Featured Covid-19 impact on antiques business

not a team player then..........eh !!

 

Some of the old auction houses just don't get selling online. The Australian government shut down public access to all auction houses as part of its measures so some have shut down and others are going to online selling. In my area (Adelaide, South Australia) there is one that just doesn't get how to sell online. They show just one measly picture and a brief description with occasionally noting if it is A/F (damaged). No indication of what the damage is nor do they show marks or wear. No weights or postage/courier costs either. Their old habits are dying hard and unless they wake up they will go the way of the dodo.

 

Even Skinner, which has been selling online for quite a while, sometimes only gives a single picture. Not good when you can get better pics from an ebay listing than you can from an auction house.

 

ALERT>>>> do not click on links above....

 

They're gone.

 

Here's an update.
I sent a note to the owner of my antique mall expressing my displeasure about having to pay full rent for the upcoming months that the place will be closed.
I was pi$$ed, so my note MAY have sounded snippy....
He called me today, which was a surprise, saying that he would be charging 1/3 rent for May and June.
Yay! Not ideal, but manageable.
Maybe my snarky note made a difference to him?

 

the squeeky wheel , gets the grease............ good 4 U !

 

You may not have been the only one; if he got enough blow back maybe some of it sank in?

 

I've got a horrible feeling this article shows the future doesn't bode well for antiques selling.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/mar...hock-the-world-is-facing-20200416-p54kc3.html

 

that view doesn't bode well for selling anything...........

 

The middle rank and lower will take the hit. High end antiques will be OK.

 

and the rich , keep on getting richer.....................

 

So its been more than a month. I'm not an online seller so have no way to judge.

For those that DO sell online, how are sales going? Better, worse, or the same as it was before covid?

 

I sell somewhat on eBoo during the winter, I have extended into spring. Not so great for me but while they offer free listings, and I have no other way to sell right now, I'm letting it ride.

 

hard to know, as high-income individuals have been hit hard, both by the business closures and by the stock market.

Obviously all of the brick and mortar antique stores are closed. I have a lot of items I’m watching on eBay, and I seem to be getting more seller offers of reduced prices.

I’ve been cleaning out my house and have things to donate. All of the thrift stores themselves are closed. Our local Goodwill drop-offs are all closed. One Salvation Army drop-off site is open, so they got my business.

My sister and I cleared out our late mother’s house in this last month. The garage is chock-full of things to donate (there is far too much for us to drop off), but none of the charities are picking up.

The shut down of the economy is already having devastating effects. My guess is that discretionary spending will be depressed for some time, and that includes antiques. In talking to my friends, the shopping we are doing is all new clothing related (because the online sales are fantastic, and we need clothes for work).

To all the antique sellers here, I’m sorry to read how tough things are for you, and I hope everything gets back to normal soon.

 

But only from the waist up, assuming you're zoom working, right?

 

Maybe there will be pent up demand for antiques when the shutdown is lifted?
https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/daily-cartoon/monday-april-20th-marie-kondo

 

Yup me too. I had a few booths at a multi-dealer antique mall on Long Island for two years. I am so sorry I even got myself tangled up in that. Nobody seems to be buying antiques anymore. I talked to the person running the place and told her we will be shutting down all of our booths except for one. My husband was able to get her to unlock the doors and let him take 75% of our antiques and display cabinets home.

My dining room is no longer a dining room. It has now turned into an antique store, lol. I think I am going to talk to my husband about just shutting down our last booth and bring everything home. What scares me is my items are locked up inside of there and after we took most of out things home, the lady running the place and the landlord has not answered anymore phone calls. I've had a few inquiries on Etsy about the items that are locked up in the shop. If any of my items do sell that are still in the shop, how will I get them to ship them out to my online customers?

