Are the 90's now considered vintage?
I remember having trouble calling the 80's vintage, but now I'm seeing many listings for 90's vintage. Do you consider the 90's vintage?
28 comments
I remember having trouble calling the 80's vintage, but now I'm seeing many listings for 90's vintage. Do you consider the 90's vintage?
evelyb30
·5 months agoI've disposed of most of my 80s stuff, and most 90s pieces unless I made them. The rest is a mishmosh. The 90s had nothing I want to remember, but the fashions are a hot commodity among GenZ and some Millenials. People buy things their parents had, or their parents' friends had, or Grandma had.
It's a little strange to think of things I bought brand new as being vintage now, but a lot of them are.
gator08041971
·5 months agoPersonally, I think vintage can apply in a couple of scenarios.
Items that are more than 20 years old, but no more than 50 years old.
Items that are from an era, like say 80's clothing.
For me, I stick with the idea of being past 20 years.
Classic for me would be things that are over 40.
Antique is usually for items over 100 years old.
Retro used to apply to era items from over 40 years ago. Like clothing from the 70s disco era would probably be considered Retro now.
If you are going to use the word rare, you better do you research and make sure it is. lol For me, rare is an item that I can find less than 25 of here on eBay. Unique or one of a kind, it had better be less than 5 of them on the platform. Hell, I have items I sell that are the only ones listed anywhere like them. Hand crafted too. lol
But sellers usually like to attribute their descriptions based on their feelings about the item. Sometimes they are worth more to the seller than to someone actually buying.
cardsforauction
·5 months ago25 years or older, I would consider vintage items. 1990s is vintage.
theshoppingmom2
·5 months ago@dream*peddler I go by 20 years plus for vintage
stephenmorgan
·5 months agoI have items made and sold as Vintage Collectables from 1993. So today, 33 years later the Vintage Collectables are now Vintage. How would you advertise this? Would it be Vintage, Vintage Collectables?
1940fc
·5 months agoI`d just call it Vintage.
But when listing it (if you do) to head off the 'naysayers', 😉 I`d explain that altho it was manufactured in the 90`s as a Vintage Reproduction..as it is now 33 years later, it has become True Vintage.
Sometimes people just need to be 'eddycated' whether they know it or not. LOL
southernmermaid8
·5 months agoI definitely do. Like it or not we are all getting older and the definition of vintage does change. It doesn’t stay stuck in what was vintage when we were younger. When I stop and think about 1995, that seems like so long ago. Almost like another lifetime. I certainly feel nostalgic about it, those were great years for me.
I agree with Treasure Island Pearls also. It helps narrow down what you are looking for. Also for me, the people who usually buy 1990s items call them vintage so if you don’t put that in your title, they may have a hard time finding it.
Now I definitely think the word is overused here and don’t think it should be used on items less than 20 years old. However that doesn’t apply to any of the 1990s. Way back in the 19 hundreds as the youngins would say.
mattva
·5 months agoI was in high-school in the mid 90's and now they play music from that decade on the local classic rock stations. That's when I realized that I had officially became vintage. 😫
1786davycrockett
·5 months agoWhen I was a book "scout" for a local used paperback seller back in the early 1980s, the term "vintage" referred to anything pre-1960.
So I guess anything pre-2000 could technically be termed "vintage" as well.
It may not seem "old" to us -- but to younger folks, those are almost fossils!
1940fc
·5 months ago"It may not seem "old" to us -- but to younger folks, those are almost fossils!"
😃 For sure davycrockett
mscurl
·5 months agoI did not wake up feeling this old, but here we are. I remember in the late ‘90’s using “vintage” for 60’s and 70’s fashion items. So, I guess using that logic, yea, the ‘90’s are now vintage. But I agree that retro works well too, but would that be older than vintage: as in retro ‘70’s (and the unfortunate fashion that I survived) and vintage ‘90’s? Interesting. I mean, I love “Mod” for the ‘60’s. “Rare” is so overused now, that it is meaningless - even when the item IS actually rare, perhaps, “unique” would work.
fabrics24
·5 months agoIt definitely feels weird seeing things from my childhood be described as "vintage", but it technically is. I think I'm more inclined to use "retro" for 80s and 90s, but vintage works too.
treasureislandpearls
·5 months agoI'm having mixed feeling s about this, I do use vintage, I thought it helped because I sold older NA sterling items, and when I buy, I use vintage in search, so I pass over the newer stuff. and I though others would do this as well.
dream*peddler
OP5 months agoI use it the same way you do, TIP.
oncoyotemountainart
·5 months agoYeah, I search under vintage too. Doesn't always help though. The number of sellers who think vintage and vintagie looking are the same thing drive me nuts.
Funny thing about the 90's. I kept NONE of the jewelry I bought in that was made in the 90's. From what I remember it was all pretty awful. I have a few 80's pieces, lots of 70's and 60's pieces that I bought, but no 90's stuff.
stainlessenginecovers
·5 months agoMy 'new' daughter in law asked when we got married.
"1995"
She said: That's what year I was born!
So, yes, I'm now vintage.
klhmdg
·5 months ago@dream*peddler
I consider vintage at 20+ years.
But there is all so "vintage 2005" so if, like wine, you put the year after vintage then thats alright too.
Many people put Antique and it is nowhere near antique,
Antique is not 1960s no matter how you stretch it.
I pass by those listings. Just like the ones that have Rare and a bunch of exclamation marks, pass right on by.
I think sellers think words like vintage, antique and rare, help draw in buyers. It doesnt.
tobaccocardyahoo
·5 months agoI actually have a listing with the word RARE in the title, It is an original 1849 Railroad Map. I has been listed 1k+ days and is the only listing I am promoting.
Remarkably, it is probably the rarest item that I have listed. So rare that no one knows it truly is.
klhmdg
·5 months ago@tobaccocardyahoo
Im referring to the listings that the 1st word is - RARE!!!!!
and then eBay kindly shows us 14 more just like it...
Your listing could also be Antique.
tobaccocardyahoo
·5 months agoIt probably be viewed equally infrequently with either term, both terms and no terms. 😃
tobaccocardyahoo
·5 months agoI consider "Vintage" to be meaningless and a waste of characters when used in a limited sized field.
It says "Amateur Seller" or "Lazy Seller" more than anything else to me.
kibble-net
·5 months agoHard disagree.
This is a very lousy take.
neatstuff4utoo
·5 months agoWhen i have a nice Vintage item to list i will always say Vintage. That does not make me lazy or an amateur.
1786davycrockett
·5 months ago@neatstuff4utoo
"When i have a nice Vintage item to list i will always say Vintage. That does not make me lazy or an amateur. "
The problem is -- so many sellers use the term "vintage" in their listings, that individual items might just become entirely lost inside the "vintage" jungle.
That's why I avoid using the word -- like searching for an individual drop of water from the rest of the ocean surrounding it.
When I enter the word "vintage" into eBay Search, I get over 11,000,000+ returns -- talk about an overused term!
loose_goose_garage
·5 months agoI see plenty of clothing listed here and on other sites with 'Vintage' in title and they are from 2005-2015. Everyone's definition of vintage varies
kibble-net
·5 months agoMaybe so, but that definition is blatantly wrong 😉
kensgiftshop
·5 months agoI think 20 years and it's considered vintage.
1940fc
·5 months agoI agree. I know it`s hard to imagine it. But think back to when Ebay started and what they allowed as vintage.
So here we are in 2026 & 1996 was 30 years ago! Hard to believe! According to online..an item over 20yrs but less that 100 falls into vintage
Sigh..I`m actually vintage....like a fine wine tho! 😃