How To Be An Antique Picker
(Page 3 of 9)
July/August 1971
By the Mother Earth News editors
Prices also drop, but for reasons I can never understand. I remember once the bottom fell out of the market for pressed glass tumblers. Tumblers that had been selling for 7-10 dollars could be bought for a dollar or so. I bought up all I could find and cleaned up a year later when the market rose again.
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Once you've been dealing awhile and know what you're doing and have a little spare capital, you can buy up things that are down in price—or if you're really confident and daring, things which have never been popular but which you feel will be soon—and hold on to them until the market rises. There's not as much risk in this as it might seem, for antiques never get any less scarce, and prices are bound to rise sooner or later. The only problem is how later? At this point in your career, though, it's probably best not to mess with long-term investments.
Now, back to the shop where you've been chatting with the shopkeeper. At some point in the conversation, tell him you're a dealer (it sounds better than picker), and that you just might be able to supply him with some of the things he needs. Telling him that you're a dealer will also enable you to buy things from him at greatly reduced prices*. It is, incidentally, possible to buy an item from one of your shops and sell it at a profit to another. We'll get into that a little later on.
If the shopkeeper seems interested, find out more specifically what he wants to buy and tactfully ask him the sort of prices he's willing to pay. Once you've learned what you need to know, have some excuse to be on your way because antique dealers can be notoriously long-winded on fairly trivial matters and—unless you've got nothing better to do—you can waste an amazing amount of time being a polite audience. As soon as you can leave, write down all you've learned in your handy pocket notebook or else it's going to get mighty confusing along about the fifth shop.
Now we'll get down to the business of where to buy antiques and how. Most of your purchases will be from four sources: auctions, private sales, individuals and other antique shops. Since the matter of buying from one dealer and selling to another has already been mentioned, we'll start there.
Generally speaking, three factors govern the way an antique dealer prices his merchandise: how much he paid for it; how much he knows about it; and whether or not he likes it. Which means that there is certainly no serious standard of antique pricing. As you get to know the various antique shops in your area (and their proprietors), you'll learn where their heads are in terms of pricing. Since there is usually surprisingly little communication between antique shops, and since nobody can keep track of all the merchandise that a competing dealer has, you'll occasionally discover that Ye Olde Mill Antique Shoppe has an item that you can buy for five dollars and for which Grandmother's Attic & Emporium will gladly pay ten dollars. You buy (or trade) it from the first one and sell it to the second. Simple as that.
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