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Before I went to Vancouver, one of Mike’s friends stopped by for a little visit. He was going to take care of Lilly while I was out of pocket. He mentioned that he had just came back from a place called Broadway Antique Market. This place specializes in Mid-Century and later — they have lots of accessories and furniture. When I get my home in Palm Springs I will furnish it in Mid-Century Modern furniture and it will be a little bit of heaven (except in the summer, when it will be a lot like hell, but I like the heat, so it’ll be fine).
Focus Tim, Focus.
We spent about an hour looking through the two floors of furniture and accessories — most things were reasonably priced, some where crazy expensive and others were, I believe, miss-marked. I’ve been looking for an antique table set (plates, bowls, etc.) for a while now. I thought about just going to Bloomingdale’s or some such store but everything I found was just crap — mass produced and available at every American store around. Not really my thing.
At BAM (Broadway Antique Market) I found a set of dishes that I thought looked pretty cool. The set was pretty big including: 12 Dinner Plates, 12 fruit/bread plates, 12 saucers, 15 small cups, 1 Salt Shaker, 1 Sugar Bowl, 1 Creamer, 1 Coffee/Tea Pitcher, 1 Large Vegetable Bowl and 1 Oval Platter. The pattern is simple yet elegant and they are trimmed in Platinum — which of course means it’s not dishwasher save (ugh). This set is also from Japan and was created in 1962 — pretty amazing for the set to be so complete and with no visible chips and to be so old.The set isn’t full, obviously (where are the salad plates, the pepper shaker, why do the cups and saucers not properly coupled). The kicker — the price for all of these items was $99. There was a sale of 20% off, plus sales tax, I got all this stuff for $86. Pretty damn sweet, eh?
We used them for dinner on the lanai last night (well, we used them to serve the guac). I decided to look online to see how much it would cost if I wanted to round out the set with some of the missing pieces. I found two sets, smaller and less complete than mine, on Ebay, both selling (with bids) for over $500. One non-auction retail site had four 4 piece place settings in this exact pattern for $99. I’m pretty impressed. Even if I found that this set was selling for $75 online, I’d still be happy. I like it and it was cheaper than buying something that is mass produced now at Target or Macy’s. I dig it.
Have any of you out in blogland had a similar experience buying something at an antique/second hand shop and finding that you just made a killing? How about the opposite? Did you find a one of a kind item at a great price, bring it home and then immediately find it at a friends house with a Target price tag on it?