Old Thing Love

My husband was sick. Cancer. Advanced. Terminal. It was time to put the bed downstairs. But before I could bring the bed down, I had to take the table up. I enlisted the help of my two grown children. My son lives just 10 minutes away and had been with me every step of his…

If I have one pet peeve as a reseller of old things, it’s that some people expect a 100-year-old item to be in perfect condition. As an e-commerce reseller, it’s up to me to be as transparent as possible about the condition of the items I’m selling— cracks, chips and all. I take lots of…

It was tiny, six-sided and held an itty-bitty mirror and a round place for a wee powder puff. I was eight years old. I didn’t know that the top was inlaid woods. I just knew it was pretty and tiny and I loved it. It was a summer day when I was eight and my…

I don’t think we consciously start collecting certain things. We don’t wake up one morning and say, “Today I’m going to start collecting cows.” It starts more organically than that. We see something that triggers an emotion and since we want to be reminded of that emotion, we buy that thing and set it on…

My sister-in-law used to collect hippos. Lots of little hippos. I never knew why, but it sure made gift-giving easier. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t collect them anymore. My mother went through collecting stages throughout my growing up. There was the colonial phase. Maybe it was the upcoming bicentennial that spurred it on but our…

My sister has a thing about going into “dead people’s houses.” That’s what she calls estate sales. But the truth is, the person for whom the estate sale company is selling their goods isn’t always dead. In the world of reselling we know that estate sales are due to one of the three D’s—death, divorce,…

The man I got these old fishing lures from told me stories of how he got them from his Grandpaw. I deal in old things. Mostly home decor. But, I cannot resist old fishing lures. When I see the mist in this old guy’s eyes as he talks about fishing with his grandfather, I feel…

Deep in the dark and musty basement there’s a sagging sofa. Stacked on it are old quilts. Ah, just what I was hoping to find. I sell lots of vintage quilts, blankets, coverlets, and bedspreads. They are my hero products and I never miss the chance to pick them up at estate sales. I pull…