Cycles and trends in the antiques business

What happens when you get trapped in a spiral cycle of collectibility?

It's an old adage, one we've all heard before, "what comes around goes around". While this usually refers to Karma, in the context of this blog, there has never been a more truer statement in the antiques business.

It's fun to track the cycles and trends in the antiques business. In fact it's very interesting to me to see how things are recycled through this business, where they end up and how they get there etc.

In the course of the years I've been in the auction business, I've sold the exact same item more than once on many occasions. Sometimes it will go from dealer to dealer and then gets run back through the auction.

Many times it will take trips through several states and end back in my hands. I haven't had anything that's traveled to other countries end back on my auction block yet, but now with the popularity of eBay I'm sure that's possible too.

I really enjoy it when I walk into a distant antique shop and see exactly the same oak file cabinet I auctioned two months ago. (I know it's the same because it has EJP carved into the top right drawer front).

How much do they have on it? $225.00 very reasonable, it went across my block for about $95.00. I ask the shop owner where he got it. "A dealer brought that to me that attends auctions in Western MA", (The shop is in CT) When I told him I was the the auctioneer that sold it, he confides that he gave the guy $125.00 and an album full of old postcards for it.

I told him the price it sold at auction for and we started a conversation about how this market regulates and renews itself. The conversation led to the joys of being a picker and the perils of the self employed, which led to an exchange of business cards and a promise to contact each other in the event one of us runs across each others forte in the business.

I told him to call me if he gets any big lots of early paper, and swore that I'd give him a holler when I come across serious Art's & Crafts oak pieces. Fair trade, what comes around goes around, you can't beat that.

Seeing the new home of one of my recently auctioned items is like visiting an old friend, but the best benefit of that visit is often making of a new friend. One of the questions I'm often asked in this business is, "What is the most valuable thing you've ever found"? My answer is always the same, "A good friend in the business". While that may seem a little hokey and a cliche, it's absolutely true.

The most valuable estates I've even auctioned, came through a referral from a friend in the business. Some have sent me many jobs, and I make sure to thank them with a generous finders fee because...what comes around, goes around.

So if you see something that you've sold a while ago in the hands of a new owner, take a minute to ask where they got it, the story of the journey may be very interesting, and you could make a valuable contact.

Thanks for reading,

AW