Great Expectations

Posted: July 18th, 2011 | Filed under: Shoppin' and Junkin', Travel | Tags: | 11 Comments »

That’s what I had for the Brimfield Antique Show and it didn’t deliver for me, or my companions.  All 3 of us had waited our whole junkin’ and thriftin’ lives to attend this antique mecca, this patchwork of purveyors, the holy grail of thrifting…..only to hold back tears of disappointment.  Actually, it was sweat pouring down our faces from the 94° heat, but this is a tale of woe, so work with me here.

Luck is where preparation meets opportunity, right?  We were vacationing a 2 hour drive away from the market when we realized the summer show was going to be on during our stay.  We were prepared to do anything necessary within our means to have the opportunity to hit this market, even if only for one day.  After a little begging, pleading, and bribing of the appropriate males to entertain the Things and the other youngsters for the day, we were off.

I saw some wonderful things….

Can I tell you how much I wanted these?  Sonneman maybe?  Doesn’t matter.  At 11:45 am I am told the seller is done for the day and he’s just minding her stuff.  Nothing is marked of course, but I can bet it was out of my league.  I thought about them ALL DAY.  I even went back an hour later just to see if maybe she was there so I could talk to her about them…and she was gone daddy gone.  Just a patch of grass left.

 

By the end of the day, I felt like this guy….

 

I hear you…what’s the problem?   Looks like some pretty cool stuff, right?

Shall we discuss the pricing involved at this market?  It was RETAIL.  This is no longer a market for dealers, unless you’re a 1st Dibs dealer.  It became obvious early on I needn’t have spent so much time scouting out the UPS booth.  New England pricing did not fit into my frugal Nashville budget.

To quote my companion…”Do you hear that sound?  That’s the sound of my heart breaking.”

We adopted that as our mantra of the whole experience.  So we left, with a couple of tiny things, but nothing compared to our great expectations.

We were grateful to return to the cool breeze off the water at the end of such a long, hot, sad day.

Thrifting FAIL.

 

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11 Comments on “Great Expectations”

  1. 1 Callista said at 2:43 PM on July 18th, 2011:

    That’s such a bummer, because it looks like there was a lot of awesome stuff there. That grill has my name all over it.

    Although, as much as I love the shape of those bright orange lounge chairs, that line down the back reminds me a lot of butt cheeks. Maybe it’s a good thing you didn’t return home with a couple of badonkadonks in your trunk.

  2. 2 ModFruGal said at 2:45 PM on July 18th, 2011:

    Baahhaaa! They do kinda look like badonkadonks…but I’m a sucker for orange!

  3. 3 Shannon (8foot6) said at 3:16 PM on July 18th, 2011:

    Total bummer dude!

  4. 4 Kathy@myinteriorlife said at 3:50 PM on July 18th, 2011:

    That is very disappointing. I had heard that Brimfield wasn’t what it used to be – maybe they meant the prices. So sad, because yes, a lot of that stuff looked fabulous. :(

  5. 5 Tanya from Dans le Townhouse said at 9:56 PM on July 18th, 2011:

    Awww. Shame about the prices because the goods looked fab!!

  6. 6 Beth said at 8:42 AM on July 19th, 2011:

    Sadness. When you say you left with a couple of tiny things, you mean that box of creepy arms, right? I hope you’re having a great vacation!

  7. 7 monogirl said at 12:07 PM on July 21st, 2011:

    I felt the same way when I went to the May show. It was great, and we had a good time, but overall it was kind of a Fail.

  8. 8 susie q said at 10:41 AM on July 23rd, 2011:

    I blame the interwebs. Er’body is too damn ballsy. Stupid 1st dibs. I have wanted to go to Brimfield my entire life. I think I’ll stick to the back roads of rural Georgia instead.

    Yes, show us what little things you acquired. At least there’s that!

  9. 9 Mr. Modtomic said at 10:59 PM on July 24th, 2011:

    I’ve kinda figured that this was what Brimfield would be like…except there was apparently much more cool stuff than I’d ever hoped! The orange BBQ pit is called a Bal-B-Que. I’ve been looking for one for ages.

    Some day I’m hoping to get to troll the 450 mile Highway 127 corridor sale. Problem is, it’s schedule interferes with work. I’m also hoping to get back to the First Mondays flea market in Canton TX.

    Next time you wanna spend some time searching for cheap treasure come on over to St. Louis for a weekend and I’ll drag around to all my favorite traps.

  10. 10 erin@designcrisis said at 8:30 AM on July 27th, 2011:

    dang, that sale looks DOPE! Bummer on the prices. I see plenty of stuff I would have mortgaged a kidney for.

  11. 11 funkyhomefinds said at 4:10 PM on August 14th, 2011:

    First off, sorry to hear you left relatively empty-handed. It looks like that “flea market” was (sorry if I’m a bit off-color here) a MCM fan’s wet dream! And sorry about the late comment…I just started following your blog via RSS and found this post just today.

    The part about this I don’t get is these people are looking at retail- or near-retail-prices. Can they REALLY get the high prices in that type of market.

    Like I always tell my business partner, I’d rather charge and get $100 for something than charge and NOT get $200.