THERE ARE SOME IMPORTANT PHOTOGRAPHS AND DOCUMENTS IN THOSE NEGLECTED BOXES AND BINS
IF YOU ARE COLLECTING FOR HISTORIC AND MONETARY VALUE, HERE'S WHAT YOU'RE MISSING
I'VE NEVER MET A COLLECTOR OR DEALER YET, WHO WOULD DENY BEING ON THE BRINK OF TINKLING IN THEIR PANTS, UPON FINDING A HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT PHOTOGRAPH OR DOCUMENT AT A SALE, OR IN A SHOP. EVEN IN ANTIQUE SHOPS. I CAN ALWAYS FIND "SLEEPERS," IN MY COLLEAGUES' STORES, THAT FALL INTO MY AREA OF EXPERTISE, AND THEY CAN DO THE SAME WITH ME. IT'S KIND OF FUN ACTUALLY. A LITTLE FRIENDLY COMPETITION. OF COURSE, WE LEARN FROM WHAT OTHER DEALERS BUY OFF US, BECAUSE IT'S A SURE BET, THEY'RE GOING TO FLIP WHAT EVER THEY PURCHASED, FOR A HUSKY PROFIT. MOST OF US JUST EXTEND A COURTESY DISCOUNT, A TRADITION BETWEEN DEALERS, AND PROMISE TO MAKE A RETURN TRIP TO THEIR SHOP IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
I'VE SEEN A LOT OF DEALER-PROFITING FROM COLLEAGUE RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND I'VE HAD "SLEEPERS" PULLED FROM MY STORE, AND SOLD IN ANOTHER AREA OF THE PROVINCE, FOR UP TO QUADRUPLE THE PRICE THEY PAID IN OUR SHOP. HOW DO I KNOW THIS? DEALERS ARE VERY SHARING WITH INFORMATION, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO BUYING AND SELLING PROWESS….AND SO CALLED "BIG SCORES!" I HATE THAT EXPRESSION BUT IT IS WHAT IT IS! WE PROBABLY SHOULD BE MORE SECRETIVE ABOUT IT, BUT WE LIKE TO BRAG A TAD, AT THE OTHER'S EXPENSE. BUT WE'VE BEEN GOING BACK AND FORTH THIS WAY FOR DECADES, CENTURIES EVEN, ALL OVER THE WORLD. DEALERS NETWORKING WITH DEALERS. NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS, EXCEPT WHEN ON OCCASION, THE "SLEEPER" (WHICH ARE UNDER VALUED ANTIQUES AND COLLECTABLES) TURNS OUT TO BE A MAJOR PIECE OF ART, OR SILVER RELIC WORTH THOUSANDS MORE THAN THE ASKING PRICE FROM AN ASSOCIATE DEALER. THAT'S WHEN IT CAN GET SNARLY OUT THERE. ON ONE OCCASION, A CAMERA COLLECTOR, WHO DABBLED IN THE BUY AND SELL, PURCHASED AN UNDERWATER CAMERA FROM ME FOR FIFTY DOLLARS. I WAS HAPPY WITH MY PROFIT, AND THAT THE CAMERA WENT TO SOMEONE WHO WAS A PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPERT. A FEW WEEKS LATER, I MET HIM IN A LOCAL COFFEE SHOP, AND HE HANDED ME ANOTHER FORTY DOLLARS, SAYING THAT HE HAD SOLD THE CAMERA FOR A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT MORE, THAN HE HAD ORIGINALLY ESTIMATED, AND FELT HE SHOULD OFFER ME SOME OF THAT EXCEPTIONAL PROFIT. MY SON ANDREW FINALLY HAD TO TELL ME TO PUT THE MONEY IN MY POCKET, AS I JUST STOOD THERE, WITH MY MOUTH HANGING OPEN, WONDERING IF I HAD EXPERIENCE SOME SORT OF SEIZURE, AND IMAGINED THE WHOLE SCENARIO. THIS BY THE WAY, WAS THE FIRST TIME, AND LAST TIME, TO THIS POINT, THAT IT HAS EVER HAPPENED, THAT AN ASSOCIATE DEALER HAS BEEN SO AMAZINGLY GENEROUS. WHAT USUALLY HAPPENS, IS THAT WE HALF EXPECT, THAT WHEN WE SHOP IN A COLLEAGUE'S ANTIQUE SHOP, THE GOOD FORTUNE THAT THEY'VE HAD, FLOGGING ITEMS THEY'VE PURCHASED FROM US, WILL ENCOURAGE THEM TO BE A LITTLE MORE FLEXIBLE ON ASKING PRICES, ON ITEMS WE'RE PLANNING TO PURCHASE. DOESN'T HAPPEN THAT MUCH, BUT IT HAS OCCURRED, ALONG WITH THE STANDARD TEN PERCENT DISCOUNT, WHICH IS AN IMBEDDED TRADITION DATING BACK MANY MORE YEARS THAN I'VE BEEN AN ANTIQUE HUNTER.
