KENDYL WITTENRICH (VOICEOVER): Coming up on Keystone Stories.

Secondhand treasures.

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Welcome to Keystone Stories.

If you enjoy the hunt for secondhand treasures, Pennsylvania offers plenty of opportunities to do so.

Like here at Big Valley Antiques in Reedsville, buying pre-owned items saves money, helps the environment, and can be fun.

The best deals can be found at thrift stores and Yard Sales.

[music playing] LEDON YOUNG: We are at the Centre Hall town wide Yard Sale.

We have approximately 50 participants.

And we will welcome thousands of people at today's Yard Sale.

[music playing] KELLY WIAN: I used to come to this when my kids were small to get clothes and toys and things for them.

Now, they're in their 20s and 30.

And I have grandchildren.

So I've actually brought my granddaughters here a few times to buy some treasures.

[music playing] LEDON YOUNG: It is a way to recycle.

It is a way to pass on treasures to others.

And we're delighted to welcome folks to our town.

Thank you.

Have a great day.

JANE TAYLOR: This is a fun day just because of community gets together.

You see people you haven't seen for a long time.

We've been doing the sidewalk cafe for at least 20 years.

Thank you.

JANE TAYLOR: When it started out, the proceeds went to provide money for youth ministries in the church.

As time has gone on, we designate it toward various missions in the church.

KELLY WIAN: I started getting involved with Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child.

We packed shoeboxes that go all over the world.

It sends a tangible gift of love to children in war torn areas.

So what we started here with the church, I wanted it to be a year long mission, not just something in November.

So we've asked our congregation to donate things for the shoeboxes.

But then I came up with this idea of the yard sale because this is a huge draw for center hall.

So all of our congregation just donates stuff for us to sell.

We sell it and all the proceeds will go towards either things for in our shoeboxes or to cover the shipping on the shoebox.

That's all we have for the mission.

Thank you.

[music playing] LEDON YOUNG: My favorite story this year is we were setting up yesterday an 18 wheeler pulled over there.

Well, he gets out.

He comes back with three fishing poles [laughs] gets in the truck, and off he goes.

So when I tell you that we attract interstate commerce at the great town wide yard sale, we most assuredly do.

KENDYL WITTENRICH (VOICEOVER): Just up the road from Center Hall is an even bigger community yard sale, 100 miles of yard sale big.

The 100 mile yard sale is sponsored by the Kwinana Industrial Development Corporation, and it's been around for more than 25 years.

BARBARA LALLEMAND: This is just a really well-attended event.

We have people from all over the United States that come to this area.

BARBARA LALLEMAND: Yesterday, I talked to folks from as far away as Iowa.

CHRIS WILLIAMS: We had Alaska last year, the State of Washington, California, Florida, Montana.

BARBARA LALLEMAND: Michigan, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio.

CHRIS WILLIAMS: We actually had somebody from Quebec last year.

BARBARA LALLEMAND: People do travel a lot of "pickers," as you would say.

Most of them they come are around Lancaster, Pittsburgh, and Philly.

BARBARA LALLEMAND: Awesome people that I meet and have a shared interest of what I sell.

The Quehanna Industrial Development Corporation was started in 1990.

We hold a couple of events every year.

We hold an elk shed hunt, which brings people in.

They go out hunting in the Quehanna wild area for antlers.

We've actually had people tell us that they came to the yard sale, really liked the area, so they bought a camp or something.

So it's actually producing income in some way or another for the area.

BRIELLE MORGAN: I do like yard sales because people can take stuff that I don't want anymore, and put them to better causes for like maybe their kids or friend's kids and stuff like that.

BARBARA LALLEMAND: That's just the thrill of the hunt.

And when you find that one treasure, it's like, yeah, I found it.

[music playing] The one thing that I found was this box of dolls for $1.

And this one looked actually kind of possessed looking.

Her eyes changed colors as I found out her name was Blythe.

And I put it on eBay and got $450 for her.

That was probably my largest treasure that I bought not knowing what I bought.

BRIELLE MORGAN: So I'm selling my bracelets and fresh squeezed lemonade and sweet tea, and we have bottled water in the cooler.

This is my first time my friend gave me the idea of the bracelets.

I made them all by myself.

I think I had like 48 of them, and I've already sold three.

BARBARA LALLEMAND: I like vintage.

I try to find forgotten treasures, and then I usually repurpose them into others.

A lot of kitschy looking things.

Mid-century modern is really popular now.

Just nostalgia, I think, and the younger generations actually starting to decorate with things that we thought was junk of our parents.

It's fun to see all different age groups enjoying vintage items.

Thank you.

Thanks for stopping.

