By Maureen Stanton

ISBN-10: 1101516054

ISBN-13: 9781101516058

One dealer's trip from the populist mayhem of flea markets to the rarefied realm of auctions finds the wealthy, usually outrageous lifestyle of antiques and collectibles.

thousands of usa citizens are interested in antiques and flea-market tradition, even if as members or as audience of the perennially well known Antiques Roadshow or the new hit American Pickers. This international has the air of a lottery: a $20 buy may well internet you 4, 5, or six figures. grasp broker Curt Avery, the not going celebrity of Killer Stuff and a whole lot Money, performs that lottery on a daily basis, and he wins it greater than such a lot. sometimes he will get fortunate, yet extra usually, he attracts on a deep wisdom of America's prior and the unusual, attention-grabbing, and gorgeous items that experience survived it.

Week in, week out, Avery trawls the flea and antiques circuit-buying, promoting, and advising different buyers in his many parts of workmanship, from furnishings to glass to stoneware, and extra. at the floor, he's an out of this world candidate for an antiques broker. He wrestled in highschool and nonetheless keeps the pugilistic construct; he's gruff, humorous, and profane; he favors shorts and shoes, even in November; and he's remarkably beneficiant towards either rivals and buyers who desire a holiday.

yet as he struggles for a place in a high-end Boston convey, he needs to step up his online game and, might be tougher, slot in with a white-shoe crowd. via his ascent, we see the flea-osphere for what it actually is-less a lottery than a touch game with few ideas and lots of pitfalls. This wealthy and infrequently hilarious tradition rewards odd pursuits and outright obsessions-one broker focuses on shrunken heads; one other wishes the entire postal memorabilia he can get. So Avery needs to be a guerrilla historian and use his genuinely-earned wisdom of America's prior to stay through and stale his wits. simply the neatest continue to exist in a single of America's such a lot ruthless meritocracies.

Killer Stuff and lots of Money is many stuff: an insider's examine a culture replete with arcane traditions and excessive drama, an inspiring account of a self-made guy making his approach in a cutthroat box, a treasure trove of suggestions when you search out previous issues themselves, and a completely clean, brilliant view of heritage as blood game.