David, I just love your postings 
… for those of you who want to get ahead the used-furniture-food-chain, think about where used furniture comes from before it gets pre-selected for you by Prenzlauer Berg taste - right! It’s the deceased.
This is not an attempt to trick you into murder, but to look out for the A&V (Ankauf & Verkauf) - Stores all over Berlin. Trash stores that get their stuff from liquidating apartments after their inhabitants have left (and there’s no one to get the stuff or no one wants to get the stuff). They’re mostly run by traders who let themselves into some bargaining. If you’re nice they might also give you a coffee or tee or beer or schnapps …, but I for my part would not ask.
There are few less glamorous places in Berlin but also few more exiting ones: dig through stores cramped with trash and valuables, climb over sideboards into hidden side-rooms, discover series of exquisit wine glasses next to old mustard glasses. Find yourself your own personal collection of silverware (as I did) or a cupboard, a wrist watch, bysycle or toilet seat. It’s all there.
Small- and pretty cleaned up type.
You can recognise these stores often by chairs and closets, sometimes carpets lining the sidewalk next to them. Be careful not to get lured into one of the stylish ones (take a look at the sales person). They often relocate. There used to be at least two on Prenzlauer Allee, supplying Prenzlauer Berg, the first one between Danziger Str. and Stargarder Straße, the other one south of Danziger. Now I would look on Greifwalder Str. and Danziger Straße towards Friedrichshain. Or go to one of the districts further out of the city: Weissensee (worth a trip anyhow), Pankow, Treptow.
Inside: imagine it a bit darker.
The pictures are from the web and therefore not too realistic — if I pass by one, I’ll make a better one to post it here.