KENDYL WITTENRICH (VOICEOVER): Our final stop on our quest for secondhand treasures is a thrift store located in Snyder County.

So we're at CommunityAid located in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.

It's our most northern store of the seven stores we have.

We have stores in Hanover, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Mechanicsburg, Selinsgrove, York, and our newest one in Reading.

KENDYL WITTENRICH (VOICEOVER): In 2022, this 74,000 square feets of shopping was awarded the title of world's largest thrift store by the World Record Academy.

MATTHEW HEALY: This is the largest CommunityAid store we have.

We approximately have between $5,000 and $6,000 items that go on the floor daily.

So you never know what you're going to find.

It's always going to be different.

You can find anything here from a kitchen sink to a T-shirt.

[music playing] We do handle more than just clothing here.

We do pictures, housewares, shoes.

GERI BAGEN: Antiques, designer stuff like Coach Louis Vuitton, they go crazy for that around here.

I get a lot of vintage military stuff, a lot of vintage toys.

We just got an OG Star Wars set, which I was really excited about personally because I'm a huge Star Wars geek.

GERI BAGEN: I do a lot of pop culture, anime, Simpsons, stuff like that.

ELAS ALI: We put back.

What we get, we put back.

I have neighbors that can't afford to go and buy a microwave, but when they come here, they buy it.

You see what I mean.

But for a price that they can afford.

So it's affordable shopping.

MATTHEW HEALY: 99% of the items you find the floor here are from donations.

Once the donation comes to CommunityAid, it'll come through the donation door.

It'll be sorted and checked for quality as well as department and location.

ELAS ALI: I'm the electronics guy.

I test everything batteries, cords, whatever.

I make sure I could clean it.

If I can't clean it.

And it don't look good enough for a customer.

I won't put it out.

BRANDI NUNNALLY: We process $5,000 items a day onto our sales floor.

We sort all the donations that come through and make sure that each piece is to a standard before it goes out to our floor.

We do separate everything by gender.

So children's clothing, men's clothing, and women's clothing from the sorting portion of it, it'll go to our hangers and then it'll go to our pressers and they'll price it accordingly.

Those prices can start anywhere from $599 and go up.

And then it goes to our tagging station.

Our taggers actually tag all the clothing accordingly as well.

KENDYL WITTENRICH (VOICEOVER): While the people coming into the store are able to take advantage of the deals, it's the employees that get the most benefit.

ELAS ALI: I was away for many years in a system, and CommunityAid gave me a chance.

When I got out of the halfway house, I applied all around here, I couldn't get a job.

CommunityAid called me and I've been here ever since.

When I got here, I learned a lot about the core values.

And it helps me day by day to get through life itself.

MATTHEW HEALY: We truly care about our people and we really, truly want to create a better world around us, and we believe that starts from within.

If we can treat our people with genuine respect and love, then we can show that on our store front as well as be able to express that to our nonprofit partners.

GERI BAGEN: When I first started here, I was fresh out of women's addictions ministry.

I spent a lot of time in addiction.

They gave me a shot here.

I thought this was just a job.

I was wrong.

They helped me become a productive member of society.

CINDY ADAMS: I enjoy working here because it's just not a job.

I'm helping people out in the area.

I'm helping churches.

I'm helping organizations.

I'm helping children.

I'm helping women.

All the ones that don't have clothes on their back.

I really enjoy this place.

It's not just a job.

I'm helping people.

ELAS ALI: It's just not about a paycheck.

It's neighbors helping neighbors.

And that's what I put my effort into trying to give back to the community.

They gave back to me.

And I'm still here doing what I have to do each and every day electronics.

Have you ever considered shopping for second hand items for your kitchen?

In this next selection from thrift shop chef, we'll show you that items you may think are out of date can actually give you a unique approach to food preparation.

SATCHEL MANTZ (VOICEOVER): When you're in a thrift shop, you probably see all kinds of unique kitchen tools that at one time were used for all kinds of different processes.

An original tabletop cheese grater.

You may think these items are past their prime, but we're going to use them to make dinner.

That is so cool.

SATCHEL MANTZ (VOICEOVER): Today we'll use old culinary tools to create new and delicious meals using ingredients sourced right here in Central Pennsylvania.

I'm Satchel Mantz and this is thrift shop chef.

Before I can start planning my meals, I have to find the tools I'll be using to prepare them.

For that, we head to the Plaza center in Belfort for some thrifting.

So this looks pretty silly at first, but with a cast iron pan this size, this is absolutely ideal for frying eggs.

And cook a single egg in it, maybe over a campfire, or maybe on your stove.

And then right out perfectly cooked egg.

