From abandoned churches to old cemeteries: Inside warehouse where the lost becomes treasure (2025)

A human skull, a viewing casket and an old child’s casket stuffed with hay are just a few of the things one Brimfield Flea Market seller has found over the years that people might find “weird.”

But to Nick Burns, that’s just a normal day’s work.

“In my world, it’s not that weird,” Burns said. “I know that sounds crazy, but there’s legit collectors of, like, that kind of stuff.”

Burns considers himself a collector of a “bunch of junk” working in architectural salvage and antiques. And his 6,500-square-foot Palmer warehouse “of treasures and junk” proves it.

" It’s been a weird journey," Burns told MassLive standing in the warehouse he took over in 2020 amongst paintings, carousel horses, sinks and old hospital gurneys. “I’m hungry for it. If I find somebody that’s got a lead on something, I’m gonna chase it. Even if it comes to nothing.”

• Read more: Brimfield Flea Market coverage

Some days he wakes up to messages from a friend whose aunt died and they’re looking to clean out her house. Other times, he’s going with a demolition team into old warehouses or churches. And once he was asked to help clean out a cemetery maintenance garage.

" Maybe I find something, maybe I don’t,“ he said. ”But I look at everything. That’s a key aspect of it, just doing the legwork."

Then he brings it back to his warehouse to eventually be sold at places like the Brimfield Flea Market, which opens for the 2025 season on Tuesday.

Getting his start in flea markets

As a second-generation flea market vendor, Burns grew up in this world.

He describes his dad as having a " rags-to-riches story" as he had an eye for old items worth money. When Burns was around 8 or 9, his family began finding these items and selling them at flea markets.

“We started making a ton of money on Sundays,” Burns recalled.

His parents purchased the Crystal Brook field in Brimfield in September 2011. And his future in flea markets was solidified.

But he works to do his own thing, which was made possible when he purchased the warehouse in 2020. It allowed him to take in items that most flea market vendors don’t have the space to store.

He recently did a whole church that had stained glass. It can be expensive to hire someone to remove the stained glass and have a place to put it all.

But Burns is self-sufficient, he said, showing MassLive some of the pieces, now mostly framed in wood ahead of the Brimfield Flea Market. He can also store “weird sinks and doors and windows” or local signs that might not have meaning except to those from Western Massachusetts.

" I just took this to a different level than I’ve ever taken things to with the antiques [before]," he said.

Brimfield Flea Market

Pyrex, vintage clothing and Christmas decorations are easy to find at various vendors throughout the acres of fields at the Brimfield Flea Market. But you likely won’t find a lot of that at Burns’ booth.

“I try to have a unique selection. I try to bring different stuff,” he said. “Me personally, I don’t like the run-of-the-mill antique. I guess in a sense I like to have like a cool display.”

During the May flea market, Burns will have unique glass art he recently found. But it’s just one of many things he had begun packing up to bring to the flea market in the week before.

He sells to people from all over the world while at his booth in Brimfield. Although, it’s not always about the sale.

“Obviously I wanna make money, but I wanna make it fun, too,” he said. “So I want people to walk by my booth and be like, ‘Oh man, that was so cool.’ Or taking videos or pictures and posting it on their Instagram. And I think it’s more fun to me to see my stuff like that.”

He also posts his finds on his own Instagram.

“Because of my Instagram, I’ve met some of the best people in this business,” he said.

It’s those types of connections and kindness that he said makes this business worth it, especially when it can be cutthroat.

" It all comes back to just being a good person because not many people are willing to like, share their finds with you," he said, adding that it’s extra special when they do.

‘Take a risk’

If you head to Brimfield May 13-18 — which also has shows in July and September — decide on an amount you’re willing to spend and use that money to “take a risk,” Burns said.

It can also be a time to look for unique items for your home on a budget.

“There’s a huge market for salvage doors, sinks, windows. People are using their old houses and they wanna make ‘em look old still,” he said.

A solid wood door can be $700 or more at Home Depot. Instead, Burns is selling salvage doors for closer to $150.

His warehouse isn’t open to the public. But he’s often selling at the Brimfield Flea Market and tag sales. Plus, he’s always posting his finds on social media.

Burns also suggests keeping an open mind. Don’t look at items for exactly what they’re supposed to be used for, he said.

" I take stuff that maybe somebody would throw away and I try to make it usable again," he said.

He took an offering station that was missing parts and cut it in half.

“So, now it’s a 50-candle offering station, and it also has like a little counter space on it,” Burns said. “So it looks great and it’s usable.”

He also uses a roof as a display rack, old barn wood to help display paintings and the side of an old farm truck replaces a wall.

" You just make do with what you got and try to do cool stuff with it," Burns said.