid-Canada event, and most people who grew up elsewhere tend to look puzzled when asked if they want to buy a ticket to a social.   I’m a picker, so I am very used to confused looks, which comes with insisting and trying to convince people that the “trash” in their shed is worth me taking a look at.

Socials are usually organized by a small group of people in order to raise funds for various things. Tickets are sold to the event, which normally consist of a dance and a bar (you buy tickets, and tickets are exchanged for your choice of alcohol.) Sometimes goods, gift certificates, and other prizes are donated by businesses & individuals, which are dispose of via a silent auction, random draw, etc. More money is raised via ticket sales (to attendees) for those prizes, also.

More often than not, much later in the evening, in the area of 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM,  usually some sort of food is served. Mmmmm....FOOOD......gooood....

Most of the socials I attended years ago served things in the range of cold cuts, cheese, salami, buttered bread, that sort of thing. However, the edibles served these days can vary from place to place and the choices of the organizers, whose food tendency could be based on their culture, background, ethnic roots, personal choices, known preferences of the bulk of the attendees, theme of the social, donations (think beef in ranch/farming areas, fish where fishing is the main industry, assorted meat & cheese selections at a butcher's daughter's wedding social, venison (deer meat) where hunting is an avid past time, etc, etc.)

 Wedding Socials are common here, as one of the ways to raise some money for the bride and groom. Good causes are regularly boosted in their fundraising efforts by the utilization of socials. Families who lose one or both parent(s), those whose homes succumb to flames, people in need of surgery or other medical care (those that our systems will not or can not cover)  etc, etc…basically anything you can think of that there is a need for money to be raised, a Social likely has been held in an attempt to raise money.

Really should not have gone off on that tangent….now I am hungry, and craving a rum & Coke…or even a bottle of beer…and it is only 9:50 AM.

OK, so what does the Hokey-Pokey have to do with picking?

Maybe these pics of yours truly working will give you a clue:

What am I doing? Pulling something towards me for a better look, as well as distributing my weight over a larger area. The floor just beyond my feet looks solid to the untrained eye....but it is completely rotten, and is barely holding the weight of the few things on top of it. 

Some of these make it obvious that I am referring to the motions, positions, movements, gestures, etc that are part of the way I search for "treasure".  Yes, some are quite bizarre looking, geeky, weird, etc........like the 7th from the bottom...what is with my gloved pinky finger up in the air, eh?!

Believe it or not, all these photos represent the picker hokey-pokey.....the movements, stance, balancing, etc required to pick WELL.

Take #1, as an example. This was an old blacksmith's shop, and the roof had collapsed. Sure, I am just poking my head through the window hole, no big deal, right?

If you have been following my blog, you know what is next: YES, it IS a big deal....or at least potentially could be.  Old windows that no one has touched for eons, or even those recently broken/damaged, all could well be lethal, or in the least cut your picking short while you run to the hospital for stitches.

AH, so you think you are really tough, and if you were to get cut, you would keep right on pickin'?
Figure you can use your the blood trail to find your way back through the maze of rooms in that basement?

Well, that is NOT the point. Blood stains are not something you want to have on that "barn fresh" 1920s Wrigley's gun paper poster, or all over that fantastic, minty Victorian crazy quilt you are pulling out of that old trunk in that attic.

Plus, it is hard to pick things up with blood running over your fingers, see things when it is dripping into your eyes...and it is darn distracting when it runs down your neck or when it is squishing around your toes in your boots.

Peering through any window does not mean I have just stuck my head through it without first looking closely at the situation. It means I likely have looked critically at it and observe things like chunks of broken glass, loose frame parts, glass (whole and pieces) sitting in panes above with little but gravity as their only fastener, window frames that are the only real structure holding up the top portion of a wall, etc, etc.



I also personally do not want to re-enact the scene in the Patrick Swayze flick GHOST.....ok, enough of the snickering!! I saw it when it came out, while I was out on a date, ok?!

You know the scene......

Yeah, YOU! The macho guy in the back!  YES, YOU! Don't bother even trying to act incredulous!  I know darn well you slipped your girlfriend's copy into the machine and watched it when she was away!

Yes, the scene where the villain bites it, via the window attempting to do a guillotine imitation.

Not my desire in life to be impaled on anything, thank-you.