KEY AREAS TO FIND SLIP UPS IN VALIDATION AND VALUATION
There will be a few crusty antique dealers out there, who don't like the idea of educating the masses, about the way we hunt and gather out on the hustings. Sort of like the code, magicians follow, of never revealing the secrets of their tricks, many dealers feel, with some justification, that it's not prudent for business, to help create experts amongst our clientele. Basically, if we educate them (customers) by showing them how to make big finds on their own, they won't need us in the future. The reality is, today, that many more reality shows and antique identification programs, have already been doing this, so by refusing to participate in this initiative of education sharing, we'd only be shutting the barn door, long after the horses had galloped free. So as yard sale season kicks off for another year, (in Muskoka, it is most definitely the beginning, when Baysville has its community-wide garage sale Saturday) here are a few tips for those with a general interest in making significant finds, from furniture to vintage glass, pottery, books, photographs, documents and art. I'm not going to give away all the secrets of our profession. Just a few. But they're good ones.
If you do the antique shop, mall, flea market, church sale, estate sale, and garage sale circuit, looking for some obvious treasures, why not try a different strategy. I don't ever have this (obvious antique detection syndrome) as a limiting influence, when I head out on the daily hunt for antiques. Just because it looks amazingly old, doesn't mean it is. So I don't allow myself to get side-tracked from the real job at hand. I expect to have a tough search ahead, and plan on exploiting every opportunity a vendor offers me…..with or without knowing it. For example, a lot of naive sale-goers, watch antique dealers they know, and in some ways show a certain amount of unhealthy envy. They see them carting off harvest tables and pine buffets, boxes of china, church pews, radio cabinets, and old crocks, and wish they had the moxie to have arrived before daybreak, and rapped on the sale host's door, as a full fledged (and annoying) early bird. I would offer these disgruntled sale-goers, who feel they've been out-performed by dealers, who seem to have snagged the best pieces, at respective venues, the sage advice, that many dealers make mistakes in judgement. Many simply run out of money, early in the sale-going, and have to leave behind pieces as a result.
First of all, our family of antique hustlers, always look in the least obvious places, and the most obscure pile of boxes, some stuffed under tables instead of being located in an area of higher visibility. This happens a lot, at garage and yards sales. It happens in flea markets and thrift shops, and even in antique shops. These compromised boxes and bins, can hold some amazing stuff, if you are truly interested in being a history sleuth / archivist in training, as a companion to being a general antique enthusiast. Take for example boxes of vintage photographs, you will often find stuffed in boxes and old albums. On one day, I might come across thousands of Victorian era images. Some later images with promise, as well, often suffering from a failure of a former owner, or photographer, to identify the subject, the location, the scene, and anyone in the image. Why it pays to be attentive to these random piles, is that certain images, with historic relevance, can be worth many thousands of dollars to collectors. As an example, any Civil War related photographs are almost always desirable to those who collect pieces related to military engagements. I have heard of major portraits, of Civil War generals, selling for oodles of money, yet when they were originally offered for sale, the asking price from the astute owner, was very modest. They were found in Muskoka by the way. The profit was exceptional, and every one of the half dozen sold individually, to one Civil War collector, who knew full well, that even the price he paid, was small compared to what they might sell for, eventually, at a war memorabilia, or photographic auction. Out of a hundred customers through an antique shop, how many would stop to look through a box of old photographs. I am going out on a limb here, to suggest maybe one out of the hundred patrons, would spend the time to check them out. It other words, if those same Civil War photographs, were imbedded in that box of images, stuck in a gloomy corner of the antique shop, all but one of the customers missed making their discovery…..a big investment for a few bucks. Even if you don't collect Civil War memorabilia, there are thousands upon thousands of options for selling them, to those who do collect this vintage. It's what dealers do every day. Buy antiques and collectables based on profit margin, and market potential. Why wouldn't you consider the same profit potential? Buy them, if you determine they're the genuine articles, and then list them on Ebay! Maybe you win, maybe you break even, and possibly you could lose. The more you educate yourself, the more likely you're going to know how to profit from all good finds. You don't have have an antique shop, to be an antique speculator. But you do need to be well tutored to avoid making major mistakes.
