The 9,000-square-foot estate sale of an Old City antiques store continues this weekend

As I wandered the narrow aisles carved between the teetering piles of unusual and everyday objects at the Jules Goldman Books and Art estate sale in Old City last weekend, I couldn’t help but feel like an explorer in someone else’s house, or in their head.

Navigating through the three-story, 9,000-square-foot space, I discovered a hockey stick with 11 pucks screwed to its blade, an untethered urinal in the basement that may have been functional or art, and a portrait of legendary tap dancer Gregory Hines.

From the outside, the shop on Second Street near Market across from Christ Church is a fairly nondescript building, but inside it feels so much bigger, so mind-bendingly expansive, like some Old City TARDIS or a Philly House of Leaves.

Somehow it’s both vast and cluttered, both cavernous and full, both here and really out there. Exploring the building, which had only been open on the first floor before the estate sale, was just as exciting as exploring what was within.

Over his 15 years at the location, Jules Goldman, the eponymous owner of the store, has amassed all manner of all things. Sure, there are thousands of books and pieces of art, as the name implies, but there’s also so much more.

Goldman, 76, said he’s worked seven days a week since the pandemic and is ready for a vacation, perhaps to the Florida Keys, or to Ireland or Amsterdam, where he knows some artists. With the end of his lease coming up in March, Goldman said the timing was right to close the shop.

“I’m getting tired. I like what I’m doing, but I just got to take a vacation,” he said. “One of my doctors told me, ‘If you keep it up, you’ve got five years to live.’ I can’t keep doing this.”

Goldman teamed with Sue Odell of Great Estates by Sue Odell of Havertown, whom he’s known for 25 years, to help run the estate liquidation sale, which began last weekend and continues this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

“I call it volume and variety,” Odell said of the sale. “Jules would travel to all the auctions and what has happened over the course of time is he’s now used up all 9,000-square-feet-plus with all of his treasures.”

Goldman insisted nothing in the store be changed prior to the sale and that nothing be marked with a price tag, so all sales had to go through him, Odell said.

On Saturday, I watched a couple bring a giant black-and-white painting of single-celled organisms to the counter for pricing.

“Oh, the amoebas!” Goldman said. “This is a well known-Philly artist.”

He priced the piece at $150, then told the customers it was a series and he’d give them two amoeba paintings for $250. He had a deal.

Given the interest in the sale and the disarray of the store, only 20 people were allowed inside at once (Goldman was quick to note his shop held far more when he put on First Friday events).

Customers were encouraged to sign up in advance for one of the 75 time slots last weekend (and this weekend). Those who didn’t have a time slot — like me and my husband — had to show up in person and put their name on a waiting list. It took us 90 minutes just to get in the door.

About 425 people came and almost everyone bought something, with the average sale ranging around $250, Odell said.

Personally, I was grateful for the very explicit directions Odell gave in her all-caps Craigslist ad: “YOU WILL BE DIGGING! PLEASE COME PREPARED WITH YOUR FLASHLIGHT, GLOVES, HANDYWIPES, BAGS AND PACKING MATERIAL.”

We used a flashlight to look in dark corners and piles of boxes and I was incredibly thankful for the rubber gloves I wore once we got outside and I saw mine had turned black from the dust.

The ground level held a staggering array of art (from framed paintings to homemade collages), hundreds of vinyl records, an eclectic array of periodicals (including the Camel Cash catalog), spinning wheels, toys, and books, of which Goldman claims to have more than 30,000.

The basement was a mess of boxes filled with everything from old camera equipment to framed tattoo sheets and posters for movies like Sylvester Stallone’s 1978 film F.I.S.T. Exploring deep enough, I found a stairway that led to nowhere.

But it was the second floor, stuffed with furniture and art, that was my favorite. I spotted a collection of dusty booze bottles hidden behind a picture, ashtrays complete with cigarettes, a painting of an angel that bore a striking resemblance to Betty White, a signed photo of Frank Rizzo, and an explicit futuristic piece of art titled ROBO LUV, which I will not describe here.

About halfway back, a worker stood watch to delineate to customers where the sale ended and Goldman’s collection of personal items began.

I didn’t buy anything, but I saw many who did, including Craig Radel, 67, of Holland, who snagged the Staple Singers 12-inch LP of “Slippery People,” a Talking Heads cover. He paid $3 for the record, which he said was worth $50.

“It was chaotic and overwhelming, but fun,” he said.

Overwhelming was the word I heard most to describe the estate sale, but the store was that way long before the sale began. Online, customers called it “truly an unfiltered situation,” “like having a flea market under one roof,” and “my whole thought process incarnate.”

“I lost my soul in this store,” one Yelp reviewer wrote. “Maybe it fell into the dusty eyes of one of the prisoners trapped in forgotten paintings — or maybe between the September and October pages of a 1966 calendar with images of boats and American flags. Keep an eye out please.”

I didn’t find that customer’s soul, but I think I did find a bit of Philly’s in some of those dark, dusty corners. I don’t know what will happen to the space, but I’m glad I saw it as it was now.

As for Goldman, he doesn’t know what he’ll do with whatever is left after this weekend’s sale, but he told me he’ll figure it out, he always does.

“Maybe I’ll get lucky and somebody will want to buy 30,000 books,” he said.

For more information about the sale or to book an appointment for this weekend, visit greatestatesbysue.com or call 610-416-7324.