Nobody’s beating the door down to get into this place,” is how John Willis, an employee at A-Art’s Antiques & Appraisers on Sutter Street in Folsom, describes business during a recession.

He said a key signal of a bottoming of the economy’s decline is consumer spending and it’s very apparent right now.

“The bottom line,” he said, “is people have been without money for so long that if they had something to sell, they’ve already sold it.”

Similar woes are heard from Judy Hansen, manager of the Folsom Mercantile Antique Mall, also in the Folsom Historic District, where more people are bringing in goods to sell than customers coming in to buy.

“We’ve had lots of people bring stuff in, looking for cash,” she said. “Sorry to say, we keep buying whenever we can from people but there’s no rush to buy things from us.”

Hansen tells of people coming by car or truck, “asking us to come out and take a look at what they have, mostly small things. We’ve had people who had to give up their house, some who did have antiques to sell but mostly the antiques are marginal, not much.”

Hansen said home-related business is down, mirroring the housing market’s decline.

“Furniture and antique furniture sales are just down,” Hansen said. “People are not as interested as they were a few years ago. They’re just staying away from buying.”

The mall will be open for the 42nd annual Fall Antique Street Fair coming Sunday, Sept. 20, and they might buy sales space on Sutter Street.

“We sell a little bit of everything and that’s what people are bringing in — jewelry, knickknacks, small pieces of furniture, China, glassware, linens, occasionally toys, some dolls, books, records, old radios, sometimes souvenir kinds of swords. There’s very little in clothing,” she said. “It’s usually less expensive things, under a hundred bucks. They’re trying to make rent or get rid of whatever they can deal.”

But hard times haven’t hit every outlet that buys, as well as sells. This year, for example, business “absolutely” has been positive for Gilbert Aguayo, who for the past 13 years has worked from his Folsom house as owner of Old World Upholstery.

“A lot of people went to look for new furniture and found prices were higher and quality no longer there. A lot of new furniture today is cut out of particle board and some have plastic,” he said.

So far, his business this year is up about 20 percent over a year ago.

The uptick comes from a combination of finances and sentimentality. People want to save money or memories or both.

“Often they learn after shopping for new furniture that what they have is far superior to what they can buy and made of solid hardwood and frames that aren’t cheap,” Aguayo said.

A furniture upholsterer for 60 years, the former butcher apprenticed under an Austrian disciplinarian of the old school.

“That’s why I call my business ‘Old World’, because that’s the kind of work I do,” he said.

Aguayo works alone, with wife Elvira doing the sewing for furniture upholstery repair and replacement.

Because the price of gold has been at its highest levels in U.S. history, striking $1,038 an ounce about a year ago and recently selling in the mid-$900s, trading has been brisk at Placerville Coin & Bullion on Main Street in Placerville.

Gold sold for less than $300 an ounce several years ago.

Price has had more to do with the activity than any effects of the recession, largely because people want to shift their savings and investments from dollars to the safety of gold as a hedge against inflation and a further sinking of the U.S. economy, according to shop owner Jamie Lowman.

“It’s kind of strange because it goes against recession thinking,” Lowman said.

Her shop deals in scrap gold, jewelry, sterling silver, coins, gold bars and dental gold.

She’s sure some of the selling is caused by financial hardship.

“People are buying and selling. They don’t tell me why they’re selling,” she said. “I’m sure some of it is because they need the money.”