General contortionist-esque moves are something I tend to do while I am checking out places, though as I get older, I try to examine the situation/location for less back twisting ways to access some spots. I have crawled into tight spots where I had to crawl backwards in order to get back out, duck walked through cellars with narrowing tunnels, contort into forgotten/hidden attic spaces from the more modern additions' attics, done the limbo through cellar openings whose trap doors would only open just enough to slide between it and the floor's edge....and I could go on and on and on....

The pictures really do represent what I will call the "Picker Dance.".  If you are a GREAT (and smart...and SAFE) picker, you will use your whole body when picking, brain (knowledge), eyes, ears, sense of touch, etc.  And, for things like your sense of touch, I mean pretty much all over your body, not just your hands...every step in an attic or even on what seems like solid ground should be something you are aware of.  You need to not just see, but also hear and feel the tell tale give/creaks/cracks of rotten/split/rodent-gnawed floor boards floating on nothing but 15 feet of thin air below which lies  scrap metal with spear and pike like protrusions laying about the barn floor.

Same goes for what you'd normally think was a simple, almost casual stroll through any unknown/unfamiliar/obscured patch of ground.

 That grass you just stepped on that gave a little is growing over the top of a well with nothing but a cork-like plank preventing you from plunging 20 feet  down a well. Or, that slight "give" you felt as your foot hit the ground is an old enameled steel sign flexing slightly as they do, where it has been hidden by mat of grass that has reclaimed the surface real estate.

Fences of all kinds are their own little experience. If you are male, and have ever straddled/stepped over a barb wire fence, you also may have experienced the inadvertent use of other parts of your anatomy to recognize some potential harm.

Lots of hazards out there, always need to keep your wits about you. Will leave you with some pics of  the insides and some outsides of various places I have picked.

******* NOTE OF CAUTION! *******  I am a "professional" with many years experience under my belt, and many of these places I would not have attempted entering, salvaging/picking when I first started in the business. DO NOT be fool hardy and attempt to pick  places similar to these without knowing the full extent of the obvious and, most importantly, the hidden and potentially life threatening dangers involved.

Where am I?  
In the back storage space of a walk in attic.
 What am I doing?
Pulling something towards me for a better look with a piece of wood.
I am also shifting and distributing my weight over a larger area. 
The floor just beyond my feet looks solid to the untrained eye....but it is completely rotten, and is barely holding the weight of the few things on top of it.
You see sunlight on the back right because the roof is rotted away entirely in that spot. 
 The weight of 2 chimneys diagonally across from one another, both of which were starting to crumble, did not make this area more stable, either. 
I happened to have been in this attic 15 years prior, and it was rock solid then. Mother Nature does not waste any time in her reclamation process!

View of a barn from half way between it and a road. Looked pretty intact from the road, through the trees obscuring some of the view. But, I could see it was not as it initially appeared.

DEFINITELY not as intact as it appeared from the road.  The  half-wall you see we could make sway with not much effort...when a slight breeze came up, it started to sway in a quite graceful, but menacing motion. When the breeze turned to a mild wind, we called it quits for the afternoon. Winds got much stronger in the evening, and we expected the wall to be in pieces on the ground when we came back the next day. Surprisingly it wasn't.

Main floor of same barn. No movement inside, everything still seemed "solid"...crooked, but solid.
 However, I knew to retain a heightened sense of awareness when I ventured into this area.

Closer look at the main beam reveals how poor the structure/stability of this barn actually is.
Any creaking and cracking sounds we made note of constantly!

View of roof collapsed into/onto the loft floor. Can you say "lumber landslide?"

Another barn's loft. Yes, looks solid, but between super dry and thin planks, rotten spots, and holes made in the floor by previous owners, I walked only on the spots where each beam was. Looks can be very deceiving....and definitely were in this loft

Ah-Ha! Attic entrance into a building built beside this barn!

View of my intended path for a leisurely stroll through an old, abandoned, clean looking farmyard

Ah, what is that in the grass?! Could it be TREASURE? Good thing I was looking where I was walking, I might have missed it!

Not treasure! Could have been tragedy, tho!

Another well on the same property. Within a 50' x 50' area we encountered 3 wells that were "obvious" like the two pictured. These were more "modern". I am positive there are others there, as this farm site dated to easily 1890, but have a distinct lack of interest in dying at the bottom of a well, so I had no interest in walking on top of/over/very close to the other less obvious impressions I noticed in the ground where I suspected others were.

PICK SMART. PICK SAFE.