Friday, May 1, 2009

Renninger's Kutztown April Extravaganza



Well I made the trek across Ohio and PA to Kutztown to attend the much touted extravaganza opening day. Some of the hype on the web page is true. There were a line of dealer vehicles backed up waiting to get in to setup.


It had rained on Wednesday and I was expecting a mucky field but walking was fine. The photo from their website is pretty accurate, other than there weren't that many cars in the lot. I'd say there were at least 200 dealers and a whole other set on the white building upper left of photo. The inside dealers sure have less than ideal conditions. It was dark, dank, crowded and dirty, but they had foot traffic. !st place I have been in the US where the restrooms had a tip tray set out in the building and for the port-o-johns outside, But they were being attended to and for the number of people clean.


I was disappointed at the pickings. Nothing New--meaning--different that I find at home. Prices were sometimes a tad high--that I attribute to the buyers from NY and NJ. It was only about 110 miles from NYC. One big difference was the dress of the attendees--sure there were those of us in jeans and athletic shoes, but many were dressed in the casual city shopping mode.


I did not score much here.


So off I went on one of the side roads towards Reading. Found 2 so called antique stores/malls. One was pretty much junk the other had nicely setup "rooms" found a few bargains like a "chalk" Afghan hound about 18 inches tall.


Headed on towards Harrisburg with a stop in Hershey--the roads are paved in chocolate--or at least the appearance of a rich cocoa on Chocolate Ave and Cocoa Ave. The aroma of milk chocolate was in the air near the Reese's plant and the large Hershey plant. The top of the light posts were Hershey kisses, some wrapped some unwrapped.


Spoke with the owner of a small store on the road down into Hersey and she said friends have told her even Brimfield had gone down-hill.


After a serious misdirection on return I did have time to stop at the I-76 Antique MALL at the Ravenna exit.

Very nice place, clean restrooms, enough staff to be helpful. McDonald's and 2 gas stations at the exit! Anyway I spent about an hour and a half here and found the inventory good and prices even better. I picked up a rataan/bamboo vintage 50's serving cart that I should be able to resell at double. Glass items, pictures were plentiful. There were 2 young men probably late 20's very early 30's wandering around looking into the showcases for toys and lunchboxes. So it appeals to a variety of shoppers.


As usual every road that could be under construction was with lane closures and redirected lanes. Made good time as traffic was mostly light for weekday and highest gas was $2.15 on the turnpike.