He started collecting items that were nostalgic to him, recalling how his father also used to buy these things like record players and grandfather clocks when he was young. What began as casual browsing eventually led to a small collection.

Aside from Sungei Road market, he also found many gems along Dickson Road, where karung guni (rag-and-bone) sellers would lay out items from their lorries. Over time, he struck up friendships with them. “If there’s anything they don’t want, they would just come to me,” he said.

At the time, Tan was working at IBM. When retrenchments began happening across the company, he started thinking seriously about his future.

“I don’t want to just sit in the coffee shop, talk to friends and end up having a dispute, quarrel with other people. I’ve seen this,” Tan said.