Best type of place to find them - Collecting Tiki

F Formikahini Tiki Socialite Houston, Texotica Joined: Aug 22, 2002 Posts: 1515	F Formikahini Posted posted on Wed, May 16, 2007 5:19 PM No luck at thrift in Houston for the most part (occasional finds, yes, like a PERfect Tretschikoff for $7.99). Garage sales in Texas are so much harder than for you lucky California bastards; they start at 7:00 and are over by noon. This is to beat the heat I guess. There are so many dealers out there that it is rare indeed if I get anything at a garage sale. No good flea markets around Houston; mostly new, cheap crap sold by Asians, for some reason. Antique malls often yield good fruit for me, but obviously more $$ than a garage sale. But I scored a Bali Hai Tiki Bob, one of my top Holy Grails, at a mid-century modern booth in an antique mall for $7.50! Their Haywood Wakefield was top dollar, but not their tiki! And a Witco tiki for $20 at a cool retro mall in Austin (they're onto Witco now, dammit). Smalltown antique malls can be fabulous, if a big-city dealer hasn't gone through before you. It takes planning to schedule antiquing time on your trip, but it is usually very worth it. I get lots of stuff this way. City-wide garage sales rule, if you can get in early. My school where I teach has the biggest in the city, and as a teacher, I get first dibs (after the moms working it). Not much tiki (the parents are too young to have had cool tiki stuff in the past), but they're rich enough to take trips to Hawaii and Tahiti, then later sell their souvenirs. Big church garage sales are rich hunting ground, again if you can get in before the dealers. My fave: crappy resale/junk stores. They just wanna get rid of the sh*t and don't take the time to look it up on eBay. They'll occasionally way overprice some stuff that they think is valuable (why are ALL oil paintings "valuable"?!), but if they're clueless about tiki, you're in luck. These stores close frequently, though (for good), so I have to keep on my toes, screeching the brakes if I've passed a new one that's popped up to take another's place. I get great "trader" style stuff here, like giant pieces of coral for $20. And yes, the occasional eBay if it's something very very special that I will never find in the wild or at an antique store. But there's nothin' like going to the source: the very tiki temple itself. My mugs from the Mai Kai, the Kahiki, Trader Vic's, the Spanish tiki bars - honey, there's nothing better than buying it there! And I buy a helluva lot at every tiki event, be it new carvings or old goodies that someone like Basement Kahuna wants to get rid of to make room (and money) for more stuff for himself. Best advice? Live where other tiki collectors don't! But then you don't get to have them over to see your cool stuff and have a Mai Tai. I'd rather have the guests; it's all about the ohana for me :) F

No luck at thrift in Houston for the most part (occasional finds, yes, like a PERfect Tretschikoff for $7.99).
Garage sales in Texas are so much harder than for you lucky California bastards; they start at 7:00 and are over by noon. This is to beat the heat I guess. There are so many dealers out there that it is rare indeed if I get anything at a garage sale.

*No good flea markets around Houston; mostly new, cheap crap sold by Asians, for some reason.

*Antique malls often yield good fruit for me, but obviously more $$ than a garage sale. But I scored a Bali Hai Tiki Bob, one of my top Holy Grails, at a mid-century modern booth in an antique mall for $7.50! Their Haywood Wakefield was top dollar, but not their tiki! And a Witco tiki for $20 at a cool retro mall in Austin (they're onto Witco now, dammit). Smalltown antique malls can be fabulous, if a big-city dealer hasn't gone through before you. It takes planning to schedule antiquing time on your trip, but it is usually very worth it. I get lots of stuff this way.

City-wide garage sales rule, if you can get in early. My school where I teach has the biggest in the city, and as a teacher, I get first dibs (after the moms working it). Not much tiki (the parents are too young to have had cool tiki stuff in the past), but they're rich enough to take trips to Hawaii and Tahiti, then later sell their souvenirs. Big church garage sales are rich hunting ground, again if you can get in before the dealers.
My fave: crappy resale/junk stores. They just wanna get rid of the sh*t and don't take the time to look it up on eBay. They'll occasionally way overprice some stuff that they think is valuable (why are ALL oil paintings "valuable"?!), but if they're clueless about tiki, you're in luck. These stores close frequently, though (for good), so I have to keep on my toes, screeching the brakes if I've passed a new one that's popped up to take another's place. I get great "trader" style stuff here, like giant pieces of coral for $20.
And yes, the occasional eBay if it's something very very special that I will never find in the wild or at an antique store.
But there's nothin' like going to the source: the very tiki temple itself. My mugs from the Mai Kai, the Kahiki, Trader Vic's, the Spanish tiki bars - honey, there's nothing better than buying it there! And I buy a helluva lot at every tiki event, be it new carvings or old goodies that someone like Basement Kahuna wants to get rid of to make room (and money) for more stuff for himself.

Best advice? Live where other tiki collectors don't! But then you don't get to have them over to see your cool stuff and have a Mai Tai. I'd rather have the guests; it's all about the ohana for me :)
F

Post #306835 by Formikahini on Wed, May 16, 2007 5:19 PM