Ebay Antiques are Hot!
Thursday, September 24th, 2009 | antiques auction | No Comments
Ebay antiques are one of the hottest categories on the site. Millions of people sell their antiques through this avenue each year.
From antique pottery and glassware, to toys and vintage clothing. It’s a great place to find pieces to add to your existing collections, or a way to sell off a few pieces you have around your own home.
Before buying any antique from Ebay, it’s best to find out a little about the piece. Don’t be afraid to ask the seller as many questions as you can think of. Reputable sellers will have no problem answering your questions to the best of their ability. If they can’t or won’t answer any questions, this should send up a red flag. However, most sellers will do all they can to help.
If you’re planning on selling your own antiques through Ebay, make sure you’ve got as much information about the piece as possible. Don’t set your prices too high or too low. Know what the piece is worth and think about the buyers you’re trying to target. Take lots of pictures of the piece. Even if you don’t upload them all, a prospect may want to see more before they put down their money.
The antiques market has found a huge following through the use of the Internet. It’s easier than ever to find pieces to add to your own collection, or buyers wanting to extend theirs. If you have all the right information, you can obtain Ebay antiques that will add to your personal collection.
The Timeless Beauty of Old Antiques
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 | collecting antiques | No Comments
Experts differ passionately on what defines old antiques. We here at Antique Utica agree with the U.S. Customs service that an authentic antique is at least 100 years old.
This standard seems unattainable to some young people who may consider something from the 1970s to be an antique simply because it was in vogue before they were born.
However their grandparent or great-grandparent might feel the same way about an item that was made in 1910.
Appraisers sometimes look at the formality of style when considering the value of an antique. If it is more ornamental or complex they believe it is worth more than a primitive item from the 1700s. Purists scoff at such valuations.
Still other experts in antiques differentiate the items from the start of the modern era around 1910. Prior to that, furniture was stiff and upright; fashions were fussy and Edwardian. The flapper era ushered in modern times and decorative items followed suit.
Many antiques dealers consider items made after 1920 to be collectibles or vintage in description. They don’t look out of place in interiors of today, whereas the more imposing and ornate articles of the Victorian time period look more suitable in historic homes or museums.
If you would like to determine the age of an item, first look at the materials and construction. Are they commonly found in today’s manufactured pieces? Do they have square nails for example, or is the fabric bark cloth? These materials are not used except in custom design today.
Look for hand-crafted embellishments that today are done by machine. Wood carving is a dying art and has been replaced by machine cut prefabricated pieces available in the home improvement stores.
Lastly, realize no item that has survived for decades will look new anymore. The better the condition, the better the price of old antiques, but finding them will be elusive.
About Becoming an Antique Collector
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 | collecting antiques | No Comments
Things to know about becoming an antique collector.
The ages old pursuit of collecting old stuff is instilled in most all people to some degree or another. The collecting of antiques in this country goes back to the colonial period when collectors of those days collected true antiquites of Natural History and items of interest from the Orient and Ancient times.
Items fabricated from rare metals like gold, silver and platinum, or precious stones of all kinds have always been in favor and that carries right down to modern times as well.
You can start a simple collection of antiques by just attending tag sales, garage sales, flea markets and such and start buying things that you liked in your childhood, or things you parent or grand parents had. Memorabilia from all periods sometimes may not fall into the antique category however they have value and when collected and stored properly will become the antiques of the future.
One of the best ways to locate good items to collect is by attending the local auction houses. Auctioneers usually have a good eye for items of interest and their decription in their catalogs will go a long way to helping you make some buying decisions. Please continue to read the rest of this article that give you some great points on buying at auction.
How Best to Begin Buying Antiques in Auction or from Dealers
About Becoming An Antique Collector
Before buying anything; make a point of studying books and catalogues (even old ones) on your subject, then attend a few auctions, be sure to inspect your choice of antiques on the viewing days before the auction, always allow enough time to visit and explore the main dealers’ stock, both before and after any auction sales. This way you will gradually be able to assess what quality items are available and the prices being currently asked. Make a point of chatting to dealers, or well-known collectors, about what has happened after an auction. Not always, but sometimes one can gain quite a lot of useful guidance about particular pieces, what to look out for and importantly about the general feelings about any record breaking prices.
After an auction it can be possible sometimes to find that a dealer might have a similar quality piece, or even a better one, for much less than has just been paid! A note of caution here, sometimes a really silly price is paid in the auction room, simply because two determined people badly wanted that piece. In such a case of course, that value has to be discounted to a certain extent. It is this sort of information that should be sought (in my earlier suggestion of chatting at the end of the auction).
