Just to be right up-front, I am not a professional collector nor am I an expert on anything specific; just a guy interested in history who collects stuff. I tend to gravitate toward vintage American guitars and tube amps, arrowheads and historical artifacts, but if I see something within my budget that’s interesting or quirky, I’ll buy it. Sometimes I’ll buy to re-sell and sometimes to keep. I recently bought a three-piece map at a swap meet dated 1877. They’re entitled A Three Piece Map of the Property Owned by The Trinity Church, In Manhattan. Anyway, I’m no expert but I thought it was an interesting find. It turns out they’re likely worth much more than I paid for them.
Collecting can be exciting, profitable and addictive, with millions of people collecting everything from art to stamps to sneakers to vintage automobiles to…you name it. Collections come in many contexts, with some publicly accessible and some hidden away by private collectors. That’s why it’s important at the outset to mention the valuable public service offered by collection based museums and museum professionals. These people are collectors also, just at another echelon and for another purpose. Some top museums that are collection based consider themselves the pre-eminent repositories for the finest art, specimens, artifacts, relics, and objects while others may specialize in unusual or niche subjects (ex: The British Lawnmower Museum). There are automobile museums, national museums, nautical and maritime museums, rail and train museums, state and local history museums, art museums, natural history museums, experiential museums, war museums, open-air museums and many more. For amateur or part-time collectors, collection based museums and their curators are great sources that can inform us and help to set criteria for quality, restoration, preservation, and presentation. In addition, some museums are great at storytelling.
On the other hand, there are private collectors who collect just for fun while others collect as a livelihood. Their collections range from the whimsical to very serious historical collections, from utilitarian items or items that have emotional significance, to brands (ex: Coca-Cola®, Mattel®, Fiesta Ware®, Colt® or Gibson®) to sub-brands (ex: Ford® Mustang®) and “one-off” and unique collections. Collecting can be a lifelong passion, a hobby done just for fun, or a collection might serve as the “equity” on which a dealer’s business is based. It might even be the result of a fortuitous gift or even an inheritance. At Treasurebee, we love people who shop for and collect the “eclectic” because, without these people, we’d all be shopping for the same stuff from the same boring corporate chain stores.
If you are starting or adding to a collection, here are a few general places that you might find to be fun and productive:
Vintage stores and vintage sellers – They generally specialize in older and pre-owned items. Many of them focus on a specialty like vintage woman’s fashion, and some have broad inventory selections. These are great sources to find “one-off” items that might not be consistent with the seller’s regular inventory.
Pawn shops, resale, thrift and consignment shops – Collectors scour the earth for their subject of acquisition. The more bizarre the location is, the better. Pawnshops are a constant source of discovery by collectors as many items pawned are never picked up by the owner, allowing the pawn shop to make them available for sale. Turnover rates on collectables are high so be sure to be aggressive in your search.
Retail liquidation – These signs are becoming more frequent on city streets across the country. Buyers love liquidations. I once walked through a hobby shop in Los Angeles that was closing imminently. The inventory was so large and being sold for so little…I was vibrating with adrenaline as I walked through. I walked out with several boxes of trains and resold them for a nice profit, within a few days.
Swap meets and flea markets – There are some areas that are so rural or spread out that garage sales and moving sales are intermittent because of low drive-by traffic (resulting in very few sales to be made by a homeowner). These areas generally have local swap meet and flea market venues where sellers aggregate to draw customers at one location. These sales take place in parking lots, public fairgrounds, stadiums, property owned by religious organizations and sometimes on private lands. They are events that attract individual collectors, families, retailers, resellers, tourists, local sellers, designers, part time sellers, dealers, sellers of unique and handmade goods and morning walkers. In many places they are great sources of supplemental income for local communities. More importantly, I once found a 60’s Gibson® Melody Maker® Guitar with the original case for $80, on a pile of Vintage jeans at a swap meet booth. Treasurebee makes it possible for a variety of swap meet and flea market sellers to be prominently visible to buyers outside their local neighborhoods.
Word of mouth – Most collectors will talk to anyone including colleagues, neighbors or a passenger in the seat next to them on the plane, if they think that person has something that will make a good addition to their collection. Treasurebee has provided independent sellers, small business owners, collectors and entrepreneurs a platform to represent themselves, to showcase, discuss, trade, buy and sell. Treasurebee provides you as the buyer, the ability to talk to sellers face to face, to see if they have items or inventory they might not have listed online.
