'Pickers' hunt for gems among the junk

By CAITLIN SKVORC

Frontiersman.com

WASILLA — In the picking scene, old books, bottles and cabinets often mean the most to those not old enough to have purchased them new.

Dozens of cars overloaded the Alaska Picker parking lot and those of adjacent businesses on a rainy Saturday morning recently for the antique shop’s semi-annual “Alaska Picker Day,” when the public is invited to peruse new finds that owners Kelly Turney and Becky Green have claimed from across the country. The shop sells “cool junk” year-round, but makes the big trip south in the spring and fall of each year to bring Alaskan collectors products they might not have access to otherwise.

Mat-Su College student Sierra Novak came to the event with her mother, Trudie Delano, and aunt, Patsy Peshel. While Delano and Peshel wandered the store looking for wares to refurbish Peshel’s home and start a future business called Patina, Novak played the pack animal.

“I’m not even sure what this is,” Novak said, holding up what she later guessed was a kind of multi-loaf bread pan.

Though antiques “have always been a part of my life,” she said, the lack of knowledge about and accessibility of such curious items in the state is partially due to the relatively short length of time Alaska has been part of the U.S., Delano said.

“We’re not old enough to have character pieces in the state,” she said.

Which is probably why so many Alaska residents showed up to the Picker Day, where they might get a taste for the outside market. Around 50 people were already shopping at Alaska Picker by 11:15 a.m., just 15 minutes after the store opened.

Two of those were lifelong pickers Jake and Holly Phillips of Eagle River, originally from Pennsylvania. The Phillips’ came out to the Valley for the event to see if they could find an early 20th century coin bank, an old, kitchy mailbox, or just a sense of home.

“I used to go antiquing all the time with my parents,” Jake Phillips said. “It was just something we did.”

The couple said they’ve found that similar events in the Lower 48 tend to have a bigger selection than in Alaska, but with the greater number of goods also comes the risk of replicas.

“Up here, what you get is usually more authentic,” Holly Phillips said. “People that go out of their way to buy stuff (down south) and bring it up here, they buy good, genuine stuff.”

Katherine Carlson and her new husband recently transferred to JBER from an Army base in Georgia. They thought Alaska more likely to have replicas, though they hadn’t been to many antique shops outside of Anchorage before, she said. And though they lamented the high prices in town, they were happy with their Valley finds: a globe and a Dwight D. Eisenhower campaign button for him, a stool and an old window for her.

“I have a passion for refurbishing things, so I like when an item is left in its original state and hasn’t been touched,” Katherine Carlson said.

Businesswoman Marti Steele, who owns the Rescue Rehab furniture store in Delta Junction, could identify with Carlson. She’s had the same reaction from her husband just about every time she’s returned from a shopping trip.

“My husband would always say I brought home an orphan chair or something like that,” Steele said.

She’s “always liked collecting,” she said, but, “it took a while to figure out” how to turn it into a business. In the last three years, however, she’s done business with Turney on several occasions, stopping by whenever she travels to the Valley to visit her son. It’s not always a business call to Alaska Picker, however — on this occasion, Steele snagged a few old cameras for personal use.

Martin Eldrid, another Eagle River resident, was newer to the prospect of picking. His wife heard about the event on Facebook — as did Steele, the Carlsons and the Phillips — and since they already had “some old stuff and antiques,” decided to head north for the day and look for items to add to the collection.

At around 11:30 a.m., Eldrid had a palm-sized globe and an old book — one of his favorite things, no matter the subject — under his arm. He had hours left to browse, but already knew he’d be back again another day.

“Now that we know how (picking) works, I think we’ll definitely come back,” he said.

Alaska Picker is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Monday by appointment. Visit the store at 5401 E. Mayflower Lane in Wasilla, or check it out on Facebook at facebook.com/akpicker to stay up-to-date on future picking events.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.