Once Upon A Suitcase (or two or three)

Okay, so as mentioned in another post or two, I love vintage suitcases. Some may say it's an addiction. It all started with just one. A small one. But that's all it took. I brought it home and put some of those reproduction travel labels on it. And I was hooked...hard.

Since then I've even managed to get one of my friends hooked as well. We have very different suppliers though. I usually get my fix at thrift stores. While she's more uptown and will often get hers from eBay. Although she has bought a few off of me as well.

Yep. I'm not just a vintage suitcase addict...I'm a dealer. I sell them to help pay for my own habit when I need a suitcase fix. Even though they're smaller I personally find the little train cases (also called cosmetic cases) give me the sweetest high when I spy one.

Over to the left you can see a pic where the light is being shed on some of my scandalous suitcase activities. Yes it's the truth caught in pixels by a digital camera. The one's shown here are for sale...by me.

One clerk at the thrift store where I'm a regular, after seeing me buy my fifth suitcase from the store in just a few months time asked me, "What do you do with all of these suitcases again?" Another time when I was leaving the thrift store with one of these suitcase finds even the assistant manager, Dan, mentioned that my behavior...constantly purchasing old suitcases...was very "suspicious."

People see me carrying suitcases, always different ones, from the car and into my home, or from the car and into the store I sell them at and they ask me..."Are you going on vacation?"

I've gone beyond just suitcases though. Other cases catch my fancy as well. See in the pic I posted...the little mini brown suitcase on top and which the lamp is sitting on really isn't a suitcase, It's a barware case (probably had a martini shaker and such in it, for making your drinks shaken, not stirred). But it's cute. Cute!? See what a problem this is for me? Thinking cases are cute? It's a serious problem indeed.

But even worse, you may have seen the rusty old tool box in my previous post too. Yes, my habit has spread to old tool boxes as well. I've managed to keep only one of them at home for myself though. The others I'm trying to sell to other fanatics like me. I met another box and cases addict recently and didn't even have to sweet talk her into buying one of my toolboxes. She looked longingly at another as she left the store. I've seen it before. She's a hardcore case addict. She'll be back.

And though I don't own any myself, I've caught myself looking longingly at old steamer trunks and other old chests. There's even an old cardboard footlocker at the store I sell at with a soldier's name stenciled on it with rusty hinges that taunts me sometimes.

In my own room I have a stack of about five of these babies sitting at the foot of my bed (they store my collection of vintage linens. Ah, the vintage pillowcases, the dozens of them I have...uh, that's another story). The suitcases in my room are all blue...blue is a more common color when it comes to vintage suitcases I have found. Or maybe that's just how it is in Cedar City. Brown ones are more popular sellers. Maybe because they give off a more sepia toned, old world, Hemingway vibe. I save the best stuff for my customers. And keep the more common ones for me. Except now and then when I find a sweet one I just can't let go.

Heed my warning and beware the lure of vintage suitcases.