Queen Dealer Spotlight: Fred Edwards of Golden Mortar Antiques (FE)

Each month we will be doing a blog about one of our dealer-merchants from each of our three stores that offers unique, one-of-a-kind antiques and merchandise for your home and garden. We have a lot of creative, savvy and talented dealers and we thought you would enjoy getting to know them!

Fred Edwards ( Dealer Code FE) has been a dealer for over 15 years in the Alpharetta Queen of Hearts. In fact, he was one of the original dealers when Jim and Stacey first opened the store.



He loves being at the Queen of Hearts because he enjoys the great job that the Queen does in promoting their stores, the great people that work at the Queen, and the good sales that he has had each year.



While most of the items in his booth are pharmacy related, he also carries old signs, framed advertising signs, primitives, coke items, and man cave items. He also has a display case up front with coins.





Fred says he enjoys selling coins because they usually bring back customers to purchase additional coins and many like to have their collections appraised.

Fred has been married to Carol for 54 years, has two daughters, and two granddaughters. He grew up in Indiana and went to Purdue University, graduating in the school of Pharmacy. He practiced Pharmacy for six years and then moved into management becoming President of a drug chain in Georgia called Reed Drugs. Later, he moved to Washington, DC to become Executive Vice President of Peoples Drugs. After retiring from Peoples, he has consulted to small independent drug stores who need help in competing with larger businesses.



Besides collecting and appraising coins and antiques, he enjoys fishing and going to garage sales and auctions.

Fred will be at the Queen of Hearts in Alpharetta on Thursday, February 26, from 6 to 8 pm to answer your questions about coins and give tips on how to begin your own coin collection. Come and meet him and learn about the fascinating world of coins and collecting coins!

Queen Dealer Spotlight:Scott and Milinda Griggs of Lindy's Trains

In 1975, Scott started his first model train business in his parents garage in Findlay, Ohio and his love for trains has continued through the years. Scott says his wife, Milinda, has been amazingly supportive through the years and is an unbelievably supportive and patient person and great wife. "I don't know how she has put up with me all of these years, but we recently celebrated our 25th anniversary. That's the story from when I started at eight years old to where I am now. I still really enjoy trains and just thoroughly enjoy the business and bringing happy train memories to new generations." 

Scott and Milinda have done everything from selling on EBay, going to train shows, having their own stores, even working in the corporate world – and now currently are in 11 antique malls and run a specialized train website, Trainz.com. Their life is busy travelling and keeping all the antique booths stocked and organized. 

Melinda says, "We have been busy opening up a network of booths in the best Antique Malls we could find. We typically restock each booth two or three times per month and we have hundreds or thousands of items at each one. Every Mall we are in has at least 15,000 square feet and dozens or hundreds of other dealers, so come out to see the trains and toys, but plan on much more! Make a weekend out of it and follow the Georgia Antique Mall Trail – Lindy’s way."

Because they spend so much time traveling between their booths, they especially love that gas prices are going down!

We are proud to have Lindy’s Trains in all three of our Queen of Hearts locations. They have thousands of model trains, die-cast cars and trucks, plastic model kits, Hess trucks, vintage toys, Nascar items, Department 56, ceramic buildings and other fun and collectible toys. Come and learn about them!

Come visit them in all three of our Queen of Hearts locations! Like them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LindysTrains or visit their website at www.trainz.com.