This chronicle might have been titled 'The End of Innocence' or 'How Things Have Changed.' In any case, it provides an insight to the current state of the market as we collectors lust for good material, and as dealers scramble to find it. This is not about a show - it's about today's collecting world, and this collector's revelation in the middle of a major antique show.

Three years is a long time between expeditions - perhaps too long, I thought, as we blazed our way from northern New York State to Florida via I-90 and down I-75 for a replay of a saga from three years earlier.

Why Florida?

Florida has always been a productive source of material for my collection of ocean liner ephemera and artifacts, as well as for discovering 'neat' antiques generally. That's not surprising. My assessment is that seniors retire to Florida from the northern climes, and transport with them the most prized memories and mementos of their lives - including ocean travel. When it comes time to deal with their estates, their heirs and assigns in Chicago, New York, Boston, Milwaukee - and other places that get cold in the winter - give instructions to sell the Florida assets and repatriate the proceeds back to the deceased's survivors in the snowy north.

For the collector, this provides a steady flow of virgin material that has not been on the market for decades, if ever. In a mirror of the antiques market in the north, where winter sees the bulging of dealer goods, auction and other finds, the build-up in the stocks of Florida dealers occurs over the summer, as they wait for the flood of buyers who pour south in the winter. That's why November is this snowbird's preferred time to pounce.

The Extravaganza

Renningers has long been an icon in the world of antique shows, offering both regular shows and multi-day 'extravaganzas' with many dealers, in both Pennsylvania and Florida. The Florida venue has regular smaller weekend shows, plus blockbuster shows or "extravangas" with a reported 1,400 dealers on the third weekends of November, January and February.

In the past, we have flown down from the north for some of the January and February shows, coming in Thursday night for a Friday, Saturday and Sunday treat of sun plus antiques, and then flying back home Sunday evening. We were never disappointed. However, a relatively uneventful November 2007 experience in other parts of Florida, up to the time of the Renningers show in Mount Dora, gave us reason for apprehension.

First impact included the charming Miss pictured here, not for sale but used to attract attention to the dealer's booth. Equally outrageous - and for sale - was a life-sized robot, also pictured, created by Jeff McCarthy, who styles himself as "The Junk Artist," and was featured as such - along with his robot wannabee - in the March, 2007 issue of Style Magazine. Creating treasure from trash, as it were, Jeff offered this 'treasure' for $350.

Yes, there were dealers in traditional antiques and collectibles, but almost as many offering reproductions and kitsch. The flamingos and other decorative items offered by "Pirates of the Caribbean" were typical. After we heard a woman explaining to her friend that she had "one child's bedroom done in nautical and another done in a sports theme" and was now looking for ideas for another room, the hammer struck - these folks weren't looking for antiques and collectibles so much as they were searching for decorating materials. They didn't care whether their purchases were original or reproductions, as long as they looked good and created an atmosphere.

The demographics were fascinating. At postcard and stamp shows, it's unusual to see anyone - dealer or buyer - under 60. Rarely does one see a show billed as antiques and collectibles where the majority of the attendees are under 40. This show was the exception, and a number of the dealers mirrored the ages of the younger buyers. And judging by what they were carrying around, many of those younger buyers don't want antiques and they don't want collectibles - they want décor.

Yes, there were traditional dealers, a good number of them, offering a variety of traditional antiques. Putting all these apparently disparate aspects of Renningers together with the earlier stages of the pilgrimage gave me what I can only describe as an Epiphany.

The Epiphany

No longer will I complain about reproductions and instant collectibles. They are part of today's selling reality and the salvation of many shows that have lost some of their more traditional dealers to old age or electronic commerce. They are an affordable bridge for today's younger generation, a bridge to an appreciation that will hopefully be more finely tuned over the years as their knowledge and their budgets expand. As long as something new is not being passed off as something old or collectible, I no longer have a problem with the situation. The fact that I might have no interest in it doesn't make it wrong for someone else to buy it. The antiques and collectibles world is changing, and it's not all due to the Internet. In a search for traditional antiques and collectibles, there is a far greater degree of uncertainty of success than there was in the past. Depending upon what you collect, and the extent of your specialization, you may find something - or nothing - to add to your collection at distant malls and shows.

Rather than traveling thousands of miles and spending thousands of dollars to make that journey to distant places, you may prefer to spend the money on a few "sure things" at a show or dealer within a day's drive, or in the world of electronic commerce. If you're looking primarily for décor, you'll have lots of fun, and if you're looking for antiques...well, you never know!

John G. Sayers is a member of the Board of The Ephemera Society of America and the Executive of The Toronto Postcard Club. He has been a keen collector of ocean liner material for many years, and can be reached at jasayers@saybuck.com.