Tons of antique shops around here, especially on Cape Ann. I have no idea how any stay in business as I can see the same exact overpriced common items sitting there for years and I can't believe a few tourists occasionally buying <$20 knickknack souvenirs keeps the lights on. Aside from antique stores that seem to price like they're being reluctantly forced to sell by someone else, the people looking for kitschy old shelf-weights or stuff they remember grandma having when they were young are getting ever thinner (and can probably find better deals elsewhere). But, that kind of makes sense as most of the people who want the decorative stuff have a nostalgic link to it and younger people are going to increasingly have nostalgic links not so much to the electronic devices that rarely work, but to the games or other media and people they interacted with using them and those memories more reside in their minds and in the ether than connected to a specific object. What I don't understand, though, is the useful antiques, like furniture, aren't worth anything, either. Sure, China cabinets, since nobody wants grandma's old China and they're not terribly useful for much else nor do they work well with too many decors, but people still use dressers, desks, and so on. For instance, I have a cherry and flame birch Sheraton dresser that's about 200 years old. I found it on the side of the road years ago and I've been trying to move it on as I don't need it, but nobody wants it. This is solid damn wood in great shape with style (OK, OLD style, but whatever) and at the reduced values, they could refinish it, add modern drawer sliders, hardware, restyle it, whatever! And that's just my personal example, but solid old furniture is everywhere (because it lasts!) for cheap to free (unless you see it in an antique shop) and doesn't seem to move at all. People would rather pay more money for IKEA landfill cloggers made of gerbil-toilet sawdust and woodglue with plastic veneers that break the first time you try to move them after initial assembly. You know what's more satisfying than putting together a child-simple IKEA POS? Modifying unloved old furniture to suit, with actual big boy/big girl tools! I can afford nice furniture, but my bedroom set is a '60s Broyhill Mid Century set I got for free that was fairly heavily damaged. With a little work and about $200 (almost all for the stainless hardware), I repaired, restyled, and repainted the set so that it is not only unique, but looks like I paid thousands for each piece. When we moved to the new house, I repainted them again to suit the brighter space because quality allows it to be repurposed. I also rebuilt and modified a small radio cabinet of the same vintage that was left at a curb. It now has a bluetooth receiver with a hidden remote IR sensor and a fully styled backside replacing the plain plywood so that it can sit in the middle of a room. Outside of the electronics, it probably cost about $75 to do (again, mostly in stainless steel, but this time inboard powerboat engine room vents). Everyone that sees it loves it and my oldest nephew has already claimed it for inheritance. I've ranted about this several times and, believe it or not, I think I'm really paring it down!
