Daily Inspiration: Meet Nick Smola

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Smola.

Hi Nick, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
I started long ago when I was a young kid in rural Michigan, going to and “helping” my grandparents with yard sales. It became my job around 2011 with my uncle, who had also recently started as a full-time picker/antique dealer. My grandparents had been in the business for years. My uncle was a general contractor but quit that to pick full-time. I was bouncing back and forth between LA, and I’d often get work with my uncle when I needed to. I started doing it with him back in AZ and have been doing it since.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a smooth road?
Mostly smooth. There are big learning curves along the way. You have to know what sells and what doesn’t. Specific names and types of things move better than the same thing with only minor differences—marketing, displaying stuff. Cleaning and restoring it all takes a good while to learn.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
For as long as I’ve been doing this, I’ve always been really into vintage/antique tools. Something about how they were built, how they were made to last, and how they built so many things; I especially love blacksmithing tools. While I’m no blacksmith myself, I have dabbled in it to get an appreciation for it. I’ve sold tools hundreds of years old, properly cared for, and not scrapped/thrown away. They will last hundreds of more years. I also especially love old advertising signs, tins, and anything that used to grab people’s attention back in the day. Some of it is so unique and colorful, and then you add a little patina to it, and it’s almost like an art piece. Another thing that I’ve been into is oddities and other unusual stuff that doesn’t fit into the antique malls.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Things are constantly changing in the antique world. Trends come and go; things get hot and cold. I can’t guess what’s going to do. But I know that people my age and younger are starting to go into the antique malls looking for stuff from our childhood, the late 80s, and 90s. I know clothing from that era does well, and certain other memorabilia. Who would have thought VHS tapes would come back? They are, just like how vinyl resurrected in the last 10+ years. Things will also phase out. Hard to say what will just have to see where the trends go.

Pricing:

• Merchant Square – booth L3
• Call it New/Call it Antique – booth F23
• Terror Trader – Sales from the Darkside events

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/abadonedantiques
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abandonedantiquesaz/
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/abandonedantiquesaz

Image Credits
@casketcontents (for the first photo of me standing on the anvil)
@crowdedfunhouse (for the last photo with me crossing my arms with the table behind me)