Middleton, WI

Middleton, Wisconsin (voted best town to live in Money Mag last year) has a wonderful antique mall that I highly recommend. First, it has free coffee - again I am a sucker for having a cup of joe in my hand to browse the shop. This is an antique mall with dealer cases and areas - no cubicle like setting here. The mall has four floors of items. It has two dealers in matted prints - some really nice and decorative pieces. My favorite dealer, the book guy, cut down his stock recently - but still has some nice books. In the basement there is a great dealer with antique fishing and hunting gear and items, also in the basement there is an antique gun dealer. The mall has lots of furniture. There is a dealer on the upstairs who I spoke to the last time I was there that salvaged 2 awesome desk/counters. One is huge with drawers and the other is smaller again with drawers. He told me he got them out of an old furniture factory and he thought they were most likely hand made by the workers. These pieces were in the thousands of dollars but beautiful workmanship. Some other items are ceramics and pottery. This mall strives for pre-1950 items and they do a good job of filling it. There is some question as to its viability as the owner has the building for sale. So, if you go, go soon just in case.

Princeton, WI - I forgot to mention at Princeton that there is a booth with loads of antique buttons. I noticed buttons were a hot item in ebay selling so I thought I would mention that for you button collectors. The buttons are housed in a large library cabinet - I looked at a few when I visited Princeton - nice stuff.

This weekend I am going back to the Roscoe Antique Mall in Roscoe Illinois (just across the Wisconsin border) to look at more trade cards. This mall on the weekend has free coffee AND donuts! Love it!