Antique Markets

While cities across Canada are hosts to a large number of comics, toys and other collectibles/merchandise shows, in-between, scattered throughout the rural landscape, are antiques markets or smaller antique stores. Often situated on the outskirts of small towns, retrofitted barns and refurbished buildings are home to a slew of unwanted items that once belonged to someone, who most likely is no longer around. In fact, one store east of Toronto promotes their goods as “dead people’s stuff”, which to me has an unsettling tone about it.

If you consider yourself as having taste, you can mix and match old furniture and create atmosphere in your home. Older hand crafted furniture typically has superior assembly, uses quality solid wood material and is unique in its design… all of which Ikea does not offer.

My previous employers would often go antique shopping during weekends. As designers, they had an appreciation for history, culture and craftsmanship. They had an eye for detail and furnished their home with handcrafted, hard wood tables, chairs and cabinets. Their home would often be written up in architectural and decor magazines, and their furniture was once collectively appraised in the tens of thousands of dollars. Not a bad result for weekend outings.

Unless this used wedding dress has some unique quality about it that gives it significance, I have to assume that potential buyers for such an item is limited.
Creepy dolls are a common item at the antique market. How would you like to have one these come alive in the middle of the night and chase you around the house with a kitchen knife…?

But in all honesty, if the saying “one mans garbage is another mans treasure” ever rang true, it would have to be the antique market. First of all, most items are not actually antiques, but rather older belongings that once held some value to someone. If you have knowledge in a particular area of interest, you can definitely find the odd treasure here and there, but generally speaking, I found most things to be of the junk category. All very interesting to look at, but junk nonetheless. I can’t speak to everything of course, but definitely in my own area of interests; old cameras, original art… and of course comics. However, let me also add that nothing can or should out trump what you like, but the challenge, of course, becomes finding something you like at a reasonable price, which leads me to my second point; anything of universal value has already been identified and stickered at above market price.

There’s nothing old or unique about these toys, but it would appear that someone was hoping they would appreciate. A collection of multiples items, mint, in their original packaging suggests a speculative attempt or unsold inventory from a store.
Toys and action figures are also common at the antique market. I know people who have found the odd treasure, but for the most part, it’s difficult find something that offers good value.
The video game market is huge, but it’s too much of a headache for me to try and keep track of compatibility, operation and function. Clearly, I’m not the audience for these used consoles.

If you walk into a proprietary store, you may be able to negotiate a better price, but the larger antique markets are sectioned off into 10 x 10 or smaller booths, which are rented to vendors at about $2.50 to $2.75 per square foot (at least at the places I visited), with the average monthly rent coming in about $275, plus tax. Additionally, they will process any sales transactions for you, so once you’re set up, it’s essentially a hands free operation. However, in addition to the rent, they take a 15% commission for each sale and any credit card fee comes out of your pot. They also remit tax so you’ll need a business number, which isn’t hard to get. Other expenses may include insurance, advertising and supplies.

I have a friend that collects old board games. I like old print so I can definitely see the appeal, and $15 seems pretty reasonable to me for a product from 1963, assuming it’s complete. But board games take up a lot of space and so my friend just keeps them stored in his closet.
Charlie’s Angels was huge back in the day, and this board game is a perfect example of “interesting to look at” but it’s not something that I would want to own.

If you talk to a vendor, typically, they’ll tell you how great they’re doing but unless they’re able to source a popular item that is also unique… it’s hard to imagine that they can consistently maintain “great” sales continually. I took a deeper look at this and found that between the rent and commission, many vendors often lose money but continue to maintain a booth for various reasons, including the simple enjoyment of hunting and flipping goods. If any of this sounds familiar, it should because it greatly resembles the comic book show circuit.

Piles and piles of magazines can appear tempting for someone with a prospecting spirit but unless you’re one of those guys who live in their parents basement with very little to do but create organizational systems for all your belongings…, digging through garbage in hopes of finding an Action #1 does not appeal to me.
I’m sure that even a moderate attempt to organize all this print material could greatly enhance their sales potential, but to me, at $2.50 per sq/ft, this pile of clutter appears to be a willing acceptance of a financial loss for this particular vendor.

You’ll find all sorts of things at these antique markets. The mix is so varied and so interesting, even my kids enjoy going to them. There’s not much that I actually want, but like a museum of someone’s life, rifling through forgotten stuff does have an appeal.

Fenwick Lansdowne is a Canadian naturalist who past away about 10 years ago, well known for his almost technical or document style rendition of birds. It was interesting to see that his passing has had no effect on his “prints” in the secondary market.
Ontario has the greatest natural lake system in the world and is a hugely popular destination for folks who are wanting to own a cottage. Accordingly, images of rural settings and wildlife paintings abound, such as the above “print” by Humber College graduate, Michael Dumas.