Buying Guidance
The best advice for anyone tempted to collect any antiques would be, first, to study your choice of subject and attend auctions, meet and talk to the dealers, handle and see as many pieces as possible. Do not rush in to buy because unfortunately trying to collect, in any specialised antique area, it often takes many years to acquire the necessary expertise, without which, very costly mistakes can be made. Once you feel more confident you should then be prepared to commission a well-known specialist dealer to bid for you. You would have to expect to pay at least 10% (of the bid price) for this service. But this can be well worth paying, as you will not only benefit from his knowledge and guidance, you will also stop him bidding against you!
Only another collector can fully appreciate that overpowering urge, that comes over one, on finding a treasure really wanted. It is the closest feeling to that of love at first sight. I have been told that one’s pupils tend to enlarge, and this is one of the signs that dealers watch out for, and as collectors, of course, we always try desperately to camouflage our interest.
Auctions
Strange things certainly do happen at auction! If there is only one spectacular piece amongst some fairly good items, there is a good chance of picking up a bargain, both just before and just after, the really super piece. Before, the main buyers are often holding back hoping they can be in with a chance with their maximum bid, so they tend to stop bidding as high as they might have done in normal circumstances. Immediately after, because everyone is discussing what has just been paid, especially if a record price was reached, all this can be going on whilst another piece slips through and is sold.
There are also items known as ’sleepers’ and often these are pieces that are sold at bargain prices, just because no one present required it, or for some reason it was overlooked.
Attending a poor auction (this is one with only one or two good items in it, amongst a lot of junk) can be advantageous, if there is a fine example to be had. Quite a number of buyers feel they cannot afford the time in attending such a poor auction. Sadly this does not happen so much now.
Sometimes too, but not often, a piece is wrongly described. Then one can, if lucky, really find a bargain. Once we bought a jade snuff bottle that is so remarkably well hollowed and such a flawless piece of stone, that it was in fact sold wrongly catalogued as glass! We had to buy it from a well-known dealer (preferring to pay him a good profit, rather than keep bidding it up against him) in the end it wasn’t cheap – but it is one of the finest we have ever seen!
We no longer believe much in trying to find bargains, as we have found that the most expensive, but finest examples, over time, are often by far the best buys! We have worried about having paid too much on several occasions. They were very rare, superb examples, but still we worried. Yet these are now the treasures that have proved to be the most wonderful bargains of all!
Beyond Value
Lastly, there is one important factor that has not been mentioned, as it is so impossible to measure! That is the value of the pleasure one enjoys from participating, as a collector, in such a fascinating hobby as collecting antiques is hard to describe.
You also meet such interesting people from all over the world, for there is an immediate bond amongst fellow collectors, except when met at the beginning of an auction!
Then there is the intrigue of the hunt and the excitement at every new addition that only another collector can fully appreciate. Life is so enriched, I do believe that such hobbies are vital, and so many people who have hardly any outside interests, beyond their world of work, have no idea of just how much fun they are missing!
The author has been a very keen collector for many years in helping to create ‘The Cohen Collection’.
To see some more articles with photographs please use the following link: – http://www.jncohen.net/antiques/articles.htm
Also to learn more about ‘The Cohen Collection’ please use the following link: – http://www.jncohen.net/Cohen_collection
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Cohen
Recap:
All of the advice above may be old hat to some of you long time collectors but it is a great starting point for the novice and good background information for the intermediate collector.
Subscribe to this website with either the RSS feed at the top right or the “Subscribe via Email” box shown. Come back and visit often, we have a lot of new material to add the the Antique Utica com website.
Website For Sale
Thursday, August 20th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
This website is For Sale.
Contact: Rich Hill
www.CNY-webdesign.com
Email: RichHill58 at gmail.com
Victorian Fireplace Surround and Mantle
Saturday, August 30th, 2008 | victorian | 2 Comments
victorian fireplace surround and mantle
Sold
Primitive Bread Dough Table
Saturday, August 30th, 2008 | primitives | No Comments
primitive bread dough table
Sold
Welcome to Antique Utica (dot com)
Saturday, August 16th, 2008 | buying antiques | 2 Comments
Hey Everybody!
If you are in the area of Utica, New York you probably already know me. I have been buying and selling antiques around here for many years.
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I wanted an Internet presence to be able to display notices and photos of newly acquired treasures, as well as to make announcements to all of my many friends and customers in the antiques business.
Send me an email any time to discuss your antiques for sale, or to haggle about any of my offerings.
I want to buy Antiques of all types. Will buy one good antique or a whole estate. Let’s talk about it.
We also do cleanouts. So if you have an attic, cellar, barn or whole house that needs to be cleaned out, we can do it. Let’s talk about it.
References available on request.
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