Hi old friends.

[Paper Roses]

I have not posted on DU since the last election. Could not stand the in-fighting.

Here we are again and I hope the discourse is more civil.
That aside:

I miss posting, especially to Vinca and Brasswire.
As a long retired dealer, I miss the good old days. The current market situation has hit me hard, as well as others.
For years I collected things that I thought had merit. It is now time for this old timer to downsize and perhaps move from my 200 year old house.

I have posted things on local Facebook pages with little results. Perhaps if I had a house full of Ikea, I might have some interest.(snark)

I never collected any one thing. I just bought items that were of interest to me. Now I have a 9 room house fill of goodies for which there seems to me no market. Not only my great (centennial and period) mahogany furniture but also the accessories that are in keeping with my furniture. Worst example I can find: Period Brass candlesticks. Yikes, Push-ups in my neck of the woods are priced far below what I paid as a dealer years ago.
I guess I'll have to have a big yard sale...(never) Can't figure what to do. There are no consignment dealers in my area. If there were, they are probably facing the same problems.
I have to move stuff along, as all of you do. Who ever thought the market would be as it is.
I hope you all are having a good selling season. This old timer is looking at the stuff I have set aside to sell and wish I never had to see what is happening now. Best to all,
PR

PS, the only things that sells quickly in my neck of the woods are Cast Iron Skillets. Geeze, I have extra ones..no Griswold but still great pans. Maybe I'll try them and see what happens.

[Vinca]

1. Nice to see you posting again! Sorry I haven't got any solutions to your problem of getting rid of

stuff. It's all a mystery to me at this point. I put a fine antique in the shop to sell and it grows roots. I put a Simpson figurine or a Grateful Dead book in my collectibles booth and it flies off the shelf. It's hard to stay on top of what's hot and what's not. And . . . hey . . . you know we don't fight and bicker in this forum. See you on the others for that. LOL.

[Boxerfan]

2. Anything large & heavy is out.

I love the old classic solid wood stuff. Grew up with some very nice pieces but that was long ago.

Look at Craigslist & you'll see solid wood furniture , Pianos , Display cabinets etc...For free. Mostly no takers.

I have one old family piece left-thought it would be seriously valuable. It's a farm table with many loving repairs and bowed with age. All handmade fittings and early recycled materials. The legs are ship balusters from abandoned craft in the gold rush days. My Dad bought it from the original family in Portola Valley ca.

My brother had a haunting experience on the table-on the 1st night of moving into Dr. Timothy Leary's old house in Los Altos Hills he recounts spinning around the room while trying to sleep on it.

I thought if someone wanted to give me 6 figures for it I'd let it go. That will never happen nowadays. It's gonna be all I can do to keep my kids from chucking it when I pass.

Enjoy your treasures. That's what they are worth nowadays.

[safeinOhio]

3. The market has really changed in the last 20 years.

I had a shop in the 90s and you can't give away the stuff I sold back then. I do well in a mall now buying and selling mens items(man cave), ugly strange stuff and primitives. 80% of my sales are to dealer as I can tell because there are no sales tax collected. I have some friends that have been able to sell glass and furniture on local on-line auctions. Might look into that.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Good to hear from you again.

Us"old timers" are facing a common generational problem. The younger folks are not interested in the "old" furniture, pictures, lamps, etc.
They are interested in the "vintage" ( think "real&quot pre-1990 stuff like those skillets, kitchen tools, linens, etc.
All that stuff we have had since we set up house 50 years ago.
Hell, I am interested in it when I have to replace stuff, and vintage sales on etsy/ebay are, as you know, doing well.

Like you, I have the problem of winnowing out the furniture and other heavy stuff. even the skillets...costs a fortune to sell/ship anything.
Worse yet, we live 2 hours from any city...large meaning 250,000 pop. of Mobile/Montgomery here in
Alabama. All of our offspring live in other states.
Everyone in our small area has the same issue; houses filled with antique/vintage stuff.
No auctions, and now no antique shops since the only place closed a few years ago.

Yard sales are filed with used clothes, cheap picture frames, plastic this and that. Same at the Goodwill, 'cause people around here are pretty thrifty already.

I am stymied.

[Chasdev]

5. Don't sell the cast iron cookware cheap.

My most recent hobby is cooking (outdoors on charcoal and smoking meat for 24 hours) and the guys on the meat smoking forums downright worship cast iron cookers of all varieties.

[Skittles]

6. HOWDY Paper Roses