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kitty likes out
Mar. 10th, 2013 01:21 pmLately the cat has been venturing out into the hallway. She likes to sniff around and sit on the carpet. We're hoping this will socialize her a little, but any sort of noise drives her back into the apartment.
Yesterday we were going to go to the Hobbystar Toronto ComicCon, but unlike previous years, when it was just a room full of dealers, this year they seem determined to turn it into a minature FanExpo. They have actors from The Star Trek and Lord Of The Rings actors and anime voice actors, and the one-day price was $25. That's way too much to spend for the privilege of buying comic books. Yes, the presence of "celebrities" actually drives me away; I realize that there is an entire nerd genre that can be marketed to and cashed in on, and whoopee for them, but just because I like old Harveys and weird giveaways and coverless Archies doesn't mean I have any interest in your space movies or your fantasy epics or your cosplay.
So instead we went out into the sticks to go junkin'. Went out to Courtland to an "antique warehouse" that is soon to close. And rightfully so. It's a big building that used to be an old grist mill; it's a large space and nicely refinished inside. What it doesn't have is antiques. There are lots of repro tin signs and modern stoves repro'd to look like old stoves, and fakey cottage decorative stuff, and precious little in the way of actual neat old stuff. Lots of great old signage that is not for sale. I'm sorry they're closing, but it needed more antiques and less warehouse. Luckily for our junking purposes, just down the road is another antique shop, also in an old industrial building, that is not as represented on the internets but has much better stuff. For instance, this horrifying clown mask.
they also had a whole little table full of those little fake antique finish pencil sharpeners. You know the kind, little coffee grinders and spinning wheels and telephones and clocks and fans. And Arcadias, from Captain Harlock.
How and why the Arcadia (and the saucer version of Grandizer) got mixed in with a lot of antique objects, die-cast, finished, and equipped with a pencil sharpener, is anybody's guess. This was the first time in a long time I'd seen one of these in the wild.
We also went to Waterdown and their antique mall is open until 6 and the one Chinese restaurant in their tiny downtown - every tiny downtown has one Chinese restaurant - it was jam packed. We did NOT repeat our Pizza Hut adventure in Simcoe, but instead just got Mickey D's in Hagersville and then went on home.
Speaking of antiques, last weekend we went to this "antiques and collectibles" show up in Mississauga. $6 to get in and a reasonable amount of dealers. Scored a reasonably priced bag full of 60s era Harveys from one friendly lady (that is where last week's Stupid Comics came from) and some other interesting, if minor, stuff from elsewhere. One table had an unmarked cardboard box with some comics in it, mostly Westerns. I dug through them and picked out 4 that were of interest - a beat up Dennis, a beat up Archie, some kind of weird educational thing, and a beat up Dell Ben Casey. Then I looked around for the vendor. Nowhere to be found. None of the neighboring vendors knew where he was. So I put the comics down and we shopped some more. Before we left, we hit the table again and the vendor was back. I pointed out the four comics and asked "How much"? "$35" was his reply. Seriously? $35? I countered with $10. It's at that point that the guy should say $20 and I say "OK". But no, he just said "Sorry." So I put Ben Casey back on the table and left. I was kinda interested in the educational thing, but seriously, when I have to hunt for you, and when I finally find you, you high-ball obvious junk, I am not doing business with you. Enjoy your Westerns.
Yesterday we were going to go to the Hobbystar Toronto ComicCon, but unlike previous years, when it was just a room full of dealers, this year they seem determined to turn it into a minature FanExpo. They have actors from The Star Trek and Lord Of The Rings actors and anime voice actors, and the one-day price was $25. That's way too much to spend for the privilege of buying comic books. Yes, the presence of "celebrities" actually drives me away; I realize that there is an entire nerd genre that can be marketed to and cashed in on, and whoopee for them, but just because I like old Harveys and weird giveaways and coverless Archies doesn't mean I have any interest in your space movies or your fantasy epics or your cosplay.
So instead we went out into the sticks to go junkin'. Went out to Courtland to an "antique warehouse" that is soon to close. And rightfully so. It's a big building that used to be an old grist mill; it's a large space and nicely refinished inside. What it doesn't have is antiques. There are lots of repro tin signs and modern stoves repro'd to look like old stoves, and fakey cottage decorative stuff, and precious little in the way of actual neat old stuff. Lots of great old signage that is not for sale. I'm sorry they're closing, but it needed more antiques and less warehouse. Luckily for our junking purposes, just down the road is another antique shop, also in an old industrial building, that is not as represented on the internets but has much better stuff. For instance, this horrifying clown mask.
they also had a whole little table full of those little fake antique finish pencil sharpeners. You know the kind, little coffee grinders and spinning wheels and telephones and clocks and fans. And Arcadias, from Captain Harlock.
How and why the Arcadia (and the saucer version of Grandizer) got mixed in with a lot of antique objects, die-cast, finished, and equipped with a pencil sharpener, is anybody's guess. This was the first time in a long time I'd seen one of these in the wild.
We also went to Waterdown and their antique mall is open until 6 and the one Chinese restaurant in their tiny downtown - every tiny downtown has one Chinese restaurant - it was jam packed. We did NOT repeat our Pizza Hut adventure in Simcoe, but instead just got Mickey D's in Hagersville and then went on home.
Speaking of antiques, last weekend we went to this "antiques and collectibles" show up in Mississauga. $6 to get in and a reasonable amount of dealers. Scored a reasonably priced bag full of 60s era Harveys from one friendly lady (that is where last week's Stupid Comics came from) and some other interesting, if minor, stuff from elsewhere. One table had an unmarked cardboard box with some comics in it, mostly Westerns. I dug through them and picked out 4 that were of interest - a beat up Dennis, a beat up Archie, some kind of weird educational thing, and a beat up Dell Ben Casey. Then I looked around for the vendor. Nowhere to be found. None of the neighboring vendors knew where he was. So I put the comics down and we shopped some more. Before we left, we hit the table again and the vendor was back. I pointed out the four comics and asked "How much"? "$35" was his reply. Seriously? $35? I countered with $10. It's at that point that the guy should say $20 and I say "OK". But no, he just said "Sorry." So I put Ben Casey back on the table and left. I was kinda interested in the educational thing, but seriously, when I have to hunt for you, and when I finally find you, you high-ball obvious junk, I am not doing business with you. Enjoy your Westerns.