These are all cast iron.

And cast iron is incredible to work with.

The appeal of cast iron pans is they hold their heat for an incredibly long time, and distribute the heat evenly and consistently.

Most people immediately would see this rust and this pitting along the outside and inside as ruined.

That is not the case.

If you properly clean and heat and scrub these pans, this will become an indestructible non-stick pan.

A cast iron pan like this is perfect for cooking different kinds of meats and starches.

I'm thinking Ribeye steaks and fingerling potatoes for our first meal.

[music playing] I believe this is an original green bean slicer that was used to French cut green beans.

So basically what that means is that the green beans would be fed down through the top here to these blades on the back.

And you basically turn this.

And it French cuts your green beans as you feed them into the top here.

What a French cut green bean is that it's cut on an extreme bias.

So we pretend that this is a green bean.

It's going to slice that tiny green bean very finely on an edge, giving you what they call a French cut green bean.

Now, that I have my green bean slicer, today's dish, a Ribeye steak with roasted fingerling potatoes, a brown butter puree and a vegetable medley using our first thrift shop find, which we previously cleaned and sterilized.

Clamp it onto our table here.

And then essentially just it's awesome.

It's so cool.

You feed your green beans down in.

[music playing] So it's cutting our green beans into a confetti.

There you go.

That's great.

So next, I'm going to do the same thing I did with the green beans to our square cut carrots.

That is so cool.

In the culinary world, this cut is called a paysanne.

And I wish I could spell that for you, but I cannot.

But it's called a paysanne.

And it's this diamond cut on a bias, which I couldn't do this with a knife.

But this beautiful machine just did it for me.

It did it for me, which is great.

So I want to keep doing that.

So this is the cast iron we got at the thrift shop.

And as you saw earlier, it was caked in rust and old seasoning from whoever had used this before me.

So what we did is we took it and we soaked it with oven cleaner that got most of the crust off of it.

And then we used vinegar and water to remove the rust.

And if you saw the back of this, it looked like it was made of rust.

So the fact that you can get it to this cleanliness, and cook in it so easily, is incredible.

It makes any cast iron completely worth having.

And actually you can go to the website to check out how we did this in a little more detail.

So we're going to get this on the heat and get it heated up.

I wish you could taste it.

Adamstown, located in Lancaster County is considered Antiques Capital USA.

Throughout the area, there are dozens of places to find that special treasure you've been looking for.

[music playing] JASON DENLINGER: There's not many places you can go where you're going to have that many dealers, that many antique stores.

That's an everyday thing.

It's not like it's something that's only a big weekend.

This is every week.

This is just our lives around here.

Antiques are our life in this area.

AMY MCGEE: In Adams Antiques, we have a whole bunch of different things, a lot of eclectic, but specifically we have high end jewelry, primitive antiques, pretty much everything.

A lot of sports advertisements.

We sell vintage glassware.

It's called fenton.

It's from early 1800s into the 1900s.

And it goes for sometimes it goes for 20 bucks, sometimes it goes for thousands of dollars.

We occasionally do have television and movie people.

Prop teams come in.

We had someone filming for Adam Sandler.

So they came in, they bought a whole bunch of stuff for the sets and for all his movies.

[music playing] KENDYL WITTENRICH (VOICEOVER): In addition to what you may call typical antique stores, Adamstown is also host to some very specialized shops.

Well, if you're a Sci-Fi fan, everything in the gift shop here may be appealing to you.

There's books and magazines and toys, and clothing.

And, well, you name it, you'll find it here.

JASON DENLINGER: This is Vintage View Antiques.

It's a place where anyone who loves history and specifically photographic history can just kick back, relax, and take a walk down memory lane.

JOEL ZETTLER: Architectural antiques is a specialty, meaning old building materials such as doors mantels, antique stained glass, iron fence, gates, bars, pieces that can be used in a new house.

My customers come from all over the country.

I just had a fellow fly in two days ago from Brownsville, Texas.

He's interested in two of my antique bars.

I have another couple flying in Sunday from South Carolina.

He's an old customer, but he's specifically looking for a Gothic church castle looking antiques.

I've been doing this since 1973.

And the business was started very small.

My mother started this business in the back of a station wagon in a free market right up the road, which was called Sharps Grove.

Some of these pieces are one of a kind pieces.

You'll see other antique pieces that are similar.

But I'm specifically looking for the better, the more unique, the rarer because it's those items that most people would prefer and that sell first.

JASON DENLINGER: I've got photos and cameras from the 1840s till now.

[music playing] I've had some really cool stuff.

I've found things that I paid $15 for and sold for five figures.

