McCallie Market has everything from furniture and art to collectibles. Owner Robert Philips sells to dealers, artists and collectors and occasionally opens to the public.When Robert Philips moved here from Memphis in 2009, he found himself downsizing considerably from his 6,000-square-foot West Tennessee home to a 900-square-foot condo on Lookout Mountain.
He didn’t want to get rid of the furniture and art he had collected over the years, so he rented space at a local storage facility. But he soon realized that, with them out of sight and out of mind, not only was he not able to enjoy the pieces, they were costing him money. So after a few conversations with friends in similar situations, he decided to start a liquidation business for people looking to free up space by off-loading parts of their collections.
IF YOU GO
McCallie Market, 1404 McCallie Avenue, usually is not open to the public but will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and Saturday and from noon-4 p.m. Sunday.
Philips readily admits he is still figuring out his seven-month-old business — it doesn’t even officially have a name — but he feels certain he has identified a niche market.
“I call it McCallie Market just because that is where the buildings are,” he says from inside one of two warehouses he rents in the 1400 block of McCallie Avenue. “It gave us something to call ourselves on our Facebook page.”
Philips says he is in the liquidation business, selling items business to business. In other words, he takes the things you want to sell and finds someone who wants it or wants to sell it. For example, he has several mid-century modern furniture pieces that he’s gotten from local homeowners.
Robert Philips is founder of the McCallie Market, a collection liquidation service that fills two warehouses in the 1400 block of McCallie Avenue.“There is not a big market for mid-century modern here, but there is in other parts of the country. My job is to find them.”
The business is a hybrid between an estate sale and a consignment store. The adjoining buildings have no heat or air conditioning or other creature comforts (a portable potty sits in the parking lot), but they are clean, dry and spacious, which is what Philips wanted. The space is more temporary storage for the furniture, art and collectibles than it is a storefront since Philips is more interested in selling the pieces to dealers, artists and collectors than he is to the general public.
But he does open to the public for a couple of days every so often and, in fact, will open the doors to everyone today and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.
So far, he has been able to turn over about 80 percent of the merchandise within a 90-day cycle, he says. Because he doesn’t have to pay for utilities, or a staff, he only takes about 20 percent of each sale as his fee, rather than the 35 or 40 percent other consignment sellers with storefronts might charge to get rid of your stuff.
Philips says he has found hundreds of people in the area with collections of unusual things who are looking to free up space. He’ll either sell the items directly for them, or sell them to other dealers and shops.“There are estate-sale businesses and places like antique malls, galleries and consignment stores already, and they do a good job,” he says. “What I do is sell to them. I sold two chairs from the original Mountain City Club twice the other day. I sold them to the Knitting Mill and a woman came in right after looking for them and I told her where to go get them.”
Philips says he is “still searching for my sweet spot” when it comes to the types of things he wants to liquidate for customers. He isn’t interested in running your garage sale, but he’s found that there are hundreds of people in this area who have amassed large collections of unusual things, and they now are looking to free up space to get more.
He currently has a collection of Polynesian ceremonial masks that a client collected, for example. Not every piece is part of such a collection, however. Philips also has unusual pieces that an artist with a vision might want, he says.
“Like this beautiful oriental rug,” he says. “It needs to be cleaned and it has holes in it, but I could see someone cutting it up and making handbags.”
Philips says a big part of his business will be amassing a database of collectors and buyers around the country, as well as a listing of what people here have collected or have available.
“A lot people say they would like a Steinway grand piano, but not everyone has the space for it. I try to find the person who has one and the person who wants one.”
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.
So far, Robert Philips says, he has been able to turn over about 80 percent of the merchandise at his business, McCallie Market, within a 90-day cycle.