When buying antiques you want to be confident and knowledgeable. In this article i have covered 10 things you can do to help protect yourself and to find a few good bargains at the same time when buying Antiques or Collectibles.
1. Always Negotiate the price
Many dealers will have a code marked somewhere on the antique that you’re interested in. This marking tells them exactly how low they can go on the price. For example X20 or X45 could mean the amount they will discount the price. or this maybe their …

I have put together a list of the most popular antiques in regards to what sells good, what retains their value well etc from the broader antique market. This article covers a small sampling of the myriad of antiques you can find on the market but should be enough to give you a very good idea of whats going on in the antique market.
Antique Silver
Antique silver has always been one of the hottest sellers on the antique market retaining it’s value over the years. Silver has seen a recent boom …

This is a Hummel figurines and collectibles suggested retail price and estimated auction (fair market value) price guide. Use this chart to find out the value of your Hummel.
Find your Hummel in this chart to determine the Suggested Retail Price and estimated Auction (Fair Market Value) Price.
Hummel Price Guide

Hummel Figurines and Collectibles Value Chart

Hummel Figurines and Collectibles Value Chart (Opens the link in a new window)

Download the Hummel Figurines and Collectibles Value Chart in PDF format (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file)

There are many avenues to sell your antiques and collectibles; private sells, auction houses, eBay, antique brokers etc. In this article I have compared between the auction house and eBay. I have presented the pros and cons of both the Auction house and eBay.
Who will see your antiques or collectibles?
In an auction house your antique or collectible will be seen by buyers that are there specifically for that type of item. Most auction houses advertise world wide through there mailing list, brokers, internet based auction proxy such as live auctioneers, …

Have you ever wondered how old your Steinway piano is? An antique is classified as something over 100 years old. You can read more about the differences between antique and collectibles in the article differences between antiques, collectibles, and vintage item. Steinway has been in business for around 150 years making only 50 years worth of pianos antiques. To find the age of your Steinway piano please see the Steinway chart below.

For years now when my Mechanical music friends, mentors, collogues, and myself get together for meetings and other events there is a subject that always comes up. That is the effect eBay is having on them and the antique world. This conversation on antiques always starts out the same way. They start talking about how good the prices for antiques were in the early 1990’s. From about 1989 to early 1997 antique prices where the best ever seen. Then the year 1997 came along. This is when the antique market …

Online appraisal/valuation differs from traditional appraisals because of geographical distance and lack of direct physical inspection of the subject property. The inability to inspect creates assignment conditions that are restrictive. These restrictive conditions do not prevent doing a credible appraisal.

There are many auction houses around the world and each with different criteria on what they will take in for consignment. There are a few questions you should ask yourself before choosing an auction. In this article I will go over some of them and provide some tips to help you in your choice.

Thomas Edison’s work on two other inventions, the telegraph and the telephone as a result of this the phonograph was invented. In 1877, Edison was working on a machine that would transcribe telegraphic messages through indentations on paper tape, which could later be sent over the telegraph repeatedly. This development led Edison to wonder if a telephone message could also be recorded in a similar fashion. He experimented with a diaphragm which had an embossing point and was held against quickly-moving paraffin (wax) paper.

The Victor Talking Machine Company was founded by Eldridge Johnson in 1901, and quickly became a main player in the quickly growing phonograph market. Johnson had been active in the phonograph business as a motor supplier for several years earlier, and had learned an immense deal about the emerging home entertainment market. At the turn of the century, all phonographs used a large external horn to “amplify” the playback sound. Although this system worked quite well, the stark horn tended to dominate the average parlor, and many people felt that …