Last week, Alex Cordero went out and bought a vintage alarm clock at a thrift shop. This week, Alex visits an antique shop in Killearn to continue his quest to hopefully find that hidden treasure on this edition of "Gem or Junk": It's not old, Its antique.
TALLAHASSEE, Fl. (WTXL) -- This time, we're at the Killearn Square, shopping at Killearn Antiques, hoping to find another gem. Before we started shopping, we spoke to Marcia Strazulla, one of the co-owners.
"I think what got us started was as any dealer can tell you", said Strazulla, "that they have collected, and collected, and then over-collected, and then needed to sell some of their items to buy more items."
Combine the effort of several eager collectors and you have the basis for the store. "We are a group of five people, and they buy and sell from within the store," said Strazulla. Each of the co-owners specializes in certain items such as jewelry, knives, and fine art. Strazulla added: "And it is our love of antiques, the fine beautiful items that you come across when you're looking for treasures." Strazulla added that in my budget of $20, I should look for jewelry in that price range.
So we went to the races, looking for another gem. We came across a ton of cool things, such as art, cool weather gadgets (for yours truly), and even some pieces of local sports history.
All sporting business aside, i did notice something soon after that caught my attention. I had the sense that maybe I had come across another gem, so I went to buy it but I noticed it was $23, which was too much compared to my max limit.
Remembering advice from Malcolm Mason in Manor Auctions: "In antique shops, at garage sales, on Craigslist, at estate sales, everything is always open to bartering. So no matter what you see it priced at, you can always offer lower."
So lo and behold, I offered to pay twenty for the book and I got it! It was Some Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. I bought it for $20. It was made back in 1911. So that makes it over 100 years old. So because of that, I think its worth $100.
Two items down, two to go!
Alex, now halfway done will hit two birds with one stone next week as he continues his quest by tackling a Craigslist and a garage sale.
Will his draft be a success or will it be a bust? Tune in next week!
