In 1968, John and Annette Ostrom started buying and selling antiques out of their own home under the name Poor-Man’s Friend Antiques and Second Hand Store, with a motto promising they would buy, sell, or trade for anything that does not eat. That small operation grew into Bargain John’s Antiques, which has anchored Lexington, Nebraska’s antique trade ever since. On November 15, 1972, the Ostroms bought land at the corner of Van Buren and Walnut streets and built a 5,000-square-foot building, then later added the property at 700 South Washington that still serves as the shop’s main offices and showrooms today. What began as a side hustle for a young family became, over more than five decades, one of the most established antique dealers in the region.
Bargain John’s specializes in quality American antiques dating from roughly 1850 to 1930, a focus John Ostrom developed as his eye for the market sharpened over the years. His particular passions, Victorian and turn-of-the-century furniture, Victorian art glass, art pottery, Mission-style furniture, and early toys, still shape the shop’s inventory today. Beyond furniture, the showrooms hold antique and vintage lighting in both electric and oil forms, fine art including bronzes, carvings, figural cast iron, folk art, paintings, and prints, general store pieces like advertising signs and antique cabinets and showcases, and an extensive glassware selection covering art glass, cameo glass, carnival glass, cut glass, and rarer names like Wavecrest, Nakara, and Kelva. Pottery and porcelain collectors will find named makers including Limoges, Majolica, Nippon, Pickard, Rookwood, Royal Bayreuth, Royal Dux, RS Prussia, Weller, Roseville, and Royal Worcester, alongside American stoneware. Kitchen collectibles, sewing items like antique quilts, and character toys round out a catalog broad enough to satisfy nearly any serious collector’s want list.
What differentiates Bargain John’s from a typical secondhand shop is its documentation. The Ostrom family treats provenance as a top priority, researching and recording what they can learn about each item’s maker and time period, from signed artist paintings to furniture with a documented history tied to pieces once used in the nation’s capital. That commitment to correctly dating and attributing pieces reflects a philosophy the shop states plainly: buying higher quality antiques makes for a better investment, and getting the history right is part of what makes a piece worth owning. In the 1980s, John and Annette’s son Lars Ostrom joined the family business after showing an entrepreneurial streak as a child, reportedly saving his allowance to buy items he planned to resell. Lars now heads operations alongside his wife, Joni Ostrom, carrying the family legacy into its second generation while John, well into his eighties, has continued traveling extensively around the country sourcing new inventory for the shop.
Located in Lexington, a south-central Nebraska town along the Platte River valley, Bargain John’s Antiques draws collectors from well beyond the immediate area, in part because the shop ships its finds nationwide for buyers who cannot make the trip in person. Between its five-decade history, its specialization in documented, high-quality American antiques from 1850 to 1930, and a second generation now running daily operations, Bargain John’s has built a reputation as far more than its self-deprecating name suggests. Bargain John’s Antiques is a family-run, multi-generational antique dealership in Lexington, Nebraska, specializing in documented quality American antiques from 1850 to 1930 with nationwide shipping available.
