Strange things happened when Indiana Antiques Co. owner Brent Cox put a behemoth card catalog on eBay.
A California production company saw something they liked in the background of all the photos in the listing and contacted him. They asked about getting vintage furnishings to use in a Netflix-exclusive supernatural drama currently in production, “Stranger Things,” set in Indiana in the 1980s.
Cox sent the company, Camp Hero Productions LLC, about 200 photos of his whole store. They sent the pics back with circles around what they wanted.
The company ended up buying a truckload of stereo equipment, phones, typewriters, filing cabinets and other stuff you might see in a school or library in the 1980s, worth about $5,000 in all. They loaded the truck Thursday, bound for the filming location in Atlanta, Ga.
“It was perfect for us, I love ’80s stuff. They bought half the stereo equipment I had,” Cox said. “It’s stuff I buy anyway so when they asked for it, I was thrilled.”
The downside, he added, is that he has to restock on vintage equipment in time for Christmas.
“Now we have the fun task of finding more stuff,” wife and store co-owner Amber Cox said.
Brent noted that while this is the first TV production he’s provided props for, his antiques appear on the local stage pretty often.
“We always are gracious to loan our inventory out to the Wagon Wheel, we have a good relationship,” he said. “And we loan out to the high school. We sent a couple truckloads last year to the drama team.”
He also noted they have a lot of success selling online, finding buyers worldwide and shipping out 15 to 30 packages a day. They spent $45,000 on shipping last year and earned the store a dedicated daily stop for the Postal Service.
“Kind of like the big businesses, so that makes us feel kind of special,” Amber said.
“It’s not hard to sell stuff,” Brent observed. “The hardest part of the job is to find good quality stuff, things people actually want to buy, as opposed to flea market items.”
“Stranger Things,” set to release its first eight episodes sometime next year, is written and directed by Matt and Ross Duffer (“Wayward Pines”). It stars Winona Rider and David Harbour alongside seven younger actors, including Finn Wolfhard (“The 100”) and Noah Schnapp, who voices Charlie Brown in “The Peanuts Movie.”
(Story By The Times Union)
