(April 6, 2017) The corner of Market and Washington streets in Snow Hill will come back to life this Friday when Toy Town, an antique and vintage toy shop, opens for business there for the first time.
Snow Hill natives Richard and Debbie Seaton have been renovating the long-vacant building since September. The shop was previously based in Berlin.
“It’s been a lot of work,” Richard Seaton said. “We’ve been here seven days a week and late at night for six months.”
After leasing the space in Berlin, he said the opportunity to own his own building was too alluring to pass up.
“This building was basically given to us, but I had to do all the work inside of it,” he said. “We got twice the building for half the money. It was a no-brainer coming here.”
The expanded showroom space, compared to the 4,800 square foot location he operated in Berlin for the last five years, was an added incentive, he said.
“This downstairs we’re using is 6,500 square feet right now [and] there’s another 1,800 square-foot [space] upstairs I want to open up next year,” he said.
In that past, Seaton said he lacked sufficient space to display his entire stock of vintage and antique items. Now, he can offer customers a wider array.
“There’s like 70 showcases in here,” he said. “I had plenty of stuff, so it’s filled up in here.”
The new space also provided the opportunity to reorganize his materials.
“There’s like four different sections of the store,” he said. “We have a country store section, we have a diner section, we have a train section and a transportation section.”
Toy Town keeps its items categorized and only carries true vintage offerings, Seaton said.
In some instances, Seaton said customers have expressed an aversion to frequenting antique shops carrying nonvintage pieces.
“[For] antique collectors and dealers across the East Coast, if they see that stuff they’re not coming back,” he said. “They can see that in their hometown.”
After buying and selling collectables for more than a decade, Seaton said he took the venture full time about two years ago.
“I don’t do any auctions. All my contacts are private collections,” he said. “People have come in and met me and then they bring me back stuff.”
Over the years, Seaton has also done the bidding for private individuals.
“I’m also a picker for a lot of collectors,” he said. “I go out and find stuff for friends of mine.”
Excited to now be operating in his hometown, Seaton, who graduated from Snow Hill High School in 1978, said he hopes his business encourages others to locate their own vintage shops in town.
“I welcome competition,” he said. “I wouldn’t care if there were 10 antique shops here in Snow Hill, because when people are traveling from Pennsylvania, New York [or] New Jersey, they don’t want to go to one antique shop – they want to go to 10 of them in one town.”
Regardless, Seaton said his marketing approach would remain unchanged.
“I try to go out for unique items,” he said. “We do vintage signs, gas pumps, toy trains, you know, just stuff you don’t see everyday.”
Visit Toy Town on 207 North Washington Street in Snow Hill, or call 443-234-5528.
Snow Hill natives Richard and Debbie Seaton have been renovating the long-vacant building since September. The shop was previously based in Berlin.
“It’s been a lot of work,” Richard Seaton said. “We’ve been here seven days a week and late at night for six months.”
After leasing the space in Berlin, he said the opportunity to own his own building was too alluring to pass up.
“This building was basically given to us, but I had to do all the work inside of it,” he said. “We got twice the building for half the money. It was a no-brainer coming here.”
The expanded showroom space, compared to the 4,800 square foot location he operated in Berlin for the last five years, was an added incentive, he said.
“This downstairs we’re using is 6,500 square feet right now [and] there’s another 1,800 square-foot [space] upstairs I want to open up next year,” he said.
In that past, Seaton said he lacked sufficient space to display his entire stock of vintage and antique items. Now, he can offer customers a wider array.
“There’s like 70 showcases in here,” he said. “I had plenty of stuff, so it’s filled up in here.”
The new space also provided the opportunity to reorganize his materials.
“There’s like four different sections of the store,” he said. “We have a country store section, we have a diner section, we have a train section and a transportation section.”
Toy Town keeps its items categorized and only carries true vintage offerings, Seaton said.
In some instances, Seaton said customers have expressed an aversion to frequenting antique shops carrying nonvintage pieces.
“[For] antique collectors and dealers across the East Coast, if they see that stuff they’re not coming back,” he said. “They can see that in their hometown.”
After buying and selling collectables for more than a decade, Seaton said he took the venture full time about two years ago.
“I don’t do any auctions. All my contacts are private collections,” he said. “People have come in and met me and then they bring me back stuff.”
Over the years, Seaton has also done the bidding for private individuals.
“I’m also a picker for a lot of collectors,” he said. “I go out and find stuff for friends of mine.”
Excited to now be operating in his hometown, Seaton, who graduated from Snow Hill High School in 1978, said he hopes his business encourages others to locate their own vintage shops in town.
“I welcome competition,” he said. “I wouldn’t care if there were 10 antique shops here in Snow Hill, because when people are traveling from Pennsylvania, New York [or] New Jersey, they don’t want to go to one antique shop – they want to go to 10 of them in one town.”
Regardless, Seaton said his marketing approach would remain unchanged.
“I try to go out for unique items,” he said. “We do vintage signs, gas pumps, toy trains, you know, just stuff you don’t see everyday.”
Visit Toy Town on 207 North Washington Street in Snow Hill, or call 443-234-5528.