Too Little Too Late - Treasure Found!!

Guess what?

One of the treasures I mentioned in previous blogs has been essentially located...or, rather, there are some researchers/treasure hunters already ahead of me, hot on the trail of the cache.

I mentioned this lead in my posting here.

I can give more details now that there is someone else on the case, and are advanced in their seeking what is literally a mass of over 200 antique weapons, including antique guns, knives, trade axes, etc.!!!

This is a historic find, and literally is a part of Western Canadian History.  Now, due to the location of this find, should I have gone after it and gotten there before the current researchers, I would have been only the finder, not the keeper of this historic weapons find.

Instead of me simply regurgitating information, I suggest you read the article here.

And that is what can happen when you do not follow up your leads in a timely fashion!

Arsenic and Old Wallpaper - Walls of Death

I know, the title sounds like it would be appropriate for a Halloween blog, doesn't it? 

I realize I do mention and even harp on keeping safe when picking far more than most picking related blogs. 

I do it because, frankly, it can be dangerous profession, and the better armed you are with the facts the better you can protect yourself from harm, and live to go picking another day.  I have been lucky, and have learned the hard way to take certain precautions.

One of those precautions is wearing a respirator, not just one of those flimsy white dust masks.  I will admit, I don't wear one of my respirators all the time when picking, but, frankly, I should.

I already have a type of asthma that is triggered by fine dusts, and fibreglass insulation in particular. That is a direct result of my chosen profession, not an inherited malady.

Dusts, seen and unseen can be a problem. You already likely know to be careful of lead paint, but the source of what I am about to reveal may surprise you.

Arsenic dust borne from wallpaper.

If you take a read of this article, you will see this is not just a paranoid thought. 

The fact is that "near the end of the 19th century the American Medical Association estimated that as much as 65% of all wallpaper in the United States contained arsenic."

That leaves pretty high odds for that peeling wallpaper in that old Victorian farmhouse you are picking to be a very dangerous material....and the airborne particles you are breathing in won't be just from mouse/rat droppings, bird droppings, black mould spores and fine topsoil...you can add a lethal poison to the mix. 

Go buy a respirator.

Pick safe! 

New Year Dubstep

So, you figured you'd catch me dancing to Dubstep this first day of the New Year?

No, not quite.

Sorry to disappoint..... or, rather, for those of you who have ever seen me dance, "You are welcome."

So, what is it all about?

Boots on the ground!

Confused?

Well,  I had a vintage tin I wanted to empty before I put it out for sale....

Not an expensive tin, but I also have been needing to condition my leather work boots...

If you haven't guessed what kind of tin already, it was a DUBBIN tin.

So, seeing as I had some Dubbin handy, I figured I might as well just use it up....and a magic-al transformation from dry leather to supple leather.

The main point of the post, really, is to bring some attention to a relatively cheap collectible that is often overlooked....and that item is the lowly Dubbin tin!

Here are a couple other examples I had handy:

They also take up relatively little space, so you could accumulate a cool collection for cheap, and not taking up[a ton of display space in your residence or "man cave"...or "woman shed" or where ever you display your collections.

Pick safe, folks!

Driving Down The Highway Of Pickers - Part 1

Mike Wolfe now has a blog of stories about picking.

He (or his staff) has called it "Two Lanes Blog."

I guess "A Pickers Journal" was taken...!  (More on that in a later post....)

Just click on that title to open a page to it, if you are so inclined.

And, no, I do not get any payments per click, referrals, mentions, or any other sort of compensation.

Thinking back, oddly enough, there were several of "us" (as  in pickers, dealers, etc) that "supported" Mike and the show when it first hit the airwaves. We certainly are not even half of why the show has done so well, but I'd like to think our enthusiasm, verbal support for, and word of mouth advertising for the show helped him get a firm footing on that creaky and fickle staircase to financial success and recognition.

I think the fact that "our profession" was finally being shown on TV as a legitimate business, and that we would (hopefully) now get some respect and acknowledgement from the general public, as well as the same from family members, most of which, being non "junkers", thought we were just weirdos, hoarders, eccentrics, garbage-pickers, etc.

It did accomplish that, and more.

Some of it was negative, some positive.

There has been growing pains, for sure.

We defended Mike when things appeared nasty.

