Antique store denied sale

Has anyone had any experience at antique stores where they denied you sale of a razor?

I walked into an antique shop a few weeks ago and saw a Gillette Slim in decent condition. I asked the man how much he wanted for it. He said, "Oh sorry. That's not for sale. I'm going to use it for a movie I'm making."

I said, "Sure, no problem." And walked away.

 

Nope. That is rather thoughtless of them - if it ain't for sale, take it off the sale floor.

 

(You) "A movie? What a coincidence! I'm actually scouting an antique store location for the next Spielberg movie. Regrettably, this one isn't quite what we're looking for. Thanks."

 

Agree.

 

I have an antique store downtown where I am that does this on a regular basis. They will have stuff out that is not priced and then say it is just for display and not for sale. I finally asked why the heck would they put it out there as "display" and not sell it and his response was that it was stuff that brought people in and made them look around and hopefully they would buy other stuff. I have not returned.

 

I had a similar situation. I walked into a Jewelry and Coin store to buy some silver. the guy had a bunch of silver in the showcase but he told me he only buys silver and doesn't sell any of it. I thought he was joking but he was dead serious. what kind of jewelry and coin store doesn't sell silver jewelry or coins??? needless to say I walked out and haven't been beck sense.

 

Sounds like a money laundering place lol

 

Ditto.

 

I'd say, "If you want to open a museum, call it a museum."

 

I can understand not wanting to sell large shelving used to contain and display items, but not this.

Well it has to be from something else other than that Slim.

 

he's just trying to jockey for position.
everything is for sale.
he just wants you to beg.

 

never had this happen....any antique store i have been in is very clear about items that are not for sell.

 

"Welcome to our Rolls Royce showroom. Of course you can only buy the Chevys on the lot, the cars in the showroom are only to lure you in to buy the Chevys."

 

That is definitely the way it should be to run a decent business. Most of them operate this way but unfortunately I have seen the other.

 

Does anyone here besides me have an appreciation for the fine arts?

 

I have the feeling this is it. He likes his stuff too much to get rid of it. Should have just rented a storage space.

 

I'm in with @IDuck .
I've never been in an antique store where items not for sale haven't been clearly marked and/or in a special area.
Usually it's part of the store owner's special collection and typically it's something worth way more than my pay grade but it's fun to look sometimes.
And I'm sure if I owned an antique store I'd have a few of my treasures out for display.

There's one antique mall near me where part of the "museum" space includes a very, very, nice straight razor that I always check to make sure is still there. Another store I frequent has a couple of beautifully restored gas pumps that I could never afford and they're not for sale but I still like to imagine them in my Jay Leno garage displayed next to my million dollar car collection.

The only trouble I seem to have with antique stores is sometimes a vendor forgets to put a price tag on an item and it happens to be something I'm interested in. Usually the staff will try calling the vendor and sometimes get ahold of them before it's time for me to leave but I have left a couple of nice things behind when the vendor forgot to tag them.

 

Someone please explain this to me.

For some reason, items that guys would tend to want to look at inside locked cases (razors, watches, knives, etc) often have the price tags deliberately face down or hidden beneath the item itself...whereas other items, the pricetag is clearly displayed. So to see how much it is, you have to ask a clerk to open it up.

I wonder if the seller uses this tactic as a form of hit count on their display cases? I cannot imagine any other reason someone would deliberately hide their price tags.

The clerks surely aren't stupid enough to do it; why put a price tag out of sight? You'll have to open the case for someone just to show them a price, whether they buy it or not.

No, it's got to be the sellers themselves doing this. Why?