I’m asking readers to take few moments and think before they respond to the question this week, just a few deeps breaths and then respond.
 
It’s too easy to say, if you’re a collector of glassware, that glassware is then the most reliable. Or whatever segment you happen to participate in.
 
I also want to shy away from making generalizations about the business. “If you buy what you love, then it never loses value.”
 
This may be true, and I readily acknowledge that you shouldn’t start buying solely as an investment, but we all know it’s happening.
 
For my part, I’ve always seen good jewelry and good folk art sell, no matter what, a make good on a return. Whether I like these forms or not is irrelevant.
 
So when you stop and think about it, looking at all the things you come across at shows, shops and auctions – or rummage sales and flea markets, I don’t care – what do you see that, in your experience, reliably sells and holds or increases its value?
 
Let me know at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com, or post a comment here.

Do Wall Street ups and downs affect your buying or your business?



These are iffy days in the American economy. No government official has come right out and said it, but the hints of the "R" word are everywhere and, last week at the Atlantique City Antiques Show in Atlantic City, NJ, the economy was very much on the mind of dealers and customers alike.

There's billion dollar losses, and billion dollar bailouts, and a whole shadow economy between the largest banks in the world that's so far bigger than our actual economy that it's frightening to contemplate, especially when you think about what would happen is all these uber-banks went belly up. I've heard it twice now on NPR, so no telling me I'm a conspiracy theorist...

That, however, is enough nay-saying, no nabob of negativism I, but I am curious about whether or not the woes on Wall Street have an actual effect on the nuts and bolts of our businesses and hobbies.

Personally, it seems like a good time to get some money into antiques, as we all know that good items hold their value, and that as the economy worsens, people will most likely sell. Ergo, deals are out there... Go and get 'em.

Here's the question put formally, then: Do Wall Street ups and downs affect your buying or business?

Let me know at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com, or go write something in the comments section below.

There's always been debate in the pursuit of antiques as to whether or not the business should be federally regulated, i.e., official government oversight provided by a dedicated federal agency.

This is obviously too big a discussion to have in this small space. Suffice it to say, there are plenty of people who have plenty top say on both sides of the issue. Antiques is a huge business, all told, at all levels, and there are a lot of bucks changing hands.

In my experience, it has come down to what, exactly, someone deals or collects in. If your business or hobby is dependent upon small items, sold at relatively low prices, at large volumes, then regulation could be a problem.

If you deal, however, in rare and one-of-a-kind pieces of art, furniture and accessories, etc., then some oversight might be good thing for safety back-up and to make sure no false merchandise would get peddled.

Either way, it would probably, hopefully, stop scammers from passing off fake goods - at least that's my take. I know there is a movement to get some help - see the good work of show promoter Dordy Fontinel, et al. - but I wonder what Trader readers think.

Should the business and/or hobby of antiques be federally regulated? Let me know at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com, or post a comment here.

I’d be lost without my work Blackberry, or my personal cell phone, or any of the three email accounts I maintain on a daily basis, or without my ability to type my antiques-related feelings about various antiques-related happenings in the world on the Antique Trader Blog – www.antiquetrader.com/atblog, by the way…
 
I lie awake at night and wonder if I’ve sent this email or that, or if a certain press release was sent or of that PR contact responded to my query. As much as I don’t want to admit it, I’m 100% hooked on tech.
 
In fact, I’d say that, if all the technology upon which my work is predicated were to suddenly disappear into the ether, I’d probably wander around, bereft for some time, in the words of Beatrix Potter in Peter Rabbit, going lippity, lippity, lipitty…
 
Then, I reckon, I’d hitch up my jeans and get on with it, doing business the way it was done for thousands of years – in person, face-to-face. It might, in fact, be quite refreshing.

 

Here’s what Antique Trader want to know this week: How would your antiques business or hobby fare without technology? How exactly would you cope in the short term, and what would you do long term?
 
Let me know at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com, or post your answer in the comments section here.

Every major media outlet has, by this point, covered the recent changes to eBay’s system as announced by CEO-elect James Donahoe, and the resultant reactions of outrage that sellers expressed when they were made public.

