Buying What You Like is Perfect for the Customer But Not Always for the Antique Dealer

Birch Hollow Photo by Suzanne Currie

     I was fortunate as a rookie antique dealer, and cub reporter for the local press, that many of the auctioneers and antique dealers, back in my own halcyon days of the seventies and eighties, were willing to share inside tips with the tenderfoot. I'd often visit in those days as a writer first, because I was most likely broke and couldn't afford to buy anything. The vendors and auctioneers didn't mind having "Scoop" around their businesses and auction sales, because it was generally free advertising. I'd just find something interesting in their shops, or up for auction, and with the thousands of articles they sold off every month, it wasn't hard to get new and interesting feature stories on a regular basis. And now and again I'd have a few dollars to invest, and they often gave me some good advice on what would appreciate in value, and what might turn out to be a "dog" (as they call inventory that won't sell), in my own shop in Bracebridge. I was always pleased when they took the time to give me what amounted to inside knowledge of a very complex and changeable enterprise. The antique profession is both storied, and ancient, and well known to be an enterprise with a goodly share of scoundrels. Not all of us, but there are a few rogues out there, and I was given the characteristics to look for, just in case I found myself negotiating on ill gotten articles or worse.

     The problem I experienced early in my years hustling antiques and collectables, was that I was too much of an individualist for my own good. I didn't think about the market place desirability factor, and spent too much money on antiques that pleased my interest. I remember a creative writing professor once commenting on a piece I had written, suggesting that while I most certainly could explain what my story was about, would I thusly be on hand to interpret my words for each person who picked it up to read for themselves. In other words I was writing so personally and intimately, in order to please an audience of one, that I had given no thought to actually having my work read by others. How would they know what was in my psyche, that led to the creation of such an impossible to decipher text. The same in the antique profession, as with other retailers looking to capitalize on the local or international market. Getting too intimate with you buying for resale, means you may be taking the subject pieces home eventually, so that you can get close and personal with what wouldn't sell.

     The other area that I was advised to be careful of,  was paying too much for inventory, per item, without knowing full well what your particular market can support. I see this happen all the time with some dealers we have gotten to know over the years. In many cases, we have had no choice but to limit our purchases from these dealers, (which is common place in our industry), simply because there is no room to add for an acceptable, sensible asking price thusly at our shop. We have always tried to support other antique dealers, as they have supported us over the years. But this is a point where antique prices have escalated beyond the budgets of many formerly active buyers, who can't justify paying to much higher prices, despite dealer discounts which are an industry standard. We like marquis pieces, or show-off items, and will do back flips to get one that suits ours business themes, of which there are a half dozen. Still, following the good advice of my mentors way back in the 1970's, you can't afford to be all show at the expense of a depleted inventory. That advice was right on the mark, and it's the reason we have for long and long, made every attempt to acquire a wide variety of inventory suited to a diversified market place, with particular attention on our pricing. We set it up this way! When we go out antique hunting, we like to know we can buy a good selection of antiques at fair market values, and low enough, in outlay, that we can keep our own mark-ups at a reasonable level. Such that we could afford to buy antiques and collectables in our own shop. That's the criteria plain and simple. We have to turn down a lot of good items that would certainly look good in our shop, but the accountant and the marketing guru of our company, Suzanne, keeps us from breaking the bank. As a rabid antique hunter, I could break the bank in about fifteen minutes of reckless abandon. I used to do it all the time, until Suzanne insisted I stop going to auctions. Yup, I was an auction junkie and a buying maniac.

     I used to write a regular newspaper column for Muskoka Publications known as "The Auction Roll," and it both pissed off auctioneers, because I told too many inside stories about their enterprise, and occasionally encouraged them to the point they would actually give me breaks when I was bidding on particular articles of vintage. So what's wrong with that, you ask? Well, I was writing a column that did occasionally discuss the ethics and protocols of the antique trade and auctions. Gosh, so here's the guy waxing legal about auctions and auctioneering, and fair play to bidders, and I was winning bids as a sort of payola. They weren't supposed to do that, and I found out just how well read my columns were, when back bidders reminded me of my previous editorial viewpoints about shady deals, and quick counts to certain auction-goers apparently deserving a deal. This kind of thing by the way, isn't rampant or anything, but it is wrong, and the client or estate that the auction is being held for, loses money this way. I can remember getting yelled at via mega-phone, by an irate auctioneer who didn't like the fact I was late coming to the sale, considering I had blasted auctioneers in my column for being routinely behind their times starting the bidding. The crowd at large agreed, and honestly it felt pretty good in a bad way, that I had so many readers checking out my columns, but they were getting a little forensic with my critiques.

     The problem for me at auctions generally, is that I didn't have the good sense to stop bidding when I got angry; or otherwise, ridiculously competitive. My blood pressure and heart rate would pound away in my chest, and Suzanne and the boys, Andrew and Robert, would point to the veins bulging in my forehead, when the bidding got way out of control. I was sensible when the bidding started, but when I sensed any snide attitude coming from competing dealers and collectors, I would bet the bank to win that item on the block. It was especially crazy if it was a piece that Suzanne or the boys asked me to bid on, for some reason or other. and it became a matter of high honor to be able to win it for them. Then I felt I could blow the wad and they wouldn't get mad at me. Boy was I wrong about that part.

     For the past twenty or more years I've stayed away from auctions, and we have only very few outings these days to antique venues, simply because we can't afford to buy much of anything, and well, why waste the gas. Now this is a professional thing, and it is not to suggest that collectors and hobby dealers won't find things to their liking and suited to their individual budgets. In our own attempt to keep our business much simpler and much less expensive, to meet what we believe is our own market place here in South Muskoka, we buy most of our collection over the counter. It saves us gas, time, and it is far more economical this way for a small business run by family only. We do sell to a lot of dealers because we have kept our prices purposely low, because, well, we're not operating a museum here, and part of the fun is being able to refill the shelves that go empty; and it makes us feel pretty good about the kinds of antique and collectable pieces were putting in the shop; taken from the long ago advice from those kindly dealers who tutored me on how not only to thrive at business but to survive for the long haul. We are proof this works.

     We are always interested in hearing from folks who wish to sell off some of their vintage possessions, and other collectables, so feel free to contact us at any time.