Featured Will Google's Lens stop antique bargain hunting?

Every once in a while, while standing in line for an estate sale there is a newbie or someone who lives across the street from the house that is having the sale. It usually starts with me suggesting they grab a number. If I see this is all new to them, i suggest that if they want something in the house to try to bargain with the estate sale runner... to haggle for a better price,

But seasoned sellers already know what they want in the house and how much they are willing to pay. Many estate sale runners just say make a pile and we will give you a price for it all. It used to be much more reasonable. I have had to put things back because they wanted to charge too much Much has changed in the years since I have been searching for goodies.

 

Some companies here, if I see the name I stay in bed. The sale runners won't bargain, overprice things, or play favorites. Or all of the above. One guy is such a rude jerk I felt sorry for his wife , until I met his wife; they deserve each other. Another company likes to start at 7AM and is run by people who won't answer a simple question without being rude first. No thanks; I don't have enough lifespan to waste any on mistreatment. The last sale I drove a distance for showed something clearly in the preview photos that was not on the table when the door opened. "It must have sold" when I was the first one to the table? Nope.

Some of these companies will not draw professional dealers who know better, or regulars. Burn them once and they don't come back, and word gets around.

 

A number of years ago (they're all blurring now into "a number of years" LOL) I went to the auction. The "specialty" auction. We had 2 auction houses, now we're down to one. The premiums weren't horrendous and there wasn't tax on them at that time. Well, we're down to one auction house. Doesn't do household goods auctions anymore -- they're all "specialty." The premiums are horrendous and there's 2 taxes. Oh, and you can view in person, but the auction is online.

 

I don't know why anybody uses auction houses, neither buyers or sellers

 

I've had great success , and average performance , and poor fails....

but my market is limited... , so ya , I've bought there in the past and sold there more recently.

 

Would you say you have done better recently or in the past? The only advantage of selling in auction I can think of is when the item is so rare it doesn't have a average price and it's a unknown quantity.

 

Again....it's a mix for me..... in the most recent couple of years...
my gold and silver sold poorly.....
my prints sold above wholesale, for the most part..
carvings.... some high & some low..... but none near retail...

before the pandemic....... much better results across the board !!!
with gold and silver jewelry getting good prices...

 

Gold and silver now... you'd better be ready for them to sell at metal weight. That's one reason I buy only in thrifts and at tag sales; I can't afford to pay metal weight, because sell anywhere else and you won't even get that.

 

I clearly no nothing outside my field of collecting, I see antiques going for 1%-50% of their average selling price and if I like them I buy. I haven't sold much over the years as most of the things I buy are increasing in value as the years roll on.
My antique science equipment hasn't done as well and soon I might sell that but I couldn't make a living at buying and selling, hats off to those that can.
I might do a post on the old science stuff I have, there's not that much, it was what I was collecting before Anglo Indian antiques.

 

Retail is a rough racket. These days I figure I'm sub-wholesale or wholesale, which is just as bad.

 

Pre-internet and online auctions and markets etc, it was a handy way of selling your stuff when moving or clearing out a relative's home and it was partly where puckers and antique dealers got their wares. I know one guy -- a number of years ago! -- who bought a lot of Asian items from the local auction houses and did well on eBay with them.

 

I agree retail is a very rough racket at this point. And to think Nordstrom's wants to or already has bought back a large part of their stock in the co because they think they can make it healthy again. They should just move on and forget about what the good old days were when people ran to the store to get designer items.
With more retail chains shuttering stores after too much expantion, this should give them a hint to just walk away.

 

Some that haven't closed their retail operations probably should, or at least scale back to their core operation. (Right, JoAnn stores?) Joann Fabrics was a great place, but I'm told they now sell very little fabric and very much prefab. Fabric buyers WANT it in hand, and anyone buying a fake wreath really doesn't care. They've messed the stores around to cater to the wreath buyers. I sew but haven't gone there since before Covid; there's no point.

 

If I were to ever sell up or start a business it would have to be online and that would only be with https://www.sellingantiques.co.uk/ 75 items for £90 a month. 1st dibs is a joke, they charge their sellers a fortune and allow so many fakes on their site, ebay seems to have died a death and now is no better for sellers than a local auction house (good for a buyer like me). Opening a antique shop would be just foolish these days, the electric bill alone would cost more than sellingantiques and see far less business. I think the antiques trade is going through a transition phase ATM, do young and even middle aged people even want antiques like 15 years ago?

 

They do once they see them. They don't "collect" like their predecessors, but will buy something that appeals to them.

 

I remember when Antiques Roadshow first came out (very early in my reselling career) a friend who had two antique stores said it "changed everything and was the worst thing that ever happened", lol. She'd go to a home to look at items for sale and people were convinced everything they had was worth big bucks because they "saw it on Antiques Roadshow".

Ebay. Suddenly buyers realized there were (for example) millions of Hummels out there. It made certain items more collectible, others less. In either case, it definitely brought the antique buying/selling business into every home.

Then more things online. The thrifts realized they could make more $$ by pulling and listing online.

Now Google image. The economy is shit for young people, and there are so many Youtubes (many "scripted") on how to make it rich at thrift stores. It's actually painful to watch some of the Youtubes because it makes it looks so easy when it is anything but, so deceiving to get views. I see lots of younger people using their phones at thrifts.

I would say it's never been harder to make a go of this business.

 

The hardest thing for me in selling is keeping up with what is hot.
They say Y2K clothes are hot, I lived thru that time and have no memory of clothes that defined that year. I looked it up and I don't think this is going to last, unless the kids really want to time travel back.

I took a few years off from selling and when I came back, the items that would sell lickety split were now replaced with something else... I am not sure what that something else is at this point. And the items I donated are now more desirable. Go figure.

 

there are so many Youtubes (many "scripted") on how to make it rich at thrift stores. It's actually painful to watch

it has always been good way to make money..... by telling others, how to make money !!!
That's nothing new...

 

Reading all what's been written, I think one thing can be taken from the last 10 years, antiques is no longer a speciality subject. The internet, Ebay and now Google lens have all made our knowledge less useful, I'm not saying redundant but the more knowledge the ordinary buyer/seller has the less likely we are to find bargains. The only solace I can see is we bought when the masses didn't know.

 

And we can still get deals on oddball items that just SMELL good, as long as Google can't ID them well. I've scored someone's leftovers from jewelry-making classes three times so far. To estate sale runners, googleheads and even an antique guy it looked like junk. Sterling silver junk!