Take for example, when Mike & Frank paid a "small amount" for a saddle (seems to me it was $75, or $20, something like that.)

Then an appraisal was done...and it was appraised at a 4 figure value!

 The fallout from the general public about that was nuts on the discussion boards of History Channel at the time. Those boards were taken down, and are likely no longer accessible anywhere. The hard drives with the data were  probably long shredded, too.

 "Crooks!", "thieves!", "scammers!" and assorted other not-so-complimentary as well as rather "blue" epitaphs were tossed at Mike & Frank  quite a bit, and had it been possible, some people were to the point of nearly burning them in effigy!

 Of course, being bound by contractual stuff for the show, and perhaps under advisement by legal counsel,  they didn't wade into the fray.

We (by "we" I mean various pickers, dealers, collectors and other experienced people of the antiques business) were the ones who dealt with that little shit-storm, and explained (and RE-explained X100) that all wasn't as it seemed, what the realities of this business are, pointed out the much higher mark-ups of assorted other resale businesses that they seemed to have no problems with, and the fact that it is business after all, so there has to be an appropriate profit margin involved.

We also pointed out that the seller himself quoted them the price  he wanted, which they paid.

One thing none of those "critics" really took into consideration was that, oddly enough, when put on the open market at auction, in this case eBay, it sold for not much more than they paid for it.

So, what about the appraisal of a 4 figure value?

The fact is, the appraisal wasn't at all accurate, for dried out, old saddle.

Basically the "appraiser" was basing his appraisal on what he knew and where his expertise happens to lie....

And that was with new & used working saddles.

 He was not an expert in antique & vintage saddles, nor antique western goods, nor Americana, nor decor items, etc,etc, etc...

SO, he had no background, nor knowledge as to the factors that actually makes some old/antique saddles valuable...and what makes others really just decorator items.

Anyway, back to Mike's blogging.

I am actually quite surprised it took this long for the "powers that be" to get him writing. I thought they would have pushed it right from the get go.

I wonder if he will be doing it himself, or if he is dictating, and has someone doing the typing, editing, etc?

He has the bucks to go that route, and I am sure his time tends to be limited, so he may be doing the blog posts on the fly, or someone else transcribes them from some other source he has, maybe somewhere he jots the stuff down, and someone else tidies it up, fixes grammar, spelling, etc?

He has done quite well for himself, and whatever you think of him, you do have to give him credit, he has worked hard, and is reaping the benefits.

Many of us, of course, also work very hard, maybe even some have worked harder  than Mike has,  and most of us haven't seen the same sort of success he has.

 Some pickers don't want the spotlight shone on them, for an assortment of reasons.

Some of us; yes, myself included, have tried hard to reach that level of success and recognition, but, for whatever assortment of reasons, haven't gotten that same sort of recognition.

"That's life."

"Luck of the draw."

"Just the way the cards are dealt."

Metal Man Mike is one I tripped across some time ago...just click on his name for his videos. I don't have any personal connection to him, but he is one of many characters around. He has one video on what not to do when approached by a production company, based on his personal experience.

Yes, I know I should have as many "picking" videos as he does. I never have gotten (yet) a "GoPro" type camera, and, well, getting bills paid has been more important.

I have a few videos, some badly produced, really shaky,and some, done by friends, are not bad.  One of the issues is the most interesting places I have picked can also be some of the most dangerous places...

So, I have to have both hands free...thus I don't want to be holding and aiming a camera!

Anyway, I guess a spotlight, recognition, Mercedes van, sponsor ships, substantial additional income, etc, is just not in the cards for some of us, or, perhaps, it is just not quite "our time."

I am not sure where my future lies, but wherever it lies, I am sure "old junk" of some sort will feature prominently!

Signs On the Road To the Future

I've been "out of the loop", per se, when it comes to the "hot" collectibles of the year. I have not been  delving heavy into the internet auction scene, selling my wares on the usual websites, such as eBay, Etsy, Amazon, etc. 

Nor have I done tons of "live" antiques markets, flea markets, etc in 2014.

What I have been seeing (and getting used to) is the surge in sales prices of vintage advertising signs. It is no surprise, really, that these things are starting to go a little beyond what many dealers consider realistic pricing.  

We need to consider the obvious facts that:

(1) TV, film and other "image" based media are focusing their camera lenses on such things.

