An investment in the stock market is a risk. An investment in an old wooden table isn't. Just ask Dick and Virginia Randall, owners of the Off-Broadway Antique Mall.
"When you look at these antique furnishings, the reason that they have become so desirable is because most of them are solid wood, and they've been around a long time," Dick Randall said, "and they've maintained their quality after being used for 50 to 100 years. Not only do they hold their value, they go up. We have pieces we bought 30 years ago and we see them in here today and they're [selling for] five or six times what we [paid] for them."
"It's not only an investment; We've been using [them] every day. A lot of investments people stick in a box, like coin collections. [Furniture] is going to be used every day, so it has a lot of utility," Dick Randall said.
"When my husband and I got married, we furnished our first apartment with furniture purchased at a farm sale," Virginia Randall said. "It was one of the least expensive ways you could set up housekeeping at the time. I started going to more auctions, and eventually discovered antique shops. I just love the quality. And I like the look of the older pieces, more so than the newer furniture."
The Randalls started the Off-Broadway Antique Mall in 1985 after Dick Randall came across an opportunity to buy a vacant lumber yard. The buildings needed tenants, and in the beginning part of the building was a flea market. Over the years, the antique mall came to fill the entire building, and now more than 50 dealers have booths where they sell everything from vintage furniture to vinyl records, from Barbie dolls to antique glassware.
A large portion of the Randalls' customers are dealers looking to buy items in order to resell them for a profit. But of course, they aren't the only ones interested in antiques.
"We have a lot of regular customers who buy for their own personal use," Virginia Randall said.
Shopping for useful items at an antique store is not the same as shopping at retail stores.
"Everybody has the same coffee maker, everybody has the same whatever," Virginia Randall said. "[With antique stores], everyone has crocks, but not every crock is the same; the color, the tint, the tone, the use, the wear. Even though you see clocks in every (antique) mall, or crocks, or jars, or whatever it is, it's not all the same. Each item has a little more individuality."
Beverly and Bill Bowling, antique dealers who run several booths at the Randalls' mall, sell antique furniture and glassware.
"I enjoy antiques, I enjoy going in and working at my booth," Beverly Bowling said. "I just love it. I get to go spend money, then make money. It's a real good hobby."
While many of her customers are middle-aged or older, Bowling said she sees a lot of younger people at the mall.
The television show "Antiques Roadshow" has stirred some interest in antiques over the past several years. This has created a kind of "treasure hunt" mentality among many collectors, Bowling said.
"I think shows like 'Antiques Roadshow' are not helpful," Bowling said. "It's misleading. In Muncie, Indiana, even if you have a piece identical to one in New York, you're not going to sell it for as much."
Often the importance of items depends on their sentimental value, Virginia Randall said.
"It's nice to have things appreciated. Sometimes they come through and they had a nice walk down memory lane, not intending to buy anything," she said.
Sometimes people don't want to admit that things they owned may be antiques.
"I had one lady, I think she was my age," Virginia Randall said. "She was walking up the aisle [leading to the desk], and I thought, well, something's wrong. She was just very determined. She came up and she put a book down on the counter and said, 'I will NOT have my high school yearbook in an antique mall!' She was not happy about that. So she bought it and left. Eventually we will all be there. We had a good laugh over that one."
Many people really seem to enjoy themselves while perusing the items in the mall, Virginia Randall said. Couples have danced in the aisles to big band music. Another woman admired a dress that reminded her of the one she wore on her first train ride during the 1940s, she said.
"I have the kitchen table and chairs that I set up housekeeping with when I was married in the '70s," Virginia Randall said. "In fact, I have the kitchen table and chairs that my grandmother set up housekeeping with. She was married in 1924. I have my mother-in-law's sewing chest; she got it in 1928. These things last. If you keep (items) handed down, ... that makes something even more valuable, because the memories and the stories that are attached to it add to the value."
"There's a kind of comfort; this has been around for all these years. People enjoy that little bit of history or memory," Bowling said.
"That's the thing about it. The history, the story, the family, the connection, the past that is carried into the future. That's what's really amazing about this stuff," Virginia Randall said.
With the advancement of mass production, the quality of items being produced nowadays is declining, both the Randalls and Bowling agreed.
"If it doesn't have quality, it's not going to last long enough to become an antique," Dick Randall said.
"This is a disposable society," Virginia Randall said. "When kids come to Ball State, when they're setting up their dorms, when their setting up their apartments, they'll walk away from their furniture. They only intended to use it for the time they were there, and then they abandon it and walk away."
When it comes to newer furniture and other items being made today, Bowling said he "can't see them lasting many years, or having any beauty then."
Individual dealers, such as the Bowlings', are responsible for providing merchandise for their booths at the Randalls' mall. Their dealers come from many different places.
"We have dealers from Kentucky, Kokomo, Albany, Winchester, Montpelier, Selma, Crawfordsville," Virginia Randall said.
The Randalls employ their young relatives as clerks.
"It's a benefit just to give the kids an opportunity to see how a business works. Every penny is accounted for, every penny has a purpose," Virginia Randall said. It's easier to show than explain the difference between owning a business and working for someone else, she said.
"All of our clerks are family members or friends. We recognize people have lives. They don't live to work, they work to live. We try to work around dealers' schedules, customers' schedules, and clerks' schedules. If you do that, everyone's happy and content and it's a really nice place to be," Virginia Randall said.
"And coffee's free on Sunday."
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