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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;evelyb30, post: 9511988, member: 36&quot;]Once in a while I blind-luck into something, but it&#039;s gotten rarer and rarer.&nbsp; The tag sales here are now mostly new-ish things you&#039;d have to pay ME to haul off.&nbsp; Collectibles are generally of the &quot;It&#039;s Vintage; it&#039;s from the 1980s&quot; variety. See: pay me to haul it away.&nbsp; Real finds in thrifts are getting rarer and rarer, since the people running the stores Google anything that looks halfway interesting.&nbsp;&nbsp; Instead of donating or tag-saling items, people call in professional dealers to buy anything good or to take it to auction, and we pickers are only offered the dregs and leftovers. On a good day. </p><p><br /></p><p>Once in a while we find a mistake, but they&#039;re a lot rarer than they used to be. </p><p><br /></p><p>As for antique stores in my area, most have either closed down, are closing down, or have changed gears.&nbsp; The physical stores can&#039;t make out in my area for the most part.&nbsp; One guy has a $20 basement; he throws things he gets free or close to it down there and then sells anything you can find for $20.&nbsp; The $500 pieces don&#039;t sell well.&nbsp; He makes more cleaning and selling rugs than selling antiques.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Another store I go into knows my face too well. If I&#039;m interested in something they look for marks or start testing for precious metal. There goes the deal.&nbsp; One time &quot;this looks like silver&quot;... it was clearly marked Sarah Coventry, a well-known costume jewelry company.&nbsp; They&#039;re literally the only game in town, and the guy who owns the store is one of those &quot;buyers&quot; people call in...&nbsp; You get the idea.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>As for selling, I&#039;ve quit essentially, for a long laundry list of reasons.&nbsp; The primary one: if you sell on line you need to be able to trust the platform not to screw you over.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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