Yeah, ABC is a definite destination. I have been there many many times with friends who are designers, antique dealers, decorators, shop dealers with small stores, history buffs, and people who just like to browse and look at beautiful things and also enjoy looking at the pricing of their stuff. I have been there a hundred times or more. Make it a day trip in fact (the big store in NJ) and one thing has stood out among all the trips with all the people I have ever been there with. No one has ever bought a thing. It's always research and browsing. The only people I know who buy there are, pardon the cruelty, but really neurotic people who all share some hoo-ha around the idea of "ABC Home and Carpet" like it was the vatican of home decorating. Seriously. But what struck me the first time I went there, was looking at stacks and stacks and STACKS of smalls all priced out exactly at $995 or higher, $12,995, that kind of thing. If I am going to pay that kind of money or higher, I don't want to see it in stacks and stacks and stacks. It cheapens the value in my mind because it becomes so common. But I think the buyers I have known who bought there for their own studio apartmetns in Manhattan, all got the secret thrill off the price tag, regardless if it was in a cardboard box filled with the same item, and as I say, the hoo-ha around ABC. It's the Lexus of the home world.

Do you think you'll end up bidding on the first rug? >>>

Still mulling it over. I'm going to check back in and see how I feel as it nears the magic hour. I like to do that. Get a buzz on something, if it's just an organic sense, and then let it ferment and see what my gut tells me later. Often if I'm not absolutely certain out of the starting gate, it means "no" is a good idea.