Those reactions have also been covered here in the online and print versions of Antique Trader.

A lot of sellers have participated in alternate auctions in direct protest of the changes, while some have boycotted eBay altogether, while many – just being practical – have simply moved to diversify their business by moving a good portion of it to other sites while still keeping a percentage of it with eBay.

I’m not much of an online seller or buyer, but I have been curious to know if there is any extended movement away from eBay – at least a month’s worth – or if, as eBay, its board and its stockholders have bargained on, sellers have simply shrugged it off and accepted the changes as fact.

Here’s what Trader wants to know this week: How have you reacted, speaking from a business perspective as a buyer or a seller, to the eBay changes? Have you switched to a different auction outlet? Participated in any boycotts? Left the online giant altogether?

Let me know at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com, or post it in the comments here.

In 1998, the Internet boom was full steam ahead, billions were being made simply by attaching .com to certain words. The age of the World Wide Web had arrived! In a matter of days - no, hours! - the everything was going go completely digital and anyone left behind was going to be sorry and, worse, poor in a world of uber-millionaires!

No one needs to be told what happened next.

We can also remember a little online auction site called eBay that was just starting to get legs under a female CEO named Meg Whitman. In the 10 years from then until now, eBay has helped redefine not only the auction business, and the antiques business, but the very nature of the Web itself. Who, exactly, could have foreseen that? My guess is very few.

My powers of prognostication are limited, weak, but I did get to wondering this week where the auction business will a decade from now. If I had to guess, which I suppose I do seeing as how I'm the one posing the question, then I would say there will be two or three major online auction players who contract with every large and small auction house and individual dealer. The world of Web auctions will be like one giant Brimfield of the ether, where anything can be gotten to through a few central portals. There will, of course, always be a few rogue individual auctions that will have to be chased down and brought to heel...

Antique Trader, then, wants to know this week: Exactly where do you see the Antiques Business in 10 years?

Post and answer here in the comments, or email it to me at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com.

Whatever our instinct to collect is, it must go back quite a ways. I would even posit that our desire to accumulate things is as old, and as evolved, as our consciousness itself.

What a person possessed, or didn't possess, always did - and still does - represent their place within a society. At one time it might have had implications about what you could do with your life, and where you can go. Fortunately for us, we live in the Twenty-First century in the U.S. All you collection does is satisfy an individual need and broadcast - depending on what you collect, and a what level - your good taste, or lack thereof, to the world at large.

And, when I mentioned that lack of taste before? I wasn't talking about what you collect... It's a well-known fact that you have fantastic taste...

In this day and age, when everything seemingly has a value, it's a must to make sure your collection is safe. It's loss may not mean societal downfall, but it could well mean financial if anything is lost, stolen or broken, especially when the collection represents thousands and thousands of dollars and years of effort.

Here's the question then this week: At what point is your antiques collection officially worth insuring? How, exactly, do you decide?

Send your answers to noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com, or go online to www.antiquetrader.com/atblog, look for The Question of the Week, and post your answer there.

Had an interesting conversation with Bob Clements, one of the principal founders of UK auction site www.specialistauctions.com.

This is a site that started in direct response to the eBay model. Bob and his company place expert moderators to oversee paticular subsets of collecting, making an effort to make sure that their auctions are "vetted" and discussed if questions arise. They've done well for themselves in the European market, with significant gains in this country, as well. SpecialistAuctions is especially well known for its strong vintage fashion component, which can generate a huge amount of hits for its auctions.

The long and the short of it in the U.K. is this: Just like Americans, the British are made about these changes, but even more so. Everything applies the sameas far as the changes, except that in Britain eBay isn't eliminating the gallery fee - which users pay for posting pics of items for sale - which costs them about .30 cents. Ouch.

"People are very upset," Clements said. "Here in the UK they don’t even have the benefit of the removal of the cost for gallery images."

The "Final Value Fee" hike is also a big deal. Clements was able to bottom line the increase, one that equals more than a 50% hike.

"(EBay is) reducing the cost of actually creating the listing," he said, "and then they’re moving the final value fee amount from an average 5.5 percent to an average 8.7 percent."

Ouch again.

