American pickers

We finially got a few shots of our confusion to show some of the variety of our items. We have been undergoing a transformation, and this just a sample of part of our shop. The following are some of our ideas concerning pickers and buying.

We have been on a buying rampage for months. There for awhile we even purchased some items from pickers, however we discovered that we do so much better buying on our own. Pickers are great if you are strapped for time, or you don't know what you are looking for. Sometimes you even do better buying from the people who the pickers sell to.

We aspire to be one of the very best shops. Having fine and unusual items has become our trade mark. When we go buying we have found that following our hunches is sometimes the best way to go. Lewis has a real nose for Antiques. He stopped at this one place that turned out to be a salvage yard selling old bathroom tiles. He looked around almost in despair, when he noticed a door leading to a back room. Inside the room were several lamps none had shades and they were very much in need of dusting. Among these lamps he came across some real jewels that he never imagined would be there. We always swear by our intuition. Occasionally we will head in one direction and on a whim we will go in another direction only to find that very special piece.

This reminds me of the time that we were headed out toward Richmond and decided at the last moment to turn around and go the opposite direction. We went into a thrift shop where we had not found much ever before, but we have learned not to discount thrift stores even in shoddy areas. This time we were amazed to find three stainless steel pieces done in the 1980's by a contract furniture company Brueton. One of the pieces new ran $35,000 to $40,000 and was only available to the trade.

That was the price of only one of the three pieces. We prefer not to buy from people off the street but from dealers who have already set their prices. This might sound a little crazy, but we let other dealers do the picking for us. We gleam from their mistakes, and they are happy with their profit. In this bad economy we feel as though we are helping out. When Lewis went on one of his buying trips to the western part of Virginia, some of the shops said it the first good sale that they had in a long time.

In fact it was the poor economy that actually prompted us to get a business loan last year and to expand our business. This allowed us to become a member of 1stdibs and in turn 1stdibs allows us to have the quality of a New York City or Los Angles style shop in a rural town. We have 8,400 square feet of space in which to house all our great finds.