FAQ

If I was to create a "FAQ" section for Vinterest Antiques, I think one of our top 5 questions that I get asked, right after "How much are booths here?" "How do I get on the waiting list?," "Where did you move the dog food?" and "How did y'all come up with this idea?" (just about all answered on our Website)....is "where do you guys find all this stuff?"  

My answer is always, "everywhere."

It's not uncommon for hard core "pickers" to circle once or twice by a dumpster or purposely take a side road the night before trash pick-up seeking inventory.  I once found the most amazing pair of 8' tall wooden doors sitting by our neighborhood Outback restaurant that I flipped for a quick $200.

Many of us vehemently troll Craigslist day and night, are members of several Facebook yard sale sites,  are "friends" with estate sales planners, and sit hours (and I mean countless H-O-U-R-S) several times a week at a local auction often competing with our friends for that special treasure- sometimes to only leave empty handed. 

We often travel far out into God's country to shop places we refer as "honey holes" that look condemned just to sort through piles of dust and filth to find that "item."

The Mr. and I have taken a shovel, a BB gun and gloves to venture out into the woods to an old trash pile, climbing under barbwire fences, watching intensely for snakes, to dig through compost for old glass milk and medicine bottles.  (If you have one of these old trash piles buried on your property- call us!  We're game!) 

We often stalk "newbie" pickers who price way too low in order to find our inventory.  We know how to power walk to a yard-sale and our children (and my step-son) knows to buckle up, no questions asked, when it's game-on, yard-sale time.  Countless times, I've dug in the middle of the night by flashlight in storage units.

It's not always glamorous.

I cannot tell you how many times in my lifetime I've just about pee'd on myself by sticking my hand into a box filled with cast-away junk, digging to find a hidden treasure, only to scare the be-jesus out of myself by pulling up something completely unexpected, such as an old fishing-lure worm.  

Once, up in the mountains, I got chased off a man's front porch when I bravely entered through the gate into his fenced front yard, knocking on his front door uninvited on a Saturday morning to beg him to sell me the old vintage metal glider that was rusting away in his front yard, and sitting right beside a toilette bowl.  

"Hi!," I say in my sweetest voice while the Mr. sits in the running truck, "I was hoping you may be interested in selling me your glider."

Without hesitation he says in his not so sweet voice, "Nope!!," then the door was slammed in my face. 

"But, I'll give you $100!!!!" 

Door opens and then the dog is let out, as I quickly make an exit.  Oops.  The signs were all there, but that GLIDER.  I MUST SAVE THE GLIDER!!!  (I have not given up hope!)

Pickin' is sometimes a test of your faith.  It's sometimes a matter of how far are you willing to go??

On a recent picking trip from Chattanooga to Texas, the Mr. and I decided to go rouge and pull off the main road and drive some side roads seeking yard sales.  We found ourself in a little neighborhood,  chasing down a yard-sale trail in a neighborhood with houses 1,000 sq. ft. or less.  When we finally found the yard sale, we were met with a little sign that read, "Yard sale behind house,  located inside."  Maybe it was Texas, but without even saying a word to each other, nearly synchronized, we pulled out our holstered pistols from out of the glovebox and under the seat and discreetly concealed them under our shirts before walking inside.  Once in, we found ourself in a small kitchen with 2 seemingly sweet ladies who did not speak English and a baby  to find 1 folding table of used plastic food containers.  After first a good laugh, we were off to the next one. 

I have not met a yard-sale yet that scared me off.

Oh, but that moment....that glorious moment where you dig through rubbish to find underneath a pile of old encyclopedias and VHS tapes, to uncover in its glory that precious Pyrex bowl.  "How much for this?," you say in your most calm voice possible through the junk-drunk shakes, and then the owner tells you that you can have it for $1.  "Score!!!!"  Those are the moments that I LIVE for. 

The picking.... the true picking.  That's my drug of choice!