October 30th 2017: the Terryville Road Stionary Store

I passed this store randomly one day 4 or 5 years ago and as the area looked a little old, I decided to see what they in regards to Halloween Decorations. Back then I found old Hallmark and Eureka brand decorations for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I do not think I went back for other holidays.

As we were in the area this past Monday, I suggested we check there and boy was that a good idea. Check out what we found:

The store had since been sold to a 3rd owner (when I had been there last, a childhood employee of the original owner had bought it) and had shifted it's focus towards other types of merchandise. This saddened me a bit as this place when I was last here was truly a blast from the past. Now, it had undergone yet another change to survive the times just like it did years ago by dropping it's Hallmark franchisee status. Seeing this made it all the more important for us to continue the hunt, who knows what else is still out there waiting to be bought...or thrown away?

Nolan and I will re-visit here later this month and in December to see what they have for those two month's holidays.

Stay tuned for our next video where we make another random stop to a store I had been to once before and re-visit one of our old favorites: Crown Cards of Ronkonkoma. It's been 11 years, can they still have old decorations there, stay tuned to find out!

October 30th 2017: The Hunt begins again!

Well, after a 11 year hiatus, Nolan & I return to hunting for vintage decorations, Halloween ones in particular.

This first blog entry is of our travels on October 30th 2017 and shows the less impressive finds along Route 112.

I had passed this card store a lot and hoped it's ancient "Hallmark Cards" sign was a silent indicator of hordes of vintage Halloween decor...but such was not the case.

Our next stop was another promising store along Route 112, but would it have Halloween decorations inside...

One thing we had learned throughout our travels was that for each Holiday, certain ones are harder to find decorations of. The biggest holiday to these stores was probably Christmas so those we typically find very easily, Thanksgiving being particularly sparse but Halloween a little more prevalent. So, we still need to check these stores out this month and in December to see if they have that stuff instead.

Here is the last store we went to along Route 112 and a theory of ours was proven true through the recounts of each store owner...

We had long since thought that since Hallmark decorations were amidst the other vintage stuff, it meant those stores were at one time Hallmark Card Stores. Well, after Nolan spoke to each of the Route 112 store owners he confirmed that fact. Each store had once been a Hallmark store, but when the times changed they had to change too. Hallmark does not permit the sale of Cigarettes, lotto tickets and other convience store products inside their stores and then had to drop their franchisee status to survive.

Being in the area, Nolan really wanted to visit Ronjo's Magic & Costume Shop that was also located on Route 112, so that was our next stop.

Not much in the way of vintage Halloween decorations, but a staple of the area and definitely a stop to check out and give your business to.

After a few disappointments, I was beginning to wonder if we had indeed waited too long and all the vintage stuff had either been sold or simply diacarded. Well, our luck was about to change. Stay tuned!

October 4th 2006: The Hunt Continues with Special Guest Lisa

Almost a week after our last foray into the world of vintage decoration hunting, we went back out to hit Slater Pharmacy a store that has been on Hawkins Ave in Lake Ronkonkoma since the 1960's. If any pharmacy were to have some vintage Halloween stuff, it would be this store.

But first, I needed to pick up Nolan from his house where he rented a room along with a few other friends, including one named Mike who hitched a ride with us.

Next we picked up Lisa (whom I think was trying for a full time spot on our show...) and headed to Slater Pharmacy and then walked to Agnew & Taylor (an ooollllld Mom & Pop Hardware store on the same road) for some reason. It was 11 years ago people, some things are just lost to time.

This was a random last stop as we brought Lisa home. Located in a shopping center on Hawkins Ave that has been there for quite some time, it had some vintage Easter decorations that past spring and thus was a likely candidate for vintage Halloween stuff. I had also determined it was at one time a Hallmark Card Store but changed over to a regular Stationary store aftwerwards.

Unfortunately my old camera had no light so visability is extremely limited even with the dome light of my 1985 Buick Skylark.

That was our last hunt in 2006, but I continued to hunt and find vintage stuff for the next 11 years; I just never recorded it.

Our next batch of blog entries will be showing Nolan & I in 2017 resuming the hunt for Halloween decorations. 11 years... my how the time flies.

September 30th: Halloween USA Finds with special guest Lisa

After hearing about our quest to find stores with vintage Halloween Decorations, our friend Lisa sugests a new Pop-Up Halloween store called "Halloween USA". Check it out:

Not a bad store by any means, but they did not have much in the way of vintage decorations. I am not sure if this chain of Pop-Up Halloween store is even still in business, seeing as Spirit Halloween Stores have swept the East Coast where I live.

But there are more hunts to come! Stay tuned!

(or just go to the YouTube channel and watch them ahead of me, either or.)

September 14th 2006: Halloween Decoration Hunt

Our very first hunt was back in September of 2006, I am shocked I went looking so early though. I guess some stores put their stuff out very early that year?

I had broken this hunt into 5 parts, first we had to stop at a local store so Nolan could get cash out of the ATM.

Next we headed for a cardstore in a small strip mall near the Nichols Road overpass and on Route 16 (aka Portion Road). Most of our stops today were along Portion Road also.

Our next stop was to a card store in the shopping center with Handy Pantry called "Crown Cards". I had been there before and this was one old Stationary store. Items from as early as 1982 were on their shelves and they had decorations to match, check out what we found:

Our last stop of the day was to a card store in the old Waldbaum's (then it was still in business) shopping center that I used to go into all the time with my Mom and little sister when we were kids. Since those days, the store cut itself in half and was no longer a Hallmark card store to boot. Recently this store has since closed it's doors, but on September 14th 2006 it was still kicking.

It was a trip to look back to 11 years ago and see just where we got a lot of these decorations that I still have to this day. Check back soon so see us go to other stores!

Blog Introduction: What the heck this is all about.

Hello and welcome to the Vintage Decoration Hunters blog! Here my friend Nolan & myself go out into the world in search of vintage decorations.

Wait- wha?? Yes, it is possible and we have videos documenting it. Typically we find Card or Stationary Stores that have been around for a long time (2 to 3 decades oughta' do it) and then visit them around the major holidays to see what they still have from years gone by.

Back then, Hallmark card stores were really trying to become One-Stop-Party-Shops but I guess customers voted with their wallets leaving a lot of un-sold product that was dragged in & out stores long after they shed their "Crown" status. 

At first I thought it had to be a fluke, just one store that still had stuff for whatever reason, but after checking several stores and seeing this happen several times in a row...I deduced this was not just a random accurance. Shortly after sharing this info, my friend Nolan wanted to go on searches with me and then to record and report on what we grabbed.

These next few blog entries link to the videos that we recorded on my old Sony PixelShot camera back in 2006 & then uploaded to YouTube. Back then videos longer then 10 minutes were not permitted and due to the time period, the quality is not the best.

After watching these videos, it prompted Nolan & I to go on another decoration hunt with a brand new camera to amswer the question that haunted us: could there STILL be vintage stuff out there that is now 30 years old???