by Anastasia Andrzejewski
George’s Toy Chest is headquartered about 20 miles outside of New York City. In this post we’ll share some of our favorite hunting grounds for antiques, vintage collectibles and retro kitsch.
For vintage toys, we’ve made some great scores at Philip Weiss Auctions on Long Island (Lynbrook, NY). Among our recent finds have been sealed set of Built Rite cardboard toys, old board games, toy soldiers, lots of of pressed steel trucks, among other old toys.
A great auction house that specializes in vintage toys is the Lloyd Ralston Gallery in Shelton, CT. Recently we attended an auction that was probably 75% trains/25% toy soldiers. We got some great buys–both in terms of dimestores and Britains toy soldiers. We even purchased a couple of train sets and some train ephemera including old Lionel catalogs.
Another auction that we’ve found all sorts of items at is East Coast Auctions in Congers, NY. They auction off all sorts of merchandise–from toys to china to paintings and more. We’ve gotten some really interesting lamps there including one by Falkenstein. Another great find was an Ansonia Clock Company porcelain mantle clock (Roya
One of our favorite flea markets is the Stormville Airport Antique Show & Flea Market in Stormville, NY. There majority of the booths sell new items, but there are significant number of stalls for those of us interested in antiques. It is definitely worth your while to drive a couple of hours to visit this show. Vendors sell all sorts of items–high-end, low-end and everything in between. We’ve done really well here purchasing all sorts of antiques and vintage goods. Be sure not to miss the “Yard Sales” they have a couple of times each year–this is when every day folks in addition to antique dealers sell their goods. You can get some real bargains!
Of course we also hit the thrift stores every once in a while. In Rockland County there are several good shops: the Goodwill in Nanuet, Grace’s Thrift Shop in Nyack, National Council of Jewish Women Replay Thrift Store also in Nyack to name a few. There are several throughout the county and in nearby counties as well.
And, of course there are the garage sales, yard sales, estate sales, whatever you want to call them! Check out Craigslist, YardSaleTreasureMap.com, Garage Sales by Map, and tons of other websites can give you an idea of the sales happening in your area.
Happy treasure hunting!