Susan Feiger’s eyes sparkle when she talks about the rare buttons, vintage clothing, farm implements, postcards and other eclectic items in her inventory at Old Barn Antiques, a popular stop for antique lovers venturing out on Old Mission Peninsula.

But after almost 50 years of selling antiques, Susan and her husband Walt are putting the business on the market. Included in the sale for $749,000 are the 3,240-square foot barn, its inventory and five acres of land on Nelson Road. “We need to slow down some,” says 80-year-old Walt.

The 1910 barn that houses the business features three floors of items neatly priced and carefully displayed. Susan has filled it with toys, books, tintypes, kerosene lamps, baskets, crocks, cups and saucers, Depression glass, kitchen wares, cut glass and much more. The basement features farming implements, hand tools, barrels, cherry lugs and crates while the second story is full of vintage clothing, books, quilts and other textiles.

“Boxes and cherry lugs are hot now,” says Susan, who started the business in 1966. “We bought 100 lugs two years ago and they’re all gone now. Things go in cycles. For a while brass beds were the thing. Now you can’t find them…We sell more out of the basement than anything else. Basically we feature area antiques from the 1840s to the 1940s.Not much from the ‘50s and ‘60s.”

Old Barn Antiques was launched after Susan and her mother inherited an estate that included the aging barn and its contents of farming gear. The two held a barn sale to get rid of old wagons, carts and other farming implements and enjoyed it so much that they cleaned up the barn and started the antique business.

“When we started, we didn’t know what we were doing,” says Susan with a laugh. “We priced everything at a quarter or fifty cents. Mom bought me a price guide that winter and I read it cover to cover. Then I bought more books and price guides. I spent $2,000 on books.”

After selling the business, Susan might turn her attention to another kind of book. Over the years, she has accumulated more than 300 postcards featuring scenes of Old Mission and she would like to turn that into a photo book, similar to Evelyn Johnson’s Barns of Old Mission Peninsula. She’s also an active member of the local button collector’s club with a collection that numbers in the thousands.

Walt and Susan have been married for 59 years, after meeting as teenagers. He spent 30 years as a painting contractor and now stays busy with his collection of automobile memorabilia that includes gas pumps, glass pump globes, oil cans, signage, license plates and more.

“At one time, I had about 700 pumps and almost 1,000 globes,” recalls Walt, who still buys and sells automotive items at shows.

His collection is not part of the antique business sale, which is being handled by John Washburn of Coldwell Banker Schmidt. Click here to view the listing.