I Buy WNY

I'm glad the warmer weather is here. This US Navy Extreme Cold Weather Mask from WW2 gets me some odd looks.

It's time for spring cleaning! It was a big year for watch finds - can't wait to see what I find this season.

I've found some old stuff, but these 1675 books are the oldest dated item I've bought. A century older than the USA!

Happy Father's Day!

It was a crusty cast iron kind of week.

This is me in a barn filled with tens of thousands of old books.
This is me doing what I love.

It was a blast finding this piece of history. Perfect for mining, demolition, or catching pesky roadrunners. I even got it to work! (Video in comments).

Pickin' season is kickin' off. Let me know if you're doing some spring cleaning!

BRING BACK BEAUTIFUL BOOKS

When you find hundreds newspapers from the 1850s and 1860s, you buy them! Instead of growing mold in a New York barn, they've gone back to their place of origin in Wisconsin. If you've got treasure that needs a new home - reach out!

We spend our days moving through a sea of objects. Most are impersonal and sterile, but some are alive with meaning and stories. This is an antique "Coltello d'Amore," or "love knife." Hand-made from bone and horn in central and southern Italy, lovers would decorate and exchange them, usually as part of betrothal and marriage. The blade reads, "Costante li sarò" (I will be constant) and features an image of the beloved. She and the knife's maker are long gone, but their love lives on hundreds of years later in this beautiful object.

Boo! If you've got piles of junk scaring you, contact me (no postcard needed).