Are there any "old fashioned' junk dealers anywhere in the country?

Well, I think this is akin to thrift stores and those that collect second hand stuff to sell at flea markets and auctions.

I work, help run our local ‘Books & Bargains’ store on the river in my tourist community.

We cater to the camping and rafting crowd, and also sell new items, like locally forged gold pans.

We get tons of great donations and my boss picks up donations as well.

The local rafting companies give us all their used life jackets that are still safe but slightly faded or worn.

Yesterday we had 5 really nice mountain bikes come in, several camping cots, tons of life jackets, oars, helmets. I was fighting off the campers who wanted to go through the stuff before I sorted and priced it. lol

It’s a booming little biz. we’ve got, made over 30k last year, with few items selling for over $20. Average $5 :-D

I can think of five within 18 miles of where I live in North Carolina. Some go out and collect scrap metal and what-not but have a storefront with baby carriages and lamps and…..

Our local hospital runs a store called Second Show. They take everything and are, this very minute, emptying my mother’s apartment of queen-sized box spring and mattress, love seat with pull-out bed, sectional sofa, pink velvet fainting couch (chaise lounge), large CRT with stand, turn table, speakers and vinyl records,lamps, bric-a-brac, kitchen stuff, linens, 6 industrial-sized bags filled with clothing, bed linen, towels, gloves, hats, shoes, socks, slips, scarves and pocket books.

Much of this will go to the local women’s shelter and/or for setting up an apartment for a battered woman and her kids. The small stuff goes to the store.

It is a wonderful place to shop, also.

We have several similar places in near-by communities and the medium-sized city 30 miles from here.

Look up “Used Clothing” or “Consignment Shops” in your Yellow Pages.

You also get architechtural salvage yards which is more of the larger structural stuff for houses like fireplaces.

Have you seen the show American Pickers on The History Channel? The star of the show has two shops, Anitque Archaeology, located in LeClaire, Iowa and Nashville, Tennessee.

Try New England. There are a lot of them there.

Yes, they exist. In the US, we have flea markets. Even the antique shops sometimes sell items that aren’t antiques. Consignment stores are another source. If you have never perused e-Bay, it is just one massive junk shop. One person’s junk is another person’s treasure.

Missouri is crawling with the things, typically in such settings as would frequently be termed “quaint.”

@keobooks: Where do you live?

I live in Indiana. Most of the flea markets in my area just sell cheap stuff. And I mean not-used—stuff you can buy in bulk and isn’t worth the low price. There is ONE place that I have found in an out of the way town that has an old fashioned style flea market full of junk. I remember going to a flea market as a kid and buying these 1950s souvenirs from Florida that were SO cool. My favorite was a fancy pen holder (missing the pens) that were vacuum sealed and full of water. And there was a perfect little under the ocean scene with sand, a mini starfish, a seahorse and some coral all preserved inside.

As for ebay, yeah you can browse stuff, but for me most of the fun is digging around in the junk physically.

We have lots of consignment shops, but it isn’t the same for me. I want to go somewhere with random odds and ends in no particular order. I just love places like that.

@keobooks If you can get away for a weekend, you should visit one of the shops I linked to. You would love it! The shop in Iowa isn’t too far from Galena, Illinois. It’s a lovely town to stay at for the weekend.

I may do just that. It’s far enough away that we’d have to make it a weekend. My daughter is just about old enough for a trip like that.

Here they are called “Thrift Stores”. The owners have taken the name from the Charity Thrift Stores that support various charities, but if you leave off the Charity name, it is legal to call yourself a “Thrift Store”, which is actually a junk store.