General antique dealers make mistakes in valuation all the time. I cherry pick photographs and documents in these shops regularly, and while it doesn't mean they don't know they've got good pieces, they probably don't know how historically significant they are……to someone who knows how to network them to collectors and historians in the field. This is done all the time. Every day. Antique hunters with shopping lists, for collectors, who want the best of the best, and are prepared to reward those hustlers who make the major finds for them.
As for items like historic documents, known in the industry as ephemera, most antique dealers would rather not have the responsibility of handling them, as by their own admission, they're not historians as such…..which means that they will try to spread the items they know little about, to those antique hunters who do…..and who have clients for specific heritage items. If you find the right documents, or a bag of letters from an estate, that may be considered war-time, it is well worth your while to assess quickly, the heritage significance, against the asking price. As I am an easily identifiable antique dealer, as are the members of my family, a freelance shopper, can usually get a much better deal, than when I ask the price. If they know me as a dealer, I guarantee you, I will be asked to pay more, because they assess by the sparkle of my eyes, that there's a lot of profit going to be reaped, from this particular item of interest. I have experienced it all, at yard sales, believe me, and have come home with historic regional photographs, especially of Muskoka resorts, that can sell for a king's ransom. I have found historic documents that should have been donated to a museum. I'm sort of a museum curator, so a lot of documents are kept in my own archives, for research work, to support feature articles I still write for Ontario specialty publications.
The long and short of it, is that the best finds are not always what they appear to be. It might look like the harvest table being loaded in the back of a truck, was the most valuable item at the sale. It may be that the biggest find, remained to be detected, and was in, of all places, a box of records going for five dollars for the lot. As my lads are sharks in this department, I can attest to hundreds of times, watching them pull one record from a box of hundreds, being worth as much as the harvest table on the back of that truck. They know their records, and to their advantage, many people haven't got a clue. If you were to approach them at their place of business, and ask if they were interested in purchasing a small collection, they would be obligated to identify any record of exceptional value. It's the way our family has always done business. But on the road, and at sales, we will pay the price marked, or will await your decision on the yard sale price. The fact that we possess knowledge in these areas of the collecting spectrum, gives us a huge advantage, and we use it every outing, to improve our financial odds. It's why, even if we arrive late at a sale, just prior to packing up for the day, we can do a quick walk-about, and find an undetected gem, that makes the visit entirely worthwhile. A lot of people, dealers included, are in too much of a hurry to get to the next venue, and in their haste, they continue to miss significant opportunities…..that if they had been patient, and methodical about their quest, they would have stumbled upon, and been able to profit from on a giant scale. Just one photograph of a steam locomotive, at the right platform, in the right vintage, would be worth all the effort expended. A snapshot of a Muskoka resort, or steamship? Those are easy to sell, and for a fairly nice profit.
Each of us in this family, has an area of specialty, the others can't compete with…..thus, we are constantly directing traffic at these events, when we find something the other will know more about. We've been traveling as a battalion for years now, and I can't tell you, how much we've benefitted by being specialists in our fields. Recently, I have been particularly successful in the acquisition of paintings, and certain other collectable prints, enhanced by the fact, I had provenance on the artists responsible. A lady, at a charity shop, was vexed by the fact I bought three large landscapes, that she had just finished mounting on a wall. I did excuse myself, as I unleashed my patented, "boarding house reach," which was a sort of over-the-shoulder move, beating out another customer's advance, on the other side of the clerk. She got so excited by the painting windfall, that she hauled me aside to see another painting, she assumed I wanted. It was a naive depiction of sail boats. I explained to her that it wasn't about the art, in this case, but because of the artist……a Muskoka painter by the name of Bill Anderson, who I knew from childhood as "the painting barber of Manitoba Street." The paintings have a pretty fair value, but not in the league of other major Canadian painters. But there is a large group of admirers, like me, who knew him back in the sixties, and his studio /barber shop, in a corner space of the former Patterson Hotel.
As I wrote about some time ago, education in the antique and collectable field, is never-ending, especially if you have designs on being highly successful at the enterprise of buying and selling old stuff.
Thanks for joining me today. There are a couple of interesting sales out there on Saturday morning, including the Baysville Community garage sale, which I believe begins at eight a.m. and continues until 1 p.m. Going to these sales, and all the other enterprises that sell vintage-ware, always provide us with a great opportunity to make discoveries, and improve our business inventory. Most of all, they offer us the chance to enjoy this beautiful region of Ontario…..and as I've written many times before, the adventure is just as much a mission of discovery through the countryside, as it is in the shops and at the sales. So if you're joining the parade, drive carefully out there. There are a lot of deer, moose and bear on the move these days, so be alert when driving through the spring hinterland.
Please visit my other blog at http://muskokaaswaldenpond.blogspot.ca
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