When I started my pursuit to becoming an antiques & collectibles searcher I felt has if it was a piece of cake, a walk in the park. And that this would be the easiest task that I could ever accomplish. But boy was I wrong, it was nothing that I had expected it to be, and soon I realize slowly but surely that this would be one of the most challenging search that I ever did, mainly because I was so unprepared.
Let’s define first what a antiques & collectibles searcher represents to me, this person is not just a collector of old items that are valueless but they are looking for an item that is desirable mostly because of its rareness, beauty and it’s personal, emotional connection that each individual will fine in the antiques & collectibles that they’re looking for. Though some antiques are past down has an estate, there are still valuable antique that are waiting to be brought from antique dealers, auction online, auction services as well has flea market or in thrift store. And so since we know what an antique searcher is, we might believe that we know exactly what we are looking for, which is a great start. But it might be a little more difficult than we think.
The next step is to know exactly what antique or collectible that we have a passion for, what kind of antique sparks our interest whether it might be antique furniture such has chairs, tables, desks, cabinets, books, vase, or even vinyl records the list goes on and is endless. Now have we decided what we truly want to search for, and if so have we really thought it through? That’s a question we each have to ask ourselves because if we have then this quest in searching for the right valuable antique might pull through successfully.
Now earlier I said when I started my quest has an antique & collectible searcher it was very challenging and that was mainly because I didn’t do any research on what I wanted to look for. I really didn’t have any passion at first for what kind of antiques & collectibles that I was attached to personally, I brought collectibles that I didn’t know much history on, so to put it in a nut shell I went in to searching for antiques & collectibles blind folded, I was like a kid in a candy shop with many choices but didn’t know what candy to choose from because I had no guide or no knowledge of what was rare or valuable.
Tool’s that is beneficial
Impossible has it may seem to locate valuable antiques, it is possible. But the proper tool is needed in order to accomplish this, now depending on what area your interested in the best way to start your search is by becoming familiar with the different kinds of antiques & collectibles that are out there, and at your local book, store you could stop by and fine reasonable books on just that topic.
Once you fine your antique & collectible niche the next step is to educate your self on that very interest; for example if you have a love for ceramics, you would want to become familiar with the different kind of ceramics that are rare and also where they were made and during what period. That might be a good head start but it’s still good to study these ceramics not to the point of being an antique appraiser but to have at least the common knowledge of them has if you were picking fruit, we can tell a spoil grape from a good one similarly we can do the same with choosing antiques, if we have the right tools to learn about them.
Another suggestion is if we might be looking for antique books, we could purchase a barcode scanner and bring it along with us on days we choose to search for those collectibles this might be a fast and easy way to see what’s valuable right away. We might get stared at with the scanner but the treasure we might locate will be rewarding. Also if you don’t have the budget to afford a barcode scanner, you could make a list in excel or word in alphabetical order of all the famous artist that are valuable, print this list out and this could be an added guide to searching for the right rare books. Now if your not sure where to locate these listing, always check out any bidding website that have different list of categories and it will give you some ideas of the kind of books that are out there in high demand and that are extremely rare.
This is just my personal experience of what it took for me to fine the right antiques and collectibles, I am sure there are plenty of different ways to do it, but I felt these step’s were effective, because in order to get an antique appraiser it might cause between $40 or $50 just to get an idea of what your antique’s are worth and sometimes they might be worth less than what the appraiser is charging so in the end we loose more than what we actually pay for. The more knowledge we have of these antique’s the easier and inexpensive it will be for us. So to all antiques & collectibles searchers it might seem like a far fetch dream to locate a rare item but with perseverance and research it can become possible overnight.
