C J's Antiques & Collectibles — Attraction in Ponchatoula

I used to love coming here, just because of the vast selection. Except now, I started to realize the prices are faintly absurd. I found a non antique dresser that was in relatively poor condition that priced new just a couple of years ago was about five percent cheaper than here. I thought, maybe, just maybe, they were over priced on one item. Five items later, I realized they were either at or above brand new pricing on each item I looked at for items that saw conditions ranging from poor to good. Now, for genuine antiques that would not surprise me, or for hand made signed by the maker, or fill in the blank item that would make it collectible. But for run of the mill definitively not antique items, way overpriced. Now for the selection, it is still fantastic. You won't find a more thorough collection of items ranging from so junky one wonders why it ever hit the market to amazed it is still on their shelf it's so cool. It is fun to wander, just to see pieces of Americana from a vast array of decades. This is more a great museum store, and for that this place is fantastic. I just wish the prices were...

So I grew up a sharecropper's son. We lived in an extremely old house. As a kid, visiting my older family members was an adventure in time. Every cabinet, box, shed, book, and record would take me back to when my grand parents were kids and life was simple.

Walking through CJ's was a trip back to that time. Each booth is full of little piece of growing up here in Louisiana. If I had the money Id buy it all. A few minutes turned into 2 hours as I got lost in time with my daughter. I even scored a great Philco Standard Broadcast floor radio. After a little tinkering, its playing Zydeco and Blues like it should!

The coffee shop and soda station add a really great touch....especially the old fridge and antique working coke machine.

I highly recommend a trip! Even if you dont buy anything, the smell, atmosphere, and memories from each item you touch will...

It's "OK". Everyone was polite, I just found it to be more of a hoarder's wet dream and less of an antique store. And that's not to be mean and I know there's a thin line between the two. There were some shelves I couldn't go through because if I picked one thing up a lot would come toppling down. It's too tight. There are areas I physically couldn't walk through. I see a lot of people on here absolutely adore the place and say that they have great prices. It's separate booths, so there are many different sellers and some sellers do have decent prices but some are out of touch. I feel like Ponchatoula can sometimes be a bit of a tourist trap regarding antiques, but I live in the area so it's just a fun weekend for me. Either way, it's not horrible and 90% of the fun of antiquing is the hunt; but this place could use a good clean and a whole lot of...