(2) Considering that much effective advertising is graphic driven in the first place

(3) Those vintage graphics appeal to the masses, even if they appear "dated". 

Let me clarify point number three a bit. 

No surprise that these days vintage advertising signs appeal to more than just a die-hard vintage collector crowd.  The whole "vintage" look has been something that has been pushed in the mass marketing of brand-new-from-the-factory decor, off-the-rack at Wal-Mart, etc. Every gift shop, flower shop, decor store, (etc) that you can think of seems to carry at least one (but usually more), lines of goods with an antique-style, vintage-style, retro-decor vibe. 

Some original vintage signs I have had in the past.

The marketplace is more accepting than ever of that “dated" appearance. Some people have even come to expect it. Advertising agencies and corporations have been making their advertising dance on the nostalgia stage for quite a long time now, easily 30 years or so. It has been so long, actually, that the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s versions of previous generations memories & nostalgia are recognized as nostalgia from the very years it was "repackaged" for the wooing the consumer!

The fact is that the graphics on those of old advertising signs still do their job, which is to grab the attention of the masses.

Sprinkle in the warm & fuzzy feelings of nostalgia brings to people’s hearts, and that old advertising sign is all the more appealing. Memories of grandpa and grandma’s store, the candy counter, picnics in the country, etc. permeate their souls and strategically place a rose coloured lens between them and their memories.

You find that when those memories are not even remotely similar to yours, they still seem to make you feel content and happy.

So, I am sure the values of these pieces will continue to rise in the coming year. The bottom might fall out of the market sooner than we may expect, due to a variety of combined factors, in varying doses. Those vets of the biz have seen the same set of factors affect various categories of collectibles that have gone “mainstream” in their popularity.....

But, that is an entirely different and much, much, much longer blog posting.


Here are some of various original, antique & vintage signs I have personally picked and have had pass through my hands in the distant and recent past owned in the past.

Weird Research Encounters - Google Results

I was doing some research this evening, via GOOGLE, and I had something....

Well, how can I say this....?   

Hmmmm.....

I guess you could say that some rather "odd" things were shown in the search results.....

Rather, um, insanitary sorts of results.

Now, before I go too much further, I should say that I have been using Internet search engines and their results for researching all sorts of vintage items. In the very nature of some of these items you tend to trip across bizarre results. Those not-at-all-relevant-to-your-search-terms results inherently pop up simply due to the "not usual" combinations of words you are using.

Now, I expect some weird results when I do research on medical items, commercial equipment, and use some terms that are more obvious in their potential to be problematic. Such examples include:
  Brass Boer War Era Enema Syringe
 Enlarger Pump Vacuum System
 Vintage Lingerie Rack
and when you do searches involving combinations of such words as:

chain
leather
lace
restraint
dominant
submit
mask
vinyl
whip
rope

and I could go on and on with all sorts of key words, but I really don't want this blog posting to be at the top of the search results for all the fetish, porn and other site searches being done....

Nothing wrong with all that, "live and let live", as the saying goes. For me, it is just that those particular  searchers are not really serious readers of this blog....!

Or, rather, I should state that those who are looking for those sites are not, at that particular moment in their day, intending to read about antiques & collectibles.

Well, not in the way I write about them, that is....and I am referring to antiques & collectibles, not the searchers..

SO, let's erase some of the images we're conjured up from our minds, shall we?

OK, so, I have gotten a few weird results while doing pretty banal searches before. One particular search was when I was doing some research on a piece connected to that classic physical comedy team Laurel & Hardy.

I typed  "Laurel & Hardy" into Google.  I was expecting to get some fan site, maybe find some history on the guys.

However, there it was....

The #1 top site was....

A porn site!

And no, it was not a gay porn site, either.

So, I suppose, considering that I am "straight" as far as my "private life" goes, that was not really a huge problem with me, if I was actually looking for a porn site involving that comedy duo's works being somehow recreated with and integrated into pornos.......!

Ah, I can see the concern spreading across some of your faces....

Don't worry, I won't be reaching into the realms of TMI...

By the way, TMI  stands for "TOO MUCH INFORMATION"...this little sidebar is for those of you trying to read entirely something else into that abbreviation!

And, btw, what ever you did read into it I can't fathom......NOR do I want to know! 

