What hot in Antiques right now?

[Anonymous]

I know the mid-century retro furniture,lamps are anything else I should be stocking my shelves with?

[springfld.arsenal]

I'm just tearin' em up now with sales of vintage military munitions of all kinds (in another venue of course!)  I have to keep track of lots of laws and regulations, and can't export anything, but military munitions from WWII thru fairly current items, such as mines, grenades, medium-caliber cartridges, projectiles, rockets, the scarcer artillery cartridge cases, German and Japanese WWII items, etc. are working out very well for us.  We've had to hire a man who comes in and does nothing but packing boxes all day.  I don't have much time to visit here anymore, and I take checks and money orders to the bank every day.  I have to buy aggressively to keep up with customer demand, am buying collections, single items, pulsing my network via emails trying to scare up more stuff to sell.  You don't want to get into this unless you are well-versed in what's live and what's not. 

[sirrichardvtant]

Fortunately we really didn't get hit with the slump. Here in the upper East Coast, if you have high end, you will do well. The lower end stuff is not doing well, but starting to come back. We are "finally" seeing a come back with lower end crystal glass. The Asian antiques are extremely hot, fine art is doing well too. Pottery (high end) we are seeing a jump from a year ago. Furniture (period pieces) have gone back up in the market here in the last 2 years.

With a lot of tourists going through our town we are very fortunate, but our customers know what we have always carried and we don't stear away from that. If you are going to go modern even with glass, do the Art Nouveau, we are seeing a high trend with that right now and a lot are asking for it. Especially with pottery.

Native American jewelry has hit a high here, but of course people want it for a fraction of what it is worth, so we always watch out because we do not want to see it melted down like most people do coming in here.

Glad to see other places are doing well 🙂

[deepseashadow]

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@springfld.arsenal wrote:

I'm just tearin' em up now with sales of vintage military munitions of all kinds (in another venue of course!)  I have to keep track of lots of laws and regulations, and can't export anything, but military munitions from WWII thru fairly current items, such as mines, grenades, medium-caliber cartridges, projectiles, rockets, the scarcer artillery cartridge cases, German and Japanese WWII items, etc. are working out very well for us.  We've had to hire a man who comes in and does nothing but packing boxes all day.  I don't have much time to visit here anymore, and I take checks and money orders to the bank every day.  I have to buy aggressively to keep up with customer demand, am buying collections, single items, pulsing my network via emails trying to scare up more stuff to sell.  You don't want to get into this unless you are well-versed in what's live and what's not. 

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one should always know what their are selling, the days of good and plenty are ending but the marked of antiques as it relates to firearms is a huge market and is projected to grow, whereas most other venues are definitely on the decline, in short the garages of America have been litterly cleaned out.

[agathetyche]

A number of antique co-ops in our area are giving dealers free booths. This rather than having customers walk into half empty shops. 

[verybrad]

This thread is from last June. However, the subject might be worth visiting here again. Not much has changed for me. Still selling used decor at cheap prices like hotcakes. Painted distressed furniture is still strong as long as the prices are very reasonable. This means under $40.00 for small pieces and never anything over $200.00. Antiques are very hit and miss. Just closed one location due to poor sales and took more space at the mall that has been doing pretty well. I am going to start showing some better things since I now have aditional space and a lockable case. I do not have high hopes for this but you can't sell it if you don't show it.

I am still buying things very cheaply. As long as I can continue to do this, the above all remains profitable.

[pentiques]

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@northendthrift wrote:

Quality solid oak furniture especially Barley Twist is selling well in my area regards Joe.

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Boy Joe,  I could send you some oak furniture.  I am in NH.  I was at an auction last night, the oak furniture was cheap.  Nice stuff ready to go:

1. 2 over 2 bureaus, large mirror, lots of fancy applied carved do-dads with matching commode with towel bar, great looking both pieces $150

2. nice golden oak low boy, two drawers, over 1 drawer, over two doors, fancy mirrored splash, lots of applied fancy carvings, $100, ready to go.

3. two door bookcase, glass doors, adjustable shelves, fancy splash, paneled sides $100

We cannot give any furniture away up here right now.

[deepseashadow]

Modern reproductions of museum quality of historical items are selling quite well and the outlook is bright, the problem is the supply, at least a three + month back order log., for example Xmass items , 7 month back order, so if you don't order now you won't have anything to sell at Xmass, of course you most likely know all that.

[weirdauntlaura]

Hi. I am a fairly new Ebay seller. I have been collecting for years. I have recently had an interesting insight, based on the pattern of my sales. It's that if the item is highly unusual within its category and it's in good condition, I can hold out for a very good price. If the item is not highly unusual, I am probably dead in the water. 

So, for example: my first sale was a rather humble-looking Arts and Crafts pin, that was made by a company that was in business for three years. The profit margin was huge. That seems to be the way this works. If you have something that some (usually rich) collector wants very badly, they will pay your price. 

On the other hand, if you are selling collectible junque--for example, 1940's jewelry that has been traded back and forth in the market for years, you are not going to do so well.

An important question: was this item mass-produced in a factory in the last 100 years? Was it made to last forever, as a lot of goods were, in the 20th, century? Then there is probably a ton of it floating around, and others are probably selling it cheaper. 

It''s condition and scarcity. You know, like Antiques Roadshow?

Ebay and the Internet have made many many  items much less "scarce,"--i.e., not so hard to find. Depression glass is  a prime example of what not to sell. A ton of it was made, people held on to it, and it wears like iron. So there is a ton of it around. 

[antiques845]

My antique business is located in a "brick and mortar" 19thC barn. This year, traffic was down 40% but my sales doubled. The RIGHT crowd found me. Mostly newer clients who saw my signs. It was all "new to them". I deal in low-mid-range items. Antiques/collectibles in the $3.00-$900 range.

    I keep it as eclectic as possible. It is sort of organized chaos.  I sell a good deal from my $3.00/4/$10.00 bins...costume jewelry, reasonable historic pins, badges, etc. A smattering of glass, pottery and furniture/furnishings. NO RHYME NOR REASON!

   I'l post a few imgs of my current offerings in the shop...

[mymysharona43]

Interesting finding! Booths look good

Whats hot I sure don't know not costume jewelry....I don't think we possess anythin HOT

This thread did make me wonder where spring went havn't seen him in a while

[kentworld]

Springfield has left the board. He found the lack of the "ignore" button and the incessant moving of threads too frustrating and irritating. He has better things to do. A loss for us for sure.