Chapter 7
The Kit
After digging around in flea markets, estate sales and yard sales for over thirty years I have through trial and error put together a small group of items that help me
in identifying different types of antiques and collectibles plus different things that help to keep my day organized and generally keep me on the right track.
The contents of my little kit is relatively simple as I try to keep my life as simple and uncluttered as possible which if you are like me that is an ongoing battle.
I keep my Saturday life in a little tote bag that attaches to my belt and is not in the way when I need to dig through a box or pick up a item and look at it.
I attach it to my belt and I never have to worry about were the bag is at and I can reach for a certain item without thinking about it.
There are times you will find a piece of brass or what you believe to be brass and have no way of making a positive identification of the item. I carry a small
medicine bottle filled with Brasso, a cleaner made for cleaning brass and other metals. Along with the brasso I will keep a couple of small gauge pads in the kit
to soak with brasso and rub on the item I want to verify as being brass. Now the one problem you will encounter when you want to use the chemical to verify you
are indeed looking at brass is the owner’s consent. In some cases you will not get the owners permission to make a chemical test on the item you want to buy.
Depending on the value I think the item has and the condition I will sometimes take the
chance and buy the item, but in most cases I will shy away from the item simply because of the owners refusal to allow me to verify the type of metal the object is made of.
The owner should protect the value of his stock by not allowing it to be tinkered with, but if I am really interested in a certain piece of brass I will ask the owner
to allow me to clean a small area somewhere on the piece were it will not be noticed or change the appearance of the item. Usually I will clean a small spot the
bottom of the object no bigger than a nickel. I don’t need to clean a area larger than this simply because if it is brass then the chemical will clean it very
quickly and it will remain shiny. Does it work in all cases? No there are times you will
run up on a metal that will react the same as brass so you have to be careful of this type of object checking.
The next tool I use often is a small magnifying glass. This tool can be invaluable when you are trying to find a name or symbol on the bottom of a plate, cup or
any antique which has a name stamped on it. The magnifying glass is the one tool I have come to depend quite a bit lately, the older you get the less you can
see and in my case I need a part of trifocals and the magnifying glass. I have finally come across a magnifying glass that really works and also has a light built
into the end of holder which lights up the area you are trying to magnify. The item is available at Walmarts for around $6.00 and well worth every penny.
Perhaps one of the more useful tools I have in my kit is the tape measure. As I am always going out on Saturday mornings in a car to small to carry more than one person
I find I can use the tape measure to make sure I can haul home the items I have bought. The tape measure will also come in handy when you are searching for glassware of
any type. If you are a person who deals in glassware you know there are hundreds of sizes in plates and bowls and other items that have a distinct value set to a certain size. I have searched for McCoy items for different people and they always specified a certain size,
therefore I had to have a tape measure with me at all times to insure I would not buy something the person did not want.
Furniture is another item that will require you to keep a tape measure in the kit. There have been times I would come upon a piece of furniture I believed to be valuable
and was not sure I could carry it home, out comes the tape measure and I make sure before I buy the item. I am not well versed in the art of detecting valuable furniture
nor to the distinct sizes of certain brands or formats of furniture, but as with other types of antiques and collectibles there are distinct sizes and shapes an item must
have before it will be considered valuable. I have good basic knowledge into a lot of different types of antiques but I do not have the ability or time to gain the
knowledge to all antiques neither do you so try to specialize in two or three areas that will allow you to gain financially and give you enjoyment with enjoyment being
the top priority.
The small notebook I consider my right hand. I use up three or four a year, filling them with notes of where I have been, where I want to go and most of all to
keep notes on various items I have found and want to do research on.
There are times I will come across old records I have no background on. I will make a note as to where the records are and the name of the artist and the name of the label.
The following week I will take the time to go through my notes from the previous Saturday and check out the books and internet sales on the items I have written down.
I Will do the same for items I think some of my customers may be interested in.
The notebook comes in handy by the end of the summer to keep on track as to where I have already been. I will sometimes not look at the book and end up along the same
route I had taken a month earlier. I will visit many different large cities during the summer and I always keep down the addresses of Goodwill stores in these cities.
Goodwill stores are a great place to find antiques and collectibles. Especially if you have the timetable as to when they bring items from the stock room to the sales floor.
Money is one of the things I find hard to keep up with or to even have money on me. I find it extremely hard to keep money on my
person to buy my lunch with during the week. The one thing you can not do is go out on a Saturday morning and expect to buy items without money, so make an extra effort
on Friday evenings to go to the bank and draw out enough money to enjoy the following day.
In most cases I will take 20 one dollar bills, 2 five’s, 1 ten and the rest in quarters. You will be surprised at what you can buy for a quarter at a yard sale and it
is not reasonable to pull out a ten dollar bill to pay for a quarter item. Remember the faster you pay for your item and get back on the road the more time you will
have to cover more yard sales and flea markets.
As I am a person who has to control his compulsions for buying I try to limit the amount of money I take with me on Saturday trips, usually no more than fifty dollars.
There have been times I have run across a yardsale or fleamarket with an item or a large group of items that were priced higher than the money I had in my pocket so I
can always run to the closest bank and use my credit or debit card to obtain more money.
Estate and storage sales are a bit different in most cases I can just write a check to pay for my items. Estate sales in your local area will
accept personal checks if you obtain approval before the sale. I always make sure I have check clearance when I register for the auction. Usually the person in charge
of the auction can do this for you. Some auctions will even accept credit cards which makes it nice if you want to pay for using your own money, I don’t.
Finally, the all around combination knife and tool unit. You can buy one of these tools at all the major discount stores and it can be very useful if you buy something
you have to take apart to store it in your vehicle it can be used to make repairs on your vehicle if you drive the kind I do. The tool has a knife blade, Different
sizes and types of screwdrivers and little odd ball tools that come in handy around yard sales and flea markets.
That’s it. All I need to help me through my day along with my wife to keep me on the right roads and remind me its time to give up for the day.
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