The late February cabin fever sales recently wrapped at two of our local antique shops, Bonanza and Two Sisters, and the St. Wally’s sale at the Lake Odessa Antique Mall ended today. During these late winter sales events, you’ll find booths bursting at the seams, fully restocked and then some since the holiday shopping frenzy, with steep vendor discounts. How low can they go with this retail limbo? Even dealers shop at our stores, as they are off the beaten path and have to price competitively, often aggressively so. And sales events push those already low prices even lower.
So what’s it like to be at these sales? You’d expect some competitiveness, as antiquities and oddities are often one-of-a-kind, or existing in varying degrees of rarity. But we all seem to gravitate toward something different. We are united in our hunt, the exhilarating pursuit of something that makes our heart skip a beat, but not our particular prey. So it’s a relaxed vibe, folks ambling amicably, conversing, reminiscing. They flag staff when they spy something, and their finds are squirreled away under their name, soon to be nestled into their home, and into the happy ending of yet another tale of antiquing adventures.
My own tales tend to be fuzzy on the details, trips blurring together, as the setting for so many is the same, our antique shops here in town. But my serendipitous scores from the spring sales four years ago are still sharp in my mind (and verified by photo date stamps). First up, a find for the cottage. At what is now Wally’s, at ten sharp, I was through the door, making a beeline for one of my favorite booths in the Upper Ballroom. I came around the corner, and there she was, a retro road map of Michigan, in turquoise and red, the cottage colors, framed in an old window. I was smitten. (Side-note-our guests adore her too. I almost always find her glass smudged with fingerprints.)
My second eureka moment of the day came mid-afternoon, at Bonanza, in the basement, at another of my most beloved booths. I audibly gasped when I saw real butterflies, mounted in narrow black frames, their colors vibrant against a white backdrop. I glanced around to make sure no one was near, snapped some quick shots, and then wasted no time getting them off the wall. Taking a closer look, I could see they were indeed vintage, a private collection, with each specimen painstakingly labeled on the reverse. This butterfly “taxidermy” was promptly hung on the wall at our house, where it both echoed the existing nature motifs, and set the as-then-undecided color scheme for the whole place.
This year, my tale is not so tall, but it’s still one worth telling. The first week of the sales, I scouted out Wally’s, took photos of whatever fell into my line of vision and held my gaze, enjoyed on the back patio what was likely the best dog I’ve ever had (roasted by Steve, who swears by his Holland grill). The next week, I went back for what was still on my mind, a side table with an antique sewing machine base, and a live edge slab top. It’s already in place at the cottage, the guest guidebook resting atop it. I thought the story had ended with the table, when a text came through this evening, announcing that I was one of the raffle winners for $25 in Wally’s bucks, making this tale one to be continued.
Your own story is waiting to take shape in this antiques enclave dubbed LOVE (Lake Odessa Vintage Experience) by the clever minds behind Wally’s. The cottage is within easy walking distance of all three antique stores, and Rustic Love as well, which is a sort of palace of patina (think primitives, folk art, salvage), so you won’t waste time road tripping. And, rest assured, they will hold anything you can’t carry, to be picked up later. (Ask me how I know!) Happy trails and tales, my friends.