Remember Porky Pig drinking glasses or Howdy Doody puppets? How about stiff rubber dolls with brown paint on the top of their heads that served as uncombable hair? Or the doilies that Grandma tucked under her bedroom lamps?
If you like high-tech furniture and electronic games, then never mind. But if you get teary-eyed just thinking about these relics, read on. You are a prime candidate, if the bug hasn’t already bitten, to join the throngs of memory seekers who hunt monthly for treasures at the Grayslake Antiques & Collectables Show at the Lake County Fairgrounds.
This exhibit is one great big attic full of stuff we have all thrown away, and judging from the thousands of people who stream through the gates for each show, the urge to repossess bits and pieces of what we once owned should not be underestimated.
“That’s what this is all about,” said dealer Reva Young of south suburban Merrionette Park. “It’s a walk down memory lane.”
“They like to see what they threw away,” was another dealer’s way of explaining what inspires so many people to pay the $2 admission and spend a Sunday afternoon browsing among the fairgrounds tables filled with what the non-discriminating shopper might call junk.
Buyers readily agreed that they come for the memories. “It’s fun to look at things and say, `Oh, I remember that,` or, `I had one of those,’ ” said Chicagoan Joyce Rossi while visiting last month’s show.
Dealer Dave Pockevich, from near Anchorage, takes a psychoanalytical angle on the collectibles phenomenon. “These people are lawyers, doctors,” he said, pointing at the shoppers picking over the tables. “They drive a Cadillac, but they are after a little glass piece or a keychain because they can’t get it anywhere else. That’s the challenge. They have to come here and look for it.”
The Lake County show opened 12 years ago with 60 exhibitors and has grown each year and each sale, according to owner Pat O’Connor of Grayslake, who runs the operation with wife Diana. Today one building alone holds more than 60 dealers, and the entire show takes up three buildings of inside space (four in the winter) and row after row in the outdoor section of the fairgrounds, equaling or exceeding the number of dealers inside.
The fair is held the second Sunday of each month, every month, rain or shine, 100 degrees above zero or 30 degrees below. The number of dealers set up outside drops in bad weather, but even when it was 12 degrees below zero last winter there were still some hearty individuals selling outdoors, O’Connor said. He declined to disclose the exact number of buyers or sellers the show attracts. His explanation for the refusal was that weather variances change the numbers from one show to the next.
Short of counting heads, suffice it to say the place usually is jammed. A safe guess would be 400 dealers. And it takes a full day to get through the show if you’re looking in earnest.
The 26-year-old Kane County Flea Market in St. Charles is probably the oldest, as well as the largest, of the Chicago area’s outdoor antique and collectibles markets, according to Wanda Robinson, daughter-in-law of founder Helen Robinson. Held the first weekend of each month, the number of dealers at that two-day flea market runs between 1,200 and 1,400, and the paid admission on a recent weekend hit a record of 32,000, she said.
The Lake County show has grown in stature as well as size through the years and is now considered by dealers and buyers who make the flea market circuit as a major player in the Chicago area, along with the popular Kane County and Sandwich fairs. Many buyers and sellers rotate among the fairs that are held on different weekends of the month.
Though the Lake County exhibit is casually referred to as a flea market, it actually is titled and advertised as an antiques and collectibles show. The bulk of the merchandise falls under those two categories, but there is a smattering of new items such as concrete statues and sweatshirts, even trees and fresh flowers.
O’Connor said he prefers the vintage items and does what he can to discourage new merchandise. “I don’t want things like socks and fun clothing out there. I have a crowd (of buyers) that cares for antiques, and they don’t want to go through all that other stuff.”
The flea market scene doesn’t beckon everyone involved in antiques, however. In fact, among some, you might as well tell them to go shop in a junk yard.
“Things made originally as junk are junk today,” said John Batzel, owner of Lake Forest Antiquarians. Admittedly, he deals in the highest end of the highest end: European silver goods, most of them made for the crowned heads of Europe. So he’s speaking with a bias. And he’s willing to concede that, of course, a person’s own interest is what should drive a buyer. “I don’t want to sound too snobbish. Everyone has his own interest, and God bless him,” Batzel said.
Obviously, some objects of value could be found at a flea market, he added. “I would never say never. I would say it’s highly unlikely. You can go to a flea market and find something that might be highly collectible. Collectibles are a very different thing. But my feeling is that at a flea market, you’re going to find trash.”
It should be noted, however, that trash is in the eye of the beholder.
Manya Sheehan, resident furniture and decorative-arts appraiser for Leslie Hindman Auctioneers in Chicago, known for its dealings in high-end antiques and collectibles, not only defended the flea market scene but said she regularly goes to the Kane County and Sandwich sales to stay in touch with the market and occasionally pick up a bargain.
“My opinion is that you can basically find everything, such as 18th Century pieces of furniture that have not been touched. Sometimes people don’t know what they’re selling. And it’s priced less expensively than what you would find at an antique shop.”
For Sheehan professionally, “flea markets give a very good overview of what collectibles are hot,” she said. “I’m interested in seeing what the market will bear.”
Sheehan’s colleague at Hindman, Gary Piattoni, director of specialty sales and a Chicagoan originally from Wauconda, regularly attends the Lake County show. “The people who run it are nice, the prices are generally lower (than at Kane and Sandwich). . . . It’s certainly being discovered as a nice, quieter place to go and hunt. Some of the dealers will price things lower than they will at Kane County just to move the merchandise.” Though he thinks the Lake County market usually is less congested, he added of the September show, “It was wall to wall. I’ve never seen so many people there.”
