Scott’s Antique Market – Our Visit

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I had heard about Scott Antique Market in Atlanta for years. Several of my friends in Dallas would make the long trip to Atlanta a couple of times a year to buy there and bring back their buys to resell in their antique stores. So we were excited to see it ourselves.

I must say that my first impressions were very positive. It made me feel I was back home in Texas. What really impressed me the most was the quality of this show since it held every month. Most monthly shows have a lot of flea market things in them. There is nothing wrong with that, so I’m not trying to put those type down.

my-wife-at-scott-antique-market1But most of the dealers would fit in very nicely at the better shows at Round Top. And you should know how much of a fan that I am for Marburger and the Big Red Barn at Round Top. I am sure that several of these dealers show at Round Top.

This Market Is Huge

It is hard to get a grasp at how big this show really is. You read that there are over 3000 dealers and you think, that is a lot of dealers. My friends said they shopped for three days. We mainly came to just check the place out to see if we might want to set up here ourselves. We brought some of our English antiques with us when we moved from Dallas to northern Alabama.

But European antiques are not popular in northern Alabama, especially at Dallas prices. And our prices are not high because we went to England and shopped carefully to buy our antiques and imported them on our own container. We also took people on buying trips which covered most of our expenses. We were known for very reasonable prices in Dallas.

I am getting off the subject which is Scott’s. At least 80% of the show was European, much like Dallas. That is why we felt right at home. The show is actually at two different locations, but very close to each other. It is held at the Atlanta Exposition Center which  are huge buildings, a total of 366,000 square feet. We looked for two days and we were not carefully shopping.Nell at Scott Antiqques

What Kind of Things Will You Find Here?

I said a majority of it was European. There is a lot of furniture, both French and English, as well as some American. You will find furniture in all price ranges. You can find barley twist occasional table under $200 and their was some high end pieces priced in the thousands.

There were many art dealers, maybe 30 or more, with paintings of all kinds. Most of it was in the $1000+ range although we found one dealer with decent paintings under $500, most of it was English. She said she worked with several dealers there to keep her prices low. There were of course paintings in other booths, so if you are looking for original art, this would be a great source.

The same is true for jewelry. I wasn’t jewelry shopping, so I didn’t look at the variety and prices, but there were many dealers with just jewelry, everything from costume to high end. If you love jewelry, and I know many women do, you would love shopping here.

There were collectibles of all kinds. We saw lots of English Staffordshire and majolica, but there was just a huge variety of all sorts of things. I will try to show some videos that will help show some of the booths.

Scott Antique MarketWhat Are the Show Dates?

The Atlanta show takes place the second weekend of every month. Their web site shows the days of the show as Friday through Sunday, starting at 9:00AM. But we got there Thursday afternoon about 2:00 and there were many buyers packing their trucks with their purchases. So if you want the good buys, go early. The dealers start setting up inside at 6:00AM, not sure when they will allow buyers in, but I would try to be there by 8:00 or 9:00. The outside dealers set up on Wednesday, and there was some good stuff outside.

There is some junk for the junkers who like to dig. But generally it is a wonderful antique show. Of the two buildings, the north building was a little more high end, but the soth building also had some great dealers. The outside area at the south building was more of a flea market atmosphere. The area there called the garden center is similar to what you see on “American Pickers.”

Everything But the Kitchen Sink?

Nope, can’t say that, as you can see from the photo, there are even kitchen sinks. I took several photos in this area because I liked much of the stuff, like the giant gears and such. For those that like to repurpose things, you would enjoy digging through the things in this area.

There were several dealers that made lamps out of all sorts of things, mainly architectural pieces. I sold one dealer that had several lamps made Garden Center at Scott Antique Marketfrom metal horse heads, like you would find outside. Most of them already had sold signs on them.

In conclusion, we will definitely go back again, although I’m not sure if we will try to sell there. Our things were not quite the quality I wo9uld like to have for this show. Our prices are usually less expensive, but not enough unusual and “wow” pieces.

If you live within several hundred miles of  Atlanta and love antiques, you ought to check this market out. Atlanta is a great antiques town and there are tons of other places to shop there. I hope I have given you enough information to help you make a decision of whether you should visit there or not. Check out other articles on this blog, buying and Selling Antiques to see many other interesting places to shop for antiques.

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