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There's nothing like Brimfield, from Native Americana to indie filmmaking
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There is nothing like the Brimfield antiques show. It comes around three times a year, in May, July and September and goes from Tuesday to Sunday of each session. This year, as I usually do, I made all the shows. I spent the most time at this September one especially on the closing day. I love closing day, because people are most serious about closing deals.
(For a more in depth look into my September Brimfield adventure, listen to my upcoming episode #81 of the AuctionWally Show. )
I did some buying as usual, and brought some things to wholesale to dealers. Among the things I purchased were a large lot of antique and vintage photos, a huge lot of sheet music, some newer jewelry for the holiday season, and a few other miscellaneous items.
Among the things I sold were a monocular I got out of a house lot buy, a primitive chopper, a Murano glass bottle and the most bizarre painting I've ever had. The painting was a bittersweet sale. It was one of those things that I had for a long time with the intention of selling it, but hadn't gotten around to it yet.
Now if any you reading have become familiar with how I buy and sell, either through my podcast, or my column here, you know I don't get attached to things, nor do I collect very much for myself. It's always been all about the "hunt" for me.
But with this particular item, for one reason or another, I held onto it for about six years. I normally don't like to have anything in my inventory for more than two weeks, so this became like a family member. I made the deal with an Adirondack Mountain antiques dealer named Joe and we ended up shooting the breeze for about an hour.
Joe allowed me to take photos of his excellent collection of Native Americana and agreed to be a guest on the Auctionwally show in the future, so I was able to squeeze extra value out of the deal, as me and the painting parted way.
Brimfield is like that, you'll find folks whom you click with and the jaw session begins, sometimes they go on longer than intended, but this most often happens when there's a deal to be closed.
To me, the most interesting thing about Brimfield is the characters you'll meet there, and the education you can get from conversations with them.
Once such interesting person I met was Chris McCallion of upstate NY. Chris is the filmaker who produced Moth Balls, a comedy about the antiques business that was filmed in Brimfield over the last few years.
Chris has been entering the film in festivals and took 2nd place in the comedy category in Traildance an Oklahoma fest, and also placed 2nd in a Georgia festival. I was fortunate enough to attend the premier of Mothballs in May of last year at the Brimfield show. The film had everyone in stitches and we laughed for an hour and a half straight.
Below is a clip about the movie:
When I caught up with Chris this year to ask about the distribution of Moth Balls, he told me that he's looking for a professional to edit down the final cut. As an Indie filmmaker, he's on a tight budget, but does have funds allocated for the job, and he's willing to give up some equity in the film if he finds the right person.
He asked me to put out some feelers, so if you know anyone that might like to investigate this opportunity further, contact me at wkolenda@gmail.com. Chris says there are about 75 hours of footage to go through.
There's nothing like Brimfield! See the slide show below for finds and prices.
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