Antique values in 2017 versus 30 years ago..?

Just saying 30 years ago as a roundabout number. As some of you may know, my mother-in-law passed away and we inherited all of her items and antiques. Her and her husband used to collect antiques in the 1970s through 1990s I believe. (I'll get a better time period from my husband). Anyway, we brought more things home and dusted them off and started finding out what they are. Some of the items still have the tags on them from when they purchased them at the antique markets back in the day. For instance, I have four antique ice cream scoops and one of them had a price tag for $60 and the other one had a price tag for $40. As you guys have been saying, I should look at eBay sold listings for the values of items. When I pull some of these up, they tend to be around $10 in value. So what I'm wondering is, because of today's technology age in the availability to find antiques and values online, did that drive down the values that some of these antiques used to be sold for?

 

A pic of the ice cream scoops and a meat tenderizer.

 

and the answer is..........YES !

Once the internet blossomed ...and eBay showed up......and the auction houses went on line......I was making good money....selling Native art work.
But it wasn't long before 50 others were selling the same items...of similar or lesser quality...at lower prices.....so mine had to come down too.

I sold some other unique items......that were only unique for a short while , for soon everyone else was selling the same items....from their youth....that we'd all hung on to....and thought were special....and were special......until 100 other folks posted the same items that we'd ' all ' hung on to..!
& yes of course....the prices all bottomed out...

 

Ive never seen the antiques market fluctuate so much as it has the last 10 years. There truly is no rhyme nor reason to why some things have plummeted,like early american furniture,yet others have skyrocketed,like MCM. I agree with komokwa that the internet completely changed the game,and ebay pretty much killed it.

 

Meanwhile, things like videogames have taken off. 'Tis a puzzlement.

 

It used to be that you could really only shop your local area for stuff and prices were often different in different areas.....ie Stoneware Crocks were almost giveaways in KY area.....but fetched good money in Florida. Also, since there was only regional sources, many things were considered rare and valuable. Then came the internet and eBay and all of a sudden all the "rare and valuable" stuff was coming out of the woodwork, and people realized it wasn't so rare and valuable, and prices plummeted.

 

And rare never did necessarily mean valuable; I make some absolute OOAK necklaces and artwork that are worth their component materials. Less for the art.(LOL) Some absolutely unique antique pieces aren't worth much either, because for it to be valuable people have to be looking for it and at least two people need to want it. ...and it can't be illegal to sell, which lets ivory out in a lot of places.

 

Folks also tend to collect what reminds them of their childhood growing up. Take me for instance, I started buying perfume bottles when I saw a pretty one that appealed to me. Then I started to educate myself about the bottles & learned that DeVilbiss was a major manufacturer of the hardware for the atomizers. I always knew that there was a company with that name in Toledo where I was born, but had no clue they made perfume bottles. My collection now is about 85% DeVilbiss bottles.

The ice cream scoops would not mean much to anyone under the age of 30 unless they had an older family member who collected such things. Add that to the fact that these things are not as rare as folks once thought they were & then add the fact that most of the younger generations have no interest in antiques. This is how you end up with an item that your in-laws paid $60 for & now if it brings $10 you'll be lucky.

Case in point, the people that contacted Mason a bit ago asking about the sterling Apostle spoons he had given someone as a christening present. They were moving into one of those tiny houses & asked if he minded if they only kept 4 of the spoons. They were down sizing to what could fit into 2 or 3 totes.

 

So sad... I've always thought antiques were really neat but never personally decided to collect. Just sad to know of all the time, money and heart she put into buying all these items that she truly valued, has now just come down not being worth much. As if the loss of her isn't hard enough... At least she was able to have the joy of her accomplishments while she was here.

 

$250 worth of gold then is $1250 worth now

I see it mostly as changing demographics. The little old ladies that collected teacups are passing and their collections are be reintroduced to a smaller audience. Stuff that was hard to find several years ago (when it was hot) is flooding out now.

 

A little off topic but... what ever happened to the value of books?
It's great for buying but then when I go to sell...
Have books ever been the "hot items?"

 

What an interesting topic, ebay seems to be under attack but in my opinion ebay has made collecting and selling much better, of course there will be winners and losers but some of the items that were bought before ebay will have been bought for very little money and will now sell on ebay for loads. Ebay sets the price for many things unless the seller wants to take the chance of putting an item on for a low start price. You can almost gauge the price an item will sell to within a few pounds on Ebay as long as it's described, photographed, and listed correctly. I started collecting after ebay started and 95% of the things I have come from ebay, I still take pride in going into antique shops and buying something that will sell for many times what I paid when I relist it on Ebay but on a whole antique shops are over priced compared to Ebay and even online auction houses (once high commissions are paid) are over priced. Clearly the overheads of shops and auction houses make their business untenable. It's always been a game of knowledge, I once thought I knew a bit about the game but reading the threads in here I realise I have a very long way to go.

 

Besides increased availability of item through the internet, the buying motivation has changed. Younger people spend their money on electronics, entertainment, and eating out. They don't want more stuff for their minimalist houses. Besides, what they do have will be liquidated in a few years when they get tired of it and want something new. There is little attachment to stuff these days. While this trend does not totally surprise me, the rapidity and breadth in which it occurred, has.