Antique Shops

[chadleyj]

TO me, there is nothing more dissapointing than going to tons of antique shops looking for soakers, and coming up with nothing. However, I keep on going to more and more because I know there is always a slight chance of snagging a rare soaker for cheap. So, what is your opinion on going to antique shops for soakers? To me there's a difference between a thrift shop and an antique shop, at a thrift shop you have a more significant chane of seeing a soaker. What do you think?

[cantab]

Thrift stores, or charity shops in English English, accept donations, and as such will have all sorts of stuff. They usually have some toys, and there's a chance a soaker will turn up - but it's a bit of a slim chance. They'll likely have stuff in the back that's not on display, so it may be worth asking, especially in the winter when 'summer toys' won't be so easy for them to sell.

Antique shops, at least what I understand by the term, are likely to be full of old furniture and suchlike. While some soakers have 'antique' value, they're still rather young compared to most antiques.

Pawn shops are unlikely to have soakers I think. They tend to do small, high-value items like electronics. However, larger ones (eg some 'Cash Converters' in the UK) do a more diverse range, including toys.

I think a simple rule of thumb - if you see any toys, then it's a place that might do soakers if they get them. No toys at all is not a good sign.

[Silence]

I agree, "antiques" implies that they carry the wrong sort of products. If you're seeing furniture, not appliances or toys, I would try a different approach.

Have you tried garage sales/yard sales yet? Those are in effect the same thing but you should have more luck finding water guns there.

[Ben]

Antique stores don't seem to be the right niche so I extremely highly doubt you'll find anything. You'd probably have more luck at thrift stores and yard sales as previously mentioned. Even at those places there is a lot of luck involved, but people have and continue to be lucky.

I've never seen a good water gun at thrift stores, but I always look just in case when dropping by one. While it's unlikely that something will be there, you can get lucky, so it's always worth a quick look.

My experience with yard sales is similar but it still doesn't stop me from looking.

[DX]

antique stores - unlikely

thrift/dollar stores - somewhat likely

garage/yard sales - somewhat likely

trash/junk days - likely

^ From what I've seen so far. Never been lucky at a yard sale or in a thrift store, but I've been lucky at the curbside. CPS 3200, Speedloader 1000, and Blazer. Ditched guns tend to be broken yes, but most are easily fixable.

[Ben]

Heh, I forgot about trash in my page about finding old water guns. That's definitely worth mentioning. Thanks for bringing it up DX. I'll edit a bit in tomorrow.

[cantab]

All the rubbish round here goes in wheelie bins; if anyone did chuck a water gun it'd be buried in a load of other stuff :-(

Also, I don't know about the states, but in the UK I think it's actually illegal to take something from someone's rubbish bin unless they've said you can have it.

[Specter]

I believe the laws in the US vary by state/region but i'm not sure. I know by me, if something is in the trash/on the curb/in a junk pile, it's free game.

[Silence]

Right, DX was probably referring to junk just left on the curb. It isn't dumpster diving per se. People often leave old toys and furniture by the road to be picked up, sometimes with signs saying that it's free.

[cantab]

True. I've not often seen that around here. However, skips are generally considered fair game for taking stuff from, probably because unlike bins, they're unlikely to be use for identify theft. That's the main reason why rifling through a bin will probably get you arrested. Skips though are usually only good if you want scrap wood.