“It ranges from total junk to really high-quality stuff. It’s a lot of fun,” he said.
As for those prices, several dealers exhibiting at last month’s show were asked if prices are negotiable.
“Everything is negotiable,” said Pockevich, the Alaskan, who said he was passing through the area to pick up a shipment of coats and cloth luggage. “I usually get $20 for those, but today they are $15,” he shouted as two shoppers examined a canvas briefcase.
There is a strategy behind his impromtu pricing decisions, he said. “I look the people over, check their shoes, see if their pants are torn. If they’re wearing nice clothes I can get a few bucks more. You get to know people.”
Some dealers won’t budge, but with most there is room for negotiation, said seller Sandy Benderling of Appleton, Wis., as a woman inspected her wooden-handled ice pick bearing a Coca-Cola logo, with a price tag marked $15.
“I’ll do $10,” offered Benderling, and not seeing the potential buyer perk up, added, “Name me something.” “I’d pay $8,” offered Natalie Kolze of Elroy, Wis. Sold.
Kolze said she was not buying the ice pick for her personal use. She too is a dealer and bought the pick for resale at a booth she rents in Reedsburg, Wis.
Kolze is part of a flea market society of shoppers who buy to sell and resell and resell. There is money to be made by doing this because what’s hot, and what’s not, differs from one area to the next, Kolze said. “I might find something that is not that popular here, and I know I can sell it for more money in Wisconsin,” she said. “Or you have collectors looking for specific items and you find something for them.”
Buying to sell happens frequently at the market and can get somewhat comical, Kolze explained. “Sometimes you buy something, sell it and buy it back again,” said Kolze, who has seen merchandise make a round trip between Lake County, Reedsburg and back to Lake County.
Dealer Lynda Dehler of Lake Forest said she shopped all morning while daughter Colleen tended the booth. “This is a great place to shop,” Dehler said, adding that the early admission is mostly dealers buying from other dealers. Each time the merchandise changes hands, the price goes up, she said.
Not that all buyers are sellers. Long Grove resident Gloria Berger’s purchases go directly to a shelf in a special room in her house lined with collectibles. Berger said she loves collectibles and that at the Lake County market she strikes gold, or more precise.
Not that all buyers are sellers. Long Grove resident Gloria Berger’s purchases go directly to a shelf in a special room in her house lined with collectibles. Berger said she loves collectibles and that at the Lake County market she strikes gold, or more precisely, porcelain and glass. “I look for things with character, something with a story behind it,” Berger said as she bought a vase that captured her heart.
A Wilmette couple who declined to be identified said they make the rounds of the Chicago-area flea markets and like the buys at Lake County’s. “We look for certain things, and we always find something here,” one of them said. That day they bought an etching and a plate.
Of course, beauty is definitely in the eye of the buyer, as Rossi found when she poked fun at a set of “godawful lamps” with her husband and daughter as they browsed the wares. Her commentary referred to a set of tall yellow objects shaped like large watermelons. Several people standing nearby puzzled over which end was up. But a check of the tag revealed that they already had been sold, and a few moments later a happy buyer whisked them off to his car.
Where does all this used merchandise come from? Estate sales, garage sales, auctions, other dealers-there seemed to be as many answers to that question as there were vendors.
One dealer had as part of his selection a tea server he had brought back from Japan after World War II and had given to his brother. When the brother died, his widow returned the server and tiny cups, painted with dragons. They were on the sale table, priced at $150.
Some vendors come to every show and set up in the same spot. “That way people know where to find me,” said Lynda Dehler, who has a regular booth indoors.
Others show up intermittently. Young said she used to be a year-round outside vendor in Kane County. Now she waits to see if the weather will be good before she heads out, averaging about two sales a month and only in the mild seasons.
“Textiles can’t get wet,” she said, adding that her body can’t take the harsh weather either.
Young said she prefers to be outside because there is more flexibility. Indoor vendors must reserve in advance and stay until the 4 p.m. closing. Outside sellers can show up without a reservation and leave early if sales are sluggish.
When asked about their earnings, some vendors complained that they do better at other fairs, while others said the Lake County event is good for them.
Profits have been down since 1988, said furniture dealer Walt Reed of Bristol, Wis., who blames the lag in sales on the economy. To compensate, Reed said, he switched from selling expensive antiques to furniture that is “reasonable and usable.”
“Now I buy it cheaper and I sell it cheaper,” he said. “People are looking for something solid that won’t fall apart.”
Young, who specializes in linens and textiles, said she does well at the show, adding that her earnings vary greatly from one month to the next. “One high-ticket item will bring the day way up,” said Young, whose merchandise ranges from $1 to $400.
Anyone envying their gross revenues should remember all the work that goes into a sale before a penny is earned, Young said. First, there is the time it takes to find the items to be sold. Then there is the preparation, which in Young’s case means washing, ironing and folding a variety of napkins, doilies, scarves, bedspreads and fabrics.
Vendors also put a lot of labor into packing, unpacking and hauling their merchandise back and forth for the shows. And there is rental on their space. An inside 10-by-10-foot booth rents for $50. Outside space, with a 20-foot front, rents for $60.
A $400 day may sound good but actually does not bring a very big profit after considering everything that goes into the job, said two Waukegan vendors named Betty and Lola who declined to give their last names.
“Don’t think dealers have it easy,” O’Connor said. “They have one day a week to sell, and it’s tough.”
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The fairgrounds are at Illinois Highway 120 and U.S. Highway 45 in Grayslake. Admission is $2 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and $10 for early admission at 6 a.m., offering a head start on the dickering.
