General Store Pick - July 2017

Been awhile since I was out on what I consider a true "pick"....for reasons outlined in my previous post.

So, when I got a call to look at some items from a location I was familiar with, I decided it was time to carefully get back in the saddle again.

The owners are wonderful folks, a young family. They have the same mindset for preservation of Manitoba's history as I do, which was great to encounter. 

They'd love to preserve the building, but financially they simply can't put the kind of money into it that it needs to be properly preserved.

Here is the grand old lady:

And in true picker fashion, I located a piece the owners didn't

 realize they owned!

 Here are some more "action shots", along with pics of some of the other items I purchased:

Pick safe folks!

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!

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.