"Here there is no foot traffic," says Jim Dyer, one of 35 antiques dealers who works out of Silver Leaf. "We've got people who come here looking for something specific."

Dyer, who has been an antiques dealer for 20 years, has sold his English porcelain and glassware at Silver Leaf since the store opened in 1999. Bob Booth and Rick Phelan co-own the store.

Besides its location, Dyer says, what sets Silver Leaf apart is the range of services dealers offer to keep a customer's antiques looking like new. Some repair lighting and porcelain, while another facilitates eBay auctions for customers who want to buy or sell certain items.

Silver Leaf also has a well-stocked hardware department with items such as Victorian door hinges and drawer pulls.

"We call it a full-service antique shop," Dyer says. "We have people come in here all the time looking for a particular hinge."

If customers can't find what they're looking for, they can add the sought-after antique to the store's wanted list, and the appropriate dealer will try to locate it.

Being off the beaten track also gives Silver Leaf an advantage in size over other Willow Glen antiques stores. Merchandise is laid out in three rooms, where dealers rent display cases for their more fragile items such as glassware and have plenty of room to display their larger items like furniture. Dyer says the building's design makes it easier for shoppers to find what they're looking for.

"We have lots of repeat customers," he says. "Lots of people say how nicely the store is lit and laid out and how clean it is."

Silver Leaf dealers each work in the store once or twice a month. Dyer is on hand as often as four days a week.

"We're a pretty close-knit group," he says. "I think all my friends are in the antiques business."

Friends or not, dealers have no compunction about trying to outbid each other at auctions or estate sales.

"It can get kind of heated at times," Dyer says.

And when it comes to English porcelain, Dyer can get quite serious, especially after making several trips to Europe. He says he appreciates the high quality of English porcelain, as well as its history.

"The potters have been around for many years," he adds. "They go back to the 18th century and still produced through the 20th century."

It's this appreciation for the finer things that keeps the dealers at Silver Leaf in the antiques business.

"For a lot of us, it's not really an occupation," he adds. "We have had other jobs or we're retired. It's really something to do. None of us are getting rich, and that's OK because we love it."