Actually, as for that #1 ranked site for "Laurel & Hardy", I have no idea what the site had as to content...aside from it being a porn site. I won't explain how I knew that, as I really don't think I need to.

(If I need to explain, well, you are very likely a minor, and a very, very, very sheltered one at that. If you are over 18 and haven't a clue what I am talking about....well, you have issues I simply can not help you with. I am a picker, not a counsellor or shrink, sorry. You must have the wrong blog.)

Besides, I was on the computer at my store at the time, during business hours. I figured it was not exactly something I needed my customers seeing...nor hearing.

I realize some people do get very excited over antiques & collectibles, yes...

But not quite THAT excited.

So, if you are not entirely distracted......

(And I don't want to know why you are distracted if you do happen to actually be entirely distracted....)

BACK to the original subject of this blog...

I had done a search on Google seeking some information on an antique/vintage object.

The item?

Take a guess...and try to think of something as bland and as non-kink, non-fetish, non-sexual, etc, etc, etc as you can.....

Any ideas?

Well, it was simply....

A doorknob.

 A very old doorknob, actually...pre 1870, I'd think. However, I don't know its age for sure, at the moment. You see, I came directly to my blog to write this after seeing the results I got for this simple, banal, 3 word search.

It happens to have some markings on it, and upon close inspection I realized they were not American, nor European, but Asian in origin.  I figured maybe they were possibly Japanese. So, I went with that....and typed in the following as my search parameters::

Japanese Bronze Doorknob

Oh, and I should mention that I tend to set Google to do Image searches when I am doing research involving vintage objects, rather than text ("Web") searches.

So, I learned something new. However, it is something I really did not need to know.

And, it is pretty close to being something I would rather have not known. 

The images did not quite rank up there with the sorts of images you wish you could un-see.....things like a particular scene in John Water's cult film "Pink Flamingos". For those of you who are not familiar with Mr Water's earlier works I will try to be gentle in my description.  This scene; almost seemingly randomly inserted in the film; involved a "performer" doing bizarre things/movements with a muscle that is not one usually even given daylight exposure in public ....or even in most private circumstances; in the average person's presence, anyway. But John Waters is who he is...and cast this, um, "unusually talented" fellow is his film.

The scene is burnt into my mind like a recurring nightmare....I wish I could blot it out....... the horror...oh the horror....

So, the images Google brought up were not that sort of image.

However, I think that if I ever travel to Japan, I will carry a box of latex gloves around with me, just for those times I need to twist a doorknob.

That is it.  Do your own search, ok?

 I am trying my utmost to forget...!

********

An additional word of warning: "bronze door knob" is not a useful set of search terms when looking for antique hardware, either....!!!

A Picker Strikes OIL!

Remember my post about yesteryear's trash being today's treasures?

Well, one of the items you might remember was this little advertising flyer for 3 In One household oil.

 Ask yourself, and be honest now, would you have bothered to hang on to this, considering the horrible condition it is in? 

Frankly, I could have sworn I heard some of my associates' eyes rolling when they saw photos of the "trash" that I had rescued, especially this!

Well, you may be surprised to learn that I turned this heavily damaged "worthless" piece of paper into the grand sum of:

 $51.78

No, not big money, but pretty darn good for this piece of yesteryear trash.

How did I do it?

Well, I saw something more in it than what many folks would see.

Lost history.

Specifically, some early Canadian history of 3 In One Oil. 

You see,  some time ago, the WD-40 company held a contest looking for the earliest 3 In One oil container.

I had one, a very early bottle, but never did get around to submitting photos of it. (This was in the pre-email era, by the way.)

Later I saw photos of the "winner"...looked the same, if not slightly more modern than the one I had.

Oh well....that is the result of procrastination for you.

It actually looked very similar to the bottle pictured on the damaged flyer, actually.

Some companies are working to create or expand their archives; preserve their history. 

So, knowing this, off went an email to the makers of 3 In One oil, the WD-40 company. 

 Long story short, take a look at what I received as a "Thank-You" for taking the time to rescue the piece, and offer it to them, free of charge, for their archives. Yes, this is what I found in a package was delivered to my doorstep today, via courier:

Total value, after taxes are added (and not even including the delivery to my door), the retail value of these items from local stores is:

 $51.78

It may not be a gusher, but I did strike oil!

