Featured Covid-19 impact on antiques business

you'll be paying for Trumps ....decisions.....for far longer !

 

Indecisions, more like. I wouldn't trust him to decide that water is wet.

 

I very much doubt the housing market will totally collapse: it got bashed in 2008 onwards and has had a more solid recovery, rather than one based on sub prime fantasy. I also very much doubt tourism will die. What's being forgotten here is that major markets are already recovering. Korea is sound as is Singapore. China's supply chain is 95 percent back to normal. Those countries which took sound and sensible decisions from the outset will be the ones that come through best, as will the ones who had the best health infrastructure. Germany, for example.

 

Back to antiques for a second...the powers that be for Brimfield (in Massachusetts in the USA) will be meeting in the next couple of weeks to decide if the May shows should be cancelled.

For those who don’t know what Brimfield is, in May, July and September the entire town becomes a huge combined outdoor antique show and vintage flea market. There are tons of shows over the course of a week or so, some one day, some multiple days. Residents set up tables outside their houses and businesses. Some turn their lawns into parking lots. It is amazing and if you’ve never been it is really hard to imagine.

It has declined somewhat in the past few years as has so much of our business, but it still is amazing! It will be very telling if they decide to cancel the May shows.

 

My brother said the other day that he has hotel reservations to go up there but concerned about potential cancellation of the whole thing.

 

Well we'll see, won't we!
Remember that housing sales (without speculators, who will mostly default in the coming months) require mobility, i.e. people moving from one home to another. I just don't see too much of that happening while the virus is still around.

For a while, prices will remain stagnant as there will be no sellers and no buyers.

Meanwhile, without customers, the over extended house flippers and property speculators will go broke and flood the market with empty houses and condos.

Condo developers won't be able to get financing either because they need a percentage of "pre-sales" before the banks cough up the dough.

Supply will be huge and demand very low. That's when the prices will collapse, which is probably a good thing. Perhaps people will once again be able to afford to buy a home where they live instead of being shut out of the market by property speculators. I certainly hope so.

So it's a bit like musical chairs, hopefully you got your ass in that seat before the melody quit.

 

Hopefully you sold before the virus hit, and are buying after things shake down!

 

I can't imagine they will hold the May show, though it is two months away. Thousands of people from all over the country. The dealers I know who sell at Brimfield sleep in their vans or tents to save money and prevent theft, and everyone uses the rows of porta potties provided as the only facilities available. It would truly be a breeding ground for virus contamination.

 

Remember there are a lot of dealers who live hand to mouth. Pretty much every show through April has been canceled. What are they going to do? If Brimfield is on they will set up.

 

All of the outlets for quick disposal of collections are closed currently and this will make collections of antiques that come onto the market very difficult to market and "move" to new homes. Auctions, antique shows, coin/stamp shows, vintage toy shows, estate sales, and dealer to dealer traffic helped greatly to liquidate the collections of the deceased. Now all of those avenues are not available until this pandemic is dealt with which could take a extended period of time -- What treasures will be taken to the dump by the families of the deceased since they just want the old stuff gone quickly? Like the estate sale participated in by our own @verybrad -- what would happen to it if there wasn't avenues available to sell vast amounts quickly -- would the family lose patience and throw lots of stuff out into a dumpster like they would a hoarder's stash of newspapers and pop bottles to clear up the real estate for eventual sale?

 

A lot of small businesses are going to fail and not re-open in several months when the pandemic finally runs out of steam. Wouldn't be surprised if several of the older auctioneers don't get back into the business and that a few antique stores/malls don't survive.

 

So how will this affect the antique business? Used/old things have always suffered from being viewed as "old" and "dirty". Now that old and dirty implies "infected", will that be yet another nail in the antique business coffin? Will people avoid buying antiques even by mailorder since virus can live on surfaces for an extended time? Has anyone seen an impact on their business yet?

Please move if this thread is a duplicate or doesn't belong here.[/QUOTE]

I sort of asked this question yesterday; as my on line sales had been in the dumper recently and only picked up the last month or so. I asked if I should continue to post on line or free up delivery persons. The answer was more or less - it will become clear. I had more sales today. So I perservere...for now

Leslie

 

My antique mall sales followed the virus down down and down. People are losing their jobs, or just want to be careful right now and not spending money. I don't think that when this is over, everyone will just march back to their job and go on as if nothing happened. I think it might take as long as 2 years to recover and that's only if we can recover by the end of the summer. Remember it took 6 years to recover from the giant recession of 2008.

 

Just throwing this out there for people to think about with not much to do. Look at what has happened to pollution and how odd this is that it came after this plastic bag ban push. Wonder if there is a bigger underlying issue in the world.

 

After a week long experiment of trying phone sales with curbside pickup, the owner has decided to close our stores for the foreseeable future. There really wasn't enough business to warrant even a single staff person to post photos and answer the phone. Not sure what this means for us longer term. Most of us dealers have the ability to withstand a few months if necessary. The owner is also well enough funded that he can withstand quite a bit. Hopefully, the owner can get some rent relief that he can pass on to us. There are a couple dealers who really depend on the store sales and I worry a bit about them.

 

A reversal of sorts has just occurred in my city - the grocery store has banned re-usable bags and has reverted to giving out groceries in plastic again while the crisis continues.

Smart move IMO

 

Could be although Covid-19 survives longer on non porous surfaces like plastic
2-3 days. Compared to 24hrs
And disinfect and bringing yourself might be better option

IMO

 

Yes, but at least they are new and clean and nobody has handled them except the store.

 

I certainly have seen a decline in sales this month. I sold a craft kit today which makes sense as people can spend the time indoors doing something aside from watching tv and looking out the window,

Last month was very good for me, then it hit a wall.

I agree that there is a perception that antique or vintage is old, dirty, used by some.

With all the scary stuff on the news and tv, it makes for people being even more afraid to bring something new or old into their homes. I was watching the news and one dr said be careful of the boxes that you receive in the mail as they have germs and then when I switched to another channel, another dr said the germs dissolve into the cardboard quickly. So we are left to try to figure out what is best.

Our estate sales are still up and running tho with conditions. I have a feeling that if those that are going on this week and weekend don't see a good amount of people and money, some will cancel (if they can) upcoming ones or set them further back into the calendar. This is their bread and butter.

I know I am chomping at the bit to get out and go to estate sales but, there is
that worry about who could be sick at the sales and not know it yet. Once we get out of the houses and do normal things, it is easy to forget we are supposed to not get too close to anyone or touch things and then touch our faces. At least that is the way I feel.

Lots of people who sell stuff for weddings on etsy or ebay or wherever have got to be taking a hit as people postpone things or cancel them.

I shift from feeling like the situation will get better soon and then think maybe it won't.

I don't know how fast the market will get back on it's feet again. People in general have a short memory IMHO and when things get better, they revert back to old ways of spending money whether they can afford it or not.

Maybe what I think is gibberish, this whole situation has knocked me for a loop.

 

Remember you can’t see it there are many people in the store. Grabbing the bags before you and possibly coughing on as well. It may seem new and clean but really not from the environment it is in. Also trusting in store employees you know where your stuff has been bringing your own
Just something to think about stay safe
Everyone will come out of this