Brungardt, Bernasconi have vintage, will travel – Times-Herald

Thomas Brungardt and Anthony Bernasconi take their love of nostalgia on the road.

The B&B and Vintage Mercantile Traveling Museum is the dream of Brungardt and Bernasconi, school friends 20 years ago. Together, they blended their love of memorabilia from their era – from the 1970s to the early 2000s – into a curated van museum with all the merchandise for sale.

Inspired by the TV show “American Pickers,” Thomas explains that mobile events like the visit to the Benicia Historical Museum on Nov. 4 from 5 to 8 p.m. are a mix of “interacting with visitors, evoking nostalgia, connecting with the audience, networking, and haggling.” .

“Thomas is definitely a marketer,” Bernasconi said.

“I really enjoy building relationships to make visitors feel comfortable with us,” Brungardt said.

The duo is also set to be at the Hub for Vallejo’s Mad Hatter Festival at Unity Plaza from 2-9pm on Saturday. December 3 and on KRON4 channel “Live! In the bay” on November 2.

“People especially like the vintage card games, printed materials and comics, Star Wars, StarTrek and Hot Wheels toys, and the TVs and VHS they use for the show,” Brungardt says.

Bernasconi said his wife’s uncle had an old Mamiya medium format camera that he liked to shoot with. He has been doing this for about six years, and also collects cameras.

Brungardt says others collect so much that they have nowhere to put it all. This inspired the idea of ​​a traveling museum and selling items as merchandise.

“We curate aviation and space subjects,” Brungardt said. “We know the history of it.”

They converted a 1978 Ford Econoline to hold the museum, but would like to get a second car and outfit it.

“We would definitely like to do a traveling museum across America,” Brungardt said.

Brungardt and Bernasconi said they collect a lot of car-related items, and they both dabble in media items, including historical collectibles such as the moon landings and the Cold War.

“We’re in Vallejo and Benicia,” Brungardt said. “We go where it’s hot, but we meet others who keep us informed. Our most popular connection is through Instagram (@traveling museum). We also operate online and sell from coast to coast.’

They also like to use public events to develop private shows.

“We started about three months ago and we go out three or four times a month,” Brungardt said. “We learned what things cost and what people will pay. We don’t buy within our means, but sometimes we splurge on what we want in a museum.”

Brungardt encourages those interested in the Traveling Museum and Vintage Mercantile to contact them for more information at travelingmuseum1978@gmail.com.