Cleanout “specialists” – There are individuals and companies that provide “broom clean” services for homeowners, real estate agents, and others. These tenacious professionals will collect the entire contents of a home, and generally dispose of the contents in a variety of ways. Of course, many things will be trash and some will be donated, but there are always treasures to be found. With Treasurebee’s Cleanout Specialist category, we envision cleanout specialists listing the general contents of the cleanout and the time they’ll be available on site, in the hope that dealers and others may make offers that may be beneficial for both.
Estate Sellers and Estate sales – Some collectors will line up (even on a wet, dark, cold morning) to rummage through a house that has been vacated, where the owners or administrators are selling everything. Estate sales can be family run, or sometimes an estate sale company will manage the sale. Estate sales are productive sources for art, design elements, antiques, historical objects, items for resale, and even real treasure! Sellers on Treasurebee (at your convenience) will be able to provide a “virtual walk-through” preview for potential buyers, through Treasurebee’s video call feature. These “virtual walk throughs” allow estate sellers to preview items to potential buyers without footprints on the carpet!
Charity stores and thrift stores – Because they generally receive bulk inventories with high inventory turnover rates at their retail locations, they cannot always catalog everything they get. Collectors, dealers, and resellers on Treasurebee will benefit by having the ability to contact these thrift stores to ask about newly acquired inventory. For example, an art collector can contact a variety of thrift or charity stores to check in and view any new paintings or sculptures, or items that may have not have been posted online for sale.
Garage sales – Many collectors and dealers will drive maniacally on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday morning to visit garage sales. The typical seller wants to rid him or herself of the inventory and has only a limited time to do so. Treasurebee provides garage sale and other one-time-sellers with a unique way to market themselves and be prominently visible, for local customers and customers outside their local neighborhood.
In addition to the many books and reference materials on specific things people collect, there are also organizations and forums online to meet other collectors and enthusiasts. Many of these are content based and not necessarily shopping platforms. Some include rudimentary classified sections which may be helpful in locating unique items.
I’ll end with a short and very incomplete list of things that people collect here in the states:
Antiques of all kinds, African art, Asian art, Aboriginal art, artifacts, American Girl® dolls, American Southwest pottery, arrowheads, art deco anything, American Flyers®, architectural ornaments, advertising signs, apothecary jars, autographs, Bakelite jewelry, Barbie® Dolls, bamboo fly rods, antique barware, buttons, baskets, bicycles, blue glass, Boy Scout ephemera, Buddy L® Toys, Butterflies and insects, bells, black and white vintage photos, candle holders, cameras, cast iron banks, ceramics, collegiate ephemera, coins, cowboy related, DC® comics, Marvel® Comics, cone top beer cans, ceramics, Colt® accessories, carpets, cast iron banks, Civil War collectables, dirty pictures, Hubley® cap guns, Jewelry, Leica® cameras, ceramics, coins, cast iron door knockers, Disney® toys, Elvis pics, Ford® items, European art, Fender® guitars, Fiestaware®, fire extinguishers, figurines, farm implements, fireplace tools, fire-backs, Mont Blanc fountain pens, GI Joe® toys, Gibson® Lap Steel guitars, Garfield® stuff, green glass, German porcelain, glass vacuum tubes, gems, Georgian furniture, glassware, Greek art, handbags, Hudson River paintings, Harley® memorabilia, Hollywood memorabilia, Hot Wheels®, handbags, Inuit carvings, jewelry, Jadeite, Kenner® toys, kitchen gadgets, Gerber® knives, lamps, Lionel® Trains, LP’s, local history related items, Lalique perfume bottles, lunch boxes, Martin® guitars, Majolica, movie posters, maps, medical implements, mid-century anything, owner’s manuals, Olympic pins, Casa Grande pottery, Pleneir paintings, paramilitary clothing, primitive objects, old photos, quirky potato chips that look like celebrities, religious ephemera, racing ephemera, rocks, Roman glass, railroad ephemera, Russian furniture, National sport team collectables (Yankees®, Mets®, Dodgers®, Raiders® etc), National® guitars, stamps, seashells, Slingerland® drum kits, salt and pepper shakers, sneakers, Stickley furniture, Swarovski® crystal, straight razors, surfboards, swords, stilettos, tools, Tyco® race cars, Time® magazines, tribal art, Theremins, Unicorns, Ukuleles’, Victrola® record players, Valco® tube amps, vibraphones, vintage cocktail dresses, watches, waffle makers, whiskey jugs, wine, world expo ephemera, weapons, wild west stuff, Wham-O® Frisbees®, Weebles®, xylophones, Zeppelin albums…and more! Much more.
Treasurebee welcomes collectors, buyers, and sellers of all kinds. We hope your membership results in more finds, more fun, more expertise, more connections, more pieces for your collection, more revenue and more value than your typical source or marketplace.