You just never know what's going to pop up.

Photos are actually the majority of my business, believe it or not.

I look at photos as art.

Photography is art.

These people have been doing this for 175, 180 years.

It's been art for that long.

And I have bits and pieces of all of it.

[music playing] So I'm a retired New York City police officer.

And for the last 10 of my 20 years with the Department, I was on the SWAT team.

And I worked with the tactical robots that the Department had.

And about 35, 40 years ago now, my wife and I we're up here antiquing.

We come up here as weekend getaways out of Manhattan.

And one weekend we found ourselves in a toy store looking for something for my cousin's birthday.

And Margo spotted a little plastic robot in the toy shop.

It's one of them back there in the museum.

And she said honey, isn't this cute?

You work with robots.

Here's a toy robot.

I'll buy it for you.

Isn't that cute?

And she bought me a second one.

And then she bought me a third one.

And had she known my obsessive compulsive personality better than as she found out later on, she never would have bought me that first one because it just got way out of control.

There are 3,000 toy robots back there in the museum now.

Well, the museum actually is self-guided.

When I was putting it together, it was mostly plastic robots because that's what I could afford.

KENDYL WITTENRICH (VOICEOVER): Photos, cameras, bars, gates, and robots.

This career is a lot of work.

And for most of these vendors, it's more than just a job.

JOE KNEDLHANS: It really is a labor of love.

The profits, when there are any, come from whatever I sell out here in the gift shop.

Admission to the museum is free.

JASON DENLINGER: It runs the gamut.

I have Polaroids that are really cool.

I have daguerreotypes, ambrotypes.

Every type of photography there is, I have it here.

And I just love it [laughs].

Not all secondhand treasures are in antique shops.

You may have an item in your home that holds value that you may not be aware of.

This next section shows you that maybe you should fix it.

Don't nix it.

TIM: These are family heirlooms.

They're passed down for generations.

I like that history.

And I like bringing them back to life.

[music playing] MIN XIAN: I understand that you have a broken pocket watch.

Can you tell me a little bit about it?

Sure.

It belonged to my great grandfather, and then was passed down to my grandfather.

He passed away in 1939.

As far as I know, I've never seen the watch run or heard it run.

My grandmother told me that when her children, my father and his brothers and sisters were little, that they used it as a teething.

That when they were teething, my grandfather would pull the watch out and let them chew on it, put it in their mouth to soothe the gums where the teeth were coming through.

Yeah.

It's almost like an evidence of seeing everyone grow.

There are marks on the back that I was always told were from scratch marks and little dents from kids teething on it.

And now you're a grandfather yourself.

Now, I am a grandfather, and I would like to pass it on.

[music playing] MIN XIAN: I have the pocket watch with me.

Can you tell me what you see?

Well, it's an Elgin.

Elgin had a factory in Elgin, Illinois for hundreds years, 1864 to 1964.

And they produced more watches in the United States than any other company.

And we see some marks in the back.

What could those be?

There is one watchmaker mark in there where the watch was serviced at one time.

Typically, watchmakers put their mark in there that way they knew if they fixed it or not.

MIN XIAN: What does it take to make the pocket watch work again?

Well, we're going to take it out of the case, completely disassemble it, and then we'll wash, run through the watch cleaner and clean every part, and then we'll reassemble an oil with it as we reassemble.

I like to bring them back to life.

And I like to see the history go on.

It's just fun to take a watch that don't work, and put it back together, so that it can be handed on.

And it's a working piece.

Yeah.

It's nice.

[music playing] Hi, Tim.

Hi, Fred.

Stopped by to see how you made out with the watch, and what you were able to tell me.

Well, mostly it was just dirty.

OK.

I mean, it hasn't been oiled for years, and the oil solidifies and turns to grease.

We did some jewel work too.

There was a couple jewels that were a little iffy, so I replaced those.

Other than that, it should be good for a while.

So the big question is, does it run?

Yes.

OK.

It does.

Great.

And it even keeps time.

Better.

[laughs] Thank you.

Keep going.

I don't want to over wind it.

All the way up.

All the way?

You can't over wind it.

OK. That's a wives tale.

That's pretty impressive just to see the second hand moving again.

Sound good.

It's just nice to hear something my grandfather heard so many years ago and hasn't been taken since.

It's the only thing that belonged to him that was passed down to my father.

So it's the only physical connection we had to him.

It was just the only thing that I had for my grandfather.

I have four grandchildren, including two grandsons.

And I would like to be able to continue passing it on to them and to someday their children, and just keep it in the family as a family heirloom from my grandfather.

Thanks for watching.

See you next time on Keystone Stories.

[music playing]