Vintage Vibes Estates Sales & Antique Mall open on N. Columbia

Published 2:36 pm Monday, July 1, 2024

After spending 30 years working in education, retired high school principal Camille Murner was searching for something else. She and her husband Kevin have family life, but that’s not the only thing taking up the Murners’ attention these days.

The Murners opened Vintage Vibes Estate Sales & Antique Mall, located at 3053 N. Columbia St. in Milledgeville April 5. 

Vintage Vibes includes a plethora of items from their 18 vendors, including new decorative items, antique furniture, vintage toys and more. Murner describes it as a store filled with 18 different personalities and each booth has something different. There is also a produce market with fresh vegetables available every week. The market is predominately run by Murner’s 7-year-old granddaughter and part of its profits go to their grandchildren’s college fund, while some is sent to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

On the first Saturday of every month, there is a community event where people can come out to the antique mall, rent a table, and hold a yard sale. This was done in part to give people a safe place to have a yard sale without the hassle that’s often involved. 

Vintage Vibes is open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 a.m. and on Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. 

Murner said that she has always loved antiques, which stems from her time growing up in her grandfather’s woodworking shop. Her passion for estate sales began when she met the late Jerry Ellington, who taught her everything she knows about the business. When Ellington began the process of leaving the business of estate sales, he brought in Murner to help with sales. Eventually, she began taking local sales and her business grew from there. 

Murner said estate sales are the “lifeblood” of the business, and she and her husband travel all over the state holding sales. The sales are often advertised on https://www.estatesales.net/. There are some months where they have a sale every week, but they try not to do one more than once every two weeks mostly due to travel. 

The idea of opening the antique mall came about because many of Murner’s customers at the estate sales were looking for somewhere new to set up their booths. One day she was on the way home from her storage units and saw a building for rent. In a circumstance that Murner called “too odd not to be God” her husband happened to know the owner of the building and everything came together quickly. 

Since they have opened, Murner says that things have been “amazing.”

The Milledgeville-Baldwin Chamber recently celebrated Vintage Vibes Estate Sales & Antique Mall with a ribbon cutting and business is growing. 

“I love people, so that’s by far the most fun thing for me,” Murner said.