Thoughts Along the Road – Antiquing in the Mid-West

Hubby and I decided to take another ‘road trip’ and try to find more antiques and collectibles. Some are to sell, others to add to our home’s décor. We’ve had luck in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota before and drove up to the border at Hudson, Wisconsin.

Abigail Page Antiques, Hudson WI

Our first stop was at Abigail Page Antiques, a first time visit. It was a nice clean place, lots of variety and the people at the counter were very friendly! I overheard a shopper asking “what does it take to become a dealer? I would be interested in becoming one since I have two sons with absolutely NO interest in my old stuff.” The gentleman at the counter laughed and responded that this seems to be the way almost everyone gets into it. They collect for years, then either change their interests or start to get on in years and realize the kids don’t care about the items. While he went over the costs involved in renting a booth, I thought back to how we became dealers.

I recalled our first ‘for profit’ endeavor. While at a yard sale, hubby came across an 8 legged, side-table with a small taped price tag. It was a lowly amount and he wanted to be sure that it was not left over from a knick-knack that had been moved off of the table. But the lady confirmed the price and said “if anyone wants that rickety old thing, they can have it for that price – 10 cents.” We paid, put it in the trunk and sped off. (You can tell it’s an old story – we haven’t had a car with a trunk for over 12 years, we are always buying vans.)

The very next day we checked our basement for refinishing materials, for it was admittedly in poor condition. The wood was pretty bare, not much finish remained, so it was not a difficult project, just time-consuming. It took a few days due to drying times, adding several coats of varnish, but it turned out to be beautiful. As luck would have it, our neighbor was having a yard sale the next weekend so we dragged some kids’ clothing, old glassware, and the table to her house. We put a ‘pie in the sky’ price tag on it of $75. The 2^nd lady that came to the house just loved it, and offered $65 – SOLD! Putting things in perspective, our rent was $70 at the time and we were pretty excited to realize that type of profit.

Another time we found a Victrola cabinet. It had no record player, but the wood was in nice shape. Hubby negotiated and got it for only $5. He then added a few shelves and I did some touch-up. It turned out to be a wonderful liquor cabinet, with a lot of height for the bottles and spots for glasses too. We talked my mother-in-law into having a sale that fall and sold it for $80. Another month’s rent made.

You get the picture, we continued to shop, refurbish and sell. We started sharing space at a local flea market and eventually rented a booth at an antique mall. The rest, as they say, is history.

Well, back to the antique mall. We found quite a few nice items at Abigail Page’s. They even kept it open an extra 15 minutes for us. But it had been a long day, so we drove 5 miles down the road and got a motel. I always check the receipts before we get too far and could not find one in the bags, and was also unable to find a pair of cufflinks I’d purchased. So I called the store, expecting an answering machine, but got the lady from the counter. She checked around and found both items and then volunteered to drive them to our motel. How is that for service? Pretty good, I’d say.

More on our road trip in my next blog. We’re heading up to Stillwater, Minnesota. I would love to hear how others started their love of antiquing!