Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 8, 1994 TAG: 9407110180
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
The town's second used-book store on Main Street, Mountain Peddler, has moved into the former RP Collectibles store. Randy Proffitt, the RP in the collectibles store, has moved into larger quarters formerly occupied by a branch of C&S Galleries.
Proffitt and Mountain Peddler owners Archie and Tommie Jean Simpkins started as collectors themselves.
"Of course I kept everything," said Proffitt, whose store offers Depression and other glassware including pieces from Dresden, Germany; first-day stamp covers, antique clocks, carved pipes, matchbox covers, old cameras, radio show tapes, comic books and more.
"I made him get rid of his comic books early in life," Proffitt's father, Ralph, admitted. "You can't keep everything." So instead of the valuable first-edition comics from his own childhood, Randy Proffitt is selling comics provided by his grown sons, Nick and Billy, who also used to collect them.
He will be adding a line of furniture in the extra space in his new location.
The Simpkinses will be selling a wide variety of used books, but also vintage dishes, bottles and glassware.
"It just started out as a hobby. You can see what it got me into," Archie Simpkins said, as his wife continued unpacking boxes of books moved from a previous location on Bell Avenue.
"We played the flea markets for 30 years until we got too old for that," he said. "About 30 years - books, postcards and old bottles."
Archie worked in sales for the past 26 years. Tommie Jean spent 25 years as cashier at People's Drugs Store here until it closed.
"If we had anywhere to display them, we've probably got the largest selection of textbooks in Southwest Virginia," Archie said. He recently sold a station wagon-full of them to someone from Virginia Tech.
"We carry books on any subject you can think of, if we can get 'em in here," he said. "So far, I don't know what all we've got."
by CNB