Featured Will Google's Lens stop antique bargain hunting?

I asked Antiquers years ago about a lot of pottery I inherited, something I didn't have a clue about. Today my knowledge hasn't improved but despite this I was able to identify everything and date well as value it all thanks to Google's lens. Will anybody wanting to sell anything in the future just "lens" it first? If so this is the end of my bargain hunting as I rely on people listing antiques in the wrong place and expecting very little for them.

 

I think searching miss spelling has been around for a long time, what I was meaning is I look for antiques that people don't even know are antiques or even if they think they are old they don't think they have any value. For an example ebony box is a good search on ebay as there isn't that many ebony boxes in the main listing and there's a good chance of spotting a Anglo-Indian antique in general listings. I just think people today might just Google lens it before listing it, it's just so easy to do and doesn't take a second, you don't need any knowledge ie description ect

 

When one's out in the field & has seconds/minutes to grab something,not many generalist pickers'll have AJ's,Davey's,OBear's or Your deep knowledge of Ethnic,Numismatic,Pottery or Inlaid Boxes.
Same when generalists are surfing thru 300-400 items on
Ebay,LiveAuctioneers,Invaluable,etc.
Having an educated eye's irreplaceable,but ya gotta balance this w/ the current craze of every human having a 'side hustle' now -it's flooding every damn venue on earth.
Great picks will be harder,but will still be out there.
PS-Davey's trick of searching common misspellings a great old online technique.

 

if google lens is so well known....how come so many folks show up here.... not having used it to find their items ?

And , yes, not everything is or can be found that way , anyways..

and, the reverse..... folks use the Lens... and ' think ' they see something similar to what they have.... with a ton on 1stdibs.... but it aint !!!!!!

 

Google lens should be used like Autocorrect, OK as a starting point but prone to stupid mistakes. It works about one time in ten for me, with seven of the other nine results being totally wrong.

I run into Googlers every time I walk into a thrift, seems like. They make life more difficult, but in setting like rummages/car boots/estate sales we with some good general knowledge will eat the googlers' lunch. While they're researching an item, we're walking off with it or the thing they should have bought.
I used to do that to some loupe-happy gold hunters. I'd struggle up to where the jewelry was kept only to find the two of them (church annual rummage sale, now defunct) looking at every single piece of goldtoned jewelry. Meanwhile, they'd left the sterling Alfred Philippe for Trifari crown set sitting there. Not sure if they found much, but I scored the Trifari that time for under US$5.(LOL)

 

Never did use it. (LOL)

 

For years people in thrift stores have been grabbing things off shelves, then skulking off into dark corners to see if they can't find them online through their phones. (G-sales too.)

 

Bargains will always come up. Google lens and the internet may educate people as to what they own but some people are either too lazy, rich, generous or ignorant to bother about what they are giving away/selling.

Also some items are too rare or common place for lens to select results for. If they are too rare it has no comparison. If the item looks like a lot of things it gets confused.

 

I think it will definitely dampen a lot of fun finds, but I think a lot of people still don't know about it or think about using it for that reason.