Secondhand Los Angeles: Your guide to how to sell, what to buy and where to go

  

This week in our print edition and online we celebrate all things previously owned. Short on money, buyers and sellers are starting to look to consignment as a more financially friendly way to furnish homes and unload old stuff. Valli Herman tells you how it's done. We also tagged along with "Mad Men" set decorator Amy Wells as she made the rounds of her favorite Pasadena vintage stores and convinced her to give us a list of the best places in SoCal to look for deals. (It's a very complete list. I recommend clicking, printing and keeping in the car for spontaneous excursions). For flea market lovers, our talented and efficient intern Kelsey Ramos dug into our archives to unearth a sampling of past flea market coverage, including an interview with Todd Oldham and a tour of the Pasadena Rose Bowl market. And in case you'd rather shop from your cubicle during office hours (something we never do ourselves) our style scout David Keeps has scoured the Web for the best online vintage shopping sites, and even pointed out some of the coolest stuff currently on sale. Happy hunting!

--Deborah Netburn

Photo: Amy Wells examines a decorative enamel, possibly by midcentury designer Harris Strong at Vintage! Vintage! Vintage!, a shop run by Susan Kotora, right, in the Pasadena Antique Center. Credit: Jay L. Clendenin.
 

Found at the Flea Market: Dishy clocks at Silver Lake Art Craft & Vintage

Back in the days when people explored the USA in a Chevrolet, they might've returned with commemorative state plates, meant more for displaying on kitchen walls than for serving supper. Crafty Stella Anthony, who makes and sells custom mosaic pet portraits, has transformed these vintage souvenir dinner dishes, left, and some sweet midcentury graphic designs, right, into cool kitchen clocks, priced from $18. Anthony can be found at the Silver Lake Art Craft & Vintage market on most Saturdays. For further information, email her at saamzplace@sbcglobal.net or call (323) 513-3478.

-- David A. Keeps

Photo credit: David A. Keeps