MORAL: History is worth preserving. No matter how horrible a piece may look in condition, with a little outside the box thinking on your part,  as well as some research, and if presented to the right people/person/company/group/etc, those pieces of trash sometimes can still be true treasures.

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 Small Print Of The Contract

So, why do I think you are not ready to sign my simple contract?

Well, as you can imagine, I go into/have been into TONS of antique shops of "knowledgeable" dealers and have attended/attend multitudes of auctions. Many (heck, MOST) of them were/are held by long time auctioneers, and some of them are 2^nd and 3^rd generation auctioneers.

 Sadly, way too many of them (including the 2^nd and 3^rd generation auctioneers) all too often have items mislabeled, misidentified, etc, and usually those terms and descriptions are what I have always felt are pretty basic terms and definitions.

Think of the things you learned in grade school, the first things you tend to remember learning. Might not be something you think of as a “building block,” but you do learn the definition of “CAT”, and those very important things like crayons, paper, paste, nor boogers are things that are acceptable culinary choices…at least not for public consumption, anyway.

  

 In my opinion, many commonly misused terms are “basics” that any intelligent person who has been in the “old junk business,” even for as little as a year, should get down pat quickly, even after handling only one or 2 pieces related to those terms.

The misuse of one term in particular has become a real pet peeve of mine. Plus, it drives me crazy that people can not figure out for themselves that they are misusing the term.

What is the term?

Fumed Oak.

Now, I admit, I misused it myself for the first number of months I was seriously buying items for resale. I tossed it around a bit, as it just seemed like a cool term! Sounded like I knew what I was talking about.

Little did I know, I was clueless!

However, the thing is, I learned right after I handled my first piece of  "fumed oak" that what I had was not fumed oak, and that what I had was essentially an early 1900s, Wal-Mart-esque piece of furniture. It was a compressed-crap-board entertainment center of the period, so to speak. Well, it was actually a 3 drawer dresser, but you get my point.

 Along with that knowledge I learned what fumed oak really was, and what it looked like.  For the life of me, I wish I could remember who set me right, or how I figured it out, but I can't. Must have bumped my head on too many low hanging pipes and attic rafters over the last 20+ years. 

They say memory is the first thing to go, but that is a good thing...then you can't remember what else has gone.

So, here are 3 important things about anything made of fumed oak:

#1  It is always made of OAK.  

Surprise, surprise, fumed oak is made of, omigawd, wait for it….OAK! Sufferin’ suckotash! Who woulda thunk it?!??

#2  Just because it is old, and it is made of oak, does NOT mean it is "fumed oak."

Less obvious, but stands to reason, no?

#3  Just because it looks like a dark, oak grain does not mean it is "fumed oak."

Ok, now, if you stumbled on number 3 and/or are a little confused, you need to read that closer.

Lemme help you...…I’ll set it up differently this time.

Fumed oak is always oak. Just because the piece has a black, oak-like grain does not mean it IS oak.

Still confused?

Ok, here is the scoop....and this scoop is sugar free.... and booger free, too!

Did you know that back in the early 1900s they made cheap, crappy furniture, too?

And they put a fake, wood grain on things that made them appear to be something they were not?

Kind of like that "oak" laminate flooring made of compressed moon dust or whatever that crap is (could be just that, actually….who knows the source...maybe horses, bulls, whatever). Yes, that “board” with a photograph (of real wood) that is glued on.  

Or think of that inch thick compressed sawdust board that was so popular in the 1960s, 1970s, 80s...oh heck, they still sell TONS of the stuff.  (You can usually date it by how easily it falls apart. If it was made last year, dropping it causes it to crumble into at least 20 pieces. If it only breaks in half, you likely have a 1970s piece! ) 

Yep, they did similar things over a hundred years ago.  

When money is involved, copies are always something that sell well to the masses who have no idea what "quality" looks like.  That is why people will buy some compressed-chemical-and-camel-crap piece of junk for $1500 in a furniture store and then poo-poo the quality, cabinet maker designed and hand built antique furniture in your shop.

Anyway, fumed oak has a dark grain.  We established that. And it really IS oak.

you see, to get a dark grain on oak you need either one of 2 things.

#1) Time. And lots of it. 

#2) Ammonia.

