Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market is located on West 39th Street between 9th amp; 10th Avenues every Saturday and Sunday throughout the year, weather permitting.

I get there and business is in full swing. Slowly, very slowly, I start to wander around the market. The absolute best to way unearth antiques in a setting such as this is to take your time and to feel. Your job as a picker, someone who finds antiques for retail dealers, is to tune out everything around you and let the antiques talk to you. Actually, it's more of a whisper. With just a little bit of knowledge and an affinity for the old, it is astounding what treasures can be uncovered from a sea of dross.

I'm making my way through the rows of dealers and my spider senses begin to tingle. There is an old man set up with two tables covered with an assortment of very old stuff.

At a quick glance he appears to be in his mid-seventies. His hair is white and disheveled. His overall appearance is round; a round face and a round body. He can't be more than five six and must weigh in close to three hundred pounds. His hands are enormous.

Right in the middle of the table is a pile of padlocks. Very old padlocks. Without touching them I ask, "What do you have to get on your locks?"

"Ten each," comes with a grin.

"What can you do for four?"

"Ten each," a bigger grin.

I decide not to be a pig, dig out the two twenties and pass them over to him. Select the four that I want and wish him a good day.

Now, three of the locks are nothing special. All four are old, very old railroad padlocks. Three of them I think are valued somewhere between fifty and a hundred a piece.

But that fourth one, it's a beaut! This lock is round and very clearly marked D.K. Miller Lock Co., Railway Lock, Fairbanks amp; Company, New York, U.S.A. The retail value on this is close to a grand.