Featured Why are you guys and gals so good?

Any tips on best way to identify items?
Is it just experience or is there best tips to identify strange pieces?
Tried Google images lots of times and pretty poor.

So come all, share the secret.

 

I have only been doing this craziness for about 20 years so I am still a relative newbie compared to some of the folks here on the forum.

I learned a tremendous amount on the old eBay boards until they totally ruined them about 8 years ago or so. Just reading random posts & seeing the photos.

I have also worked &/or attended a weekly local auction here in Columbia for most of the last 20 years. He gets whole estates as well as individual consignments so being able to handle & learn about the stuff that moves through there has been a wonderful education. There is no real substitute most times to having an item in hand so you can get the feel of it especially when it comes to things live porcelain,, pottery or glassware.

I continue to learn new things every single day here on this forum because you have some very experienced folks in just about every genre you could possibly want. I am positive that there are folks here who have forgotten more than I will ever know about some areas.

Just remember there is no such thing as wasted research. If you see something here or when you are out & about jot it down or take a picture so that when you get home you can do the research. Then even if you do not get that one you will be ready if it ever crosses your path again.

 

Buy as many books as you can on your speciality and look through them again and again. Photos most important. You will soon start to recognise things. My biggest problem is remembering which book I saw something in.

 

For me it's great to buy boxes of items here in England as 'job lots' from auction houses.

 

Ooops posted too soon, So much variety and some great finds, but cool that there as is 2 many times as much things that are no good, Look at the 50 items and research. Learn a lot. And this site. Soon i'll be able to advise members on their stuff,

 

Lots of research, reading about the subjects you collect, going to auctions, estate sales, examining stuff at antique malls. After a while you start seeing stuff you've seen or researched before and get to know what quality looks like, what collectors are after. I'm a relative newbie with only 15 years of collecting.

 

I'm no expert on a lot of things, but after a while you "get your eye in" and start seeing things that are quality but that might slip by the novice. You learn where to look for silver marks on international pieces, for instance, and learn to figure out what's silver on sight. It's 30% books and 70% experience.

The UK Antiques Roadshow reruns on Youtube are helpful too. They show all sorts of odds and ends that never crossed the Atlantic. So when one piece does skate in somehow, you know about it and the dealers don't.

 

Obsessive Compulsive, me. Geek.

 

'Job lots' might yield too much junk. Specialize in what you are interested in and go from there.

 

I know what you mean. I just put five boxes of stuff into auction that was left over from job lots after taking out the good bits. However, there were some fantastic pieces in those job lots including a Meissen sugar box and cover that sold for a lot of money. This is the sort of thing that I see regularly. This is just one lot - it can be a waste of time but.....

 

Why are you guys and gals so good?


Funny, Ms. G just said that last night...oh...nevermind

 

I have been doing this for about 18 years and I am still learning.
I take a chance now and then on something that I like and is not expensive and if I make a mistake, oh well.
I have my books, but nothing beats the info here and all the helpful folks who know so much more than I could ever hope to know.

 

OK, seriously folks. Like Pearls, I've been doing this for about 18 years. I'm proud to say that the incredible knowledge of several people on this site has saved me from making serious mistakes on more than one occasion. Thank you!!!!

 

For me it was firstly buying junk, then from help from this forum realising why they were junk, and then how to easily differentiate junk

 

It is a never-ending learning process. Every time you think you got it under control you screw up & buy something you shouldn't.

 

Of course, sometimes, if you hang onto something you bought that was not a hot item back then, it just may become a hot item now. Or maybe not. LOL

 

Sometimes it goes the other way; it was hot when you bought it but the bottom fell out of the market. (i.e. every "collectible" my dad ever bought.)