The grain of many woods will darken with time, and exposure to the air.

But, to replicate this darkening of the grain, you can also expose the wood to high levels of ammonia.

This is no longer something that is done:

(a) Safely on a large scale 

(b) Economically on a large scale.

Furniture makers and woodworkers who do single/small numbers of pieces, reproductions, repairs to antique furniture (etc) still will do this sort of thing on a very small scale, but it has essentially been long abandoned by furniture makers for over 80 (or more) years.

 However, during the late 1800s/early 1900s, true craftsmen like Gustav Stickley, and other furniture makers who made quality oak furniture (though of many of lesser quality than Stickley's work) did use this process to emphasize the quality of their pieces, an nod to the true antique oak furniture that was visibly dark, made that way by the passage of time, with its exposure to the air for 200 years or more. 

Stickley likely was the main influence of others when it came to the use of this chemical darkening of oak’s grain, but I will not get into history…this is just a touch on the background of the origin of the term.  Do some research if you want to know more of the history.

Google (or other search engines) will/can help you…but, be sure to read my next blog post before digging too deep, and absorbing too much of what is out there.

Why?

You might just be “learning” from someone’s writings who misuses the term FUMED OAK.

SO, Did you catch that veiled picker tip?

Here it is, spelled out:

Know what you are researching in the first place, so you can discard/ignore the misinformation you come across, instead of unknowingly spreading more misinformation.

Oh, and beware! In the next blog post you will have to take a TEST! Get out that bottle of hard stuff again!

Treasures Hidden For All To See

It never ceases to amaze me that there can be items that are right out in the open for everyone to see, obviously available and they are still sitting right where they have been for 50 years or more.

Now, there can be various reasons why items are visible for all to see, but the owners never sell. Sometimes the owners simply do not care if they ever sell the item. Or, they are simply showing it off, bragging, so to speak.

"I own it and you don't!"

Sometimes there is a disagreement over who actually owns it, a concern than someone else actually owns it. A case in point in one of my favorite areas of interest is advertising items.

Some items that were given to store owners by various companies had right on them "PROPERTY OF SO & SO CO." Sometimes they even had threats of legal action if the item was sold by the store owner and not returned to the company after use.
It is likely for some more paranoid store keepers that this sort of thing drove the thought that the signs and items that companies handed out remained the company's property, in the minds of some storekeepers. Even the very items with the legal warnings didn't pose much of a scare in many storekeepers minds, judging by the number of items with such "PROPERTY OF" warnings on them that I find in old stores, warehouses, etc.

But, some folks tend to be paranoid about that issue, and will refuse to sell things because "they belong to the company who gave them to me".

A case in point is a story I heard from some other Manitoba based pickers. It involves a Chinese Restaurant/store somewhere in Saskatchewan. The owner no longer opened his doors for business, and had lots of Coca-Cola signs, displays etc all over the place, 1950s vintage stuff everywhere. If he did not know you, he would not answer the door. Pickers from all over tried to get him to sell. A $100 bill was even held against the window of the door by one fellow. He go no response.

No one had ANY luck what so ever.

One fellow borrowed a uniform from a friend who worked at a Coca-Cola bottling plant. He also picked up a bunch of brand new Coca-Cola signs, calendars, etc, all the current stuff of the time.

He knocked on the door, he showed him a Coca-Cola employee business card, decked out in a Coca-Cola uniform, and his ploy worked, the owner let him in. He then went about the store and he exchanged all the fellow's old signs, displays, calendars, etc with the new equivalent...and the owner was very, very happy to get all new stuff.

Now, doing this sort of thing I feel is in a pretty dark grey area, if you get my drift. More of a con than anything, really...but, then again, if I play devil's advocate, considering the owner was very happy getting all the newest stuff, then maybe it is ok? Is it? I'm not so sure myself....I wouldn't do it, as I am a pretty straight arrow when it comes to that sort of game....just not a tactic I would use...kinda greasy, you know?

I'd likely have gotten someone who spoke the same language the owner did, to make clear my intentions, and that Coca-Cola did not actually own the stuff, but that he did. Would he have sold the stuff to me? Maybe not...heck, I might not have even gotten in the door.

