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Killer Stuff and Tons of Money: Seeking History and Hidden Gems in Flea-Market America

Maureen Stanton

Start date: September 14, 2011

Finish date: September 24, 2011

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May 30, 2011 Dolly rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, russia, france-french, money, other-usa, egypt-egyptian, south-central-america-mexico, native-american, england-english, goodreads-first-reads-giveaways

I won this book on Goodreads giveaways and was particularly interested in the fact that it focuses a lot on New England antiques shows, like the one at Brimfield, Massachusetts. My grandparents lived just down the road from the Brimfield flea market and although I probably only visited the event once when I was a child, I've passed by the location many, many times and know it well.

This book is a fascinating account of the lure of buying, collecting and selling various items (primarily early Ame I won this book on Goodreads giveaways and was particularly interested in the fact that it focuses a lot on New England antiques shows, like the one at Brimfield, Massachusetts. My grandparents lived just down the road from the Brimfield flea market and although I probably only visited the event once when I was a child, I've passed by the location many, many times and know it well.

This book is a fascinating account of the lure of buying, collecting and selling various items (primarily early American antiques) and the hard work involved in the antique business. The author spent years shadowing a mid-level antiques dealer and offers a glimpse into his life.

I find it interesting, in the age of reality televsion, that this dealer and most of his associates prefer to be referred to by fake names in order to protect their anonymity. Given the popularity of Pawn Stars and American Pickers, I would expect that many of these dealers would be more interested in cashing in on the craze.

This factual account is lengthy and not overly exciting, but provides a detailed view of the industry and a little insight into popular culture icons like the television show, Antiques Roadshow. Maureen Stanton has obviously done a lot of in-depth research on the topic and I learned a lot by reading this book. For example, I was thrilled to learn a little more about a potter we've read about in the book, Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave. There's also a slice of more contemporary collectibles, including comic books, GI Joe dolls and other fads from the recent past.

The author describes collecting as much about the thrill of the hunt as it is about any individual find. Her anecdote about her childhood search for the perfect seashell (in the beginning of Chapter 12) reminds me of my own hunt for glass ball fishing floats. We lived near the ocean for several years and I hunted so many times for one, but was never successful; plastic floats are ubiquitous, but I've never found a glass one washed up on the beach. One Valentine's Day, my darling hubby purchased a small one and hid it among the seaweed on "our beach." I was thrilled to discover it, but his eagerness to join me on my hunt and the beautiful condition of the float made it very obvious that this was a present from him and not a true find for me. While I love it, my eyes will forever be trained to the sand in search of the elusive glass orb.

Overall, I thought this was a slow, but enjoyable read and I am glad that I won this book. I feel like going out to a local antiques shop and bringing home a little bit of history.

interesting quotes:
"'Collecting is a way of linking past, present, and future. Objects from the past get collected in the present to preserve them for the future.' Collecting is about time itself--that thing none of us has enough of, all of us will run out of, and nobody can even contain, stop, control, or change. Objects reflect identity--the sense of self." (p. 26)

"The most important object of a collection is the next one." (p. 155)

new words: crizzling, pontil, tegestologist, pillioned ...more

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