Bargains Galore offers Taunton treasure hunter antiques at a thrifty price

TAUNTON — A family-run antique shop called Bargains Galore has taken Bargain Bazaar's location at 320 Bay St.

Though its offerings are a little different from that of its predecessor, its owners hope it can satisfy Taunton's appetite for thrift. 

Tauntonians may find the store and its owners familiar. It is the newest retail location for The Estate Marketplace — an estate sale services business owned by Taunton natives Susan and Steve Fernandes. 

The Estate Marketplace previously had retail locations in both the Silver City Galleria and the Swansea mall which have both now closed, as well as downtown Taunton but the Fernandes family's Taunton businesses go back even farther. 

According to Susan, Steve's family owned J.D. Furniture, a furniture store that opened on Route 140 in 1940. The couple sold the building 27 years ago to start The Estate Marketplace. 

Susan said she got her passion for antiques during the 1980s through a strange happenstance.

"I once found a bronze statue up on the east side of Providence and sold it for 5,000 bucks and I picked it off the side of the road," she said. 

Susan said she now sells antiques for "the love of junk." 

Susan used to be a regular customer of Bargain Bazaar, she said, and what she and her husband sell in their store is a little more high-end. Much of their inventory is made up of items not sold in Estate Marketplace estate sales and auctions. They take less consignment than Bargain Bazaar, sticking mostly to higher value items, she said. 

"We sell everything from clothing, to antiques, to jewelry, prints, oil paintings. And we do take consignments, but I like the consignments on the higher end," she said. "Bargain Bazaar sold everything from soup to nuts. If you brought in toothpicks they'd sell them." 

Bargains Galore also does appraisals for free on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. as a service to the community. Susan said Steve handles furniture and antique toys and car appraisals while she does the rest. 

"It's about treating people with honesty when you're appraising things," she said. "Years ago, people used to be able to go into a store and want to sell stuff, and it'd be worth 50 bucks and the people would give them $5. Today, it's not like that, because everything that walks through this door, I can look up on my computer and turn my screen around and show this person how much it sold for on eBay." 

Though shoppers will no longer be able to come get everyday items like they did at Bargain Bazaar, Susan said the new store has a lot of fun items and something for everyone. 

"You can walk in and find a $3,000 diamond or a $500 bracelet of gold, and then you can find $1.99 pair of earrings and costume jewelry," she said. "It's a very eclectic store."