Flashback Funtiques, located at 248 S Main St, Boerne, TX 78006, isn’t your average antique store, and it’s easily one of the coolest destination shopping trips in the Hill Country. It’s a vibrant, Americana-inspired blast to the past, with smooth-looking Coke machines, jukeboxes, pinball games and retro neon signs that make the past feel tangible again.
Billy Howard, the antique store’s owner, has spent five decades chasing that feeling.
“I started going to auctions when I was 10 years old — every Friday night, Saturday night,” he said. “I was really enamored by the design and the quality and history of all of this stuff. Back then, I couldn’t afford this kind of stuff,” he told MySA, gesturing to what is now, in earnest, an empire of vintage classics and an ode to the core of Americana.
Fifty years after buying his first vintage piece in 1975 — an old gumball machine — Howard has one of the most recognizable storefronts in Boerne; it’s a place that celebrates “the good old days,” with tons of ice-cold Coca-Colas, a classic Big Boy statue, and real American-made steel.
“I go to all these shows, and I buy the oldest, coolest stuff that I can find because I just think the design and the quality — wow, it’s the best,” he said.
Howard’s passion for vintage is inspiring. What started as a hobby of buying 50- to 75-year-old items, not technically antiques (antiques are typically 100 years old or more), ultimately helped him build a career that he loves, helping people everywhere build their own collections, reconnect with the past, and unlock core memories from a different time.
“I would go to the barbershop when I was young. We had a nickel Coke machine. If I sat still in the barber’s chair and didn’t move, my dad would give me a nickel. That was my first experience,” Howard said.
I’ve had my eye on Flashback Funtiques since moving to the Boerne area months ago. It’s the first store I saw on Main Street that I wanted to step inside. Something about the vintage vibe and old Muffler-Man-style attractions just called out to me. It’s the kind of store you walk into and immediately think of your grandfather. The neon lights everywhere, the hum of an old fridge stocked with RC Colas, Fanta, Cokes and chocolate milk, and old tunes playing from a juice box stop you in your tracks. This is the type of store you want to share with people.
Howard says he coined the term “fun-tique” for himself. Though it’s an expensive passion, people who get started tell him they can’t seem to stop, saying that it’s rewarding to bring back a taste of the good old days.
Some of the most popular items are Coca-Cola coolers and signs. Other items you can purchase are vintage signs, neon clocks, barbers’ chairs, a life-sized Colonel Sanders statue, slot machines and jukeboxes.
The vintage store ships everywhere in the United States and updates its inventory online every week.