This Old Town gallery is looking for a new space. And everything is on sale before move

Four years after relocating from Douglas to Commerce Street, Old Town mainstay Sandbar Trading is again looking for a new home.

“The building has sold, and we had a long-term lease but the current owner was such a nice guy that he wanted to buy us out of our lease, so we allowed him to do that,” said Richard Gottsponer, who owns the gallery with his wife, Julie.

Sandbar Trading specializes in Native American art, including silver and turquoise jewelry, Navajo rugs, Pueblo pottery and paintings.

Gottsponer said he expects to keep the gallery open on Commerce Street through the end of May with openings Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. From now until the move, all items will be on sale.

“To kind of lighten our load on the packing, we’d rather sell it to somebody than pack it up and move it, so we’ve just started a moving sale on everything in the gallery,” Gottsponer said.

He said he’s not too worried about the impact on business, thanks to the gallery’s new online auctions.

“People have gotten used to buying online,” Gottsponer said. “One of the things that we did when COVID started, and especially when we got shut down for the nonessential businesses, is we started an auction company that I’ve wanted to have for 20 years.

“We started doing online auctions and those have been very successful for us.”

Gottsponer said they do roughly 90% of their business online these days. But he’s still eager to find a new gallery space.

“We really want a gallery. We like the interaction with people,” Gottsponer said.