Sometimes an item holds more value as what it is being used for than what you are offering. Case in point: At a Chinese Restaurant in a little town I was picking in, the owner had an Orange Crush clock up on his wall. A real beauty, too. He had refused to sell it to ANYONE, but had sold LOTS of items from the basement, sheds, backrooms, storefront, etc. BUT,no one could get the clock from him. Price seemed to not matter. His English was not the best, and had an accent that made what English he did know sound like another language. But, eventually I figured out he simply NEEDED it. So, the next time I was there, I brought with me an old office clock the same size as the Orange Crush clock, handed him $80 and the old office clock. The Orange Crush clock came down!

Sometimes items are only hidden in a way that if you know what you are looking at, you can tell there is a potential treasure before your eyes.

I was doing garage sales in Winnipeg, and I walked up a driveway to a sale, in a neighborhood in St James. Very middle class, houses all built in the 1950s/60s. Most dealers preferred older areas, feeling there was more potential for good finds in those areas. But, I had some good finds in St James, so I continued to do sales there as my first rounds Saturday morning.

It was late morning, about 10 or 11-ish, and I was strolling, not too concerned about being in a rush. At that time of the morning I moved at a little slower pace than the hectic 7AM - 9:30AM period. I looked around tables in the garage, saw a few things, and snagged a couple Coca-Cola items, one being a straw box holder and a bottle holder for a shopping cart. Nothing that exciting, maybe $25 items at the time. I looked up to the back of the garage, and to my surprise, was a 1950s, 4 foot high, Coca-Cola 6-pack bottle sign nailed to the back wall..in easily 9 out of 10 condition..and there was a bottom of another sticking out from beneath it.

My heart quickened...I love advertising, and loved Coca-Cola stuff even more...not to mention it tends to bring bigger $.

The owner was busy talking with some other garage salers. I patiently waited, and while I was waiting I started gazing around the garage.

Hmmm...the walls were tin....and they all seemed to be made of sheets of 3' x 4' sheets..with rounded corners....and red on the edges of the sheets....it quickly dawned on me....

THE WHOLE GARAGE WAS WALLED WITH COCA-COLA SIGNS NAILED FACE DOWN.

I finally got to talk to the owner, and made them a fair offer on the 2 visible signs, and made arrangements to come back after the sale was over to discuss the purchase of the other signs that lined the entire garage. I also immediately got to work removing the two visible signs, to remove the only obvious indications of the treasures that were essentially right there for all to see, yet invisible.

I spent the rest of the day elated, and pondering where I was going to get the cash to buy what was roughly a hundred signs or so...especially when they might be ones worth $300+, so I'd have to pay in the $100 range, each, to be fair. I'd have to take them all down, and deal with slowly selling them, and try not to flood the market. Plus, being upside down, I did not know what shape they were in, but I had my fingers crossed that they were in similar conditions as the two narrow ones I purchased.

With all this going around in my head, still, I went back to the house in the early evening.

Upon closer inspection of the signs on the walls, and ones that reached beyond the ceiling into the attic space, I realized that all but one had a little issue....

The woman's husband had cut 6" of the bottoms of ALL but one of the signs before he nailed them up as the interior wall!

*POOF* - Value GONE.

Any sign with a chunk missing was a tough sell at the time..and, really still is.

I bought the one good sign, though it was maybe an 8 out of 10, condition wise. As it turned out, the woman's husband had worked for the local Coca-Cola bottling plant, and was in charge of hauling all the old advertising and such to the local landfill. So, he had access to tons of sheets of tin...former signs, many new/old stock, and at the time he was working there in the 1950s/60s, only a few years obsolete, and thus, just good usable tin.

I bought other items from the lady, and listened to how they used the signs.....4' x 8' porcelain signs as walls for pig stalls, buried in the driveway at their cottage to create a base for the gravel on top of the soft, wet ground, old NOS Coke trays used to death at family bar-b-q,s, as paint trays, etc, etc... What would now be $1000s of dollars worth of Coca-Cola items, destroyed.

All horror stories to me.

In conversation, it came up that their son lived very near by, and he, too, had used these same 3' x 4' Coca-Cola signs to line HIS garage!

SCORE!

That is, IF he didn't cut 6 inches off each one like his father had....

So, arrangements were made to go to her son's place.

When I got there, I realized he was the sort of fellow who did lots of mechanical work in his garage. His kids, too, had done and were doing lots of welding, body work, etc, there, as they were growing up.

