For nearly 40 years, Richard Dielschneider has repaired vintage radios from the pre-World War II era, including a 1933 Atwater Kent and 1940 Emerson.
While it’s difficult to find such radios nowadays, the parts aren’t as difficult. So Dielschneider, 80, uses his years of experience as an electrician to buy as many decrepit radios as he can find, fix them and sell them.
He’d like to keep some of the radios, but he always has a price, Dielschneider said. For the Emerson — the 1,500th radio he’s repaired — and Atwater Kent, Dielschneider charged between $300 and $400.
Dielschneider, of Portland, was one of roughly 200 vendors this weekend at the Clark County Antique & Collectible show. The show, at the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds, included antique collectors and sellers from throughout the Pacific Northwest who perused decades- or centuries-old items such as pop collectibles, vintage clothing, glassware, silverware, furniture, movie memorabilia, toys and sports relics.
Many of the vendors enter multiple shows or attend clubs where they, too, can collect items. They may enjoy the collections for a while, but selling them is the end game.
“When you get into this stuff, everything is for sale,” Dielschneider said of his hobby.
Bob and Penny Owen of Yelm offered a variety of items or replicas that dated well over 100 years old: a birdcage, knight’s helmet, studio camera, range coat and cap guns.
The treasures displayed over the weekend weren’t the only ones in their collection, Bob Owen said. “This is just a fraction of it.”
Rick Grim, 71, and Lloyd Beil, 70, have been participating in antique shows for roughly 40 years. The Lake Oswego men, like many at the show, use the events as a retirement pastime.
“His wife pays me to get him out of the house,” Beil said of Grim.
On hand throughout the events were appraisers to determine the value of various items. The appraisers studied more than 150 items in the two-day event.
“That’s a lot of people to talk to,” said Scott Singer, an appraiser. “I can roll over on the floor and go to sleep right now.”
The items they pored over ranged from $25 — a 1930s nurse’s pocket watch — to $5,000 — a bronze figure. But their evaluations are about more than price, said Robin Caton, an appraiser.
“Basically, this is for entertainment,” Caton said. “It’s so people can get a basic understanding of their items.”
As vendors prepared to close Sunday, a couple stuffed a bulky wooden thing they had just bought into a bag. It was a 1935 Western Air Patrol radio from Dielschneider’s booth.
The purchase, by Jason and Trista Martinez, highlighted the cyclical nature of antique shows. After being impressed by, but not purchasing from, Dielschneider’s collections at a previous show, they decided to make a deal Sunday.
“We kind of kicked ourselves that we didn’t buy it. We came to see if he had any more,” Trista Martinez said. “I liked the sounds and thought it was cool.”
