[Misc] Buying and selling antiquities (and stuff)

[Swansman]

Anyone into this?

Always when I see some TV show where they say "yeah, I bought this for nowt" and the expert (don't know what they're called) say "well it is chinese ebony made by a one-legged dwarf in 1843 and worth lots of plenty of massive ca$h money, bitches", I sort of think I want to start buying things for nothing and selling them very expensively.

But how do you get into this sort of thing? Is there some guides on the internet or something where you can find out what every single object ever made is and where it came from and what its worth etc? I sometimes wander around in Second Hand-stores and see some object and think "yeah maybe I could profit on this" but how would I know? Is there some way to study this properly?

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Have a chat with this expert.

 

[amexer]

Years ago as a hobby purchased things I thought were value at auction and resold them at another sale. N o way is that possible now 15/20% plus vat selling fees and same with buying fees. Now have to get 50% more to get money back.

 

[macbeth]

my grandmother is really into this. she uses a lot of local Facebook groups where people list old furniture for other to upcycle mostly. she also spends a lot of time in France, where she visits the dépôt-ventes, old warehouses full of second hand antique stuff, not sure what the equivalent in Sweden would be but they tend to be more furniture-based than your average second had shops

 

[dadams2k11]

Sell de herb....

 

[Dick Swiveller]

Dick Knight had a go at it and bought Steve Claridge and Warren Aspinall but didn't get the profit he was looking for.

 

[Swansman]

Have a chat with this expert.

View attachment 153328

Did he write some guide to art of naffness or something..?

my grandmother is really into this. she uses a lot of local Facebook groups where people list old furniture for other to upcycle mostly. she also spends a lot of time in France, where she visits the dépôt-ventes, old warehouses full of second hand antique stuff, not sure what the equivalent in Sweden would be but they tend to be more furniture-based than your average second had shops

Yeah we have sort of the same thing here I think, though furniture is a bit wonky for a non-driver like me. More likely to go into glasses and porcelaine (or whatever porslin might be called in English) and other things that are a bit easier to handle.

 

[macbeth]

Did he write some guide to art of naffness or something..?

Yeah we have sort of the same thing here I think, though furniture is a bit wonky for a non-driver like me. More likely to go into glasses and porcelaine (or whatever porslin might be called in English) and other things that are a bit easier to handle.

yep, she's reliant on my grandfather driving her to the furniture stores, but often on the Facebook groups you can find people willing to drop the furniture off to you for an extra tenner. with regards to porcelain and glass, we recently had to sort out a lot of my great uncles crystalware collection after he passed away. we ended up just giving it to an auction house, and you tend to find that stuff in full sets as opposed to just a couple of glasses, as it was much easier to give it to the auction house and let them deal with it, so I'd look there. and there's always ebay

 

[AmexRuislip]

Anyone into this?

Always when I see some TV show where they say "yeah, I bought this for nowt" and the expert (don't know what they're called) say "well it is chinese ebony made by a one-legged dwarf in 1843 and worth lots of plenty of massive ca$h money, bitches", I sort of think I want to start buying things for nothing and selling them very expensively.

But how do you get into this sort of thing? Is there some guides on the internet or something where you can find out what every single object ever made is and where it came from and what its worth etc? I sometimes wander around in Second Hand-stores and see some object and think "yeah maybe I could profit on this" but how would I know? Is there some way to study this properly?

I thought this was a thread on the Hughton years

 

[Titanic]

You could take a punt on this...

[Albion] - Could this be an item for the Albion museum ?

A thing of beauty. I presume it must have been worn by a player or member of staff 🤷🏼‍♂️ https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403226006061?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=4moF45IFRnm&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=qzl9W8llRoq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

www.northstandchat.com

 

[Cheshire Cat]

But what the TV don't show are all the gullible twits who bought something for £1000 only to find its worth about 97p because its crap, or fake or both.

 

[Is it PotG?]

 

[Beach Hut]

Is this just to fund your narcotics ?

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Did he write some guide to art of naffness or something..?

Derek Trotter was a working class antiques collector who, through a process of engagement and learning, established one of London's most effective and high class antique businesses. He started out in the lurid garb I posted, but ended up a very distinguised man indeed.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

OP needs to have a word with this fella

 

[happypig]

Only advice I can offer is know your subject, if you don't then someone who does will come along and rinse you.

For example, Mrs H used to collect old postcards years ago and a while back she decided to sell them on Ebay. She learned what sold for good money and what didn't (Old photo postcards sell well). Fast forward a couple of years and a local auction house had a bundle of reasonable postcards up guided at £10-£20. I stuck in a bid of £20 as a punt, won as the only bid and flogged them individually for about £200.