Collective on Ballard Ave. unexpectedly closes

Geeky Swedes Ballard

The vintage furniture and unique pieces have been cleared out of what used to be Collective on Ballard Ave.

According to an employee at a nearby business, Collective “just went out of business this past weekend.” We tried to track down more information, but the phones have been disconnected and the website is no longer in use. (Thanks Bill for the email and @jaydeflix via Twitter for the tip!)

Geeky Swedes

The founders of My Ballard

23 thoughts to “Collective on Ballard Ave. unexpectedly closes”

  2. I really enjoyed some of their stuff (I got an awesome lamp) but it took me FOREVER to buy it because they were always closed when they said they'd be open. I'm not super surprised.

  6. I loved the Collective. I bought one of my antique globes there.

    Only a couple of weeks ago they had an actual JPL satellite in their front window! It looked like a miniature rocket. Miniature as in smaller than a real rocket. It was still bigger than me. ;-)

  9. I hear from my sources that it was the economy. People put furnishings further down the list when they are prioritizing spending. I also was told that there was a rent increase coming (which was part of the reason they left the first space they were in) and that in the current economic environment they couldn't absorb it. I thought it was a great little store and I often found great one of a kind collectables there. I will miss it a lot

  11. i was in collective on the morning of the 25th – “the last sunday they would be open,” as the owner put it… she told me that they were closing due to higher rent prices and less people shopping…

    i'd been in a couple of times since i moved here (three weeks ago) and found all sorts of things at amazingly cheap prices, though the low prices may have been a result of their going-out-of-business purge…

    she did inform me, though, that they would be attempting to start an online-only version of their business… i gave her my email address so that i could stay informed of their next venture… if i hear anything i will post it here…

  12. I enjoyed the browsing too. Until I met the owner, not long after they lost the big space. She was so bitter about all of the change to the neighborhood that she was offensive. Especially since the young couples who moved into the hood with $$$ spent it on her stuff. But yet she hated them? Karma baby, Karma.

  13. This is such a loss. Collective was one of the shops that brought Ballard Ave its current panache. They fit in just as well across from the old crab pot shop that used to be there as they did across from Camelion. I loved going into Collective, whether it was their old store or their new store. They had such a talent for display and arrangement. They helped you see beauty and possibility, whether you were buying or not. I can see 5 things in my living room that I got there over the years: a cabinet, a shelf, a box for “SunBeam—the Iron of Irons,” a Capitol records case, and book press. I wish I'd been able to purchase some of the bigger items and keep them in business.

  15. Ouch! Great place, nice people. I was out of town, sad to learn of their demise.

    I had bought a lamp there last summer as a gift which recipient didn't want, so left it at Collective for possible re-sale. Wonder what happened to it?

  17. I hear from my sources that they owed the landlord $17,000 in back rent. I know 'Collective' and their landlord and have done business with them. There was never a rent increase coming and the reason they had to leave the bigger space, which is now Dolce Vita, is because after the original partnership desolved, the remaining owner of 'Collective' did not have good enough credit to take over the lease! They proved to be deceitful in many ways and I am glad they are gone.

  20. Actually, Janus Home is run by two of the original owners. “Collective” was opened by a husband, wife, and mother-in-law originally (as a note- the mother-in-law weaseled her way in by threatening to sue her daughter and son-in-law saying the idea of having a consignment furniture store was her intellectual property). After a couple of years in business together they finally split up, and the daughter and her husband moved to Portland because the mother-in-law threatened to sue them if they opened another store in Seattle.
    Janus Home is the fine furniture that Collective use to have, the mother-in-law never had the eye for pieces with inherent value, and she certainly could not manage a store. I worked for them as all of this went down . . . FYI.

  21. Does anyone know how to connect to the Collective folks… My parents had some stuff on consignmnet there and would like to know how to reclaim their stuff.
    Thanks!

  22. My husband and I are dissapointed to hear that the “Collective” has gone out of business.

    Does anyone know where they have gone?

    K.Robb

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