By Brian M. Boyce
TERRE HAUTE — A hobby that outgrew a basement is now in full swing downtown.
Inside The Thriftstore Cowboy, at 125-B S. Seventh St., racks full of vintage concert T-shirts and other collectibles sit waiting for buyers, be they walk-ins or online.
“It’s kind of a hobby that got out of hand,” Mary Field said Saturday afternoon from behind the counter.
Field and her husband, Patrick, named their new store after the 1989 Matt Dillon movie “Drugstore Cowboy.” The couple began picking up odds and ends at thrift stores a few years ago when they lived in Indianapolis, selling the products online on Web sites such as eBay.
But a container in the basement expanded to two, then the entire basement, then the dining room and soon a whole house, she said. “That’s how we got started.”
Mary, 28, grew up in Brazil, and the couple moved back to Terre Haute recently, where they are both employed full-time at TGI Friday’s in Honey Creek Mall. The store they opened Nov. 17 operates from noon to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. About 80 percent of their merchandise is listed online at the eBay store www.thriftstore-cowboy.com.
Patrick, 27, said their site received 6,664 page views this November, but he added that those numbers are tough to pin down sometimes due to repeat visitors.
In the store, though, hang vintage concert T-shirts such as an Emerson, Lake & Palmer “Works Tour” from 1977, as well as a 1984 shirt from the Jamboree in the Hills country-western concert. Memorabilia from Hot Tuna, a spin-off of the band Jefferson Airplane, sit alongside that of Robert Plant and the Grateful Dead.
Promotion companies print large quantities of such materials when marketing a movie or concert tour, Patrick said. Sometimes the promoters don’t sell all the T-shirts, and many of those hanging in the store, while 30 years old, have never been worn or removed from the packaging. One such shirt was from a Bee Gees tour in 1979. Prices in the store range from $2.99 to $200, he said.
Meanwhile, Mary said she particularly likes their new downtown location due to the regular flow of Indiana State University students going from class to the Farrington’s Grove area. Less than a month old, the store is already getting good walk-through traffic, she said.
Patrick said he’s been building the collection now in-stock for about five years. “This is a lot easier,” he said of launching the business online first then opening a store. “We could start in our spare time.”
Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.
