Antiques are much cheaper in Europe than Australia

I live in Australia.
Europeans have only been here about 250 years. And then those that came didnt have much.
So there really isnt many antiques here.
What there is sells for a high price even if it is young and not in good condition.
When I see the auction sites in Europe via Invaluable it is clear how much better it. Also ebay comparing antiques for sale in UK vs Australia.
But shipping is very expensive.
For example I like spelter figures. there are quite a lot of nice ones in the UK (compared to a few broken ones that come up from time to time here), but it costs almost more than the statue to send.
Here you can pay $1000 for a 19th C oil painting by not a famous artist. I see in Vienna you can get an oil painting from the 1500s for not much more than that.
But you have to arrange your own shipping, the auction houses dont seem to send. That would be very expensive I imagine.

Any way around this? Any ideas?

 

@Shangas
@Van_Poperin

 

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That's a great story Dave-'The antiqueless antique store'. In Oregon all Gas Stations are self-serve (u ALWAYS pump yer own gas)-so why's it called a 'Service Station' ?

 

Yes Gato,if we lived in Paris,Amsterdam,London-My Wife would have to be yanking me away from 'Invaluable' or 'Icollector' (so that she could shop it !). I'd just take the TGV,Metro or drive and pick our 'goodies' up.
I live roughly 5 hours from the Canadian Border,but the cost to ship to Canada !

 

In the US the older ,finer antiques are found on the East coast. The further west you go the less antiques you find but you find more Mid century. I live in Missouri and here I find primitives which I prefer. Wasn't Australia a penal colony? I doubt those early settlers had much more than the clothes on their backs.

 

When we lived in Sydney, my parents (and even us kids) bought Australian Indigenous and Pacific art as well as Asian art and antiques, instead of European antiques.

Australia also had gold rushes, starting in 1851, and rich colonials. And believe me, they loved to spend money, on luxury goods, extravagant gold jewellery, you name it. Because of the wealth of Australian society, performing artists from all over the world went on tour there in the mid to late 19th century. Even Lola Montez!
And then there were the 'squatters', farmers who occupied land illegally and who became filthy rich and could import furniture etc from Europe. Their belongings are antique now, but those antiques often stay in the family.

In the mid 19th century the convicts were a minority. They were often convicted for stealing a loaf of bread, or for standing up for their rights, like poor English farmers or Irish nationalists.
The descendants of some early convicts are now regarded as Australian aristocracy.

 

Sadly,likely the Aussie Gold Rush losers....

 

Of colonisation in general.
And I think the squatters made many more victims than the miners, claiming large areas of land as their own when it was already someone else's.

 

Some Canadians who live close to the border, cross over just to mail their packages from a US postal office. Saves more money in shipping than in gas.

 

and many have PO. boxes just across the border too..

 

This is very typical of Australia lots of antique shops will sell a mixture of things and might only have a small proportion of actual antiques and when I say antiques I'm using the Australian definition which would be anything over probably 80 years old.

 

Yeah the goldrush would have bought some things in. Martin place in Sydney which is the financial hub has beautiful Banks built-in gold rush times with very elaborate columns & statues and things and beautiful ceilings.
But still overall there isn't a huge amount of antiques here because there just haven't been many people over the years. Don't have generations of family hand downs.
Europe's had thousands of years of trading across borders.
And yes Aboriginal art and Aboriginal artifacts are very interesting to Australians and absolutely need to pay respect to that culture which was continuing for 60000 years. The longest continuing culture on the planet.
But personally I'm interested in European antiques

 

Thanks for the tag @komokwa wish I could help… but I don’t think Scotland is very cheap, so I usually just pay up!

 

that's alright....I'm just glad t' see ya !!

 

I sold an art deco ashtray to a nice woman in Australia, who saw me post it for identification on Facebook and begged me for it. Ashtray was a tenner, postage was forty quid, which she happily paid. Lord, did I ever wrap that thing to death. It took three weeks of me worrying for it to get there. She was ecstatic.

 

Yes that sounds right. Even with postage being more than the item, it's still worth it to get it here

 

A friend of a friend got moved by their job to Australia. Their Queens (NY) apartment was furnished entirely from street scores, stuff left behind by former housemates, the attics and basements of family, and thrift stores.

Apparently lots of company VIP’s were also being moved, and the baggage allowance was generous - especially for someone with lots of experience cramming new finds into a tiny space and was willing to pack their own container. When he got unpacked and set up, he was shocked to have his flat described as “posh”.

 

Yeah what gets sold as antique here is very uninspiring

 

The good thing is that there's much fewer border hoppers than in Texas .
It's always harder to find nice antiques in south and west states.