Billy Leroy, owner of the Bowery’s late, great Billy’s Antiques & Props and star of the Travel Channel’s “Baggage Battles,” has a little advice on snatching a steal in NYC: “Always buy with your gut and never, ever say, ‘I’ll think about it,’” warns the charismatic 52-year-old. The French-born antiques trader who grew up on the Upper East Side calls himself a “pure dealer,” boasting that everything in the Greenpoint, Brooklyn, apartment he shares with wife, Lorraine Leckie, is for sale. “I will sell the shoes off my feet,” he says with a laugh. This is his scavenger New York.
1 C’est Magnifique, 328 E. Ninth St., between First and Second avenues
“Oh, C’est Magnifique! It’s the greatest custom-jewelry store in New York. It has been open since 1959. They have so many molds of old-style rings from their business, and the quality is amazing. They can cast rings in silver, gold, with garnet, diamonds — they can do anything. And the prices are reasonable! For my wedding ring, I didn’t want the typical Keith Richards skull ring, I wanted a more 19th-century, realistic, real gothic skull — and there it was, the perfect skull — and it was the only place in the world I could get it.”
2 Annex Flea Market, West 25th Street near Sixth Avenue
“Get there early, man! People are making deals at 3 a.m. with a flashlight. I found an 18th-century painting last weekend for $300 bucks, and the quality is, like, mind-blowing. The guy wanted $500 and I talked him down. My technique is very easy. First, you compliment him on the piece. You don’t tell him all the negative aspects; he knows them already. Just say, ‘I love it, listen, I’m going to make you an offer you CAN refuse.’ It’s a cash offer, of course. You’ve defused the combative nature of the deal and you’re telling him you’ve got the cash. Then you say ‘$300’ nice and soft. It’s like sex. If you’re nice and smiling, it works.”
3 Obscura Antiques & Oddities, 207 Avenue A, at 13th Street
“They buy the kind of creepy stuff I love — mummies, coffins, sideshow stuff, anything bizarre. Back in the late ’80s, I sold them their first Egyptian mummy’s hand that I bought at a flea market in Paris. I had to do some real tremble-chin at customs when I explained to them what the hand was. I’ve been friends with [Obscura] ever since.”
4 Billy’s Antiques & Props, 76 E. Houston St., at Bowery (closed)
“The store opened in 1986 and it was called Lot 76. I was the manager-slash-salesman-slash-hustler. In 2003, it became Billy’s Antiques & Props. It was like the soul of the Old Bowery. I’ve had, like, from the worst Bowery bum to the most spectacular stars walk into my store. The reason I had to close is simple: We had no heat or electricity. It was a rotting tent and I just couldn’t bear to sit through another cold winter there. We will reopen two years from now. The sign is still up, so in the New Yorker’s mind’s eye, it’s still there. The Billy’s mystique is already established; it has its own life, its own vibe.”
5 Clayton Gallery & Outlaw Art Museum, 161 Essex St., between Stanton and Houston streets (by appointment only)
“If you’re feeling really nostalgic about the Lower East Side and you want something gritty, you go here. It’s a historical, photographic archive of the ghosts of the Lower East Side. I really love that phenomena — in the mid ’80s, you could be who you wanted to be on the LES. Now it’s baby strollers and mom jeans. But if you want a giant photograph of a bum with snot running down his nose and yesterday’s lunch on his chest for your Park Avenue apartment, you go here. Clayton Patterson [the owner] has really cool stuff.”
6 Mantiques Modern, 146 W. 22nd St., No. 1, near Seventh Avenue
“It’s the best store in New York City for high-end collectibles, period, end of story. If you want something totally unique that will only increase in value, you go to Mantiques. Price is no object. There’s art, there’s industrial, there’s aluminum pieces of jet planes.”
7 YM Antiques, 1050 Second Ave., at 56th Street
“I bought my first high-end 19th-century painting from [the proprietress] Leah, above, which started me in the business in 1984. I was a nobody; a young jerk-off, but I fell in love with this painting. I finally scraped together the cash and she sold me the painting for $2,000, which I re-sold for $14,000. That was almost my entire yearly salary at the time. [Leah’s] stuff can be really, really valuable: paintings, marble, swords, mantle clocks. You could decorate your whole apartment out of her one store. It ain’t cheap, let me tell you, but it’s great.”
8 The Hole, 312 Bowery, at Bleecker Street
“It’s run by Kathy Grayson. She picks her artists like I pick my antiques: from the gut. She does it because she believes in the art: street art and graffiti. And her openings are spectacular — all the coolest young people are there. Not the pretentious, entitled suburbanites that watch too much ‘Sex and the City.’ If you want really good, well-thought-out art, it’s a great place to go. And she’s a swinger. She’ll make a deal on a piece, isn’t stuck [on prices].”
BROOKLYN
Indian Larry Motorcycles, 400 Union Ave., Williamsburg
“It’s the best for custom Harley stuff. They have vintage helmets, vintage leather jackets. The paraphernalia of Harley-Davidson is monstrous — all that old motorcycle stuff, you see everywhere — all the hipsters wearing the cool motorcycle jackets. And the bikes are vintage in terms of the choppers made in the 1960s. They’re the California cool, totally old-school choppers. It’s definitely a fun place to visit.”