Yesterday, while killing some time before heading to the theater to see Oz The Great and Powerful, the Nerd Cave Family pulled into the local antique mall. You probably have at least one in your town. The massive steel building crammed from floor to ceiling with junk, treasures, and everything in between. Like most, this particular store is made up of dozens (if not hundreds) of booths belonging to dealers of everything under the sun. If you’ve ever been to one, you know that one person’s definition of “antique” or “collectable” is often much different from yours.
I don’t usually get excited in these places as they don’t tend to have the kind of things I collect or gravitate towards. But after a brutal day at work on Friday, my luck pendulum must’ve swung to the other side for me. As I was walking past a bookcase in a cluttered corner, and generally keeping my eye on the kids to make sure they didn’t avail themselves of the “you break it you bought it” policy, I glanced at the bottom shelf and spotted this…
Lovecraft At Last hardcover
Not only is it a book I don’t own, I’ve never seen it before, and this copy is like new. I grabbed it and opened the cover to find the price. I expected it to be some exorbitant amount…alot of these dealers aren’t exactly grounded in reality. To my surprise, I found $10.00 penciled lightly. SOLD! Out of curiosity, I looked the book up on Amazon and while there are several copies for sale in Amazon Marketplace, the cheapest one is $40.00. From that point on, I was a happy nerd.
While there, I noticed a ton of old (and not so old) Coke bottles. I’ve been wanting to get one with the intention of converting it to a Nuka Cola bottle from the Fallout video game franchise. Found an 8 oz. bottle from 1995. It was a NASCAR commemorative bottle with Todd Bodine on the label. I guess it’s not in high demand (sorry, Todd) since it was on sale for a buck. I picked it up and this morning, I printed a Nuka Cola label off the Web. The label on this particular bottle was painted on (versus a paper label) and paint thinner didn’t dent it. For some reason, I thought to try Tenax-7R plastic welder (aka liquid cement) and it melted the label right off. A few minutes with the Tenax (do this outside for ventilation) & Windex, and I had a perfectly clean, marking-free Coke bottle. I applied my label & cap stickers and ended up with this…
Nuka Cola–Radiation never tasted so good!
Not bad for about 10 minutes and $1.00 if I do say so for myself. So, if you can wade through the crap and keep a sharp eye out, there’s always a chance you’ll spot a nice find for your own cave at the local antique mall. Stay nerdy my friends…
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