Wednesday, January 6, 2010

What's in Your Junk Drawer?: You May Have Hidden Treasures

Odds and Ends with Value

What's in your junk drawer? You may think you have a bunch of odds and ends but you may actually be sitting with a treasure trove of collectible junk which has value. Yes...the trinkets you are saving in old cigar boxes or vintage tins, may be worth more that the containers they are stored in.

And we all have "collections" in all areas of our homes.
So it's time for you to take a visit around your house and evaluate your "junk deposits".

A Buyer For all Kinds of Small Junk

Today many dealers are discovering that there are buyers for all kinds of "tiny" junk collections. Some dealers throw the whole kit and kaboodle into a glass jar and sell the "lot" for one price while other dealers sort through their junk and pull out the older pieces such as a special charm or vintage toy prize and sell it individually.

How To Buy Or Sell Your "Lots" of Junk

If you go on Etsy.com, you will find many sellers of "collections" of "goodies", some of it vintage and some of it new, but also lots of stuff which is fun and useful for crafting.

Looking For Old Junk


But if you are after older junk, you may need to go out hunting the old fashioned way. . be sure to poke around in Thrift shops, Flea Markets and especially garage sales, Church sales etc. Always check out the basement and garage when you are at a yard sale. Often "junk" is hidden in old coffee cans, shoe boxes, drawers and containers. Go to tag slaes in older neighborhoods where the residents have "old" junk!

It is not surprising to find that an entire drawer of "junk" that has been thrown into a box and ignored. You have to go digging and hope that you got there first.


Types of Junk Drawers Collections

1. kitchen junk
2. sewing notions
3. old game parts
4. vintage charms
5. miniature toys
6. toy prizes
7. jewelry parts
8. old paper
9. hardware
10. drugstore/pharmacy

Photos shown are the courtesy of http://www.etsy.com/shop/christaburton

C. Dianne Zweig is the author of Hot Kitchen & Home Collectibles of the 30s, 40s, 50s and Hot Cottage Collectibles for Vintage Style Homes. She is also the Editor of Iantiqueonline.com an actively growing internet based resource community for people who buy, sell or collect antiques, collectibles and art. You can find Dianne’s fabulous retro and vintage kitchen, home and cottage collectibles at The Collinsville Antiques Company of New Hartford, CT, a 22,000 feet antique emporium with an in-house retro cafĂ©.

To read more articles by C. Dianne Zweig click on this link:
C. Dianne Zweig’s Blog Kitsch ‘n Stuff

Email me at dianne@cdiannezweig.com

Visit my website, CDianneZweig.com

Dianne is a member of:
The American Society of Journalists and Authors
The Authors Guild, Inc.

1 comment:

  1. Great post! You are absolutely right - we've found some amazing things in junk drawers. A couple of years ago, we found a tiny perfume bottle that turned out to be pretty rare!

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