As valuable as a museum artifact or as common as a toaster -- all
sorts of items can be found at a used furniture, antique and hotel
liquidation store.
"Where did you get that?" asked a man, staring at a picture hanging
on the wall at Fred's Unique Furniture & Antiques in Warren.
"Are you kidding?" responded the store's owner, Fred Baghdadi. "I
don't know what I had for breakfast."
Baghdadi was only partly joking. The inside of his store is
120,000-square-feet, and every inch of it is covered with new and
used furniture, lamps, books, pots, dishes, antiques and appliances.
It's difficult for him to remember where everything was purchased.
If a customer really needed to know, he could check his records but
even then, it would be a daunting task.
However, there are some pieces that Baghdadi knows more about than
others. These include pictures from one of Aretha Franklin's homes,
the loveseat movie producers rented for Eminem's rapper flick "8
Mile" and statues that a New York antiques dealer bought from
Baghdadi for $4,000 -- then sold for $70,000. The dealer told
Baghdadi, a rookie at the time, that the bronze figurines were
originally museum artifacts.
The man disregarded Baghdadis reply and remained focused on the
picture in front of him. Staring at it, he cried, literally.
Baghdadi tried to explain how the picture probably ended up in his
store. It was likely purchased in an estate sale, not for the
picture itself but for the frame -- carved out of wood, in great
shape and very ornate.
Once composed, the man told Baghdadi his story.
He was from New York. He had come to Michigan on business and was
driving down 8 Mile when he got the urge to stop. He passed the
store but turned around. Once inside, instinct led him to the
picture hanging on the wall.
It was a portrait of his father.
Turns out, the man was in the military when his father passed away
and couldn't attend the funeral. He had no idea that his father's
picture had been sold in the estate sale.
Being in the buying and selling business for more than 20 years,
Baghdadi has become a good judge of character. He knew the man was
telling the truth. For one thing, who would fabricate such a tale?
The picture's frame, albeit nice, was not expensive.
Secondly, Baghdadi could see the resemblance between the man and his
father.
Upon leaving, the man offered to buy the picture but Baghdadi
refused his money. He told the man the picture was his to take. A
week later, Baghdadi received a check in the mail for $500.
"Isn't that nice? It was so classy of this guy to do that," Baghdadi
said. He recalled another time when a customer showed appreciation
for his kindness. In that instance, the item was not obtained in an
estate sale but in a cash deal.
"This woman called me and said, 'I'm splitting up with my husband
and I'm moving back to my mom's house. I have three kids under 7
years old. I need to sell my furniture,' " Baghdadi said.
Wanting to help, but knowing circumstances surrounding a divorce can
change quickly, Baghdadi told the woman he would look at her
furniture but asked her to please, count to 10 before selling it.
She agreed.
Then proceeded to sell him the furniture anyway.
A few months later, the woman returned to the store saying she had
made a mistake. She and her husband were working things out and she
wanted the furniture back. Trouble was, she couldn't pay for it.
"When I heard that she was back with her family, I said take it all
back, make payments on it," Baghdadi said.
The woman paid off her debt and has since become one of Baghdadi's
best customers. And every year, she sends him a Christmas card.
"Life isn't all about money," said Baghdadi.
"In 1975, I was one of the youngest professional basketball players
in Europe and the Middle East. I was on top of the world. My father
was a successful diplomat in Lebanon and France. My family was very
happy," Baghdadi said. "Then the war broke out in Beirut. It
shattered my life."
To escape the chaos and save his family from possible death,
Baghdadi's father moved them to the United States. Baghdadi's
grandparents on his mother's side lived in Michigan. Within months,
Baghdadi went from being a professional athlete, living in a mansion
with maids to a penniless immigrant looking for work.
Starting over in Michigan, Baghdadi enrolled in college and took a
job at a meat factory to help support his family. Competitive by
nature, he worked long hours and soon became the foreman. Then, one
day after shopping for an artificial fireplace for his parent's
home, Baghdadi's career took another turn.
"I had a dream that I owned this little store and a line of people
wanted to buy from me," Baghdadi.
It was so vivid and real Baghdadi went looking for the store. He
knew he was dreaming about the place where he had found the
artificial fireplace. What he couldn't remember was the store's
location. After driving up and down several streets, Baghdadi
stopped at a gas station and asked the attendant if he knew of such
a store. He did. In fact, he owned it and it was for sale.
Baghdadi bought the store and once again began living his dream.
And like the images in that prophetic, nighttime dream, people want
to buy his merchandise.
"Antique dealers all over Michigan and out of state come in with
their big trucks and buy things from us," said Baghdadi's brother,
Amer Baghdadi. "John Salley used to come in here all of the time. He
bought barber chairs and cameras. Mark Farner (Grand Funk Railroad
guitarist/singer) buys everything."
"They have different things here," said Denise Meyers of Detroit. "A
lot of things you can't find at other stores you can find here."
How about a red, English-style telephone booth or a 1920 gas tank
restored with Harley Davidson parts or an authentic May Department
Store stock certificate?
Perhaps you're an antiques collector. Pieces of Wedgwood Blue Jasper
china, carnival glass and Fiesta-ware have been spotted in the
store, as have pieces of antique furniture such as a round oak table
or a Queen Anne chair.
One might find a tanning bed and patio furniture one day and an
original movie poster, first edition books, clown collector plates
or cuckoo clocks the next.
There are items one person wouldn't take for free but another has
wanted all of his or her life. Prices on such items are reasonable:
maple secretary, $550; 8-foot pool table with balls and cue sticks,
$200.
What's nice about a liquidator, like Baghdadi, new items arrive in
huge lots and customers never know what they will find. Liquidators
buy up inventories from businesses that have closed, filed for
bankruptcy or are overstocked. Right now, for example, the store is
liquidating 450 rooms at the Marriott Hotel in Troy.
"We buy the whole lot and the stuff we can't sell, we donate. Things
like mattresses, tables, chairs and towels," Baghdadi said.
What he does sell are telephones, leather bound bibles, headboards,
televisions and dishes, priced between 20 percent and 50 percent
below retail. However, finding such deals may be a challenge. That's
because this store, like a home where the residents are constantly
in the process of moving, is curiously cluttered -- just the way the
customers like it.
"We have this group of older ladies who pack a lunch when they come
here," Amer said. "One time, I noticed that one of them was really
upset. So I asked her, 'Ma'am, why are you upset?' She said, 'You
guys straightened up the store. Now it's no fun. We want to search
through it, like treasure hunters.' "
If you do strike gold, keep it to yourself.
"I really don't want to know," Baghdadi said. "I bought it for $10.
You gave me $30. Have a nice day. That's what makes it fun."
Fred's Unique Furniture & Antiques, Inc., 14091 East Eight Mile
Road, Warren. (586) 776-7100.
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