What’s old is new, and often collectible

RIO RANCHO – They probably won’t see Johnny Depp drop in, as they did at their shop in Sherman Oaks, Calif., but Larry and Victoria Andersen seem darn happy to have located their new Vintage Roadrunner Antique Mall to Rio Rancho.

Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull made his second visit there on Feb. 20, this time for a ribbon-cutting staged by the Rio Rancho Regional C

hamber of Commerce to welcome the new business here. The shop’s first day of business was on Jan. 6, more of the typical “soft opening” new businesses prefer.

“Very cool stuff,” Hull, a comic book collector, said. “Come out and shop.”

It’d be impossible to list everything contained in the shop, but you find antiques and vintage furniture, unique jewelry, nostalgic toys – Larry’s partial to those – old baseball cards, books, photos, comics, Hot Wheels, Matchbox … the list goes on and on.

By the way, Depp was fond of Hot Wheels; another famous shopper, Alice Cooper, collected 1970s watches and shopped at their California location. But it was “losing its steam,” Victoria said, “(and) a lot of people were getting out of the business as we were getting in.”

That was in 1997, and they initially entered the business to clear out some closets – baseball cards, pottery, glassware and more.

“We did more than close out our closets, we almost had a second income coming in from it,” Victoria said. “So, we continued. … As we were expanding, people were getting out of the business.”

“California was just getting too crowded and over-taxed, and we decided to look for other venues to live,” Larry Andersen said. “We’d been there since 1996. We started in a mall (in Sherman Oaks). We were looking in Arizona originally, but then housing bubble busted, and then we looked into Rio Rancho.”

They liked what they saw: the cost of housing, low crime rate, excellent education.

Before opening their City of Vision shop, they had a presence in other antiques and collectibles markets in the metro area.

“I specialize mostly in collectible toys – Star Wars, G.I. Joe, He Man, ThunderCats. I love diecast cars,” he said. “My personal collection is Star Wars and G.I. Joe.”

His wife’s collecting habits have changed through the years, but she bottom-lined the business: “The main thing that all the antique dealers collect is, you know, green paper with dead presidents. That’s what we prefer to collect.”

Open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., you’ll find Vintage Roadrunner Antique Mall at 1751 NM 528, just west of Village Inn. (vintageroadrunnerantiquemall.com)