Six-minute read
Special to the Asbury Park Press
PLUMSTED - Ever since he was a kid growing up in New Brunswick, Jeff Lipman had an affinity for antiques. And he’s been bringing that passion — along with an extensive collection of antique furniture, clocks, vintage collectibles and other favorite finds — to the market’s range of buyers through Red Barn Antiques, the shop he opened over 50 years ago.
“My parents had antiques in our house, so I grew up with antiques and always liked them,” said Lipman, 79, a resident of the township's New Egypt section. But while he appreciated vintage pieces, he never set out to be an antiques dealer — at least initially.
“My father was a large cranberry grower in South Jersey and I joined the family business as well,” he said. Following his 1968 graduation from New Mexico State University at Las Cruces with a degree in business management, “I stayed with the farm through the 1990s and continued running it with my brother after my father passed in 1998 until we eventually sold it in the mid-2000s.”
Ever since graduating college, however, “my wife Judy and I were both interested in antiques and used to scour the antique shops along Route 9 from Toms River to Cape May looking for finds,” Lipman said. “Eventually, our house outgrew what I was collecting, and the opportunity to run an antiques shop was appealing to me because it filled in the off-season of our cranberry business.”
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While residing in Toms River in 1971, “I bought some property in New Egypt which included a shop called the Red Barn 5 and 10 Cent Store,” Lipman said, “and I promptly crossed out the second half of the sign and changed it to ‘Red Barn Antiques.’”
As the business grew and Lipman sought bigger space, he relocated to a former auto body shop in 1979 and ultimately built his current, larger location in 1989.
'A little bit of everything'
Today, in his expansive 18,000-square-foot-space (3,000 of which is used for storage and e-commerce activities), Lipman said that antique lovers will enjoy a constantly rotating inventory which often features the unexpected.
“Part of the staying power of Red Barn Antiques is that you can walk in the door on any given day and find whatever I buy out of estates,” he said. “I’ve always loved old clocks and have about 150 clocks for sale.
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"There’s also a lot of furniture, from Chippendale chests and Victorian dining tables, breakfronts and side tables to mid-century pieces and beyond," Lipman said. "I currently even have a great leather sofa from 1995 on the floor, because I’m not afraid to put a great deal out there.”
Other treasures include bronzes, pedestals, primitive country stands and hutches, Depression-era glass and a smattering of old toys, paintings, sewing machines, dishware and more. “There’s truly a little bit of everything and a lot of bargains here,” he said.
Among the most unique/prominent pieces in his inventory, “I currently have a Regina Company music box built in Rahway in the late 1800s that I’m selling for $12,000 and a Victorian lion-mounted mantle made in Philadelphia in the 1880s for $8,500,” Lipman said.
“Among newer pieces, I have a 1980s-era cherry dining room table and eight chairs made by the old Hickory Chair Co. — which made Adirondack lodge chairs and has a big following — available for $2,850,” he said.
According to Lipman, individually owned brick-and-mortar antique shops are becoming rarer all the time.
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“My business grew as much as it did in the early years not through retail sales to consumers, but through the wholesale trade and the literally hundreds of Southern antique dealers who came to buy out of our New Jersey/Philadelphia market,” he said. “Though I do have many end-user customers and walk-ins, 80% of my sales are to the wholesale trade or auction houses.
“The whole dynamic of the antiques industry has changed with online sites like eBay,” Lipman added of the transformation his field has undergone in the past one to two decades.
“Even if antique sellers evolve with the trends in terms of what customers are buying, there’s often not enough demand to cover the rent, so many antique dealers have moved to an online format, which doesn’t have all of the overhead of a brick-and-mortar location," he said. "Others augment their business by delivering antiques to online or wholesale buyers. I have nearly 1,000 items on eBay, and while it’s only a small part of my business, it’s a definite revenue stream.”
According to Lipman, antiques trend just like new products do. For example, “turn-of-the-century gold oak furniture was in much greater demand years ago, but it’s not as popular today,” Lipman said. And with many new home designs not even incorporating traditional dining rooms any longer, “modern homeowners don’t fill breakfronts with china and glassware anymore the way they once did years back; I can’t give a breakfront away today,” he joked.
“While antique clocks still remain good sellers, buyers of mid-century modern furniture — a category that’s been especially hot in recent years, especially in urban settings — have been pickier and more discerning, so even that market is evolving,” he said.
Even with changing consumer lifestyles and preferences, however, “I think that there will always be demand for really good items within any genre,” confirmed Lipman, who cleans up the pieces he sells but stops short of restoration or refinishing. “There are still a lot of people who like good-quality oak, Victorian and custom furniture and solid brands seem to hold their value.”
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'I love the hunt'
With his customers coming from throughout New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York, “I’m out hunting every day and I source many of my finds from estate sales, though that arena has become increasingly competitive,” Lipman said. “Most of my pieces are ‘virgin’ items that came out of an estate and had just one owner.”
In a market where brand-new items offered through chain stores can carry high prices and may not last very long, “I sell great quality furniture and other antiques affordably and everyone will benefit from these transactions,” Lipman said.
“There are clocks in my shop built 150 years ago that all still run. What can you buy or sell today that will reliably run even 20 years from now?" he asked. "I love the quality and usefulness of things made a century ago and truly appreciate that something somebody made in the 1800s still works.”
He's also grateful that his shop’s business model is still robust after 52 years.
“Success in this business requires strong cash flow, but I feel very lucky that Red Barn Antiques is well-capitalized and that my wife and I are in good health,” said Lipman, who oversees buying and helps run the shop while Judy serves as his “A-1 researcher" for what he posts on eBay; one other long-time helper assists in the shop.
“What I do here is never a job,” Lipman said of his longtime career choice. “On the buying side of things, I can’t wait to see what I find every day. And on the sales side, I have some great customers who share my passion for antiques and with whom I have very strong relationships.”
At the end of the day, he said, “I love the hunt and have the same enthusiasm for these products as our customers do.”
Red Barn Antiques
Location: 56 Maple Ave., New Egypt
Phone: 609-758-9152
Owners: Jeff and Judy Lipman
Founded: 1971
Website: www.redbarnnj.com
609-455-2886
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