Anybody Like The Rural/Smaller Antique Malls & Shops?

It seems to me that some of the more rural, less traveled, and smaller antique malls, shops have some of the better hidden finds and pricing out there due to their cheaper rents, smaller economies, and perhaps less sophisticated dealers. The larger urban areas might have the mega malls and giant antique/vintage markets but they often tend to have very high prices and lots of competition for better items too.

Anybody else feel this way? Please add your thoughts.

 

Here in Florida many of them switched to arcade games before they became illegal ,so there just arent that many left that Ive seen. Also,pretty much everywhere gets internet now,and the few left Ive ventured into arent much cheaper than the "big city" . In fact,right before the pandemic hit me and a friend went antiquing up US1 well into Ga and I came home with nothing (wich is unheard of) .I do remember the days (damn you internet!) when every town had a couple and pickings were glorious.

 

Sometimes it's just a case of knowing more than the dealer does. Even with the internet there often isn't time to look up everything. I've literally struck gold that way more than once recently.

 

I agree that it depends. There's some here in the city that consistently have good deals, and there's some rural ones way over priced and picked over. My thought is volume: the more dealers, the more stuff, the greater likelihood I find a gem. At the very least, the fun of looking lasts longer!

 

My wife and I have/had some favorite ones, back when we used to travel. We've found a lot of neat stuff in such places, and it is always fun to have discussions such as: "You want to buy this plant stand and have it rattling around in the back of the car for a week while we're on vacation?"
"Yes dear."
(And not only that, but we'd walked into town, and had to carry it at least half a mile just to get it to the car. "Yes dear.")

 

Interesting discussion. I rent space in 3 malls, all in smaller towns on or near highways between "destinations". The one that does the very best for me is an old 3 story schoolhouse in a town of less than 1000. There are over 200 vendors in the mall and I'm up in an out-of-the-way corner. And yet I consistently do very well there. And when I have time, I always browse the other booths and quite often find really good treasures for little prices. It always boils down to knowing more than the vendor about the stuff they're selling.

I do okay in the other 2 malls as well, both in very small towns but having good traffic or something adjacent that brings the traffic to the door.

Right now is the quietest time of year, January and February in rural midwest, with snow on the ground and lousy temperatures, things are dead. I will be going with picnic and camping stuff, spring bright linens and some brightly colored art in the next weeks.

The search is neverending! Keep looking for good stuff, it's out there!

Linda

 

And it's hiding in odd places. The darndest things turn up in suburban houses of no particular promise. You never can tell.

 

And that is the truth!