The real kicker is that those things aren't even what Clements sees as what's got people riled up.

"What's really got to people is the fact that sellers will no longer be able to give buyers neutral or negative feedback," he said. "But buyers will be able to give sellers neutral or negative feedback."

Besides be a keen gage on the sentiment across the pond, SpecialistAuctions is also hosting it own VBOE sale, or Vintage Blow Off Sale, with a huge amount of dealers and a more hospitable atmosphere.

Check them out above if you wish, if only to see an alternative that many are considering in the wake of these changes.

... and boy are they ticked off.




Since the Antique Trader e-newsletter went out last Friday, Feb. 1, with the question about whether eBay, with its changes to sellers and final fees, as well as tweaking its feedback to disallow negative feedback on buyers, I have been overwhelmed with the responses. My inbox has been literally overflowing since early Friday and just slowed down last night. I have not counted the responses, but it is well more than 100 - I usually get 20 on a good week - and illustrates the passion that readers and eBay regulars are feeling in realtion to these moves by the auction giant. That, and the question is just now hitting newstands and subscribers.

As many of these as I can fit will be printed in the 2-20 issue of Antique Trader, and I will make sure the rest get onto the AT Web site and into the e-newsletter of 2-8. Some I can't post in any instance due to the anger and language expressed... Let's keep it clean, folks... I don't want my dear old Ma and Pa to read this and get offended...

Here's what I understand from the overwhelming majority of the responses:

eBay seems to be shooting itself in the foot, or as the old adage goes: "Don't spit on my leg and tell me it's raining," which one reader wrote with a different metaphor for spit.

The companie's loss of revenue and perceived competition, along with Meg Whitman's resignations, have led to some abrupt changes in terms of those things listed in the question an d it seems that eBay is deliberately trying to squeeze out what it perceives as "small" buyers and sellers, or "mid-level" buyers and sellers. To me, this means anyone that buys and/or sells between $800 and $5,000 a year, give or take a few hundred or thousand.

There must be, literally, a million or two million sellers at this level and more buyers. These are the folks that are most at risk to be hurt and, cumulatively, I would imagine represent a great big chunck of cash for the eBay. Yet here they are, alienated and angry by abrupt changes made without explanation or ceremony. Trust me, the anger is palpable, and will drive people away from eBay - if they haven't already bailed - and towards other already extant auction sites, or antique malls like Ruby Lane, where thet can deal in a setting that respects who they are, what they buy and - most importantly - what they spend.

Take note, eBay - if you read this - people are unhappy.

Perhaps this is part of the plan, to lost some business in order to gain liquidity an shift the business model elsewhere. Just as antiquers can't forget what eBay has done for the business in the last 10 years, eBay should not overlook what antiquers have done for its business in the last 10 years.

All empires fall because they fail to change with the times.

I'm getting a tremendous amount of email from readers on our question of the week - see below - and I clearly should have put lower listing fees in quotation marks.

I apologize for the oversite, but love the passion that people are bringing to this argument, whether in support of the changes (a few) or against (most)... Alot of these responses will be in the 2-20 issue of Trader, with the rest online.

Meanwhile, keep responding, and keep on keeping me on the straight and narrow...

Maybe it's because I was always that kid that adults seemed to hover over whenever he was around anything breakable - I got a bad rap, for sure - but I prefer my antiques to be of the useful variety.

I don't mind pretty smalls that decorate a shelf, or sit on a sideboard, but I prefer to be able to touch something. Maybe it's to prove that I won't break it after all, even after all these years.

Simply put, if I wanted to just sit and stare at something - not sit on it, not touch it, not use or get the tactile sensation of skin on surface contact, then I'll go to a museum and wander the galleries stoicly with my hands clasped behind my back. In fact, in the decade and more that I lived in Manhattan I loved to go to the Met on a quiet afternoon and wander the halls of the furniture collection. What I most want from my antiques, though, is to interact with them on a daily basis - something that's difficult now with a two-year old daughter running around my house.

Here's what I want to know this week from Trader's readers: Do you use your antiques, or just display them? If you use them, what do you use them for, and do you buy them specifically for use?

Let me know at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com, or post your response as a comment here.