When Steveston’s Al Kolleth looks around the merchandise in his store, Steveston Village Antiques & Collectibles, he can attach a story to just about everything.
There’s the prints of Steveston fishboats brought in by the son a local artist, who was clearing out the remainder of his late father’s collection. Then there’s the spinning wheel that dates back to 1857 from Pictou, Nova Scotia, that a local family acquired. And a set of single pane windows from a B.C. Packers building up on Moncton Street near where Bayview has been extended, that was saved before the wrecking ball heralded re-development of the site into residential and commercial units.
The background of each piece is what Kolleth described as the charm of what he does now after quitting his job as a civil servant this past spring and taking the plunge into the world as a picker and seller of mid-century odds and ends that have become desirable decorations that add instant nostalgia to a home or “man cave.”
“I worked in the finance department, collections, so it was a pretty negative environment,” said the former federal government and WorksafeBC employee. “I had to phone people and it was always negative conversations. But here, it’s great. People come in and educate me about the things they’ve brought in to sell. It’s just a lot of fun.”
Kolleth said he treasures hearing the stories behind each item that comes his way.
“I always ask for that because you want to know them, so you can pass that along to the buyer,” he said. While the store is a bricks and mortar-style enterprise, that wasn’t the original idea.
It was in mid-March that Kolleth decided he would chart his own course and it took a chance drive down Second Ave. where he noticed a for lease sign hanging in an empty storefront window.
He’d already been thinking about selling his own small collection of collectibles, built up after his mother passed away, but planned on doing that on eBay and Craigslist while staying at his day job.
“It was the first week of March, and I thought that rentals do not come up that often in the village. This is it. I’m gonna take the store.”
So, he went home, crunched the numbers and came up with a rough business plan that had him open up shop just a few months later.
“I gave my notice at work and left in mid-March, came here and totally renovated the store,” he said, adding he opted for a maritime theme with fishing nets and wooden pillars to complement the town and its history.
Now, he had a store space to fill and the “inventory” he had compiled wasn’t going to be enough. So, Kolleth launched into an intensive, month and a half of picking – scouring the Lower Mainland for goods, big and small, old and nearly new collectibles.
“I was out for six weeks and afterwards had everything packed in my condo,” he said. “One fella in Langley, he must have had about 10,000 items. And I made three trips out there.”
Some of the things he bought included a pair of ice skates dating back to the late 1800s, old rotary dial telephones and tobacco tins.
“There’s good pickings everywhere,” he said. “But what would happen is that I’d visit someone’s home to see what they had advertised online, then they’d take me out to their garage and I’d come out with 15 more items.”
He amassed quite a bit of stock, which included a lot from locals.
“Even in the Steveston area, there’s so much for sale,” he said.
Driving a good part of that has been the real estate market that has seen many long-term residents cash in on their properties and downsize into a new home that has no room for their collectibles.
“People have a lot of things for sale, because it seems like the young people don’t want them,” Kolleth said. “It’s the look. There’s a lot of talk about mid-century stuff — the wood, the quality of how something is built, the finish and the colour. It’s all pretty appealing.”
And now, since the shop opened in mid-May, people are coming to him with their goods, willing to do a deal.
“At the beginning, about 10 per cent of my stock was brought in. Now, it’s 50 to 60 per cent,” he said. “The word is getting out that I’m here.”
And that is good for business as his store adds to the collection of Steveston shops — thrift stores, consignment shops and antique emporiums — that deal in a similar market.
Bon Retour and Daisies Boutique deal in consignment fashions. The Richmond Hospital Auxiliary Thrift Store and SOS Reasure Cottage have all manner of goods. The Steveston General Store also stocks antiques and collectibles. And The Fab Pad focuses on mid-century furniture and décor.
“Now we have a few stores of this nature, so it’s no longer customers coming out here for one or two antique stores and some fish and chips,” Kolleth said. “People are coming because they know there a number of places dealing in this kind of stuff. That’s how Main Street (in Vancouver) started with their collection of antique stores.”
