The ninth annual Antiques in April show had a huge turnout this past weekend.
“Close to 1,000 people showed up today,” said Tom Ryder, Campus and Community Events coordinator at MCCC, on Saturday.
Roughly 1,500 total people attended the event.
The show was open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday in the Welch Health Education Building.
Fifty-six different exhibitors from Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio hosted displays to show off their collectables.
Exhibitors brought jewelry, furniture, photographs, books, dolls, coins, pins, and much more.
The show displayed several different home décor items and high fashion furniture spanning as far back as the eighteenth century.
Most of the exhibitor’s collectables were available for sale.
A different antique item was also raffled off every hour as a door prize.
“When you walk in it reminds me of my grandparent’s house,” said Jacob McLaughlin, Student Government president, who helped with the event.
Crowds of people walked from booth to booth in amazement at all the antiques.
“Some of the same stuff would be stuff you find in your grandparent’s attic,” McLaughlin said.
Among the many exhibitors was Norman Sauer, who was one of the few exhibitors at the show from Monroe.
Along with Ryder, Sauer also helped the planning of the show several months prior. He has attended all the MCCC antique shows since it began nine years ago.
“Every year this show gets better and better; it’s very impressive,” said Sauer.
He is the owner of Sauer Furniture and Antiques and is a certified personal property appraiser.
“I’ve been in the business for 47 years now,” said Sauer. “My dad was in the business, now me and my son.”
Mike Logsdon, from Grosse Ile, has been attending the show for over five years.
“It started out as a hobby, and then just went full blown,” said Logsdon. “I do about two shows a week.”
Logsdon collects an assortment of jewelry, kitchen ware, books and owns 6,000 different cuff links.
He finds his antiques from auctions, garage sales, other exhibitors and anywhere else you can find them.
“My most valuable item would be my diamond bracelets,” said Logsdon.
One item that caught people’s eye was a limited edition, first in series, Victorian tea, Mint Memories Barbie doll. Even with the 11 year old doll missing its Victorian tea set, it priced at $139.
Other exhibitors, such as Bob Dague from Medina, Ohio and Craig Perkins from Munith, Mich., agree there was plenty of advertising about the event and the crowd was great.
Many of the exhibitors collect their findings and antiques from auctions, flee markets, garage sales and yard sales.
Some even admitted that they do this to keep themselves busy after retirement.
MCCC’s culinary club, Club Culinaire, provided the refreshments for the weekend-long event.
