Stove Passion Creates Red Hot Business

Stove Passion Creates Red Hot Business 34-1-9 If you want a cheap wood stove, go to a big box store or build one yourself. But if you want an "exceptional" wood or coal stove with nickel-plated cast iron castings and even jewels and precious metals, call Bill or Chrissy McCann. The two went from buying a single antique wood stove to becoming collectors and then dealers. They now have more than 90 antique stoves displayed in their 5,000-sq. ft. showroom, which is open by invitation only. "Our hobby has become a passion," say Bill. "We enjoy collecting, but we also restore stoves for others. We love preserving these old stoves because they're so few left and because they are beautiful to look at. They function just as well today as the day they were made." The stove that started it all was a 3-ft. tall Giant Oak. Once they started talking to other collectors, they found that many were at the end of a collecting career and had stoves for sale. They also began looking for stoves they could rescue, buying them at estate sales and from antique stores. They quickly learned the difference between an old stove and a collectible. "Everybody thinks theirs is valuable, but that's because they've never seen hard coal burners with tiles and dragons and jewels in the door," says McCann. "A collector looks for the craftsmanship and the graphics involved in the stove. In the 1880's, the highest paid people in a stove company were the carvers who made the decorative forms that were cast." McCann describes stoves with cherubs, faces and portraits. People who have them today tend to know the difference, he says. For a collector like himself, even an expensive stove may be worth it, especially if he can clean it up and restore it to its original glory. Sometimes that gets pricey. "The most expensive stove I've sold was $17,500," he says. "Most are in the ballpark of $2,500 to $5,000. The most expensive stove I have heard of was in the range of $39,000, but the buyer had money, and price was not a concern." McCann encourages people to get involved in collecting for the sake of the people you'll meet and the beauty of the stoves. If you get the passion, you may also get a business as he and his wife did. Last year they did nearly $50,000 in sales, and that was with virtually no advertising, just word of mouth. With two other businesses to run, he says, he doesn't have time to deal with window shoppers. That's why he doesn't give out his address. "I don't like to waste time, but if people are interested in buying or selling a stove, I would love to visit with them," says McCann. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bill and Chrissy McCann, Minn. (ph 507 951-0871; chrissynod@hughes.net).

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