Need a balalaika? Looking for film you can use in your antique camera? Don’t have the time to find what you’re looking for?
International Resource Seekers of San Diego will track down everything from office equipment for small businesses to beloved childhood toys for nostalgic clients.
Owen Fabert, owner of IRS, said the service is especially useful if the item is hard to find. It’s also useful for commonly available items if the client doesn’t have time to shop.
Clients provide a description of the item, along with the price they are willing to pay. IRS conducts the search; if successful, he collects payment , at a price that includes his own markup , then purchases the item from the supplier.
IRS, which has been in business for about two years, grew out of Fabert’s previous line of work. He ran Fabert’s Pawn on Miramar Road for more than 40 years, before selling to one of his employees.
“Since a large part of what I did, anyway, was finding things for people, I just turned it into a business,” he said.
Because he’s been at it so long, he’s formed a “tremendous network” of contacts who can help him find what he’s looking for. That sometimes makes Fabert’s service even faster than Internet searches, he said.
“Sometimes I can find something with just a phone call. And sometimes the telephone or your personal knowledge is easier than searching the Internet,” Fabert said.
Fabert has been asked to find many unusual items over the years. A contractor once asked him to locate Japanese-style toilets , a raised ceramic platform on the floor. They were available only in Japan, he said.
On another occasion, a search for a 10-karat Soroptomist pin from the 1920s took him a year to find. But since then, he’s been able to track them down quickly, Fabert said.
He even located a particular brand of perfume called “Golliwog,” made decades ago. The perfume’s peculiar leprechaun-shaped bottle was considered a good luck charm, he said. However, that perfume came in bottles with several different designs, and the woman he bought it for didn’t want that particular shape. She took advantage of Fabert’s return policy, and he still has the bottle.
