Post #503360 by woofmutt on Sun, Jan 10, 2010 8:00 AM

It's not just an awareness of value or the presence of more shoppers,***** vintage Tiki has thinned out because stuff comes to junk shops in waves based on the decades when it was first acquired. The waves are created by people closing up the family homes in order to move somewhere smaller (condo or plot).

Non-Tiki stuffs from the Golden Age of Tiki are just as hard to find in the wild. I haven't come across a piece of Franciscan Ware in a junk shop in years. In general finding any cool bits of pop culture or household items from before 1975 is rare now.

In my area (Seattle) the Conquistador Living Room Conquest arrived on the thrift shop shores right near the end of the Easy Tiki Score era. Back then I came across so much giant rustic wood furniture and huge plaster helmet lamps that I wished I had a house big enough to make a room of it. (With some red and black wall to wall shag and black velvet flocked gold wallpaper, of course.) It's been a couple years now since I've seen a Spanish made chain and wood wall sconce.

Even the Great Owl Migration has thinned out. Where once the shelves groaned with the wise gaze of the owl cookie jar or lamp barely a spoon rest or S&P set can be spotted now.

***** The junks shops have been busy lately, but most of those folks are people who are addicted to shopping for shopping's sake. They're usually pawing through the clothes and shoes.