For the past 19 years, Bohus Blahut has been mastering the art of thrifting. Once a week, the Berwyn native arms himself with his Walkman and some focus and inconspicuously shops at one of his favorite resale haunts, hoping to uncover a vintage gem he can take home for his own amusement and then post on the Internet accompanied by a witty story.
“I have the eye for finding this stuff,” said Blahut. “I’m a life-long garage sale guy, so I’m able to write about what I have found, what my family has in the basement or something I bought at a thrift store for 50 cents.”
Blahut is the co-editor of RetroThing.com, an independent vintage gadget Web site that presents an endless stream of classic and almost-classic gizmos and books each month. Among the items Blahut and his partner, RetroThing.com creator James Grahame, have uncovered, dusted off and posted include cars, bikes, books, cameras, music, video games, toys and “flying things.”
“We specialize in weird devices that came and went,” Blahut said. “We find that people are happily surprised that we post something they may have forgotten about.”
The filmmaker has never forgotten about a 1960s supermarket give-away of miniature plastic toy model presidents that reside on a foam rotunda. Blahut thought the little guys would be an ideal posting for the site. He was right, as a year and a half later, the figures are still garnering reader responses.
“We can ask our readers about any random pre-Internet item and we get a gaggle of the best responses,” Bohus said. “Over time we’re discovering that there are a lot of fans of these poor forgotten things, and they are rediscovering old favorites within the pages of our site.”
It doesn’t get more obscure than Blahut’s recent posting: a mysterious set of wooden gears he picked up at a thrift store for 25 cents. Not even 12 hours after posting the item — which he had planned to use as wall art — Blahut had a complete profile on the puzzling pieces that were masters used to mold gears.
“One of our goals with RetroThing is to write about stuff that hasn’t been on the Internet before,” Blahut said. “Blogs are very guilty of simply repurposing each others content, and that doesn’t make the Internet grow. We go through great pains to offer content that’s not just new on our site — but new all over.”
Electronics store owner and author Grahame was first introduced to Blahut three years ago, when the site was brand new and virtually inundated with Blahut’s lengthy, but well informed comments.
“He wanted to have a voice,” said the Calgary resident. “He has a good sense of retro technology and has very different sensibilities than I do. Bohus likes paint-by-number sets and I like to write about aircraft. It was a lucky accident.”
Grahame said the partnership has been a boon for the site — RetroThing.com served over 2.2 million pages of content in 2007 and has received more than 240,000 page views with a readership of 150,000 people — especially when Blahut plays up the nostalgia aspect of his antique findings.
“We get emotional responses, when people remember things from their childhood,” Grahame said. “Bohus is very good at communicating his personality in his postings and connects with readers through stories from his childhood. Its been a nice way to build a community on a blog.”
Blahut grew up in Berwyn in the early 1980s and credits the time and place for his unique name.
“Berwyn used to be an overwhelmingly Czech town, so I have an overwhelmingly Czech name,” he said.
He started going by Bohus — short for Bohuslav — when he became a computer graphics professor at Columbia College in Chicago, his alma mater where he earned a degree in cinema.
In addition to writing for the site, Blahut owns his own production company and has served as associate producer for documentaries on Chicago’s Public Broadcast Station, does voice over work and volunteers as a radio disc jockey.
“Artistic people need to know how to do a lot,” Blahut said. And when he’s experiencing a drought in the filmmaking world, he turns to his vintage treasure chest and sells his findings on eBay to supplement his income.
Although for the next six months he’s not willingly to part with his most recent thrift store find: a $2 Sesame Street record player.
“It’s a decent turntable that runs on batteries,” Blahut said. “It’s the perfect low-cost way to preview records at flea markets this summer.”
|
Resale expert Bohus Blahut has a few tips for the novice thrift store-shopper: • Find out which days are “half-off days.” •On “half-off days,” come prepared to fight for your own shopping cart, as it will be a mad house. • Find out which days are “tag changing days.” • While the glass cabinets that house the valuables items can be a goldmine, don’t overlook the shelved items in the electronics and toys sections, as prized items could be lurking. • Stay focused. |
