Featured Will Google's Lens stop antique bargain hunting?

I asked Antiquers years ago about a lot of pottery I inherited, something I didn't have a clue about. Today my knowledge hasn't improved but despite this I was able to identify everything and date well as value it all thanks to Google's lens. Will anybody wanting to sell anything in the future just "lens" it first? If so this is the end of my bargain hunting as I rely on people listing antiques in the wrong place and expecting very little for them.

 

I think searching miss spelling has been around for a long time, what I was meaning is I look for antiques that people don't even know are antiques or even if they think they are old they don't think they have any value. For an example ebony box is a good search on ebay as there isn't that many ebony boxes in the main listing and there's a good chance of spotting a Anglo-Indian antique in general listings. I just think people today might just Google lens it before listing it, it's just so easy to do and doesn't take a second, you don't need any knowledge ie description ect

 

When one's out in the field & has seconds/minutes to grab something,not many generalist pickers'll have AJ's,Davey's,OBear's or Your deep knowledge of Ethnic,Numismatic,Pottery or Inlaid Boxes.
Same when generalists are surfing thru 300-400 items on
Ebay,LiveAuctioneers,Invaluable,etc.
Having an educated eye's irreplaceable,but ya gotta balance this w/ the current craze of every human having a 'side hustle' now -it's flooding every damn venue on earth.
Great picks will be harder,but will still be out there.
PS-Davey's trick of searching common misspellings a great old online technique.

 

if google lens is so well known....how come so many folks show up here.... not having used it to find their items ?

And , yes, not everything is or can be found that way , anyways..

and, the reverse..... folks use the Lens... and ' think ' they see something similar to what they have.... with a ton on 1stdibs.... but it aint !!!!!!

 

Google lens should be used like Autocorrect, OK as a starting point but prone to stupid mistakes. It works about one time in ten for me, with seven of the other nine results being totally wrong.

I run into Googlers every time I walk into a thrift, seems like. They make life more difficult, but in setting like rummages/car boots/estate sales we with some good general knowledge will eat the googlers' lunch. While they're researching an item, we're walking off with it or the thing they should have bought.
I used to do that to some loupe-happy gold hunters. I'd struggle up to where the jewelry was kept only to find the two of them (church annual rummage sale, now defunct) looking at every single piece of goldtoned jewelry. Meanwhile, they'd left the sterling Alfred Philippe for Trifari crown set sitting there. Not sure if they found much, but I scored the Trifari that time for under US$5.(LOL)

 

Never did use it. (LOL)

 

For years people in thrift stores have been grabbing things off shelves, then skulking off into dark corners to see if they can't find them online through their phones. (G-sales too.)

 

Bargains will always come up. Google lens and the internet may educate people as to what they own but some people are either too lazy, rich, generous or ignorant to bother about what they are giving away/selling.

Also some items are too rare or common place for lens to select results for. If they are too rare it has no comparison. If the item looks like a lot of things it gets confused.

 

I think it will definitely dampen a lot of fun finds, but I think a lot of people still don't know about it or think about using it for that reason.

 

It has been the kiss of death for finding treasures at the thrift stores where I live. The pricers in the back of the store, English not required, are instructed by management to Google lens for pricing.

I even see sellers using it at garage sales.

I have a friend who (like me) is a garage sale addict. He says when he asks about an item at a sale and the seller starts by saying "Well, on Google lens..." he puts up his hand and says, "Stop."

More one-of-a-kind pieces like individual pottery, art, etc. will never match well thank goodness, and you just have to hope to luck into something like that.

There are still treasures to be found, and maybe like Ruth said, while someone is busy imaging the goldtone jewelry we can walk up and grab the sterling Crown Trifari.

 

Yep-Anything too esoteric leaves AI dumbfounded. AI will most certainly get exponentially smarter-prob a lot quicker than our species.

 

Very good points made, I don't have online photos of every antique I own but I did do all that I have and the results were about 95% recognised by Lens. Yes there were some described wrong but for every one described wrong there were at least 3 describing them right. At boot fares and markets people with knowledge will always win out but most of my hunting is done online. I've already seen a drop in bargains, I suspect things will only get worse in the next 2 years, I fear the days of picking something up for a few pounds that worth 100's or 1000's are gone. Only last year I bought a unrecognised table from an auction house, they had taken photos and posted them on facebook, how long before the auction house starts using lens to make sure they don't make that mistake again?

 

Online shopping will become a challenge,in person shopping will still reward the faster 'quick-draw artist'- of course that also means sales could even get more obnoxious than they are now !

 

I remember years ago when the cell phones were first out, I would go to estate sales and the runners would say in a laughing way, no cell phone here. But that did not deter anyone. And the most annoying thing I found was when the runners of the estate sales would start looking up on their cell phones how much these items were listed on ebay for... not sold, but listed so they could charge us that much.

For what I was buying which were just a few categories to resell in, I knew what most things should cost for me to buy and then resell. I rarely if ever spent more than $10 and that was a rarity. The folks here are amazing with all their knowledge, I will never know all they know.... ever!

I never used my cell phone at estate sales. I have to admit, I am not a cell phone enthusiast with anything other than calling for car help.

 

runners of the estate sales would start looking up on their cell phones how much these items were listed on ebay for... not sold, but listed so they could charge us that much.

ya but none of this is new....

25 years ago I was at a flea market...and one seller had printed Ebay listings of any items he had that were...close ... putting them next to his items..... I walked on bye..

 

My view is some antiques will become far more numerous as the lay person realises what they have and what it's potential value might be. I think antique sellers will have to move into higher end and rarer items but when everyone is informed as much as a dealer where will the dealer get their stock from? It's not like a antique dealer can buy in bulk, buying at auctions has become ridiculous with 25% commissions + tax and tax on postage ect and will a informed joe public really be happy with a small fraction of retail at auction?
I think most sellers couldn't be bothered to do the research before but now it's so easy to find out, I would say the antiques game is in for a bumpy ride.
When I first started buying I would say to my wife it's like buying £100 for £10, I suspect those days are gone.

 

A lot of the dealers I know have gone to doing estate buyouts and bulk sales, rather explaining why the rest of us are finding squat locally. It's all being sold before we even know it exists. Auction fees for even local sales aren't going anywhere but up. Tag sales where I live are dead, and a lot of estate sales are on line. It's been getting worse for years and last year I felt like I was spending more money on gasoline than merch most weekends. (because I was.) When some tag sales did turn up, the things for sale were all of recent manufacture and used kiddie stuff. No jewelry for sale at all, even at the estate sales, unless it was Donation Pile grade. It was horrible.

When the estate sale had older things or jewelry, it was a) low grade junk, b) damaged , c) priced at retail, d) replica or a combination. I ran into all of the above.

To add insult to injury, even a higher end thrift where I live is begging for jewelry donations. If they're not getting stuff, and they're jacking up prices for what they do get...I smell trouble, because it's not going to get better.