Things like throwing hammers, screwdrivers, etc, against the wall, tearing holes in the tin, rough housing, causing bodies falling against the thin tin walls, etc, etc, etc.

I could tell immediately that this 40+ years of abuse had seriously damaged about 50% of the signs, which, again, were nailed face down, covering all the walls.

Definitely 50% were going to be what I'd consider too rough to get any decent money for. Might be stuff you sell for $20 to someone to nail on their garage wall or rec room. No collector would shell out serious money to buy one.

He had also insulated his garage. He did it properly, first lining it with plastic, then nailing the signs over top of the plastic.

Every sign I pulled back to examine had a surface that resembled a extreme case of acne, maybe even worse. Bubbles of rust, flaking paint, and water were scattered across them all.

There is a problem with a heated building that occurs when you combine rain, humidity & snow typical of Canadian Prairie seasons. You see, with the condensation of the opening and closing of a garage door, letting in billows of cold air, condensation occurs, and moisture can become trapped between certain surfaces at various times...surfaces such as plastic and tin...

They were all a total loss. Not worth tearing a garage apart, for certain.

*sigh* So close to a huge treasure trove, yet so far.

Oddly enough, I am sure these signs showed up on the market 10 years later...from a dump picker. I think the property changed hands, and it seems someone either gutted or tore down the garage, and they tossed out all the signs. Being signs that are now worth easily $600+ in mint condition, what had been essentially mint, though now somewhat creased signs, were selling for $75 - $250, despite their missing the bottom 6"! I still would have a problem asking more than $125 for one missing that chunk, but, hey, more power to those who managed to sell them.

I have bought quite a few hidden-in-plain-view things, especially signs. Porcelain (enameled) signs, as an example, can have been painted over, and the paint easily removed with paint stripper. (Before you attempt this, make sure you KNOW it is a porcelain sign, or you will end up with a bare piece of metal). I have bought a number of signs in this state. Problem is, unless you are familiar with edge hole patterns, shapes, or can see different levels of lettering/designs typical of the enameling process underneath the paint, you will have no idea what sign it is. Compound that with the fact that you really have NO idea what condition it is in. Paint can fill in scratches, chips, fading, etc. Plus, some companies, after taking over a competitor, painted the old firm's signs over with their advertising, to conserve money, or until they could be replaced. Prior to painting they sandblasted the porcelain. Shell did this to North Star signs when they took over North Star Oil in Canada.

So, you are "buying blind." I have done well buying blind, and I have overpaid when buying blind. I bought a 1930s Coca-Cola kickplate (a sign used at the bottom of a door) that was beautiful after I removed the paint. Same goes with a 1950s Coca-Cola Palm Press (a sign used at the height where you would push a door, a foot above the middle, on the side.) Bought blind, paid $40, and when stripped it revealed a $400 near mint condition sign.

On the other side of the coin are purchases such as a Pepsi kickplate I bought right off a Chinese Restaurant's door...and, funny enough, a restaurant where a local nostalgia collector's club met weekly, counting among its members several serious advertising sign buyers.

It was -25 Celsius (-13F), with a windchill, mid-winter. I paid $40 for the sign, blind, as it had been painted over several times. Then when I went to take it off, I realized there was screws across the MIDDLE of the sign. I struggled with the NINE screws, digging the paint out of the slots of each one, and eventually resorting to drilling out the heads of a couple, and starting and stopping my progress as customers came and went.

My fingers were a touch numb after that.

And, when it was stripped, I found it was scratched all to heck.

Win some loose some! I did also end up buying a few other signs from the restaurant's basement, and off an old door in the back. So, it worked out ok in the end.

So, don't discount that ugly painted vase, done in that horrible speckled paint. Take a look at it with a knowledgeable eye. Is it a shape that Weller used? Or maybe Roycroft? Tiffany?

That chunk of metal on the wall may not be some piece of scrap tin, it may be a 1920s Coke sign & that scrap of cardboard nailed over a hole is actually a rare Kodak camera sign. The sheets of cardboard lining that backroom shelf in some store, they may be old signs, and well preserved.

Look close, is that amateur acrylic painting done over an old master's oil painting?

Who knows what you will find, you just need to recognize the treasures hidden right before your eyes.