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| Remnants GM Chito Soliven and owner Remy Cabaltera |
Remnants: That little
shop of treasures
by rick olivares
In perhaps the last artiste’s haven in Manila, Cubao
X… where intellectual rebels, indie designers, comic book geeks and gamers,
rock purveyors, and the odd restaurateur find refuge, there too are the thrift
shops. In the western hemisphere, these repositories are called, “pawn shops.”
It’s all just another name but as they say, the song
remains the same. Here one man’s junk is another man’s gold.
In the case of one proprietor, they are remnants from
the past that are in need of new homes; hence, the shop name, “Remnants,” a
clever and apt play on the noun and the first name of its store owner, Remy
Cabaltera.
The lady from Lanao Del Sur picked up from her late
father the habit of keeping things. The wise man that he was, Remy’s father
instructed her to never throw away anything outside the obvious trash. “They
will be of some value some day,” he imparted. It became crystal clear when
those old wartime Japanese newspapers he put aside were sold for quite a sum.
“That’s when I realized what my father had been
talking about all these years about saving things,” recalls Cabaltera.
So junk, old stuff, antiques… whatever you want to
call it, has become Remy’s life. She’s been in the business of re-selling
things for over two decades now. Her first shop was at the old Farmer’s Market
Center before it moves to its present location in along General Romulo Avenue
in Cubao X (“Marikina Shoe Expo” as it was formerly named), that last bit of
real estate that is a throwback to a bygone era and is sandwiched between the
colossuses of gentrification known as the condominium.
“At first, I placed ads in the newspaper that I was
open to buying people’s personal collections, junk etc.” said Remy. “As
Remnants and the other thrift shops in Cubao X became popular, word of our
stores and businesses spread by word of mouth. Now we don’t need to advertise.”
The clientele is diverse as the shops contained in
the U-shaped arcade. She has celebrity and broadcast personalities who frequent
her shop. Julius Babao, Cristy Fermin, Miriam Quimbao, Ronnie Ricketts, Aiza
Seguerra, and Connie Sison are a few who have bought items in her shop.
There are a lot of foreigners who also visit her
shop. “We had these bunch of Frenchmen come over and buy all the available
local komiks,” related Chito Soliven, the store’s affable general manager. “I
asked them how they will read them since they were all in Tagalog but they said
they will learn and also use it to study the artwork.”
One time, a man from China flew in and went straight
to Remnants from the airport, bought every single rock music vinyl album on
display, and hopped on back on a plane. “He got everything – AC/DC, Led
Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, the Beatles, Hendrix…”
Occasionally, there are genuine treasures sold in the
shop.
“I had a customer who sold me a lot of items,”
recounts Remy of a fish that got away. “It so happened that between the pages
of one of the books, there was a piece of paper that had a sketch that was
signed. I had a customer who was buying some furniture who immediately noticed
the sketch. She asked, ‘Remy, magkano ‘to?’ I thought for a moment and then
mentioned the first amount that popped into my head. I sold it for P3,500 and
this customer would always always haggle for a lower price. This time she got
it without any qualms. I only realized later on what I had on my hands. It was
an original Ang Kiukok (the late National Artist for the Visual Arts) that was
signed and dated. I think it taught me to really go through each and every item
that comes to me as well as to properly appraise them.”
Another famous treasure sold in Remnants was a father
clock that was given by former American President Franklin D. Roosevelt to his
Philippine counterpart, Manuel Luis Quezon. There was a signed dedication on
the clock that was sold for a little over P12,000.
Remy and Chito say that they usually go through
bodegas of other people about twice a month. It usually picks up around January
up to June when people are in need of money for their children’s schooling. “We
spent a lot of hours going through dusty and moldy bodegas. But it’s all part
of the fun.”
Cabaltera says that there’s been a slight drawback
due to the popularity of the television reality show on the History Channel,
Pawn Stars. “That made people aware of what they may have in their bodegas so
the asking prices for their items has become larger in fee.”
“For some people, parting with their belongings is
difficult because there’s an attached emotional value,” added Remy. “On several
occasions now, I have had customers who sold me things only to buy them back
because they had second thoughts about letting them go. I sold it back to them
of course… at no profit. I don’t want people to say that I am holding their
belongings to ransom.”
“But I’ve been lucky because through my thrift shops,
I have been able to put my children through school. It remains a hobby because
there is so much you learn through this. And it really makes me happy when
these items find a new home. It pays to appreciate things.”
Author’s Note: Some of the items I bought from Remnants include a near mint condition
copy of the first ever English language printing and edition of Colombian
author Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ “Love in the Time of Cholera” (1988 Albert
Knopf/Doubleday) for P200 and a beaten up copy of the late Nonoy Marcelo’s
Ikabod series, Dagang Sosyal that I used to have but have lost in the
intervening years. Also for P150! I also have purchased a number of old
Filipino komiks at Remnants.
