Yankee Trader, Denver Colorado

Today I'm joining Diane of A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words in "Second Time Around Tuesday."

We are supposed to display our second hand treasures, but I'd like to show a whole store of antiques and memorabilia that I discovered on a recent trip I made to Denver, Colorado where I was visiting my son, daughter-in-law and baby grandson.

Located at 4000 Tennyson St. in Denver, Colorado, Yankee Trader is an antique and memorabilia store that was fascinating to visit!

Here are some photos of the front window displays. All photos will enlarge if you click on them so you can see more detail.

Originally a Ben Franklin Five and Dime Store, owners Mike and Sherilyn Thompson have made Yankee Trader a department store of antiques in the 5,000 square foot historic building. The Yankee Trader is heaven for collectors and has a particularly extensive array of toys ranging from the 1800's to the 1970's, encompassing everything from die-cast vehicles, mechanical toys, western themed toys, to vintage board games. There is an entire wall of shelves, top to bottom, filled with all types of cars and trucks, including bright red firetrucks. You could spend weeks at Yankee Trader and still not see everything, but I tried to take a few representative photos of some of their collection. It is very large and stocked from floor to ceiling with fun items of yester-year.

The 1930's green metal Little Orphan Annie toy stove in the window was selling for $ 225, and the vintage fire truck pedal car was marked $650!

The 1960's Ideal Kissy Doll was $160, the JKF needlepoint was $50.

Some original metal advertising signs and automoblia items.

Everything in this display was Coca Cola related. The tin trays on the bottom were commanding high prices -- the 1927 soda jerk tray on the left was $800 and the 1940 fishing girl ray on the right was $350!

I won the exact same adorable antique Willie and Millie F&F Mold and Die Works, Dayton Ohio, salt and pepper shakers last year from Lisa Retostyle blog! It was a surprise to see another pair in perfect condition!

There were cases and cases of antique toys, cars, dolls, doll houses, erector sets, tinker toys, pedal cars, cap guns, train sets, etc., etc.

Everything was well categorized and carefully arranged and displayed in locked, numbered cabinets or glass display cases. If you wanted to examine anything Mike or Sherilyn would be happy to open the case for you.

Yankee Trader is open seven days a week; Monday through Saturday from 10am - 5:30pm and Sunday from 11am - 5pm. They also participate in First Fridays Denver Art Walk on Tennyson Street when they stay open later.

All kinds of cute cookie jars!

It was fun examining the vintage food tins, some of which I remembered. Are you old enough to remember Log Cabin syrup served in a log cabin tin can? What about Durkee spice tins?

Beautiful glassware arranged by color.

This box of Pez containers made me smile! I wish I had the ones I had as a child, but I have saved some of my children's favorite Pez containers.

This display made me feel old -- there were Herman Hermits and The Monkees trading cards in it, similar to the ones I once owned, and other items from what I thought was not such a distant past, but are probably rare finds today.

Lots of antique sporting equipment. I know my husband would have liked looking at the baseball gloves.

The store had so many old books! This was just one wall of them. I could have spent hours browsing through them. Next time I visit North Denver I'll plan a longer visit to do just that. Can you see any books that you would have wanted to buy?

There were separate holiday memorabilia display cases. Above some of the Halloween collectibles, and below some of the Christmas.

I remember we had the same pointed ear Jack Frost plastic figurines when I was a child, and the choir boys too! I used to take them off the tree and play with them.

More Christmas items. I loved the mercury glass ornaments.

There was a lot of beautiful antique Fenton Glass in this display and an expensive Heisey Glass"winger scroll" set that was selling for $665!

Look at all the wonderful John Deere replica tractor and farm machine collectibles!

This collection will make my son feel old -- it was full of "Star Wars" figurines, GI Joe, "He Man"figurines, and Transformer cars from the late 70's early 80's. I guess nostalgia sells no matter what age you are! I have some of these very toys stored away in my attic and garage as I didn't have the heart to throw or give them away. Who knew they'd become so valuable?

This was a whole room full of military antiques of all kinds.

There were also endless showcases of antique jewelry to choose from, filled with rhinestone jewelry of all colors of the rainbow, Austrian crystals, silver and turquoise, etc.

Walking through the aisles of Yankee Trader was like taking a trip down memory lane! It did not have bargain thrift store type prices, but that made me realize all the more that common and familiar objects from the past can become very valuable as long as nostalgia and their scarcity become factors.

I didn't buy anything on this trip, but next time I visit Denver I'll try to allow more time to browse the Yankee Trader Store and I'm sure something will come back to New York with me!

Please visit other "Second Time Around" blog posts through Diane's blog today and enjoy some wonderful vintage treasures!