One particular area that I want to touch on is the wildlife limited print market, which was huge during the 80’s, only to fizzle out during the 90’s. Almost single handedly spearheaded by premiere wildlife artist Robert Bateman (who I am a huge fan of, by the way, for various reasons), who I suspect, made millions off this trend. The problem was that many of his paintings were reproduced in batches of 500, 5,000 and even 10,000+, not including so called “artist proofs”, which could add another 500 to 1,000 to those production numbers. All hand signed and hand numbered as being “limited”. As a designer, I would work on brochures and other print collateral for corporations with much lower print runs, so there’s nothing “limited” about a number like 10,000. Each framed print would sell for almost $1,000 or more and was marketed as an investment. I don’t mean to “pooh pooh” all over this particular market. After all, it’s no different than any other commercial venture. However, the part that I take exception to is passing these reproductions off as “limited fine art prints” and leveraging the artist’s name as investments. By definition, reproductions are not “fine art”, nor are they “prints” in the artistic sense. The same commercial production process is used on any other print material, such as brochures and flyers, albeit with much higher standards. At best these prints are high quality posters. And there is no substantive reason for calling them investments beyond the self imposed “limited” aspect. Today, many of these “prints” are scattered throughout antique stores, dull and faded from being hung next to a window, with an asking price much, much lower than the original purchase price. Still, they were enjoyed and used so there is value in this… but probably not at the initial purchase price. In the end, I feel the “limited print” market hurts Bateman’s legacy, putting him on par with the likes of Trisha Romance or the novelty painter Beverly Doolittle, who are commercially successful in their own right, but lack cred from the artistic community.

My other love is old mechanical cameras, but the digital age hasn’t been kind to the photography market. As well, people who remember and appreciate these old examples of fine craftsmanship are dissipating. Certain key makes and models hold their value but most cameras are too common or too cheaply made to be worth anything. Plastic parts become brittle, glue drys causing the finishing to peel and the tension in springs loosen, making the functionality difficult to maintain. Most cameras have become nostalgic paper weights.
Vivitar is well know for their flashes but the only reason anyone would buy their camera is because it’s cheap. This particular model looks and feels like an auto focus, and on the secondary market, you couldn’t give these away, but I guess the vendor thinks it’s worth trying to collect $59 at the antique market.

I am of course making the connection with “limited” productions in the collector market, including variant covers and signed/numbered prints at conventions. I’m not trying to diminish the joy of collecting “limited” items, and I do believe that stuff like variants covers should be priced at a premium just for being a separate print run, which has an added production cost attached to it. However, let us not forget why variant covers exist and what purpose they serve. At the end of the day, like anything worth collecting, it comes down to what the market will bear, but in some cases, like in the case of wildlife prints, the market simply does not know any better.

Every used goods market has one or two comic book vendor(s). Even at smaller antique stores, there are plenty of comics represented. Whether you’d want them or not, however, is a different story.
I’m not sure why these particular books are locked up. I would think they would sell better as “impulse” purchases, which can’t happen if customers can’t rummage through them.

As a collector, I would often hope to find hidden gems within piles of comics, under layers of dust. So if you’re wondering if it’s worth driving out to these markets in search of comics… the answer is a resounding NO. It is fun to leave the city and browse around at these venues, so it may be worth the drive for other reasons… but just not for comics. If you’ve ever wonder where all the those 90’s comics that nobody wants end up, well wonder no more. Somehow, they seem to have made their way to these antique markets and I highly doubt they’re able to cover the real estate they occupy.

Speaking of impulse purchases, I found these while digging around and decided to pick them up. X-Factor #5 was $20, which is about the current going rate for a raw, but this particular copy had a double cover, indicated as a “production error”. Eternals #1 was $4, but in nice shape. I plan to slip these into glossy mylar bags and flip them to help cover the cost of fuel it took to drive out there.
Speaking of Robert Bateman, I picked up this batch smaller prints for $8 each. The pictures are most likely pages from a calendar but I was more interested in the double wood frames. My plan is to repaint them, matte black, gallery style and replace the images with art by my 3 girls. It’s amazing to see kids eyes light up when you appreciate their work by having them framed. A bit of encouragement goes a long way to help motivate them.
This engraving of a soldier caught my attention. $350 is a fair price for an original print, but slightly more than what I’m willing to pay. Perhaps if I had regular income I would have pulled the trigger. A beautiful rendering, none the less… Notice how the horse is slightly smaller in scale next to the soldier.

Antique markets do have their place and as an environmentally conscientious person, I support and encourage the reuse of products and materials. I also enjoy visiting these small town stores for their charm, nostalgia and sentimentality, but the primary joy is derived from being a destination and less so as a source for collecting. If you do find yourself in a small town or at the outskirts of your city, do have a visit, and have fun sharing the experience with your family or friends. Chances are you won’t find any treasure, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised in other ways.

Charlie Kim
Charlie Kim

Charlie Kim is a designer who is currently transitioning into teaching. While working for various companies, he helped develop many international brands such as the Hong Kong Airport identity, Lenovo’s sponsorship program for the Beijing Olympics and Lavasa, a new city being developed in India. Locally, he's also worked on the 1998 campaign for the Canadian Opera Company, the Canadian Innovations stamp for Canada Post and the terrible Grand & Toy re-brand (hey, they can't all be winners). Charlie’s love affair with art and design all began with comics.

Articles: 50
6 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Angelo
Angelo
6 years ago

Charlie, nice write-up !

What grade is the X-Factor 5 and Eternals 1? I might be interested buying them from you if they are high grade

Nathan
Nathan
6 years ago

The X-Factor #5 is a .95 cent Canadian Price Variant. Not sure if you noticed it.

Angelo
Angelo
6 years ago
Reply to  Nathan

Nathan, this is the reason why I’m interested. But it would have to be very high grade for me. Why don’t you email me personally.

Nathan
Nathan
6 years ago

I’ve only gotten lucky once at a Antique and Collectibles store. Found a VF+ copy of Amazing Spider-Man #300 for $5 at one in San Antonio over 10 years ago.

Anonymous
Anonymous
6 years ago

5