HENSEN'S COLLECTIBLES OFFERS COMMONPLACE TO BIZARRE

Collectors of all kinds in Cape Girardeau now have a new store to search for both bizarre and commonplace items.

Tim and Lee Ann Hensen recently moved to Cape Girardeau, and the couple has just opened Hensen's Collectibles at 210 Independence.

"We try to have one of everything," Lee Ann Hensen said. "We don't think anything is weird or strange, we've been collecting for so long."

Since the shop opened in the middle of May, Lee Ann Hensen said she has been very pleased with the success the business has had. "First of all I didn't think we'd do as well," she said, "but we've already made rent twice and we've been able to cover all of our expenses. I'm very pleased with how it's doing."

She said the store specializes in items dating from the 1920s through the 1960s, especially toys, glassware, pottery and jewelry. "I like things that are fun and make people laugh," she said. "I like things I had when I was a little girl, or things my mom or my grandma had when they were little."

Although there is no certain thing that collectors look for the most, she said many people favor things that are small. She said, "The most popular thing is something people can put in their purses or stick in their pockets: little things.

"Old toys and glass things are very popular here. Elvis Presley stuff sells pretty well around here. My husband likes toys so we have a high concentration of toys."

Lee Ann and Tim Hensen have lived in Hawaii, Washington state and California and brought many things for their store with them from these places.

"We owned a mall in Washington state, and owned a co-op there too," she said. "We've had a lot of spaces in malls. We always had partners or rented space; we never had a place of our own until now. That's why our name is on it."

Not all the merchandise in the store came to Cape Girardeau with the Hensens, however. "People bring things into the store," she said. "People call the store to say they have something to sell, and you go over to their houses to look at the things. Sometimes people see things in the store that they have at home and they realize that those things are worth money. We go to estate sales and auctions too."

The Hensens stress a positive attitude toward their customers.

"We love having people come down to the store," she said. "Sometimes they ask for things you don't have, so we keep a list and watch out for what they wanted. Then we call them to let them know we got it."

A liberal layaway policy helps keep the merchandise moving. The store also accepts MasterCard and Visa.

She said she is pleased with the location of Hensen's Collectibles. "I'm really happy with the traffic flow. There are a lot of people from other places. I get to meet people from a different place every day.

"Tim and I moved to the Midwest because we wanted to be in the middle of everything and we wanted to be by the Mississippi River."

She said the couple also likes to live in places where famous historical figures have lived.

"We moved here because we wanted to be near where Mark Twain was, and Charles Lindbergh flew out of St. Louis," she said. They invested in an old house near the university.

Since they moved to the area, she and a partner also opened Heritage Sales in Cape Girardeau. That business deals in estate tag sales, she said.

She taught school for five years, and Tim Hensen is a teacher at Trinity Lutheran School.