My mom and her sister were pickers before it was cool to be a picker, but back in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s they were called gypsies. They would go out picking Monday through Friday hitting garage sales, yard sales, basement sales (in the winter), thrift stores and just about any other way of finding treasures you could imagine, and resell their finds on the weekends at the flea markets or as called in some areas of the country, swap meets. Back then thrift stores were a great source for finding unwanted treasures people would donate, but now every thrift store, especially the Salvation Army, has at least one person on staff with a little training in antiques and collectables. The Salvation Army by me has a whole section that has better antiques and collectables than some antique stores I've been in, and to tell you the truth the antiques and collectables at the Salvation Armies I visit in my travels are priced higher than most antique stores, but I still manage to pull a missed treasure or two out of the Salvation Army ever now and then. I do it at sort of a hobby, and sell 90% of the goodies I find on eBay. BTW Pancho, just ordered a couple items from Amazon through you're web site.