The antique mall still knows how to charge full rent even though the store has been shut down since March due to Covid19 though . They didn't even offer any of us dealers a break on the rent. They don't even know when they will be reopening. At this point they may not open back up for at least a month or two. I feel bad for the other dealers. Most are elderly people on social security and fixed incomes. How will they survive? The antique mall owners could possibly confiscate their inventory to pay for back rent owed.

Sadly, even before Covid19, nobody was buying antiques. Everyone seems to be only interested in smalls or cheap trinkets. The only people coming in to the store were looking for thrift store prices and anything above $5 or $10 was not selling. All the dealers and I would constantly find ourselves flabbergasted at how argumentative people were about prices. If I had a nickel for everybody that said "well I saw this on ebay for half the price" I would be rich. The funny part is our prices were pretty fair.

As an experiment I added a bunch of cheap crystals and minerals to my store for $5-$10 to get something to sell. Guess what?! Those were the only things that I did sell, lol.

I also sell on Etsy, so I am going to have to focus all of my energies there now. Sales are few and far in between on Etsy too. I used to sell on Ebay, but I don't like all the non-seller friendly policies there so I quit that venue. I have only sold 4 things since March and now all of my online sales are at a standstill.

I did have one lady buy something and have me mail it to her sister for her birthday because she couldn't see her sister due to the lock down. Maybe that will be my only saving grace as people buy antiques online now since they are bored being cooped up in their houses or need gifts for friends and family members. Having a lot of people out of work with no income is not promising for anyone in the antiques field. I wish you all luck.

 

Ran across an article in the Irish Examiner that may be of interest. Mostly focused on the big auction houses. "The future of art and antiques markets amid Covid-19 pandemic": https://www.irishexaminer.com/break...es-markets-amid-covid-19-pandemic-996098.html

"The auction houses of Ireland and everywhere else are in uncharted waters. Social distancing is not possible at busy viewings as we knew them, nor in crowded auctions rooms. New ways to keep the business afloat must be found.

Technology is an obvious answer but it is not for everyone or everything. Early indications from online sales around the world are that millennials are much happier to buy online than the older billionaires who populate the global contemporary art market.

Whether auction houses are prepared to sell big-ticket items online is as yet far from clear. Private sales have been growing in latter years and this trend is likely to be accelerated by what is going on now. ...

Meantime auctioneers are offering online valuation services. The Collector’s Cabinet sale at Mullen’s of Laurel Park in Bray is among Ireland’s postponed sales. Stuart Cole suggests that now is a time for people to hunt for treasure in their own attics."

 

I haven't talked to the auctioneer I work for in about 2 weeks so I am not sure what is going on for sure. I do know that he has never had an on-line auction & would be totally shocked if he did one at all.

He goes very fast & I usually try to warn new people that they need to have a price set before he starts to sell what they are after because until he gets up over a thousand he is not going to give you much time to ponder your next bid. That being said he has ruined me for most other auctions I have been to over the years. There was one I went to a couple of times, but when I almost blurted out "sell the damn thing" to the girl who was auctioning I knew her sales were not for me. I have also been to a couple of sales where I got so bored I started catching bids for them.

On-line/live auctions tend to move a lot slower than he is willing to go. Possibly if he did a strictly on-line sale he might be able to cope, but he sells so much furniture I don't know if that would work at all.

I have been checking his website & I do know that he is accepting stuff by appointment only because he wants to be ready to go for either Tuesday or Friday whenever he can do one. I took some stuff over from my garage for both auctions & actually have some stuff to add to my 4 Tuesday night tables hopefully this week.

The major problem on both nights is maintaining the social distancing. Right now retail shops can be open but they are under strict requirements as to the number of people who can be in the building at any given time. For auctioneers they can't really limit the people who come into the building because that would not be fair to their real customers which are the consignors.

I know some people who come on Friday night would not be above stacking the deck in their favor by keeping out rival bidders which would of course work in their favor.

I don't think this will hurt his business in the long run because he has such a huge following & they know that he will likely continue to get the really good stuff. The question will be how the prices that stuff will change. JMHO