“I Buy Anything” A St. Joe Retail Legend.

By Jay Kerner                                                                     

I always enjoy Erin Eddins’ Old Joe pieces. It’s interesting to a local like me, how a relative newbie like her can dig out the history and little known facts that I never knew before. We’ve also heard from a lot of readers who have flipped the calendar more times than I have. I like to think of those folks as our historical watchdogs. They’re the ones who let us know when we get a date wrong or place a building on a wrong street corner.

They’re also quick to respond with info when we put out a request on a certain subject. A perfect example was when

 A lot of you remembered that “I Buy’s” was a two story brick structure on the south side of Messanie, just east of 22^nd Street that operated as sort of a glorified junk store there for decades, before closing in the late 1970’s.

The founder, C.C. Kelder, was born in Pella, Iowa in 1890, and hit

My grandpa always said he never had what you come in for, but he always had a couple things you didn’t know you needed until you saw them. It looked like a seemingly random jumble of stuff in every direction, but old “I Buy” (as everyone referred to the owner), always seemed to know what pile to dig through.

I don’t have much memory of the man myself, but I recognize a lot of myself in the descriptions I have heard of him. I know a thing or two about indiscriminate collecting. That’s why my wife placed the lifetime ban on my trips to the dump. She was tired of me bringing home more than I took; one man’s trash, and all that.

I Buy surely must have lived that philosophy at home as well as in business. Several years ago, my wife and I were house shopping and our realtor showed us his old home on

, just north of Pacific. It had a number of architectural features, salvaged from other houses and one particular attraction that caught my eye.

In the back yard sits a large red boulder. It has been mounted on a concrete pedestal, with benches permanently anchored on all four sides, so one can sit and contemplate it from every angle. Why go to all the trouble for a big rock? No one seemed to know.

But something about it seemed familiar to me. Where had I seen something like that before? Then I remembered a trip I had made with a buddy to the middle of a corn field outside Wathena, Kansas. We trekked through the rows to look at another red rock on his wife’s family farm, which was poking its head through the soil. At the time I saw it, there was no more visible than say a large beach ball, but he told me of seeing pictures of his wife as a child, posing beside it, where it was the size of a Volkswagon. The

That’s my guess as to the identity of I Buy’s rock. From everything I’ve learned, it would make sense that he would have pursued either a piece of the original meteorite or one of its cousins. But where the family in Wathena plants around theirs, I Buy built a shrine around his. I can picture him sitting on one of the benches, watching the sun set behind his giant chunk of stone, pondering the scope of the universe.

My last encounter at I Buy’s came on a trip I made there with my late father-in-law. He needed a 2×4 for some project or another, and I offered to run him to one of the home improvement superstores. “Where’s the sport in that?” he asked. Then I had the pleasure of watching as the two old men went through a complicated dance, first locating and choosing the right old board for the job, then dickering back and forth for several minutes on the price. They finally agreed and the money changed hands, (probably not more than 50 cents at the time), both complaining that they were being robbed; while both I’m sure, secretly satisfied that they came out better on the bargain.

There are still a few places around that do business that way, but not too many. The closest example is probably Dan’s New and Used in the South End. I’ve gone there several times maybe looking for a shower door, but coming home with a garbage disposal or new knobs for the kitchen cabinets.

A lot of old time Joes still speak fondly of “I Buy Anything”. I think it was as much for the fun of the transaction, as the merchandise itself. Got any “I Buy” stories yourself? Share them with our readers by email or snail mail. The contact info is on the cover.